VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Commercial Vehicles Anyone with a military car and story to show here?

Show us some pictures and a story! There are many enthusiasts having both civilian and military vehicles out there.

Come on, folks!

Well This is not the best story but here it goes hopping that it will encourage other members to tell their story too and show some pictures or videos of their military cars.Back home in Crete my father drove a surplus Canadian Chevrolet C15 after WW2 for many years and he was often talking about it.In 94 I found one that was dismantled and in bad shape that I got for a nice price. The idea was to get it back together and use it for small jobs around a farm. Unfortunately a couple of years later I moved to Holland so it is still waiting quietly under a carub tree.

http://s875.photobucket.com/albums/...20Truck/?action=view&current=Coe.jpg

If everything goes well I plan restoring it after a few years when I get retired.

Jianis

One picture of a Canadian Chevrolet COE military truck converted for civilian use. I made it last Saturday at a vintage car show here in the Netherlands.

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/...lets%20in%20the%20Netherlands/COEred.jpg

Jianis

If you look at my avatar a 1943 Chevrolet truck is pictured. I looked for ~ 20 years to find a genuine Chevrolet built in 1943, my birth year. It runs but has absolutely no brakes. Have driven it around the ranch a few times. Don't know much about it except it has seven levers on the floor. One of these days I will figure out what each does. Have some more photos of it that I can post sometime later.

Thanks for the immediate support and pictures. Hope many more are joining with stories and pictures from the war zones and/or those vehicles today, in any condition or under restoration, or even driving on You-tube.

This New Forum with a military vehicle theme is Great ! But this post is about : killing that hand-clapping smilely face...it was getting on my nerves...sorry...

Solan, when I was in the Norwegian military in 1968-69 we had plenty of old WW2 GMC and Chevrolet trucks, both on Jorstadmoen and at Bardufoss. I was in the Sambands Kompaniet, Linjetroppen. Just to let you all know that the truck we had did not have a heater in it and it was very cold during the vinter driving with just a canvas roof over the cab up there above the Arctic Circle. Once we were on maneuver, we got hit by a heavy snowfall, and upon trying to drive the truck out of the woods, we blew the headgasket. The repair depot folks came out and replaced the headgasket in the snow and minus 25 degrees Celcius. We had fun driving tha truck - it had five speeds forward and no synchromesh, so we got to be very good at double clutching. Jo Storaker

Hello Jo, Nice to hear from you again. My youngest son, Olav, did his service too at Jorstadmoen, Lillehammer. He enjoyed the stay, even in the winter. In 1963 I was stationed in Stavern, near Larvik where the Airforce had the main training center/school for recruiting military staff/officers. There you also found a training school for drivers and mechanics. Lots of GMCs and AEC Matadors (used for moving artillery). They were just as cold as the GMCs. But in the summer time we had plenty of nice girls dressed for the summer and visiting the beach nearby. Hehehehe. Quite a lot of the guys found their loved ones in Stavern/Larvik, but some also had a double race going on, may be similar to sailors, with a girl in each harbour??

The military may have some few GMCs left but none Matadors. A lot have been taken care of by the Historic Military Vehicles Association (HMK) together with heavier vehichles.
http://www.hmkf.no/public.aspx?pageid=62920

Solan, takk for the link to the HMK. I did not know about that one. I did visit the Vegmuseet (Road Museum) north of Lillehammer this summer - interesting place. By coincidence, the Lillehammer car club had their annual road tour that day. One family came from Oppdal driving across Dovre mountain in their 31 Sedan. Keep the old cars running. Jo VCCA #18184

Thanks for telling. This year, 10. - 12. august we will have Norgesløpet (the main run in Norway) here in Oslo area. If you are around, give me a message in advance.