VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions 1942 cars

have been seeing 42 cars and trucks ( chevrolet ) come up for sale. i would think if you had a 1942 car it would be rare.they must have made some for the war .but i throught the car companys closed the car productions.they all went to makeing differt things tanks.planes .guns.all stuff to support the war effert.did any car company keep on with there regulary car production thinks just curious.

I seem to remember that Chevrolet stopped civilian auto production in February 1942. So they got a half a year's worth of production in before shutting down.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Also realize that there was some wartime production of cars used for military purposes.

As to my memory the civil production was stopped in February 42. Even if the production lines changed to war time some of the factories (or may be only one?) continued to make spare parts for the civilian market, specially for the trucks but also passenger cars all through those years.

In Norway the lack of spare parts made people create lots of new "solutions", making the car running or not depending on what they wanted or needed. A fine balance and not to get the wrong attention from the "visitors" from south.

Different sources offer various dates for 42 model year production end. Essentially the end of Jan - first of February is when production stopped. It seems possible not all plants closed on the exact same day.

My 1942 calendar (which is same as 2009 for days and dates) shows Jan 30 as a Friday. Seems safe to quote as last day of production.

Interesting to note 42 Chev production listed as 254k. Way down from 41 production of over one million. Those numbers make a '42 Chev pretty rare, as smitty suggested.

On the other hand, only 66k 1941 Cadillacs produced. Lots of different ways to look at "rare"......

Bill.

Passenger car production stopped in Feb. of 1942. New cars in dealer inventory were frozen by the goverment and could be purchased by essential users only.
Many of the cars that were then sold in 1943 and 1944 were rgistered as a 1943 or 1944, depending on the state.

Don't know if this is revelant, but my Dad had a strange 42, perhaps a military unit. It was an Aerosedan with all the trim on it including fenders and any trim that was prevelent on civilian models. Strange, but there was no chrome, all of it was painted white with a bit of red pin striping in the white areas. He sold it to my brother who drove it for many years. Never did figure that one out. Perhaps someone here could answer that question for me. Oops, forgot to mention the body colour appeared to me almost a dark Army green.

Sure wish Dad would have kept his 48 Woody.

Jim.

Jim, Your 1942 is what was refered to as a black out model. The last two momths of production all cars were made with no chrome plating except for the bumpers. This was a government regulation due to the shortage of things like nickle and copper which were used for chrome plating. Your 1942 probably was Chevron Gray, an almost olive drab color. They also had a dark green that was available
Any cars used by the army were 4 door sedans in the lowest priced model with a few rare exceptions.

Thank you ChevGene. Makes sense to me now. I remember those cheap cars the Navy also used when I was in from 58-62. Dad's 42 didn't match the norm, thus the question.

Jim.

I have a 42 five pass coupe special deluxe. The trunk hinges are painted black but the rest of the trim is brightwork. It was in North Dakota its entire life until I bought it two years ago. All original except for a paint job and rechromed bumpers. Very little rust. Still has original interior but it is pretty mildewy.

The trunk hinges, which are pot metal and tend to break, may have been replaced during the war. Parts that would have been chrome plated were also required to be painted rather than plated. Many parts like grilles and and such were painted gray for the duration of the war.