VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1942 Chevrolet Cabriolet production #'s

Looked through stack of photos Paul, found one more...on the back it says it was at the Ford plant in Indianapolis...

Paul,
When you click on Reply it will take you down to the Quick Reply box. At the bottom of the page in the center there are three options, click on Use Full Editor option. In the Full Editor you should see an option to add an attachment (Attachment Manager).

I believe posting photos is a member only privilege.

Under Full Editor the only key i can find is insert image link, not attachment........

Daryl, thanks for posting the pic of the Ford plant, does it definitely say Indianapolis and not Dearborn, i'm learning about this stuff all the time? I know that Mr Mansell had a friend at Dearborn who was head of corporate finance, who i am sure must have helped with him purchasing both the Mustang Magic skyway car and also my car when returned from Indianapolis. He was/is also a major car enthusiast and wrote books on the 32 Ford and flathead motors.
Assuming it was Indianapolis, (i never came across any reference to The Ford plant at Indianapolis yet regarding the pace cars), it makes sense that the cars would be returned there after the race on May 30th, 1968.
I had another look through my paperwork received with the car and it looks like the date on your photo ties in with when i assume my car was collected, unless Dr Mansell simply went to look at the cars that were returned, as seen in close proximity on the photo pic of your car, it is surrounded by the 68 pace cars.
My car came/was sold through Jack Thrasher Ford, of Terre Haute, Ia, but i suppose the car may have been collected from the Indianapolis plant? It is this type stuff that i would love to find out for definite, on the purchase invoice the car had a mileage of 2745. I have a list of cars that he obviously had to narrow down re. a purchase, all pace cars, listing the official numbers, any dents, faults etc such as against one he marks it as having a transmission shifting fault, on another that some of the red tape stripe was missing.
To tie in with the date on your pic, i have a temporary Indianapolis BMV permit for a 15 day limit dated 7/10/68 in Dr Mansells name.......
So both the pics you showed may even have been from the same day.
John Mansells father in Law also bought a festival car, which could have been seen on the date of your pic at the plant, i have a letter dated 7/29/68 from Ford approving him for an internal purchase of a used company vehicle, they termed it as an x plan purchase. The car he bought was an Indianapolis festival car, these had the circle on the rear fenders as shown in your pic. Car was sold at a later date
Love this stuff!!
Paul.

Edit....Odd one but looked up re the Indianapolis plant, from what i can find it was used to assemble the Model T and closed in the 1930's? Can anyone give any more details on this?
I think that the pic with the other Pace Cars may have been taken at Dearborn, Michigan, i know Dr Mansell went there, also looking at the sheer size of the building/logo in the background? From a letter i have from Dr Mansells friend who worked there, i beleive the actual pace cars that paced the race on the day were returned to Dearborn and still there some time later, these had been specially prepared by Holman Moody, inc of NC. I hope to shortly have some actual facts as to what the story was with these cars back when, as with many cars a lot if the info nowadays is made up of a large percentage of rumour.
Paul.

Hard to believe that's the one at Indy in '71... I remember that car.

Yes Stymie, here is a picture of it from the 1971 G&D anniversary meet issue...



I am hoping to finish restoring it and make it out to the 60th anniversary meet...50 years later.

Yes, I have that issue. Thanks!!!!

Found an old photo of a '42 Cabriolet, appears to be a blackout model perhaps. Blackouts had black or sport beige door handles...this car looks like it has a black handle. Also blackouts had the beltline molding eliminated, like this car does. Hard to tell for sure due to photo quality.

I don't remember the 41 convertible at 71 anniversary at the Indianapolis Speedway *acutally at Speedway, Indiana.

I do remember Bob Wingates black 41 cabriolet and Ethan Hunt's blue one. Wingate's was for sale. I think it brought less than 4K. It had a running sheet of paper in it that one could increase the instant bid. When I last looked, it eas at about $3,400.

I think Gene may have mispoke on the start of serial numbers. Mehi42 just above is the correct start of the numbers.

"60 years of Chevrolet", (I know, I know!) says that 1,782 of them were produced. One ot them shown in a couple of photos were of Dr Mansell's.

There was on for sale at this past years Hershey. I asked the person sitting in the driver's seat how much he was asking for it? Without hesitation he said one hundered thousand. ($100,000) Very nice car.

The 1950 parts book list the following corlors for the 1942.

Mayland Black
Martial Maroon (Firewall tag shown: 309)
Seafoam Green
Volunteer Green
Sport Beige
Suntone Beige
Torpedo Grey
Chevron Grey
Ensign Blue
Maple Brown

(The book has Martial Maroon listed twice with exact same information re Striping and Wheels. Don't know why.)

I don't know if all those colors were available for the convertible or not.

BetoB,

Looks like a good solid car. Enjoy!

Best,

Charlie

I know this thread is old, but I am hoping I can get some guidance on a 42 convertible I’m looking into buying. The cowl spec tag is missing from the car and I was told it got lost during the restoration. How much does that affect the value of the car since you can’t really get info on the vehicle? The vin also looks to be different from what I’ve read on some of the vin decoding sites. It basically reads BA4####. From what I’m reading here http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/models/index.htm the vin should not start with “B”. Besides these details, the car does look and seems legit. Has the right trim package, the dash options, accessories. What do you think about this?

The serial number for a 1942 Special Deluxe should begin with a number or two which designates the assembly plant. Than the letters BH that indiacted a 1942 Special Deluxe, then a number indicating month of assembly.

On a rare model the lack of the serial number tag or incorect tag would have an effect on value.