Customs Cars made into Pick-ups

Somewhere there is a finished photo of this…..

 

Very common practice when pickups were hard to get and cars were plentiful.
Cut the back off off a phaeton and bolt on a box. I built this one a few years ago.

 

Here’s the ‘49 I finished last year built from a Tudor. My build thread is in the link below.

 

I admit I didn’t read the entire thread. Did someone mention the tax credit for driving a truck? If you drove a pickup, it was ***umed you were involved in the agricultural industry, so you were allotted more gas-rationing stamps. Fairly easy to stuff a bed in the back of a sedan. It was well known where I’m from.

 

Here’s one my brother built in the ‘60s from a Nomad!

 

Borrowed from another thread on here…….

 

The old myth that will never die. During WWII gas was rationed by your importance to the war effort. The ration board did not care if you drove a Cushman or a Mack. If you were a janitor or a housewife you got the minimum amount of gas.

 

I do not agree. Did you grow up on a farm? Did you or your parents live though WW2? Farm workers were issued a “C” window sticker, which allowed them to buy twice as much as most people.

 

The simple fact was, the trucks of the era took a beating. There were more cars available. If the truck had problems, kits (and many home built) conversions were made to convert a car into a truck and keep working. There was indeed extra gas rationing available for farm use, but you had to live on a farm to get it.

When the civilian vehicle production restarted towards the end of WW2, trucks were the first thing they started building, in fact, heavy trucks, 1 1/2 ton and larger were produced in a limited quan***ies starting at the end of 1943, and 1 ton, 3/4 ton, and 1/2 tons started resuming production towards the end of 1944 as 1945 model year trucks, because of the truck shortage.

it appears by this thread, that a lot of station wagons lost part of their roofs from the mid 50s on.

 

To get a 'C' sticker, you had to show the local War Price and Rationing Board that you met one of the 17 criteria to qualify. Transporting farm laborers or farm material was one of them. The category was marked on the sticker, so if you were faking it, your neighbors would know.

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The ration was based on occupation, but tied to a particular vehicle in an attempt to minimize black marketing. Were there abuses? Certainly, but the rules are what we we are discussing, not the abuses.

 

This deserves it's own Thread as it is of interest but can we get back on track? JW

 

This was at the PIR swap meet yesterday. Interesting project.

 

WhoWeee, that must have been built by the Hodge Podge Shop!

 

It may be why they are parting company with it.

 

What were they asking for it?

 

I was snooping in the GM Heritage center Archives the other night and found out that Chevy offered a coupe pickup direct from the factory in 1939. More snooping today shows that they offered them from 1937 to 1941. I don't have the years in order though.

 

I don't see it as a Hodge Podge. It just looks like a reskinned 64-67 El Camino. If it was done, there would be plenty of people oooing and aahing. What I don't see is the sign saying the hard part is done.

 

I did not see a sign on that 57'mino at PIR. I was looking for the seller when I smelled a nearby beer stand and forgot what I was doing.

 

Would like to see more pictures of this pickup truck.