What kind of Chevy?

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texasbb
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What kind of Chevy?

Post by texasbb » February 25th, 2017, 9:01 am

Any of you car buffs got a clue what kind of Chevy this is? It's under a collapsed shed in the woods near where I grew up.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: What kind of Chevy?

Post by Don Nelsen » February 25th, 2017, 9:18 am

1940. Chevrolet Special Deluxe
dn
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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buckwheat
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Re: What kind of Chevy?

Post by buckwheat » February 25th, 2017, 9:30 am

Don't know anything about cars, but it looks like on the close up of the driver side front tire (picture 3), you can make out faint lettering in the silver strip running down the hood that says 'special deluxe', so I'm gonna trust Don with the year of 1940.

Every time I see an old abandoned rusted our car in a field or shed or forest, I like to ponder if when whoever drove it there and parked it knew that it would never move again, or if they were planning on using it again.

Aimless
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Re: What kind of Chevy?

Post by Aimless » February 25th, 2017, 9:45 am

I didn't know cars already had "speed holes" on their hoods as early as 1940, but then there's so much I don't know about cars that my ignorance could fill a small solar system. ;)

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texasbb
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Re: What kind of Chevy?

Post by texasbb » February 25th, 2017, 10:06 am

Thanks, Don! I actually saw the Special Deluxe on the side trim, but wrongly interpreted that as the trim package on whatever car it was. (I once bought a Chevy truck with a "Custom Deluxe" package, which was ironically the least custom of the available trim packages.)

buckwheat: What's interesting to me about this one is it wasn't just abandoned somewhere, but was left protected in its garage until everything deteriorated around it. There are several abandoned vehicles in the area, including a school bus, a tour bus, and a truck trailer of some kind. Only the Chevy got the garage. :)

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Don Nelsen
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Re: What kind of Chevy?

Post by Don Nelsen » February 25th, 2017, 6:38 pm

texasbb wrote:Thanks, Don! I actually saw the Special Deluxe on the side trim, but wrongly interpreted that as the trim package on whatever car it was. (I once bought a Chevy truck with a "Custom Deluxe" package, which was ironically the least custom of the available trim packages.)

buckwheat: What's interesting to me about this one is it wasn't just abandoned somewhere, but was left protected in its garage until everything deteriorated around it. There are several abandoned vehicles in the area, including a school bus, a tour bus, and a truck trailer of some kind. Only the Chevy got the garage. :)
The car looks remarkably unmolested for being abandoned for so long. Nice find!

I owned and drove cars of that era back in the day and still have the service manuals for them: The Special De Luxe Six (to a service tech that was model KA) had an overhead valve in-line six with 85HP. It was the middle range of three basic models sold that year.

Here's a pic from the sixties of one of my cars:

1935 Plymouth After I painted it but before I put all the trim back on:
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Here is what the trim would have looked like. I stole the image below from the internet but it is accurate. Note the "portholes"
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Side vents on the hood go back to nearly day one of the automobile age. Those old engines ran very hot and needed the ventilation. Usually it was just slits or manually adjustable vents but as styling progressed, manufacturers went to round or oval portholes. Plymouth in '35, Buick in '49 and I'd have to do some research to say much more.

Thanks for the chance to reminisce!

dn
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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texasbb
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Re: What kind of Chevy?

Post by texasbb » February 25th, 2017, 7:29 pm

Don Nelsen wrote:The car looks remarkably unmolested for being abandoned for so long. Nice find!
Yeah, who knows how long it was "abandoned." The license plate seems to have a "71" on it, which would mean it's been off the road 45+ years(?), but someone could have bought it relatively recently, with plans to fix her up and sell along with the half-dozen other dead vehicles in the area, then never followed through. It's an oft-repeated story amongst us rednecks. :)

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