1946 Chevy ½ Ton

It’s 1946 and WWII has been over about a year. Most of our military had returned or coming home and were ready to catch up with their years overseas. U.S. factories were switching over to produce domestic products, but not fast enough for most.

This month’s Feature Truck of the Month was created in 1946 and was almost identical to the pre-war 1941 Chevy ½ ton pickup truck. Waiting vehicle buyers had no patience for a different design. They wanted a new car or truck NOW! The older tooling was available so it was brought out of storage by the manufacturers as soon as possible.

Our truck this month is one of these! Todd Jones of Jacksonville, Florida owns this beautiful example of such a low mileage almost untouched pickup Never actually restored, just given some “touch-ups!” It’s the real deal. Buyers waited in line to own a new vehicle after the “Big War”. We might say this is a part of our history!

Though Todd is not aware of the pickup’s original owner, it is the person who sold it to him that is of interest. This was Harold Coker, the founder of our countries most well-known dealer of tires for very early and special interest cars and trucks. Over the years, Mr. Coker had collected a large number of specialty vehicles and was “thinning out” some. The attached photo shows Harold Coker in red and Todd Jones in white.

Mr. Coker had it in his large special interest car collection 30 years. He purchased it from the person that did minor retouching. That put the odometer to zero! Todd bought it with 17 miles showing. On rare occasions he takes it out for a drive. Thus, it has reached 2,900 miles.

When the pickup was advertised for sale, Harold Coker made a point of saying, “its original 216 cubic inch engine runs great but does have a small crack in the block!” (Feature problems were coming).

Later when Todd researched for a replacement, he was very fortunate to find the best drop-in. This was a more powerful 235 low oil pressure engine that was introduced for larger Chevy trucks at the beginning of WWII. The slight change in the engine internals raised the horsepower from 90 to 105. It was placed in the passenger cars from 1950 to 1953 with the introduction of the accessory Power Glide transmission that required more power.

Todd found his replacement from a 1953 Chevy car, the last year before the 235 full oil pressure was introduced. His 1946 now has the same exterior appearance of a 216 engine but certainly more power!

As did most trucks during that time period, this ½ ton came off the assembly line ready for work. Though few options were even available in 1946, it appears none were added on this Feature Truck. Even the standard Brewster Green is its color instead of 7 other no extra cost colors.

Todd added the White wall tires as age had added so many small cracks in the Black wall possibly originals. These new tires certainly give it an improved non-working appearance. Of course, in 1946 most any new tire dealers would have been glad to sell white walls from their stock!

We asked Todd, “What prior interest made you own this pickup?” The answer was similar to what so many middle age antique truck owners have said. It began in their later high school years when their first car had to be a little different to attract the attention of class mates. For Todd it was a 1974 Dodge Dart. It did not take him long to locate a big block 383 V-8 to place in this medium size car. We wonder if he has some speeding tickets still framed on his garage wall?

To date, he has not been involved in local car shows but has enjoyed driving on the long Atlantic Ocean beach near his home. The attached shows him in a surprise photo in his 1946 at a local parade.

For the perfectionist: After several years owning the 1946 plus studying some of their history, Todd realized the bumper bolts had round heads. Not correct. Correct oval heads are changes he made!