David Minnich's

1943 Chevy Pre-war Truck and John Deere Tractor


[an error occurred while processing this directive]

16 July 2007
# 1991

From David :

           I am submitting some pictures of my1943 Chevy pre-war truck and 1949 John Deere MC Crawler tractor. The truck was found in Selah, Washington in the local advertisement paper. It has a 235 six cylinder and a 4 speed transmission. It also has a two speed rear end out of a series 1960 Viking.

           When I bought it, the previous owner said he had purchased it at a Navy surplus sale. He built a camper for the back of it and drove it to some lake in British Columbia, Canada. We know is it has been in Washington for last 20 years, only about five miles away from where we live.

           We were reading the Penny Press one day and it said “good used wood bed.” I am also restoring a 1953 COE Chevy and I needed a wood bed for it. So I called the guy and this was it. We got the whole truck for $400. (Ya, $400!!) It was a steal. No rust and the windows rolled up. What more could you ask for!?

           So with a lot of help and some TLC, it runs great. I found the sun visor from a junk yard for $5 and sprayed some Rustoleum paint on it. We take it to shows as much as we can. We know it's not factory but it's a lot of fun and it gets a lot of looks. It is a real crowd pleaser.

           The truck has a war Navy number on the dash. We have tried lots of things to research the number but have not come up with any thing yet. If anyone could tell us how to find out more about that number it would be really helpful.

           We love the site!

           When I get the 1953 COE done you guys, will be the first to know!

Don’t crush them, Restore them!

David Minnich
Yakima, Washington

           ~Note: David’s brother Justin also has a 1959 3100 Chevy Apache Task Force truck in the Gallery! ~ Gallery Gal


[an error occurred while processing this directive]