I can remember the whole town turning out to look at the local veterinarians new 1944 Chevy pickup. Meat production was considered essential so vets could get a brand new replacement for a worn out truck. With no paved roads and much off road use these trucks lived a hard life.
Measured the wheelbase today. It was 160 inches. The owner is heading back to Connecticut on Tuesday. He has a copy of the original title he thinks, and will check it. JP
Well, the owner didn't have a copy of the truck's original title after all. I took some acid prep that I use to remove rust off of signs and sprayed it on the data plate. I let it sit a while, reapplied more and gently scrubbed the rust on the plate with an SOS pad. Washed it off and marked it with a tire crayon. Third character in the VIN is an "S". It's not as easy to read as other letters, but it's there. Now to deal with the County Treasurer to get it corrected. On another note, I got a reply from the GM Heritage Center and they did not have a total for non WWII production vehicles. They only could give me a number for total production for 1944. Thanks for the help! JP
Yep, that's what I found. I went to the County Treasurer (tag office) and explained the problem to her. She had me show County Sheriff the truck data plate, and $20 later the Treasurer had the information entered into the computer and a corrected title is on it's way. But I never did find out how many non-war trucks were built. Thanks again to all that helped with info! JP
The first WWII civilian MS truck was produced on January 3, 1944 as serial number 9MS25-2127 not 1001. The last tag I have is 9MS42 29235 (June 45). On September 1, 1945 the interim trucks came out they were a continuation of the regular 1942 lines but the model prefix change and their production numbers started at 1001 (9OS09 1001 1 1/2 ton). So, I would say a rough guess is 31000 MS trucks were built during WWII
