Thanks to a Barn Finds reader, I found myself hunting up Chevy trucks to feature. Oh, the usual plethora of C/K examples are salted all over the internet – you can find those for sale every day of the week. But this eye-catching war-time Chevy pickup leads to a more interesting story. For one thing, it was one of the last civilian vehicles made before automakers transformed their factories to produce munitions, tanks, and Jeeps. The AK/BK Chevys also represented peak Art Deco style, with their heavy linear grilles and stylized gauges. Available here at Hagerty’s classifieds marketplace, this ’42 BK is premium priced at $35,000. The seller notes that he’s the third owner, and the truck has traveled just 700 miles since a restoration in 2009. Drive it home from Phoenix, Arizona.
The BK was a submodel of Chevy’s AK series, designating the 1942 half-ton light delivery truck. Four body styles were available: pickup, panel truck, canopy, and suburban. A scant few BKs were sold to personal garages; inventory still on hand beyond about February 1942 was painted Army green and sent to the front lines. Chevy’s 216.5 cu. in. Stovebolt six-cylinder backed by a three-speed manual gearbox comprised the original drivetrain, but this one has been modernized with a transplanted 235 cu. in. six paired to a TH350 floor shift automatic.
New, round gauges by Classic Instruments – measuring fuel level, oil pressure, speed, water temperature, and amps – have replaced the original artful horizontal set. While mostly tidy, this interior could use attention, including a good cleansing and fresh black paint as needed. The crank-out windshield apparently still works, but only the driver gets a wiper blade, and no one gets a sunvisor!
The truck’s underside still looks decent; a weekend’s worth of work would bring it up a few notches. On the other hand, the seller fails to address the odd discoloration on the driver’s side fender and door. Depending on the severity of this issue, the new owner could be looking at expensive paintwork, which might be just as well, since nicks and color loss are scattered around the body.
Neither bumper sits correctly: the front is off kilter relative to the fenders, and the rear is low on the driver’s side. And the truck was assigned a VIN at registration in Arizona – a demerit that will cause some buyers to balk. As infrequently as we see these AK and BK trucks, a few have come to market recently. This 3/4 ton BL, nicely restored with its original engine, sold for $21k a month ago; here’s an AK pickup that sold for $39k last year. The engine and transmission swap in our subject car might attract a buyer who ordinarily wouldn’t consider a 1940s vehicle, but there’s abundant cosmetic work required here before next show season, and that VIN might eliminate some prospective owners. What would you pay for this rare Chevy BK?
The author seems a bit gruff when describing this amazing find, and perhaps I can help. These aren’t as rare as one might think, as I read, Chevy sold 55,579 1942 1/2 ton pickups( Oct. ’41-Feb. ’42). This truck, having a chrome grill, was probably made before the war, as after they had painted grills. Front bumper is correct, rear probably added later. I’m going to stick to my guns, and say someone bought this truck, put a few miles on it, and off to war and didn’t come back. This was an extremely bare bones truck. I read, a cab and chassis was $485, the basic 1/2 ton pickup shown here, was $600. Also one could still buy a truck during the war, but it had to be “high priority”, with a slew of red tape, I’m sure.
Not going to pollute the authors great post with price taggery, naturally I think the automatic is a great addition, and someone is going to get a great truck.
My uncle was a Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge truck dealer, sometimes with some perks under the table. He managed to bring in about 30 trucks throughout the entire war. 1 1/2 to 2 ton trucks were the easiest because the necessity of a new truck was a little easier to convince the powers that be. I remember him telling my dad that he managed 11 pickups in addition to the larger trucks, but those pickups included tonners. Cars were unobtainium.
Thats a great “family ” picture there Geomechs!! And the history lesson as well. Thanks for sharing that.
Thanks, Dave. There was a bunch of us got together on a Sunday afternoon and toured some places. Ronnie, the guy in the white cap beside me (I’m second from the right), always had a plethora of old cars and trucks at his place so a lot of tours ended at his place.
Good things never last; there’s two guys in that pic, Ronnie and Harold, the guy leaning back against the front fender, are gone to that great car and truck show beyond. The guy way off to the left is still around but he’s losing ground. The rest of us seem to have avoided everything but the idiots on the road.
That old truck still exists and the new owner talks to me about overhauling the engine for him as it smokes enough to kill every mosquito in the county.
It might just be me but this truck in white just doesn’t look right.
I like the truck, but hate the price. Putting that automatic behind that old 6 Bangor is pure sacrilege. If you’re going to do an engine transmission swap at least get a combination that will move this truck swiftly down the road. I’m not saying do like the 41 I had back several decades ago which had a 392 hemi with manually shifted 3 speed. That truck had so much torque it was hard to keep u-joints in it. Finally put a complete rear end, housing and axels from a 62 Olds in it which required a custom built driveshaft. Anyway, I don’t think this truck is white but rather pale yellow like my dad’s old 54 Chevy pickup was.I think in todays market it’s worth between $20k to $25k. Maybe less with that hideous transmission.
God Bless America
Keep the old trucks coming, Michelle. They keep our blood pumping.
Well, you could certainly drop this off at my place. I would take it, auto trans and all.
There’s just a tad more room in the bay of a ’41 thru ’46 GM than those before that. In the 30s you had maybe a cigarette paper’s clearance to the rad.
I helped a good friend restore his ’38 GMC T-15 (something he learned to drive in, back when the truck was new). It was a Canadian-built truck and came with a 216 babbit-pounder. Since the Stovie was seized, Ronnie decided to use a 235 that he had on the farm instead and we found out that the fan wouldn’t clear the rad, even with the shorter water pump. We ended up running an electric fan in the front of the rad.
The project turned out pretty good, I might add. I did up an article on it which was featured in Vintage Truck magazine a few years back.
Good stuff as always, geomechs. Thank you.
I love these trucks, always have, but the TH350 totally destroys the old truck experience.
This is quite a breath of fresh air after the Plymouth Sunrader. The very definition of a beautiful truck.
Not only have the gauges been swapped but the whole dash has been swapped in from a different model.