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Rare 1942 Chevrolet G506 Panel Truck Takes a Stroll in the Mud, It's a WW2 Time Capsule

When it comes to American-made military trucks from World War II, we usually think about the GMC CCKW. Built in more than a half-million units, it's by far the most iconic hauler from the era. But it's not the only military hauler developed by an American carmaker during the 1940s.
1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van 7 photos
Photo: AlaskaTrucker/YouTube
1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van1942 Chevrolet G506 panel van
A 2.5-ton, 6x6 truck, the CCKW was built alongside a similar but smaller model, the Chevrolet G506. A 1.5-ton, 4x4 hauler, the G506 was introduced in 1940 and remained in production until 1945. Chevrolet made about 154,000 units and supplied the great majority of 1.5-ton 4x4 haulers commissioned by the U.S. military.

Most trucks were shipped with a standard cargo body and shared their closed cabs with the GMC CCKW. But Chevrolet also built open cab trucks for bomb servicers, a few cab-over-engine cargo trucks, and a panel van version for the Army Signal Corps. The latter is among the rarest iterations of the G506.

Specific production numbers for the panel van, also known as the G7105 K-51 and K-70, are not available, but let's just say that many of us will never see one in the metal. And that's why I got all excited when YouTube's "AlaskaTrucker" released footage of a G506 panel van driving in a muddy junkyard. While still sporting its WW2 livery!

How did survive like this for 80 years? Well, it kinda didn't. According to the owner, "the thing was just a shell" when it was found and ended up like this thanks to "a lot of TLC." Needless to say, it looks like it spent several decades indoors, preserved after it was retired from service. Unless you know the story, it looks like a full-blown time capsule.

The even better news is that the panel van is in really good hands. These guys own quite a few WW2 military trucks, including GMC CCKWs and Studebaker US6s. If you're not familiar with the latter, it was also a 2.5-ton 6x6 hauler like the CCKW, but saw daylight in fewer units. And many of them were exported under the Lend-Lease policy to the Soviet Union, where they became renowned for their ruggedness and reliability.

In fact, that's one thing the US6 and the Chevy G506 have in common. The latter was also shipped to the Soviet Union as part of the Lend-Lease program. As many as 47,700 units made it on the Eastern front, which was almost a third of total production.

In all, Chevrolet built about 16 versions of the G506, not including the lighting trucks and turret trainers put together for the USAF. All these trucks were powered by a 235-cubic-inch (3.9-liter) inline-six gasoline engine rated at 83 horsepower and 184 pound-feet (249 Nm) of torque. The mill was a smaller version of the CCKW's 270-cubic-inch (4.4-liter) straight-six.

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About the author: Ciprian Florea
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Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.
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