Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement and Antique Car

 

The photo above I made last August during trip to Mt Shasta, California. First, when I saw this truck on the street I assumed it is a modification of famous Willys Jeep from WWII.  But when I came closer I have found "International" on its hood (not "Willys"). Lucky for me proud owner of the car was seating nearby. 

You can see him on the right  (in shorts). He explained that the car was made in 1944 by "International Harvester" company for US Marine. When I showed my admiration for owning such an old car, he told that actually there is older car on the other side of the street: Chevrolet from 1939. Owner of the Chevrolet (you can see him on the left, in jeans) told us that he bought the car in the fall of 1965 and restored it during 1965-1966 winter.  

It is clear that he was very young in 1965, so we can tell the man drives (and maintains!) this car his whole adult life! Look at this beauty!

When we arrived back home form the trip I decided to investigate these cars a little bit more. My initial plan was to supply picture to https://images.google.com/  so google artificial intellect will do all the job without my interventions. Alas, that not worked out of the box. For picture of first vehicle google provided me with link to "Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement". These cars were  designed for US marine  by Oshkosh Defense  but much later (in 1996). That was not what I was looking for. Chevrolet search returned "Antique Car". That was right but too generic. 

So I had to utilize google power but less rely on AI but more on  my judgement.  And here is my finding.

Truck model exact name is "1944 IHC M-2-4". And less than ten thousand of them was produced. Indeed it is a rarity. The rest of numbers regarding that car you may find through this link Estrella Warbirds Museum. The company "International Harvester"  mostly produced agriculture machines but obviously it switched part of  the production to the military during WWII. Here is  YouTube video  illustrating that fact. It is sad the company does not exist anymore.

Chevrolet model is "Master Deluxe", probably model "JA". Here is  r: Wikipedia entry  regarding this car. 

Among interesting facts Wikipedia mentions that Chevrolet Master Deluxe GA (car two years older then this one) was a personal auto of Janka Kupała. How Belorussian poet of the Soviet era obtained such a car is a mystery for me.

Willys Truck

I shot this picture last March at the shore of Lake Tahoe. My family and myself spent couple days there to get some skying at Heavenly. Normally in March there should be a lot of snow but not this year.  Once I took our cooker spaniel for walking. Next to the beach I found this nice truck  parked. It looked antique but well maintained.   A baby boomers couple  together with their dog (probably Irish Setter ) were sitting  in the car cabin. I could not recognize the car brand, so I  asked. The owner told me that it is 1955 Willys Truck. I am not very familiar with old American cars but Willys, of course, associated with famous army Jeep. The fact that Willys made trucks was unknown for me.   Was this truck really authentic? Alas, not. Owner explained that he actually built it out of three old trucks, one of them was Ford Bronco (car made at least 10 years later). And the small wheel on the side was not the part of original design:  just for fun.
I asked permission to picture  the trunk and owners kindly allowed. I did not have camera on me, but I did have a phone and made couple of shots. After that we started walking back to the motel. On our way back the truck passed alone. The engine worked loudly (as any motor of the car made more then sixty years ago), but  steady. While not authentic that restoration still was a really good job.
Next day we drove back to Bay Area. I checked my work e-mail box and read the  news: because of corona-virus outbreak  our office is closed and we ordered to work remotely. Several days later governor of California issued   shelter-in-place order across the whole state. This Tahoe trip  will be memorized as the last trip before the big change.