CC reader Dean Bergman found this Dodge “Suburban” sitting in a driveway in one of the beach towns north of San Diego. He wondered if I knew what year it was. Best as I can tell, Dodge didn’t really change their trucks styling from 1940 through 1947. But maybe someone knows something more than me and my American Truck and Bus Spotter’s Guide. As to the body, it’s not a factory job. From what I’ve seen with other trucks of this vintage, there were a couple of different builders who did these passenger station wagon conversions, but I don’t have time to chase down which exact one this is. Anybody else care to take a shot at it? Looks like the seam where the van body roof meets the factory roof just aft of the windshield is a problem area.
Most likely a Proctor-Keefe Carryall, which was primarily a military vehicle. The one pictured is interesting in that it wears a “civilian” front clip, and has non-factory pontoon fenders on the rear.
More info here: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/p/proctor_keefe/proctor_keefe.htm
And using the address from the above website, here’s Proctor & Keefe’s factory now…I think “Proctor” is still just barely visible on the smokestack.
This is down in the deep industrial part of southwest Detroit, not far from the Rouge.
Further research shows that the 4×2 versions of this Dodge were named WC36 and WC48, at least for the ’41-’42 model years. There is also evidence that this may NOT have been a coachbuilt body—apparently Dodge was putting them together at the Mound Road factory in Detroit. This may or may not have been in cooperation with Proctor-Keefe or any other coachbuilder.
If I’m correct on the diagnosis as a Dodge Carryall of this era and configuration, this is quite a rare truck. The military (4×4) models are much more common.
Sorry for the multiple comments!
My first thought was also some variation of the military carryall body.
We had thousands of these Dodge/Fargo WW2 era pickups some had locally made van bodies fitted, Coach built bodies were still quite common back then as we only got trucks complete to the cowl new the cabs were all local builds.
A what appears to be mid 60s vintage Chevrolet steel wheels?
This beautiful creature is crying for the woody treatment. Then a nice, plum assignment shuttling visitors to the mountains !
The spare tire is surreal. It looks like it was photoshopped on.
funeral body?
In 1941 it was a WC 36 and in 1942 it was a WC 48, 400 were built in 1941 and 370 were built in 1942,,,, they were built over the winter of 41/42 for the civilian market but then the war came along so all of them went to the military, they are all 2×4 1/2 tons,,,, Many were converted to rural school buses after the war and only a few survive today,,,,, I have a 1942 WC 48 that I am in the process of restoring, I am luck to have all f the important “carryall only” parts intact and useable, the rest can be collected from other Dodge trucks,,,, David Webb “the one man swap meet” http://www.losthighway.net