Chevrolet has been around since 1911, when it was founded by Swiss race car driver and automotive engineer Louis Chevrolet, his brother Arthur, William Durant, founder plus some investors.
One of Chevy’s early technical advancements was the overhead valve engine known as the “Stovebolt,” developed by Buick’s former owner used by Chevrolet from 1929 to1962. The first production Chevrolet didn’t roll off the line until model year 1913.
In 1940, if you were Chevrolet buyer, the Special Deluxe models were the top of their line. Depending on how much money you were willing or able to spend, you could have bought the Master for the lowest price, the Master Deluxe for a little more or the Special Deluxe if you wanted the best. World War II had started, but America was not yet actively involved.
The Great Depression was pretty much over by 1940, and folks had money in their pockets for new wheels. Chevrolet sold almost three-quarters of a million beautifully styled cars that year, Chevy’s last one featuring running boards on cars’ exteriors and headlights mounted on their fenders.
The 1940 Chevrolet was powered by the second-generation Stovebolt straight-six engines introduced with the 1937 models and often called “Blue Flame” engines. One of the more interesting features of this Chevrolet was the introduction of the Vacuum Shift transmission.
General Motors introduced an automatic transmission for Cadillac and Oldsmobile for the 1940 model year, and Chrysler introduced Fluid Drive, but most of the industry was using three-speed manual transmissions mounted on the columns, or as the expression goes “three on the tree.” The Vacuum Shift was a feature aimed to women. It was called “fingertip shifting,” as that was all that was needed to shift gears.
The shift distance was remarkably small. The driver could shift from first to second and second to third without taking his or her right hand off the steering wheel — pretty cool for 1940. This issue’s featured vehicle is a cool classic 1940 Chevrolet Coupe owned by John Fornbacher, of Pleasant Hill. He owns at least seven 1930s and ’40s collector cars, but unlike most, he not only collects and restores them but uses them as daily drivers.
Fornbacher has owned this car for about 10 years, and it was in pretty good shape when he acquired it.
“I had to do some work on the brakes, the front end and the drive line, no body work,” he said, “The current color is close to the original paint that was called ‘Alameda Green,’ which was a specific color just for the West Coast. The car was built in Oakland.” Fornbacher said he doesn’t know how many miles are on the car but said, “I put a lot on it since I’ve had it because we travel with this car.”
He said he has driven the car to the Mexican border a few times as well as on local trips. This car is a five-passenger coupe that looks very original. It has mohair (Angora goat hair) seats, which were kind of itchy for a kid with shorts on a hot summer day. It has a 30-hour windup clock on the dashboard that still works, which is very unusual. An old joke about car clocks in those days was that they were only right twice a day.
The car still has the original six-volt electrical system and original Stovebolt six-cylinder engine equipped with a three-speed Vacuum Shift transmission. The vacuum canister used for shifting could also be used for vacuum brakes, like power brakes.
This car was built before World War II and has a “B” sticker on the windshield, which was for gas rationing during the war. There were “A”, “B” and “C” stickers at the time, and doctors and important people got the “C” sticker. Fornbacher is a collector and not a trader, so he said he has no plans to sell this classic Chevy.
Have an interesting vehicle? Email Dave at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To read more of his columns or see more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.