Chevrolet Street Rod 355 CID 1940 images

This 1940 Chevrolet wears its original pre-war sheet metal but hides a thoroughly modern 355-cubic-inch small-block V8 under the hood, paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission Chevrolet never offered on the real 1940 model. It’s a textbook street rod build: a decades-old body around drivetrain technology that didn’t exist yet when the car was new. The small-block’s legendary tunability is exactly why builders keep reaching for it.

1940 Chevrolet Street Rod 355 CID V8 4 Speed Automatic

MCF thanks Gateway Classic Cars for the images displayed here.

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Pop the hood on this 1940 Chevrolet street rod and you won’t find a single part Chevrolet actually bolted into a 1940 car. The stamped-steel body and flowing pre-war fenders are original enough, but under that hood sits a 355-cubic-inch small-block V8 — an engine architecture that didn’t even exist when this car rolled off the line. It’s the kind of contradiction that defines the entire street rod hobby: a decades-old body draped over drivetrain technology from a completely different era. So what made builders pick this exact displacement for a car this old?

A “355” That’s Really Chevy’s Most Famous Small Block

Despite the “355 CID” badge, this engine is built on the same basic architecture as Chevrolet’s ubiquitous 350-cubic-inch small block — a design so common that machine shops can push it past its factory 349.8-cubic-inch displacement with nothing more exotic than a routine overbore. A common 0.030-inch overbore alone is enough to land right around 355 cubic inches, which is almost certainly how this particular 1940 Chevy earned its larger displacement badge rather than a plain “350.”

Why Pre-War Bodies and Small-Block V8s Keep Pairing Up

The small-block Chevy V8 became the go-to engine for street rod builders precisely because of how forgiving and tunable it is — decades of aftermarket support mean a builder can chase anywhere from mild street power to serious horsepower without reinventing the wheel, all while dropping the engine into a chassis engineered decades before the small block existed. Paired here with a 4-speed automatic rather than the three-speed column-shift manual Chevrolet actually offered in 1940, this car swaps out virtually everything mechanical while keeping the visual identity of a genuine pre-war Chevrolet intact.

Where the Street Rod Hobby Actually Started

Street rodding traces back to Southern California dry lakes racing in the years right after World War II, when returning veterans with mechanical skills and surplus parts began stripping down and hopping up prewar Fords and Chevrolets for speed trials at places like El Mirage. What started as cheap, homebuilt racing eventually evolved into a broader hobby built around styling and cruising rather than outright competition, which is the direct ancestor of builds like this 1940 Chevy.

The Difference Between a Hot Rod, a Street Rod, and a Resto-Mod

Enthusiasts draw real distinctions between these terms even though outsiders often use them interchangeably: a traditional hot rod usually means a pre-1949 car built in a period-correct style, a street rod is that same pre-1949 body updated with modern drivetrain and creature comforts for daily-usable reliability, and a resto-mod applies that same modern-underneath philosophy to later muscle-era cars. This 1940 Chevy, with its modern small-block and automatic, sits squarely in street rod territory.

What the Original 1940 Chevrolet Actually Looked Like on Paper

The real 1940 Chevrolet lineup, sold as Master 85 and Special DeLuxe trims, relied on Chevrolet’s own 216-cubic-inch inline six rather than any V8, since Chevrolet wouldn’t offer a V8 of its own until the mid-1950s. That makes this small-block-powered street rod doubly ironic: not only is the drivetrain decades newer than the body, it’s also an engine configuration Chevrolet itself didn’t even build back when this car was new.

Why the National Street Rod Association Matters to Builds Like This

The National Street Rod Association, founded in 1970, gave the hobby its first organized national structure, hosting large annual events that drew thousands of owner-built cars and helping standardize informal safety practices around things like fuel cells, roll bars, and disc brake conversions. A build like this 1940 Chevy, with its modern automatic transmission and presumably upgraded brakes, reflects exactly the kind of driveable, safety-conscious street rod the NSRA helped popularize.

Why Pre-War Fenders Command a Premium Today

Full-fendered prewar bodies like this Chevrolet’s flowing fenders and running boards have become harder to source as original sheet metal ages and rusts away, pushing builders increasingly toward reproduction fiberglass or steel body panels from specialty manufacturers. A genuine, straight, rust-free original body like the one wearing this drivetrain represents real sourcing effort before a single modification even begins, which is part of why complete, well-executed builds command strong money at auction.

The Auction Circuit That Turned Street Rods Into Investments

Televised collector car auctions helped transform street rods from garage projects into six-figure investment pieces over the past two decades, with builders competing to outdo each other on paint, engine detailing, and interior craftsmanship rather than just outright horsepower. That shift rewarded exactly the kind of visible engine-bay presentation seen under this car’s hood, where a clean, detailed small-block does as much selling work as the car’s actual performance.

Why Small-Block Swaps Beat Big-Block Swaps for Most Builders

Builders overwhelmingly favor the small-block Chevy over its big-block sibling for street rod projects because the small-block is lighter, more compact, and easier to fit into an engine bay never designed around a V8 at all, while still offering enough aftermarket support to make real horsepower if a builder wants it. That combination of light weight and flexibility is exactly why a 350-based engine, not a big-block, ended up under this particular Chevy’s hood.

What a 4-Speed Automatic Really Changes About Driving This Car

Swapping in a modern 4-speed automatic instead of the original 3-speed column-shift manual does more than add convenience; it typically brings an overdrive top gear that lets the small-block spin at lower, quieter, more fuel-efficient RPM at highway speed than any 1940-era transmission could manage. That single change is often the difference between a street rod that’s genuinely comfortable to drive across state lines and one that’s really only built for short cruises.

The Chassis Work Hiding Underneath Every Good Street Rod

Behind the visible bodywork, serious street rod builds like this one typically receive a fully reengineered chassis, with a modern subframe, coilover or independent front suspension, power rack-and-pinion steering, and four-wheel disc brakes replacing the drum brakes and leaf springs Chevrolet actually built in 1940. None of that structural work shows in a photo, but it’s usually where the bulk of a serious street rod’s real build budget and engineering effort actually goes.

Why 1940 Specifically Became a Favorite Street Rod Year

Among prewar Chevrolets, the 1940 model year is particularly prized by builders for its more rounded, flowing fender lines compared to the boxier 1939 and earlier cars, giving it proportions that read as classic without looking dated the way some earlier prewar designs can. That styling sweet spot is a big part of why 1940 Chevrolets specifically, rather than earlier or later prewar years, keep showing up on the street rod show circuit.

What Judges Actually Score at Street Rod Shows

Street rod show judging typically weighs paint and body fit, engine bay detailing and cleanliness, interior craftsmanship, and overall build quality far more heavily than raw horsepower figures, rewarding exactly the kind of finish-level attention visible in a well-presented engine bay like this one. That judging emphasis is part of why builders increasingly treat the engine compartment as a showpiece in its own right, chroming, painting, and dressing components that would otherwise stay hidden under a stock hood.

Why Documentation Matters as Much as the Build Itself

A street rod’s paper trail, including build receipts, parts invoices, and any prior show history, has become increasingly important to resale value as the hobby has matured, since two visually similar builds can carry very different values depending on who performed the work and how well it’s documented. Cars that pass through specialty dealerships typically arrive with at least some of that documentation intact, which matters to serious street rod buyers evaluating a purchase.

The Automatic Transmission Debate Among Street Rod Purists

A vocal segment of traditional street rodders still insists that a real hot rod needs a manual transmission to stay period-correct in spirit, even on a heavily modernized build, while a larger and growing share of builders and buyers prioritize comfort and drivability over that older philosophy. This car’s 4-speed automatic places it firmly on the comfort-and-drivability side of that ongoing debate, built for enjoyable cruising rather than strict traditionalist bragging rights.

Why This Kind of Build Rarely Shows Up Cheap

A turn-key street rod like this one, with a period-correct body, a modern small-block, and an automatic transmission already sorted, typically represents thousands of hours of combined labor across bodywork, chassis fabrication, wiring, and final assembly, work that a buyer is purchasing already finished rather than taking on themselves. That finished-and-driving convenience is exactly why complete street rods routinely sell for more than the sum of their individual parts would suggest.

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