I have had people try to tell me that the powell truck that came out in 1952 was the first car based unibody truck on the American market. Since they used refurbished Plymouth passenger car frames and placed their body on them rather than making them from scratch I do not buy that argument. Granted farmers have been cutting the backs off of sedans and making trucks of them since the 20s. but like you say the 57 Ranchero was the true first utility coupe/pickup made for the American market. To somewhat answer the tooling costs question to make such a car in limited number I say. Genuine Australian Utes were always good for putting things together rather than tooling them from square one. My 56 Desoto has a 1954 Plymouth 4-door sedan body. when you take off the inner bed panels you can see the rear door seams on the quarter panels. The rear roof section is from a 1946-48 Plymouth sedan. so the only tooling they needed that wasn't taken from a previously produced car that the tooling was shipped to OZ to be reused was the tailgate and upper rear quarter sections. The frame came from canada and has a convertible style X member to add strength for off-road rigidity and 16 inch wheels for clearance. The engines and transmissions were made in the Chrysler foundry in England. The electricals are Lucas and brakes are Girling. So other than the old tooling they got from Detroit and the big pieces they could not make at that time they were made in Australia. The UTE, the spork of the automotive industy!
Hey, Wow! great info and pictures on these and the Slopers, thanks for all of the pictures and info from you all in Ute & Sloperland! Is there such a thing as a complete book in print on the OZ & Kiwi coachbuilding industry with emphasis on the Ute & Sloper variants? Any factory, shop or build photos? How late was the wood framing used in these bodys before pressings were used? A mention was made of a history of Holden Body Builders, is that book still in print, and does it contain any info on coachbuilding , the Ute & Sloper? The nearest we here in North America came to a handbuilt type Ute vehicle, aside from GM'S ElCamino '59-'88 & FoMo's Ranchero '57- '79, Mopar's little Dodge Horizon pick up & Volkswagon Rabbit pickups from the 80's was the professional car industry built flower cars. Built in very limited numbers, and often at a price, higher than a funeral coach. Most were built from 2dr. & 4dr.sedan conversions. Thanx again, Swankey Devils C.C. " It's time for another tea Party ! "
I do not know about slopers being in books but this is the best UTE book that I have found. The good olde Aussie UTE by Larry O'Toole Not sure if it is still in print but it is the best book I have found yet! Update: I just did a little google search and they are available for $38.50 http://www.autobookworld.com/shopexd.asp?id=5396
From about 1936 onwards Richards stamped the firewall with a "TJR" in letters about 100m high. They may have done it earlier but i haven't seen it. Thats the easiest way to pick one. When I lived in NZ i had a 39 two door ,probably the only one there as i never saw anthoer.I sold it to a rodder in Aucks who was going to use the doors and side panels to to convert a four door which were still reasonbly common in those days.It wasn't until I started working in out back OZ did I realise that so many variations on utes were made,From "A" Armstrong Siddely to "Z" for lightburn Zeta. A lot of roadster utes were built in WW2 so they could be stacked on decks of ships for transporting around the pacific ( no roof means you can stack them higher) . Any damaged ones were bought back ( along with a lot of vehicles) to be repaired not far here in Brisbane on Granard Road . The yanks and Poms built a big vehicle repair depot and the place worked 24/7 patching them up. Hardly any remain from those days. This is a good example,complete with blackout lights.
Everyone used them. The phone company was callecPMG and was owned by the post office. Here is another Army Plymouth, a 1940-41 . Army 39 Standard V8 with WAAF
Quite a few panel vans were built onto utes from the late 30's. Here is a Salvation Army 39 Chev panel van/canteen on duty with the AIF in Australia,1944.
Dirtynails, mine had the TJR spot welded on the firewall but the donor TJR sedan had none. I was very tempted to buy an SP7 DeSoto (export badged Plymouth) 2 Dr flatback while holidaying here in the early 90s but had no storage. The NZ new cars were mostly Canadian parts (lots of diecast and different floors) and TJR used American parts shipped through Canada to gain commonwealth tariff concessions I guess by the Canada Cycle Trading Co. My ute appears to have shipped from Lynch Rd Detroit as a cowl chassis according to a number rivnailed to the firewall. 4 drs still have a good survival rate and come up for sale quite often, lots badged as Chryslers which seem unique to NZ. I think the 39 Plymouth Roadkill posted is the same one as the one I posted with the Prefect in the back and it's a coupe behind it, a NSW farmer had one he intended to restore when he retired and this one turned up in Qeensland http://web.aanet.com.au/finnedmopar/1939ply.html so there's probably more out there but I still have my thumb left. Here's an ugly one in Walter Ireland's old yard...
I have a photo of the TJR stamping in question that I will post and also the tag and emblem They are all on a 39 Plymouth UTE
I know that ute,in fact I know exactly where the driveway is that it is pictured in. I'm glad that owner of the driveway has it because my old mate who found the ute got divorced a couple of years back and damn near lost everything to his cheatin' mrs. My mate was installing aircon units for the queenland police (not that they deserve comforts ) and had been working in a lot of small towns out west. We were discussing looking for utes and roadsters and I suggested the best place to look was under old Queenslander homes ,the ones that had bad paint and looked like an older person lived there. Sure enough he found heaps of old cars all parked under houses and in a lot of cases buried in crap. A queenslander is a wooden house built up high on stilts so you get moving air underneath which keeps the house cool and on really hot days you spend the noon time there to escape the heat. The Plymouth was one of several he bought home .
I remember that ute I'm pretty sure it was in oklahoma city, street rod nats in 91. It was the first ute I saw in person even took a few pictures of it.
Dirtynails, that green original/restored 39 Plymouth Ute thats still in use in the 1980's is the same as the remains of a 39 Plymouth Ute I had in the 1970's, it was a basketcase that had been dissassembled for the front sheet metal, I ended up with the body panels,ie, the cowl, dash,windscreen posts & frame, one door, corner pieces, floor & panel behind the seat.......it was definately a T.J. Richards build as it had the TJR stamping in the firewall, it also used, like the 1980's green one a 1936 Plymouth Roadster windscreen frame, I don't have it know having sold it in the 1980's.......also Eddie Ford Publisher of Australia's Restored Cars magazine has published the two Norm Darwin authored books.......The History of Ford in Australia and The History of Holden Since 1917.......both are now outof print but are the BEST, bar none for info on the Oz Slopers and Utes, covering the various body manufacturers, body styles and production numbers where known.......andyd
Sorry the pics are a little o/t but a least you get the idea of their shape. 1964 Holden Last one 1957? Ford
I'm full of it , AndyDodge I was certain Tony told me it wasn't. How about the a pillar stub I think I can see in that picture with you in it? Is that you who does those resin model utes? Pimpin Paint the aforementioned Restored Cars magazine is a great source of information on Australian coachbuilders, it's bi-monthly and up to about 200 issues now. Lots of 100 or so appear on Oz eBay every so often and back issues are available from the publisher. I'm not sure when they stopped using wood for framing, probably post war. I'm told the 46-48 Ford beds are solid mounted and the cab isolated resulting in cracking behind the cab.
I've said it before, Eddie Ford deserves an 'AO ' for his contributions over 40 years to documenting Australian and New Zealand motoring history. We've even had our own family car pictured on the front of Restored cars back in the 70's . I saw a box full of Restored cars and his other Title 'Custom Rodder" in box at the Beenleigh Swap this morning for a dollar an issue. They are fantastic reference material for anyone restoring or building a traditional rod. Where else could you see a Buggatti advertised for $3500 ?
I'm not sure when they stopped using wood for framing, probably post war. I'm told the 46-48 Ford beds are solid mounted and the cab isolated resulting in cracking behind the cab. I have done some major repairs and customizing on a couple of 49 to 51 utes (Single and Twin Spinner models to Australians) and there was still timber framing in the back of the cabin areas and inside the 1/4 panels. Can not say if it was still used in the 52 to 58 models.
timmy t You are right that 47 Chev ute was at Ok. city in 1991. I know because i had a black 1946 Ford ute there at the same time. Sold it to a guy from Long Beach.
Cool thread guys! Thanks for all the pics, I have often thought of making my own bastardized Ute from a 4 door sedan....anyone got any more pics of the 46-48 Fords?
Here is the Chrysler ute that I'm putting back together at the moment. It was about as rotten as it could get. So far I have replaced the the cab floor both inner and outer sills on both sides both rear guards, reskined the tail gate 90% of the inner tray. It now just about ready for colour again and reassembly. In one of the above posts somebody made mention of Queenslander houses, if you look in the background of the 4th photo you will see mine, it's about 105 years old.
This was a customer '46. It showed up like this and left much the same way. (One of those "what do you mean you won't do it for $5 an hour?" stories)
That panel truck shown in the last sales ad you posted in neat!! I wonder if any of those have survived??
fords seemed to use the same sheetmetal on the front caps for utes in most cases,and gm did to for a while.i didn't see a 55-57 chevy ute in this thread or i missed it. what was gm offering as far as utes in 55-57? or was it based on a holden body?
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