Projects Too Far Gone to Save ?

Hey Guys.

I have set myself a challenge to rebuild this. In case you are wondering it’s an Australian 1936 Holden made truck cab.

Holden was the Australian branch of General Motors and its main purpose was to manufacture bodies and assemble them into running chassis imported from Canada.

The Australian, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Bedford used these cabs from 1936 to 1938. This one I believe is actually an Oldsmobile which makes it extremely rare.

After I found it I also found a strange grill shell that I ended up leaving behind, I now suspect the grill shell belonged to the truck. I will try and get back and retrieve it one day.

 

Unusual body lines
Vic

 

Fix it!

 

I first discovered it when I was wondering through the bush above town nearly two decades ago. It had been cut up and dumped down a shallow mine shaft. At first I was going to leave it but decided that since it was cut up I might be able to drag the best bits of it home.

One of the first things that I collected was the roof as it is the most solid out of all of it. Due to the isolated location, I had to drag it through the bush to my car.

I took my time collecting the bits and the cowl was the very last thing I collected in 2017. Due to its decrepit condition and weight, I was unsure if it was worth the effort, but decided in the end it was. I had a brain wave and purchased a trolley which made retrieving it a lot easier.

This is what it would have looked like when it left the factory.

 

What I salvaged was the cab cut into three sections, the top of the hood, one of the front fenders, and the passenger side door, minus the window frame.

 

Unfortunately I sold off the hood and the door got cut up for the lower part of what was left of the window frame and the lower skin, so I could finish building a 39 Willys Pickup Cab. I was careful however to save the double swage part of the door. The front of the swage is facing the cowl .

 

Last year I picked up these.

 

Ford and Holden made these roadster style doors for their trucks right into the mid Thirties.

 

Ford and Holden made these roadster style doors for their trucks right into the mid Thirties.

View attachment 5160336 View attachment 5160337

 

Definitely need to save it.

 

Unfortunately it turned out the doors were a couple of inches to shorter than the remains of the old one so I can’t use them. I suspect they may be from a 1929 International Truck.

 

I was able to get some basic measurements from one of the blokes on one of the Facebook Chevrolet groups to get me started. But the main thing I need are MDF cutouts of the doors so I can get the correct profile of the doors and the door gaps.

 

Since it’s impossible to find any of these doors for sale I will be fabricating a new pair, and yes they will be full framed, once I have gotten enough information on their correct profile.

Originally these doors were fastened to a timber inner frame but mine will have a full inner skin similar to the Fisher bodied ones.

Once the doors are completed I will be fastening them to the cab so I can start fabricating the missing 19 inches of the lower cab then moving onto the floor.

I have included a basic sketch of the inner skin but if anyone has access to a Fisher bodied 35/36 Chevrolet pickup cab that they can get photos of the inside of the doors that would be great.

 

Way cool truck! Never thought that Olds was into trucks at all.

 

I dig this. You must have a large heart.

 

GMH in Oz made Oldsmobile Trucks from 1935-39 I think...........there used to be a complete 35/36 Olds 2-3 ton table top truck at Blaxland, west of Sydney on the Great Western Highway just as you went over the railway line on the right heading west over the Blue Mts...........probably gone now...this was 35yrs ago.......lol.......was complete and in good condition..........andyd

 

Jim Sibley would be driving this in about 3 weeks. Cab has nice lines, fix it.

 

I would guess the only thing Oldsmobile would be the badge. Anyone who knows, please confirm or otherwise.

 

An finish two customer car's...

 

I can only tell you that some of the most popular and widely read threads on these pages are those showing how an individual brought back a worthy vehicle from the dead. Some of that work is truly admirable.

 

You couldn't split those other doors and make them wider/taller? Seems like they could be made to work. Either way I look forward to seeing this come together, and I hope you go back and get whatever that grille was, whether it was from this truck or not, would be neat to have.

 

This is really cool, and an interesting bit of history. As an aside, I just learned that Plymouth also made trucks back around 1939-1941. I found this out when my neighbor showed me one that he got 50 years ago as a project, and it's been apart for restoration ever since. He is finally getting back into it and hopes to have it done next summer. I hope your project doesn't take as long!

 

My thoughts are, that with all that is missing, you pretty much have a blank canvas.

 

Plymouth made pickups from 1937-1941 , here's my '38 Plymouth.

 

Thanks for all the positive feedback.

I admit that there’s not much left but I am undaunted by the task. Steel is about only thing in Australia that does not cost an arm and a leg and I have calculated a full sheet and a second half sheet will provide with all the steel I need to fabricate the doors and rockers, the inner skins, the lower cab and the floor pans. A standard sheet length is 96 by 48.

 

As for the doors themselves, I made up a basic pattern out of some left over off cuts. Rather than cutting into the new steel, I will add a lower skin and upper frame to this one from other off cuts and turn it into a test door.

Another interesting bit of trivia about these doors is that they are asymmetrical, effectively that means it’s reversible. When I add in the lower skin, I will cut the hinge housings identical at both ends so I can flip it around on the other side.

 

That would be symmetrical.

 

@chev34ute Since you have the most of the cab as far as dimensionally wise determining the doors should not be too hard to do. Back of the cab same as it would just be replacing the lower section. Floors, well no one will see them who would know what they looked like or could remember. That said just emboss them with the appropriate dies from a roller to add structural rigidity and have at it. The firewall would have to be either what you can glean from any pictures or replicate what will work.

There you go. You said that you are not afraid to tackle it and it will be a rare truck when completed. Possibly the correct, hood, fenders and grille could be sourced to complete the truck. This would add to the correctness and rarity of the build. You, we, will probably never see another one.

 

With my abilities I would have left it in the mine shaft!