vintage chevrolet holden trucks

More research uncovers the following ..

1. The green truck is an American-built truck, with the distinctive American cab that has one-piece windows in the doors. This makes it a 1942 or later model.
As soon as the Americans entered the War and commenced wholesale military truck production, these trucks were shipped to Australia in substantial numbers (from March 1942), as GMH could not produce enough trucks to satisfy the military demand.
GMH factories were also producing guns, aeroplanes and a host of other critical items needed for the War .. so GMH car and truck production was under severe duress.
The huge increase in supply of American-built trucks was a boon to GMH and Australia, and took the pressure off GMH to produce vehicles.

These American-built trucks arrived CKD (Completely Knocked Down - i.e., complete, but disassembled) in crates, and were assembled in the GMH factories here.
There was also some truck assembly done in factories commandeered by the Govt during 1942 and 1943.

2. The red truck is a Canadian-built Chev, with the major components imported to Australia, and the cab built here by GMH at Woodville, S.A. It was then fully assembled in the GMH plant.

3. The military trucks had many heavier components, as compared to the civilian trucks. They had bigger axles, heavier wheel bearings, heavier brakes, heavier chassis with frame reinforcements, and heavier springing.

4. Those wide 18" military tyres are very scarce and VERY expensive, when you can find them! The last price I've seen mentioned was around $700 EACH!

onetrack thank you very much for the information,, yes there in s.a. atm but i am in hunter valley nsw,, still have to get them up here but there safe and under cover where they are atm,, worry about that after xmas,, the green one has 38000 miles on it if the speedo is working i googled the sign writing on the door which is where i assume it ended up post war and if it is that person he passed away in 1968 or so,, if the poor old truck could talk she would have some stories i bet,, not sure what il do to it yet,, was thinking just enough to get it up to working condition being as good as it is,, i think a complete resto wouldnt do it justice,, the red one i think il have a play with though,, i just new i couldnt leave them where they were when i was offered them,, my girlfriend is a family friend of where they come from,, cheers pringo,, any info helps me to fill in the blanks so i do the truck justice!!

hi guys been a while but igot some numbers off the ol girls,, bit jumbled but someone might make sense of them,,,,,,,, green truck info,,body..A353H,, model..M14338,, series D1 chev cab,, colour 253,, wion br,, batch no 6,, date 1____3 ,, ......................................................... red truck has date 6-47,, max weight 16000lb,, model 6-1540 36889,, colour dlx smoky,, batch no 15,, model 46/4201,, month 7,, body 3279............... any help please? cheers pringo,, p.s i am contemplating selling one to put funds towards other,, any ideas on value differences between them? might help me decide?

Hi Pringo,
You will find a lot of differences in the cabin between both.
As stated the green one has the american cab,the red one has the australian holden cab
There is differences in the doors,the windows,the door locks and window cranks.The windscreen wipers are located differently along with the wind out window and the side vents.You will probably find that much of the cabin hardware will not interchange.

I am doing an american cab at the moment and have found there is a enormous amount of parts in the usa.
I have purchased boxes of repro stuff such as window cranks,door handles,rust repair panels,all the cabin rubber ,cab seals,window crank repair kits,choke cables,etc far far cheaper than trying to adapt something to suit the australian holden body as repro parts for these in australia is almost nil.

Even with the mechanical parts,they are all cheap in the usa,timing gears,oil pumps,carb repair kits,fuel pumps,engine mounts and the list goes on.
The australian dollar makes these things cheap and postage from usa is not much dearer than australia post.
Just got a email from jim carter in usa with a 20% off sale for australian customers untill end of january.

My choice would be to keep the best one,but the green one would be a lot easier to buy body hardware for.

The green one is probably worth more, as it appeals to military collectors, who pay good money for relatively pristine examples of classic WW2 vehicles.
I have not seen a truck of this type or age in this excellent "as-found" condition, for a long time.
The fact that it has an original unmolested military tray with the original stake sides, is worth good money in itself.

Great looking trucks Pringo.