A model bedford ute

Okay, a bit more information on the styleside, it has a plate on it that says "designed and built by Ansair Pty Ltd, Bulla Road, Essendon" Hope that can bring some clarity to the situation of the origin of the back.

mrsdodgy - No, I personally think the Ansair plate is making the waters even murkier!

Here is what I know of Ansair .. not much, but it's a start. Ansair were the bus and coach building division of Ansett Airlines.
It has been rumoured that Reg Ansett started a bus-building division to not only keep his aircraft fitters metal-working skills, tuned up .. but to no doubt provide him with cheaper buses and coaches.

I always understood that Ansair built only buses, and specialised in aluminium. However, it's entirely possible that they took on other work, and made steel items too.

I wouldn't doubt for a minute that old Reg would be right into anything in the transport industry, that "turned a quid" for Ansett and its subsidiaries.

At this point, I have no idea for whom, or for what purpose, Ansair would have built this styleside body.
As far as I knew, the Inter and Dodge styleside ute bodies were built by T.J. Richards or International, and that Ansair had nothing to do with the building of them.

However, it's entirely possible that Ansair could have purchased new styleside bodies off International and modified them to suit an order .. such as some styleside bodies for A2 Bedfords, that were not available from GMH.

I was kinda thinking that Ansair building bodies on Beddy buses and perhaps supplying ute tubs for Bedford trucks...wouldn't be too far over the fence to be practical...

chocs

mrsdodgy, I reckon you'll be repairing those gaurds, i hunted around for one of those Inter ute bodies for a mate last year and found one worse than yours that they are repairing.

From last years Baldwin filter calender.

I have some other pics of the bedford, I can't work out how to put them on though. Can I email them to someone who can and maybe they could put them on?

regarding ansair....they were contracted, in about 1965, to build the sleeper cabs onto the DCOF and DCO internationals as required, because these trucks only came into australia as a day cab.

inters needed a large concern to provide these cabs for reasons of warranty claims, if and when a problem with the construction of one of these cabs arose...and because they are a local job they have a different roofline to the ''emeryville'' dco's but still retaining the full sleeper with toolboxes.

i've got no problem with the issue of ansair providing ute beds or bodies to all and sundry when required at that time.

cheers

ps....it appears there were no more than about half a dozen of these cabs made by them.

Detective - Thanks for the input. It appears that the Bus and Coach Society of Victoria wrote up a history of Ansair in 2008. The booklet is supposed to be still available for $9.00.
I don't know how comprehensive that history write-up would be, and whether it only covered Ansair "motor-buses" and "parlour coaches" .. or whether it went right into all the Ansair work and products.
It's a write-up that's needed, as an Ansair history is sadly lacking. Unfortunately, the BCSV website is rather poor, and it appears that they are only contactable by mail.

I have found the following info, and a lot of what I found, surprises me. I had no idea Ansair started so far back, or produced so much.

Ansett Airways were on a slow decline up to the disastrous year of 1939, when not only was the share price slumping badly, along with profits .. but a huge hangar fire at Essendon destroyed a number of aircraft, including a new Lockheed Electra.
Reg bounced back from the near-death experience of 1939 (which included a potential takeover by ANA that was only thwarted by Reg's casting vote), and was going well at the commencement of WW2.

The Govt was desperate for war production output, and Reg lost no time, once he saw a major opportunity. Ansett Airways started a manufacturing division during those desperate days of 1941-42 .. and by 1943, with Govt aid, Reg had doubled Ansett hangar capacity, built engineering shops, and was building many aircraft parts for War use, including Beaufort gun turrets.
There were 2000 employees on the Ansett Airways manufacturing division payroll by 1943.

Reg saw the potential of having "integrated" businesses that supplanted each other, and set about enhancing Ansett Airways with the initial purchase of Pioneer Tourist Coaches in 1944.
The purchase of hotels, resorts, and other transport businesses, that involved passenger and freight transport, all enhancing his airline business, were all amongst the next acquisitions.

However, with the end of the War in August 1945, Ansett Airways manufacturing division was in serious decline, with the number of employees down to 300, and the division reliant on Govt subsidies and small jobs.

Reg Ansett restructured his entire business operations in May 1946 .. forming Ansett Transport Industries Ltd as a holding company for Ansett Airways Pty Ltd, Pioneer Tourist Coaches Pty Ltd, Pioneer Tourist Hotels Pty Ltd, Ansair Pty Ltd, Air Express Pty Ltd, as well as other subsidiaries.

One of the important subsidiaries formed in this restructure was Transport Acceptance Corporation, which was an Ansett finance arm, set up to finance bus and coach construction by Ansair.

At the end of 1946, Ansair Pty Ltd had a turnover of

good work once again onetrack....it takes more than five seconds to type the stuff you put up here for all to see.

cheers

Found a breakthrough on the ansair debate!! There is a brochure on ebay (its being sold in the US) showing the bodies that they built in 1954 for the bedfords. I just put in Ansair in the search part on ebay and it came up in the international sellers part. You may not find it on ebay now cause I couldn't help myself and had to buy it so I could show people I'm not totally insane