A sort of Holden & GMH History

Thanks MMPaul, everyday is a school day! That LE? Monaro ute is still around as I've seen it at some car shows.

Southbound wrote:

Thanks MMPaul, everyday is a school day! That LE? Monaro ute is still around as I've seen it at some car shows.

I was thinking the same thing and would add I have seen it on a stall selling stuff at the Wallan swap meet a couple of years ago.

Terry

I always thought Colin Box was the only bloke that did theseBut thanks to the interweb I was stunned to learn there were lots of different ones done and a lot have survived






Sort of off topic, sorry but still kinda on topic
There more I look the more I find


Paul

BSPete, our own blacksmith, made an HZ wagon into a twin cab Ute, which was moved on only a few years ago…. Photos you ask… will follow.

And Brocky I merely find the photos, no info supplied with it.

Morris, when I started my apprenticeship at General Motors I worked in a department with a bloke who had worked at the Holden Body Builders in Rundle Street (now Rundle Mall) Adelaide.

He was older than Methusela (like us now :pinch:) but a great guy to chat with about the older cars they used to work on. Two stories he told in particular:

First is how they had been stuck with some T model Ford tourer bodies they had built, they stored them in the backyard standing on their cowls against the back wall and sold them off for 25/- each (25 shillings or two dollars fifty for you young ones!).

And second was one that brought him into a starry glazed eye phase as he reminisced about his favourite car, an Oaklands single seat roadster.

Memories . . . .

Just as an after thought I decided to include a picture of an Oakland Roadster and first one I spotted on the almighty Googlepedia was this one in which the current custodian rambles on a bit (like me too) and mentions many things that many of you might have also experienced in your lives . . .

Thank you Morris and everybody else for the Holden history lesson.. I also thought I saw the chrome GMC letters on the front of the prime mover?? Which is sorta why I asked the question in the first place.. The USA also had tarriff problems in exporting our vehicles,, hence the Mecureys, Fargos, and Mapleleafs in Canada which you folks could import easier..

MrsMackPaul,
Thank you for the information about Colin Box. I met hm at a car club swap meet at the Old Fruit and Vegetable Market in Footscray Road, Melbourne, in the very early stages of his production. He did not tell me that he was from Colac, which is closer to where you grew up, and also close to Camperdown, where I got my 1929 Chevrolet Ute from in the late 1960's. For those that do not know, Colac is a pretty country town and rural hub in Victoria, some 150 kilometres (about 80 miles) southwest of Melbourne.
I still believe that Colin was the only person to semi-mass produce his Utes and wagons, and certainly the only one to be sanctioned and waranteed by Holden.

Brocky45,
Australia, and probably other British Commonwealth Countries, could import vehicles at a lower tariff from Canada than they could from a "Non British" country.
I did not know that Mercurys (I am not aware that any Mercury badged trucks came here, but cars did) and Fargos came from Canada.

I collect tools supplied with cars and trucks and have a few tools with "Ford Canada" cast into them.

Mention of Ford tools ......they were the best tools I could get when I was a kid ,the only spanners that didnt open out or generally bugger up .

Morris wrote:

I still believe that Colin was the only person to semi-mass produce his Utes and wagons, and certainly the only one to be sanctioned and waranteed by Holden

I did not know that Morris

I thought and am most likely wrong that he just did one off builds

A very fascinating story there Im sure

Will have to do some research and see if I can learn more

Paul

Brocky if you can get hold of Big Wheels, Little Wheels by Sir Laurence Hartnett you’ll see how far thinking he was.
He realised the US could have difficulty exporting to the UK so he advised GM to get a foothold there.
He convinced a sceptical GM to buy the trademark Bedford and so they could build and export trucks from the UK.
Hartnett was instrumental in using the CSIRO so Aus. could manufacture items previously imported.
Unfortunately he’s mostly remembered for his little ugly duckling car, many have no idea of his wartime efforts to build up an Aus. manufacturing base.