Australian A's

[pooch]

Good stuff there Hoogah.

Propert must have took bare chassis and built their own bodies.

Everything from an egg beater to a model A camping body.

Would have been fun to have been on the development/ideas board of that company.

 

[1928forda]

+1 pooch

 

[pooch]

Just read that story on the Propert family.

I have seen their folding vans at shows.

Inspired me to do an ebay search .

Dozens of kitchen items .

Would not it to be cool to have a Model A with a camping body, a folding caravan, and all its utensils made by Propert....

Hoogah, you are now on a mission to collect .

 

[Hoogah]

Hoogah, you are now on a mission to collect .

I have enough trouble managing ONE project!!

Did you see the other sign on the Propert building? It says "Open cars transformed into modern closed type". I wonder what they did to achieve that - replace the body or modify a tourer body to make it into closed car (some kind of permanent top)?

There must be other examples of their coach building around. I wonder where?

 

[dave in australia]

1929 cars had the tea cup tail lights just like everywhere else. At least I'm not aware of anywhere that didn't have teacup tail lights in '29.

The change over in Australia was mid 1929. My dad's 29 has a drum tail light, which makes it somewhere between Feb and June-July 1929. The Aussie JS's just give mid 1929.
I had a quick scan and could find nothing about the curtain box. Most of the cars my dad picked up from farms in the local area in the 60's had the curtain box under the front seat. I cannot recall ever seeing one that he had that had the box under the rear floor. If I remember on the weekend when I'm going for a visit, I'll ask him how many of each he picked up.

 

[Hoogah]

Holden never made a lot of bodies for Ford, if any at all, everything I've read and heard says that they didn't. Ford made most of their own bodies, with some more exotic styles made by companies like Propert of Sydney, who made fabric bodied Fordors, and Brownlie and Keats of Launceston who made a body they called a Tudor-Coupe.

Fabric bodied Fordors, as in fabric all over or just the rear? Would love to see some photos of these body builders' special styles. Got any that you could post, Dave, or links?

Cheers, Hoogah.

 

[dave in australia]

If you read the Oz magazine 'restored cars', they had an article a few years ago. There is also an article in the booklet from the 50th aniversery meet in Canberra from 1978.
From memory, the body was wooden frame from cowl back, and cover in fabric. It is listed in the colour option for 1929, along with Argonaut brown and mist grey on steel fordor bodies. It doesn't appear in the 1930 colours, so appears to be a 1929 body only.

 

[Hoogah]

Here are some piccies of side curtain tray in my June 28-built Australian assembled phaeton. The tray is accessed from the rear passenger compartment and extends under the front seat.

One of my roller-blind type front side curtains is on top of the two conventional rear side curtains. If anyone knows where I can access replacement parts for the spring loaded mechanism inside this blind, I'd love to know. There are more photos of this blind in one of my albums.

 

[Wagga A'er]

My early 28, May stamped engine wall. Has side curtain draw access via trap door in rear floor. Ash has been used for timber sections. Doors have wood inserted in them. It has the early two piece cross brake system. There is no engine number stamped on the frame.

 

[rackops]

Resurrecting this thread after a few years.

I just picked up a 1928 Model A that I believe was manufactured in Australia (it has the original dealer tag for a dealer in Perth) but then was taken to Rhodesia and then to South Africa before coming to the US in 2002.

The engine is from a 1931 Canadian Model A, so I can't base anything off of the engine number, and thus far I can't find any numbers or ID material in the body (though I haven't taken everything apart). Is there any way to figure out if it is an Australian manufactured car? As a note, it has the EXACT floor storage that Hoogah shows in post #48.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[rackops]

I am 99% sure that this car is mine. Unfortunately, the engine was swapped at some point between 1977 and 1988 (the last documented time periods for it) but otherwise, the story of this car matches everything I know about mine.

I'm trying to see if the original owner of the car who took it to Rhodesia is still alive in order to determine if it is the same car - or at least hear the story of how he found and restored it. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Question for the group: does anyone know of a source for Australian Mountain Ash, preferably in the US? For some reason, it seems quite difficult to find and I'd like to replace some of the non-ash boards used in the restoration of the car, as it's now a mix of about 85% ash and 15% red oak.

Thanks!

Dave

 

[JC60B]

Does your car use Robertson screws in the body like the Canadian cars?

 

[updraught]

Mountain Ash can often refer to a number of species but usually https://anpsa.org.au/plant_profiles/eucalyptus-regnans/
Don't know if it would be a plantation timber in the US.
The wood in the bodies probably came from forest giants cut down with axes.

 

[dave in australia]

Resurrecting this thread after a few years.

I just picked up a 1928 Model A that I believe was manufactured in Australia (it has the original dealer tag for a dealer in Perth) but then was taken to Rhodesia and then to South Africa before coming to the US in 2002.

The engine is from a 1931 Canadian Model A, so I can't base anything off of the engine number, and thus far I can't find any numbers or ID material in the body (though I haven't taken everything apart). Is there any way to figure out if it is an Australian manufactured car? As a note, it has the EXACT floor storage that Hoogah shows in post #48.

Thanks in advance for your help!

If the seat base where the front seat bottom sits on is still original, there will be a body serial number pressed into the wood on the right hand side piece near the front door.

 

[rackops]

Does your car use Robertson screws in the body like the Canadian cars?

No, all of the screws on mine are flat head.

 

[katy]

No, all of the screws on mine are flat head.

Slotted or square recess?

 

[rackops]

Slotted or square recess?

My hit...yes, slotted, not square.

Here are some photos under the front seat. The painted over plate appears to not have anything on it as it feels smooth. Rather strange not to have anything printed on it, but I can't see anything there as far as stamping. While the wood appears old, I couldn't find any other numbers around the seat. Granted, if this was restored in the 60s, the wood itself is 60+ years old so it definitely would look aged regardless. You definitely can see the difference in wood with the storage compartment though.

 

[rackops]

For interest's sake, here's some of the documentation that came with the car, tracing it back to at least 1989:

 

[rotorwrench]

Ford of Canada had marketing rights to many of the commonwealth countries in that time frame with some exceptions. This included Australia and New Zealand and Ford of Canada owned the manufacturing and assembly facilities at the time so most all early production came from Canada and was assembled at the various plants with Geelong being the largest facility with a nearby port. Body manufacture in Australia was limited till 1934 or so. The phaetons didn't have all that much wood in them and were easier to ship in knock down. They likely just shipped the side and rear panels if the floors and seat risers were wood. The doors would have been easier to ship but the skin panels may have been easier to press out and nail over a wood frame. Ford of Canada always did things differently in some aspects. The chassis was likely shipped from Canada and the rest was done in Australia.

Fords were also assembled in Ireland and in England until the full scale plant was completed at Dagenham in 1931. Engines were produced in the UK at Cork, Ireland and Manchester, England before the Dagenham facility was completed but complete cars were made there from 1931 on.

A good portion of export knock down cars were supplied around the world by the Rouge plant in Dearborn as well. This included South America and South Africa and many were right hand drive vehicles. If it was made in the USA it will generally have a frame number stamped in the usual location per Ford procedure but some assembly plants outside the US may have not followed that procedure to the letter. Canadian built model A vehicles don't generally have a frame number. The engine number was considered to be proof enough of ID in a lot of countries so that was all they stamped.

Don't hesitate to start a new thread. Using these old ones can be confusing.

 

[burner31]

If you find a Foster can under any of the seats...it's Australian