Posted by Fred Coldwell on October 10, 2000 at 22:49:07:
In Reply to: Paging Fred Colwell / Robert Metcalfe!! posted by James Fuller-Devine on October 10, 2000 at 15:20:23:
James:
The answer to your open-ended question would require a review of the production records of Ambruster to determine the date for the last 1 ton PW crew cab conversion. However, those records no longer exist. The company which bought the assets of Ambruster did not acquired the records, so their whereabouts is unknown. The only Ambruster crew cab conversion I have seen was a 1954 Power Wagon. Another crew cab PW that is a dead ringer for an Ambruster appears on p. 140 in "the French Dodge book." It has the extended radiator grill (indicating a 251 motor introduced in 1961) and parking lights (dropped around 1965), making it a early 1960's 1 ton PW. That's as close as I can come to an ending date.
I do not know which outside company made the early W200 crew cabs before they came a factory production truck.
An article on the 1954 1 ton PW crew cab appears in the June 1996 issue of the Power Wagon Advertiser. Are you building your library of PW reference materials by buying back issues of the PWA and a PWA index to locate information?
Fred C.