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Posted by Gordon on Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 15:48:21 :
In Reply to: Re: '42 VC series 2x, govt contract. Ask Gordon. posted by RSBuc in Toronto on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 16:09:55 :
Who, me?
Right then, first you need to read one of my Carryall pages at the link below.
...then I need to add to it a little. The first true Carryalls were Chevrolet, of course, who originated the name (I think)
Coachwork contractors were making people-carrier conversions of 4 x 2 vans before the 1939 Dodge half ton came out, and continued to do so during the war. Jeff has just bought one of these - a 1942 three-door van conversion which looks like a "Carryall", but isn't.
Proctor-Keefe produced the first true Carryalls by hand, converting a total of 25 panel vans in 1940 to make VC6 trucks, welding the rear doors vertically then splitting them horizontally to make tailgate and liftgate, and using van hinges which were adequate for van-type doors but totally inadequate for the use a tailgate would get.
It is possible that one of the sixteen 1939 VC prototypes was a Carryall, though the odds are against it as a "prototype" W-22297 shown here, was run in the second of three batches of VC trucks, and the other 24 in the third batch. Note that the prototype truck had a 'truck' type USA number, with no 20xxxxx prefix to indicate a people carrier.
The deficiencies in the VC6 body were weak tailgate / liftgate hinges, poor seating, and the truck-type cast spare wheel mount that stuck out too far though a slot in the body side - later replaced by the smaller mount through the body and pressed recess to accomodate the wheel found on all half ton WC Carryalls.
Bored yet? Dodge made two batches of about 400 each WC36 and WC48 half ton 4 x 2 Carryalls in the US, and a similar number of very similar trucks in Canada.
There you go - I'll be asking questions next period... 8~)
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