VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 under body pic of my 37 roadster

I was asked the differences with Holden built,so here are some pics of my car, what are the differences from the fisher body?, also Id like to know whats not correct for this car.

I know this is an old tread, but i followed the link. My 38 Master Deluxe suspension looks identical to your 37.
Mike A
P.S. The front brake flex line concerns me as it is close if not making contact with the suspension arm(technical name?).

That is the front lever type shock absorber link. The brake flexible line would actually go in a backwards direction ,and curve around the link in a big loop so should be well clear of the link. The first picture does show the flex line flattened out , which may mean it is too short.

I am still fascinated with the "upside-down" X brace and what appears to be a solid central axis area rather than a more traditional open joint where the 4 legs meet and attached with a top and bottom plate holding them in place.

I don't think any GM cars had this design that I know of and I have hundreds of frame charts dating back to 1934 onwards. I do know that Chrysler in their convertibles of the mid 1950s had welded structures that looked solid and some French cars from the 1920s as well but the one I am thinking of used a cast iron X - Ouch!

Hundreds of GM cars had this X member, as previous discussed. 1937,38 39 tourer and roadsters here in Australia.(and also including Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles)

Jack, when you say hundreds of cars are you talking in general or only the open versions of Australian Chevrolets? When I say the design is unique I am talking about the construction of the X I am seeing under the '37-'39 Chevy made by Holden versus in America. I know there were Oldsmobile's made in Australia as well and they all had a form of X those years but not the same design style as the one I see under the '37 Chevy roadster example. I know many vehicles of all makes had an X brace under them which became popular circa 1932.

Chevrolets of the years I quoted in roadsters and tourers , as well as oldsmobiles and Pontiacs on the similar chassis to the chevs, mostly the roadsters. Don't know about the buicks because open cars here in those years were rare.

All GM cars had an X (except the Chevrolet including open models) in America. The 1935 Chevy Standard model had an X but was one year, one model only like the oddball 1940 Chevrolet cabriolet. Then in 1941 only Chevy open models had the X while closed models did not but all other GM models had them across the board. Then in 1958 Chevy adopted the Tubular Center-X that Cadillac developed for their 1957 cars. In the states Chevy dropped the X all together including on convertibles in 1965.

It is the Holden style added X on your car that is unusual in look (design) by its welded construction, upside-down attachment (flat side up where on American cars the flat side is down), and the solid block center section where the tube goes through. On American cars these are riveted beams loosely connected in the middle and open on all 4 sides of what is the solid center block on yours.

The 4 beams have a similar look to the Oldsmobile style which makes sense since Olds was also built in Oz. Just like I said in America the beams are facing the other direction (flat side down with the stepped side against the floor).

What I also find unusual is the unique Utilities (unique to Australia) had a mixed bag of chassis frames. In the states we had these hybrid car-pickup trucks. Chevy's El Camino used the X while the Ford Ranchero did not. But in Australia the Ford utilities seems to have used the convertible (roadster) chassis frames with an X while Chevrolet did not - just opposite of the states.

Chevrolet coupe utilities use the same chassis as the sedan , and coupes. the roadster were the same frame with the X added.

I have a 1939 utility chassis here , and it is the same as the sedan , except for different front and rear springing.

What I was saying... though the Ute is unique to Australia, we had a similar vehicle in America. One was the 1957 Ford Ranchero which did not use an X while the Oz version did. But then again the Australian Ute still used the 1956 body style through 1959. The American version of the Ute (Ranchero) did not see a need for an X so wonder why the roadster chassis was used on the Australian Ute? I am starting to wonder if road conditions in Oz are a contributing factor especially with the roadster situation?

Whilst it was thought for a long time that the Xmember chassis used on the 1950s Ford utilities was a convertible chassis it has now been found that the X member was made up here and fitted to normal car type frames the same as Holdens did in the 1930s. The Chevrolet utility of 1949 to 1952 used a stock car type chassis. Maybe they found the Ford car type chassis not strong enough.Nevertheless Chevrolet utilities appear to have outsurvived the Fords by quite a large margin. As to the fitting of the X member to the 1937 to 1939 Chevs. I have never been in a 1937 roadster without the X member but I have ridden in and driven both 1938 and 1939 roadsters and both had a very solid feeling to them.

A quick calculation of 1937 , 1938 1939 production figures gives approx. total of 1618 "X" members fitted to these cars.

Wow, and yet another oddity. I sure would still like to see these Holden X frames without bodies to get a better feel as to how they look. The Ford Ute X does look like a stock Ford convertible chassis but now know different.