VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1925-26 Chev 4's in Australia

Peter Moody
Yes- for some reason the 1926 Chev Superior Models Series V that were launched here in the US on January 1, 1916, like your 2V6619, still used the prior Superior K imprinted nameplates - must of had a large stock left over?

You Tourer chassis would have been built in January 1926 in NY. Look for your block and head date codes - they should been cast in Dec 1925.

Where is Mt. Evelyn? Do you know what state your Tourer was sold in? Is there a State Distributors nameplate on the instrument board? What leters and numbers are on the HMBB body plate - and where is it attached. Are there any stamped in wood numbers under the seat, on seat frame, door sills or stamped on top of the cyl head by HMBB?

All this data will help us figure out how these early Chev 4's were actually assembled and how delivered down in Australia.

Ken Kaufmann

Ken
I'm not 100% sure about 26 Chevs, however in 27 and 28, Chevs were assembled in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. My 28 tourer was a Sydney car and is identified as such by a large S in a circle stamped in the chassis, and Melbourne had an M. I assume Adelaide would have an A.

I have never seen a body number stamped in the wooden floor as with US Chevs (my 28 2 door sedan Fisher built has a number in the wood under the passenger seat), however I do remember seeing a number stamped in a sill plate, on the top edge that would be covered by the floor mat.

Also I have never (although I've never looked either) heard off a number stamped on the head.

All the Holden body plates (of which I have about 20) that I have seen attached were nailed to the wooden main side runner, on the left hand side inside the front door, another plate depicting paint and trim codes was attached beside it (I have few of these as well)
They have numbers for
Body number
Job number
Serial or series number (I would need to check)
Model number, eg. 22/121 for tourer, 22/122 for roadster etc. (I can give you all of these numbers as I have Holden plates for all 28 models) I think the 22 was referring to 1928 and the other number to body style

The Chevrolet tag showing year and serial number was attached to the right hand side front seat frame on tourers, not sure where on other body styles.

You probably know all this, but it may be of interest to others.
Chris

I remember sitting on the grass with Ozjim at the Forbes car show 5 years ago, and he pointed to this "large S in a circle stamped" on the left front of his '28 Tourer frame side rail. What does this "S" stand for? My simple answer was the Circle S was the trademark of the A.O. Smith Corp of Milwaukee - maker of the Smith Presses Steel Frames - and I had also seen the trademark on some if not most US built frames too.
My understanding is when GMA started assembling KD Chev 4 chassis components in late 1926/early 1927 at the various 5 State GMA Assembly Plants, the frames were delivered in crates to Australia mostly already build- up and all that GMA had to do was rivet on the battery box and the running board supports. Then around October of 1928 GMA receved the frames in pieces [CKD] and GMA used a set-up jig to align up the bare frame side rails and had to install each and every rivet in the frame. At that time GMA started using its own brass nameplate and identified each of the State Assembly Plant with its own prefix S, A, M, B, & P.

I found a '28 Chassis in a barn south of Goulburn when there several months ago that had the Chassis Number stamp S21 - the 21st chassis GMA assembled in Australia from scratch at the Sydney Marrickville plant - most likely the first day that complete frame assembly started.
KenK

I agree with Ken that the S in the circle is the logo of A. O. Smith which build frames for Chevrolet for most of its existance. It also appears on early six cylinder frames and suspect later ones but since I don't have an example can't be sure.

Thanks Ken
It just goes to show what you think you know compared to what you actually know OR was led to believe
Chris

I'm still working on the details. The body was definitely built in South Australia and the car has spent most of its life in Victoria, ( at least as far back as I can track). I beleive that the distributor in Melbourne, (Capital of Victoria), was Lanes Motors however these days Lanes are the Daimler Benz dealers. I'll keep digging and as soon as I find out more details I'll let you know.