VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Commercial Vehicles Strange-looking 1937, what brand could this be?

We have the information that it is a 37, and # is XBSA 264, although it has double rear wheels and 157". Could it have been put together from several trucks? Oldsmobile, GMC and Chevrolet?
It is registered as a Chevy.

[img]http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/5605/1937chevroletwu5.png[img]

Its not any version of a US Chevrolet or GMC...and we didn't have Oldsmobile trucks.Picture too small so I can really see the engine.

The truck has more of 1939 appearance. Most of the export trucks were cowl/chassis with no body. The local overseas assembly plant built commerical bodys for their local needs. I have lots of pictures of 34-35's with Belgium cab construction that look similar. No ID plate on firewall? Need closer pictures of engine/chassis to identify.

The ID chassis # is XBSA 264, which tells it(that part of the truck) was assembled in Copenhagen. This could be a truck consisting of the remains of more than one. They took what thy found after the war to rebuild the usable one to running status.
But the grille is strange. Someone told that they had Oldsmobile trucks in Australia with same grille. May be the front part came from Antwerp? I will ask the owner about the engine #.

At some stage the rear axle was changed to fit double wheels.

Here is the engine # T 893 I 59 and the I is written like the figure I in roman font.

Anyone cracking the nut for "Chip n' Dale`? :confused:

1938 was the last year of the 157 in. wheel base truck chassis The rear axle would have been the same if had single or dual wheels. 1939 the VD model increased to 158.5 in. wheel base and the VM & VN models had a 156 & 5/8 in. wheelbase. 1940 trucks same as 1939. Are there any casting numbers on the engine?

Casting # is GM 838101 and 6 underneath

The owner has found a picture of the front of a similar 1937 Oldsmobile Panel Van, but with 2 ribs less on each side of the grille. Anyone in Australia who knows of these fronts?

The middle part of the grille looks like it has been homemade?

The truck has a 131,5" wheelbase. Originally registered with total weight 4550 kg, but later changed to 5550 kg.

Casting number is not listed in the Casting/p/n cross reference book I have. Is the engine a 216 cu. in. Chevrolet 6 cylinder engine design? It would help to see a good side view of the engine. The hood side panel looks similar to a GMC truck hood.

Just for the record, Oldsmobile DID build trucks.

Granted, not in the late 30's in the USA - but they built and listed a "Light Truck" from 1919 through 1923, with production in the low thousands - as high as 8,213 for 1920.

And you have seen one of these trucks - The Beverly Hillbillies truck in the original series was a 1921 Oldsmobile!

Hog jowels and Fat back...Oscar

Olds trucks were originally called REO (Ranson E. Oldsmobile) Didn't know they made trucks under the Oldsmobile name plate badge.

Nope - completely different companies - but the same man.

Ransom E. Olds sold out Oldsmobile ("Olds Motor Works") to William C. Durant late in 1908. Durant then rolled Oldsmobile into his new-found General Motors Corporation.

The trucks we are talking about are truly Oldsmobiles, products of GM, but only built from 1919 to 1923 in the US. No relationship to the later Reo trucks.

Mr. Ransom E. Olds went on to start up the REO Company a few years later. They built fine cars (the Reo Flying Cloud, etc), and later specialized in trucks, which are the REO trucks you are talking about. Later combined into Diamond Reo.

These trucks were in no way associated with GM or Oldsmobile.

Footnote: Mr. Olds later retired and started a small retirement town for retired preachers on the west coast of Florida, north of St. Petersburg. It is still there. The name is "Oldsmar." Get it? "Olds" + "mar" (mar = 'sea').

Very interesting and thanks for the lesson Don...Oscar

Thanks for the Olds. information. I'll have to take a trip back to the Olds. museum in Lansing, Michigan, must have missed some information about that.

I remember seeing some pics of late 30s trucks badged as oldsmoblies but it mentioned they were for export only and the grille looked like the truck in question. Jeff

I am still waiting for more pictures of this truck. In the meantime I have got more information from another source here in Norway:

Special export models (1937-1940) delivered in C.K.D. boxes from the GMC factory in Pontiac to the assembly factories in Europe and Canada. GMC chassis and cab with Chevrolet or Hercules engine. They were sold as Chevrolet or Oldsmobile's. In Canada they were also delivered with Pontiac engine.

Series........Load..........Wheel base.........Comments:
TG-117........1 1/2ton..........117"..............COE, twin rear wheels
TD-117.........."....................."................As TG, but w/Hercules diesel engine
BG................"...............144,166,183,5.....Bus-chassis,Chev. 216cid gas engine
BD................"....................."...................."..........., Herc. diesel engine
TE-108......2 1/2ton............108"..............COE, single rear wheels
TF-108.........."......................"....................",... twin.........."
TG-130.........." ..................130".................." , single rear wheels
TH-130 ........." .................... " ................. " , twin........"...........
TG-155.........." .................155 1/2".............",...."......"
TM-155.........."...................."......................",. single..... "
TN-155..........."..................."......................" , twin........."

From 1937 Canadian-built Chevrolets got model names with 4 digits: Series 1300, 1400, 1500 and 1600.

838101 is the casting number for 1937 blocks.Now you know what the engine is.The remainder could be anything. :/

Well according to the game Trivial Pursuit, the truck in the Beverly Hillbillies is a 1923 BUICK. If you look close enough at the begining of the show you can see BUICK on an angle placed in the center of the radiator. I saw it myself.

If you compare it to a picture of an Oldsmobile its an Olds.My guess it that its a cut-down sedan.

According to a site on the Internet about different types of vehicles used on TV shows, they say the following about the truck on the Beverly Hillbillies:

"The Clampetts’ truck on The Beverly Hillbillies is a flatbed constructed from the remnants of a 1921 Oldsmobile, the truck made up for its lack of style by being incredibly durable. It was already more than 40 years old when it toted the Clampetts from the backwoods to the land of cee-ment ponds, and it survived Jethro’s attempt to transform it into his double-naught spy car."

Also AMT made a model kit of this famous "Beverly Hillbillies" vehicle and they too confirm it to be an Oldsmobile.

:) :grin:

Hey, check this out. ??????

www.prewarbuick.com/features/jedclampettsbuick

click on Jed clampetts Buick, pretty interesting.

Here is what they say on that Buick site:

"RIGHT! You have good eyes. This has been a test -- the Clampett's truck isn't a Buick! Well, we never really said it was."

"No such luck, though; it's an Oldsmobile."

That's correct........the vehicle is an Oldsmobile and not a Buick.

XB = General Motors Continental BV, Kobenhaven, Danmark
SA = 1937 Model 1.5 tonne 131 inch wheelbase
237 = 236th built

Casting # 838101 = 1937 cylinder block
Engine # quoted is in the 1937 Flint - built engine number series

The grille looks as though it may have come off an Oldsmobile truck! Olds trucks were built by the Pontiac, Michigan, Plant from 1935 to 1940 and exported everywhere, except to Canada. They were basically GMCs although from 1937 Cab-over-Engine Olds trucks were available which were GMC clones, right down to GMC-logod footpedals, although Pontiac also offered a Chevrolet version which was similar to the 1937-8 Canadian COE, well before the US! Engines were Chevrolet COE or Hercules Diesel (Chevrolet COE) or GMC (GMC Normal Control or COE) to 1937 thereafter Oldsmobile 224, and Oldsmobile (NC or COE) to 1940. Gearboxes were Chevrolet in each case I think, but axles could be Chevrolet or Timken-Detroit. If you want details of these export Chevrolets see my website under "1937 trucks". GM Continental assembled Chev, GMC and Olds trucks and as there was a considerable amount of commonality, I can understand an Olds grille or one based thereon being fitted by someone. The Olds grilles differed from the GMC equivalents, but not by much. And yes, GM-Holden's assembled Olds trucks, and yes we got them here in the UK, 1937-8 only. I must add that in 1934? an Olds sedan delivery was available..one year only, though why they did not carry on goodness knows though 1935-9 a light chassis panel van was available in the export market.

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/chevytalk/GMhistory/1931to1938.htm

The "Hillbilly" Olds pictured was a car and not a truck.They are both pictured in the Oldsmobile book "Setting the Pace" and the front fenders are different.The car fenders curve down to the running board and the truck is straight and meets the board at a slight angle.The 1921-23 radiator shels looked almost alike.

Yep, Chev Nut is correct........the Beverly Hillbillies Oldsmobile was originally a car and not a truck.

:) :grin: