Test your car knowledge

[Toby]

Heres a couple of pictures of a mystery bulkhead taken at a Chaco war "museum" in Paraguay. The war was in the 30s but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's actually from then! Any ideas? doesn't look military.

[chris lambert]

Toby,
A tough question!!No great insight from me, except to say that the evidence suggests that it is probably from a vehicle manufactured towards the end of the thirties or during the forties. No scuttle tank, no wood, bulkhead manufactured as a sub assembly, (see triangular plates for securing to a primary assembly). There are more apertures for instruments and switches than is likely on a vehicle manufactured in the early thirties. The American penchant for a very large speedo or combined central instrument as found on many late thirties cars is not evident. If it is a relic from the thirties or forties, given its location, it will almost certainly have originiated from the U.S. as there were not many (if any) volume vehicle manufacturers in South America pre or immediatly post war.
Chris

[cammy]

It's in better nick than NG. I wonder if they would do a swap.

[DF9053]

I think this is much older than you are saying. All steel bodies were quite common in America in the late twenties. Pressed Steel were set up by a William Morris in collaboration with Dodge(?) following his trip to the States to look at production methods.

The Ford Model A has an almost completly steel body with pressings and structures that link together like this, although the dash is wrong for a Model A.

The dash panel , reflects the small limited instruments that were used in this period as well cars, they tended to be small without needle dials like the Minor, more like the Morris 8 speedo that is a horizontal drum turning behind a pointer.

Cheers
Jeremy

[Toby]

I think you're probably closest, they did indeed have a lot of Fords there and I had heard of the Morris pressed steel history. The Chaco war was mid '30s but I wasn't sure if the vehicles used would have been fairly new or older vehicles pressed into military service! The other problem with the identity is that the site has a "restored" bunker and a trench network much like the great war and although there are numerous tank traps and shells there is no provenance to actually prove the bulkhead was anything to do with that period (other than the fact that at that time the area was hardly populated except Menonites who shun modern machinery and indiginous tribes who walk) and no information alongside the piles of artefacts!!!