Welcome Guest! To enable all features please Login or Register.

Notification

Icon
Error

Login


Take the time to read our Privacy Policy.

justgm Offline
#1 Posted : Thursday, 26 October 2017 8:19:18 AM(UTC)
justgm

Rank: Member

Reputation:

Groups: Registered
Joined: 30/04/2005(UTC)
Posts: 461
Man
New Zealand

Was thanked: 14 time(s) in 13 post(s)
On the 20th last week I was at the National Museum in Canberra looking at the 48-215 displayed ... it is a great story to go with-it but is it true? I see in a Holden press pic of 1958 they show a 48-215 with 'First Holden' displayed alongside the 500,000 Holden , is this the first off the production line or maybe just a random 48-215 ( still the 1st Model Holden) Does Holden have 48-215 body 1 ? I don't know if the pilot build cars get id tags ( I have seen VF2 pilot cars and they did not have tags ) Mark.
life is good in "Wine & Holden Marlborough "
Dr Terry Offline
#2 Posted : Thursday, 26 October 2017 11:32:43 AM(UTC)
Dr Terry

Rank: Veteran

Reputation:

Groups: Moderator, Registered
Joined: 1/03/2005(UTC)
Posts: 6,015

Thanks: 1 times
Was thanked: 197 time(s) in 180 post(s)
There are several number one 48 models !

AFAIK the one displayed in the National museum the very Holden 'first' ever built. It is the first US built prototype, made in late 1946. This car was given a ground-up resto in the early 2000s.

The cream coloured car which GM-H display as their No. 1 was the first production car (Body No. 1), built in Adelaide & finished off at Fisherman's Bend in late 1948. It was part of the pilot run just prior to full production beginning in Oct 1948.

An interesting side note, is that Body No. 1 was actually the sixth car which actually drove of the line. This was because these first 10 bodies were made in the Woodville plant (Adelaide) & then transported to Melbourne. By the time they were assembled & the fact that nobody noticed (or cared) which order the body plate numbers were in anyway. Anecdotally it is said that Body No. 6 was the first of the pilot builds to drive off the line.

Later pilot cars (around VN onwards) don't have Compliance plates on the firewall & are not sold to the public. Instead they have a red plate stamped PILOT. In the early days most pilot cars & even prototypes got sold to GM-H staff & often ended up in public hands.

Dr Terry

Edited by user Thursday, 26 October 2017 11:33:37 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

If at first you don't succeed, just call it Version 1.0
KBM Offline
#3 Posted : Thursday, 26 October 2017 6:19:10 PM(UTC)
KBM

Rank: Member

Reputation:

Groups: Registered
Joined: 21/04/2017(UTC)
Posts: 293
Australia
Location: Tolmie

Thanks: 2 times
Was thanked: 24 time(s) in 24 post(s)
Just thinking about the GM-H display cars, as there's no longer production in Australia what will happen to them?
castellan Offline
#4 Posted : Thursday, 26 October 2017 10:30:11 PM(UTC)
castellan

Rank: Veteran

Reputation:

Groups: Registered
Joined: 26/02/2009(UTC)
Posts: 1,606

Thanks: 13 times
Was thanked: 27 time(s) in 25 post(s)
Holden is still here so they should still have them.
detective Offline
#5 Posted : Sunday, 29 October 2017 11:43:19 AM(UTC)
detective

Rank: Member

Reputation:

Groups: Registered
Joined: 3/01/2013(UTC)
Posts: 307

Thanks: 7 times
Was thanked: 11 time(s) in 11 post(s)
...Just to add to Dr Terry's response, Holden production car No 1 was indeed fitted with the 6th Woodville assembled body shell. The first 10 pilot bodies were transported to Fishermans Bend to be made into the pilot cars, of which body 6 became pilot car No 1...registration number MG 501.

...It has long been conjectured that GMH car No 1 had a (normally welded on) chassis serial tag stolen, or more incredibly had received a new front end subframe. This has not been the case at all, as with those first 5 prototypes and 10 pilots, there was never any chassis serial tag attached...and certainly not noted by our Motor Registration Branch when these pilots were first registered...also, there was never an engine number struck as well. The only identifier for these cars at the time of their proving and testing was the registration number...MG 501-MG 510. When the other 9 pilots were sold to selected staff, they only then assumed either a replacement engine, or if the original engine remained...a VP (Victoria Police) engine number, with the first two numbers in the stamping denoting the year the number was struck and the car sold.

...These pilots, and all Woodville body shell assemblies received their body I.D plate because of being a "division" of GMH. They were "sold" to the car manufacturing plant at Fishermans Bend, so a plate was affixed to the body with a stamped date code for if ever any warranty issues arose with the body shell (or sequences of body shells). There was never any need for an engine or chassis serial tag, as these pilots were never meant to be onsold at retail to either a dealer, or the general public. These "first down the line" production cars were mostly assembled by hand, but as each pilot was an improvement on the last one, the final few were considered good enough for starting up normal production runs. Each pilot car was very strictly monitored as to its fit and finish, wear and tear...(even allowing for the 5 prototypes' durability testing previously)...they indeed were identified by their registration numbers only. As a side note, it has been realised that the stamped engine number 1001 on "Old Number One" today has the wrong font for what was used in 1948....it has been stamped by a well meaning GMH employee further down the track at some point in time in the 1950's !!

...Just as a late edit...It can be seen how easy it was for the other 9 pilot cars to disappear completely into oblivion. With these unfortunate cars still not having any chassis serial tag to go by, a VP stamped (or even later) engine, and the average punter having no real sophisticated idea of body assembly plants or their locations, they were never really going to jump out and be easily identified...unfortunately this includes body No 1 JustGM...and such a shame really....

Edited by user Sunday, 5 November 2017 10:21:27 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

HK1837 Offline
#6 Posted : Sunday, 29 October 2017 1:14:23 PM(UTC)
HK1837

Rank: Veteran

Reputation:

Groups: Moderator, Registered, Veteran
Joined: 1/03/2005(UTC)
Posts: 14,568

Thanks: 1 times
Was thanked: 480 time(s) in 458 post(s)
The short answer is, no-one really cared. I have seen plenty of "number 1" or "number 2" or other such low number cars that people had but didn't even really care, and that was even when body plants actually used a sequence number rather than a cumulative total. I have seen over the years:

Pagewood HK 81837 #2
Pagewood HT 80437 #1
Pagewood HG 80737 #1
Pagewood HT 81837 #1
Pagewood HT 81837 #4

People that had them wouldn't care less if they were the first or the 500th other than the first Pagewood HT GTS350 as it was the first 350 powered Holden. Today it is different, just like great interest around the old '48's. But when wrecking yards were full of these no-one cared unfortunately.

I have in my possession Pagewood HK 80737 #20 which is currently the oldest known surviving V8 GTS across all assembly plants. Surely an older V8 GTS is out there but it hasn't turned up as yet. This car has a later chassis number than Pagewood HK 81837 #2 which means the GTS327 painted and hard trimmed body left the Pagewood body plant earlier, but the PSN on 20-H5 is lower as it was completed first.
_______________________________________________________
If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?
Users browsing this topic
Guest
Forum Jump  
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.

Powered by YAF | YAF © 2003-2024, Yet Another Forum.NET
This page was generated in 0.079 seconds.