Building a car Down Under
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Early cars were built using the techniques developed for coaches and wagons – hence the term ‘coach-built’ bodies. They were constructed of wood, metal and canvas, largely by hand, in very small production runs.
Mechanical components were often imported from overseas. As the demand for cars grew, the most common construction technique became to import a chassis complete with engine and all mechanical components, then complete the body to the customer's requirements here in Australia. One such factory was Queensland Motor Agency in South Brisbane, where Austin vehicles were constructed.
The enormous developments in production around World War 2 led to a change to the all-metal unitary or chassisless construction. This method required a huge investment in factories and the massive metal presses used to manufacture the body parts, so many Australian vehicles were assembled from kits of parts called CKD or ‘completely knocked down’. Economies of scale were achieved by using imported components and assembling the vehicles in Australia. Lloyd-Hartnett and Jeep vehicles were built in Brisbane in this way.
Last updated: 23rd January 2008
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