We recevied an equiry about identifying an Austin for a family history project. The equirer believed it to be an 1949 A40 ute, but questions the shape of the roof when comparing to other A40 ute images found on the web.

The following is an explanation of why you will see different A40 bodies and shares from AMVCQ club member Allan Waller and John Elsol.

Here’s the photos of the believed to be 1949 A40 ute.

Allan advises….

Of course it is an Austin A40 Utility, and I would say late 1948 early 1949 as it has the Bumper bar with 2 curves in it as used on the 1947 and 1948 models. The 7 inch headlights and separate parking lights was introduced with the 1949 model, and I cannot see a quarter-vent in the window on the door, (This was introduced with the 1950 model.)

As far as the body goes, different States in Australia used local body builders, as a lot were just imported as running Chassis, bodywork from the windscreen forward and the doors, then the Bodybuilder built the remainder of the body.

Charles Hope was a Brisbane body builder, I assume that it was the same Charles Hope that made our early refrigerators. With different Body builders in each state utilities differ from State to State. The thing that gets me with these photos is the side of the tray in the 2nd photo looks like 1952 or 1953 because of the curves in it, I thought that all the early ones had straight sides. I have seen photos of utes with this type of roof before and if my memory is right it was a wooden roof covered in Canvas.

So I would say that this Ute was in the changeover period from 1948 to 1949 as it has a bit of each in it.

If this Utility did not have an interstate body style , I would say that the photo was taken at the Migrant camp at Wacol going by the buildings in the background, but I guess that they were used in all parts of Australia as they were mostly Ex-army buildings.

AMVCQ member John Elsol also contributed towards identifying the Austin, supplying some photos and from this, Allan made some further observations.

The two photos of the car on the trailer (below) were taken at the 'Austins Over Australia' national rally in Forbes in 2011. You will notice that this Ute has 'Quarter vent' windows in both front doors. It also has what was called ' A Mustache' on the bottom part of the grill that is mounted on the bonnet, this was a antitheft device that was added in about 1952 to stop thieves sliding something in between both sections of the grille to open the bonnet.

The first two photos would be a 1949 model, as it has not got the 'Quarter vent' windows in the doors. Both of these cars have a different body style to the tray at the rear with the mudguards. But as I said “different bodybuilders built different styles”.

A40 Ute canvas roof AOA Forbes 2011 B.jpg

A40 Ute canvas roof AOA Forbes 2011 A.jpg

Allan found one last photo of an A40 ute that had the same cab as the Austin in the enquirer’s photos, but again a different rear. It was from the Austins Over Australia 2009 rally in Perth.

We receive many enquiries about Austins, their history and identifying vehicles - whether they are Austins, what model and year, as well as identifying parts. It’s great to have such a knowledge bank of the AMVCQ members and their generosity in sharing and helping others. A thank you to Allan and John for their assistance with this enquiry.

PS - Allan did invite the enquirer to become a member of AMVCQ.