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Aussie Chryslers (T. J. Richards)


Bill Kreiner

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I had forgotten I had the text of a newspaper article on T. J. Richards, sent to me by Eric North, who got it from Mitsubishi in 2009.

I'll copy and paste it here directly. Also attached are 1937-1938 Richards brochures, kindly scanned for me by Eric.

Craftsmanship begun in 1885 gives

MMAL's history a century of tradition

"What is worth doing is worth doing well" was the T.J. Richards motto 100 years ago of the Adelaide business that is now Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd.

Over the years, with changes of interest and Com¬pany identity, the same motto has been appropriate and today with Magna challenging the Australian motor industry ". , . worth doing well" is an impor¬tant part of MMAL's quality success.

It was in 1885 that T.J. Richards started con¬struction of horse-drawn carriages, buggies and sulkies at small premises located at West Mitcham. From modest beginnings Tobias Richards' business flourished and in 1888 growth necessitated a move to large premises in Hindmarsh Square.

The City Square factory was prominent and pro¬duced work of sustained excellence. By 1910, T.J. Richards was noted as one of the leading carriage builders in Australia. Tobias was a capable businessman and made plans for increased activity within his factory. The fame of Richards' vehicles went far beyond Australia and orders came from Lon¬don, India and South Africa.

500 Awards

"Worth doing well" won T.J. Richards acclaim from far and wide. The firm won over 500 "first" awards at Adelaide and country shows. Testimonials were available by the score. Associated with the suc¬cessful business were Tobias' sons, H.E. and C.A. Richards, and in 1916 T.J. Richards was formed into a limited company — T.J. Richards and Sons Ltd.

The motor car became a more popular and available means of transport and the Company adopted motor body building as a subsidiary to coach and carriage building. The demand for motor bodies grew and the subsidiary quickly became the chief ac¬tivity. Late in 1916 the building of horse-drawn vehicles ways abandoned completely.

Demand grew also for space and in 1921 the business relocated to Leader Street, Keswick. New buildings built at Keswick covered approximately 20 percent of the 33/4 acre site (1.517 hectares). Richards strove to increase production and further improve quality. The Company trademark at the time was "King of the Road Motor Bodies".

Bodies were of timber frame (mainly oak) con¬struction and the timber mill, under constant produc¬tion pressure, worked a regular nightshift. Use of seasoned timber stocks was a problem and a wood kiln was installed to dry timber speedily before wood machining took place. All machine operations, the wood mill, blacksmith shop, drill and hammer machines were all steam-powered, being run off a mainshaft from a stationary steam engine plant room.

Completed panelled bodies were finished with hand-brushed gloss enamel and numerous coats, plus much painstaking labour were responsible for the deep, lustrous appearance characteristic of the day.

Certain items -- just as they are today — were im¬ported. Hood and trim materials were obtained from the U.K. and U.S.A. Turn-button clips for attaching the hood and side curtains were imported whilst hood brackets and windscreen staunchions were made and nickel-plated on site, windscreens, 6 mm clear plate glass, were supplied, cut to templates by outside sup¬pliers — the vendor industry was alive and well!

In 1924, the first mechanical press was installed. It stamped air vent louvres to engine bonnet side panels. The following year, aluminium panels were welded together to produce a sports body for "Amilcar" vehicles.

Production line

A simple production line — a manually pushed body conveyor truck, became operational in 1926. Mass production had arrived, the vehicle passing through bodyshop, paneling, paintshop and body finish before testing and shipment locally, interstate and overseas.

1928 saw the first link with the Chrysler organisa¬tion, tourer bodies being built to Chrysler design. By now, expansion had caught up with the Keswick site. The whole Leader Street premises were completely built over to provide facilities to handle increasing body volume.

A plant site of 11 acres (4.45 hectares) at Mile End was acquired. Before long, both sites were tax¬ed to the limit of production and much of the plant was worked continuously in three eight-hour shifts, six days a week.

The world depression affected Australia and Richards' production decreased in volume — but not quality — for several years. However, after the depression years, Richards was again pushing pro¬duction numbers. The paintshop, body finish and trim department were transferred from Keswick to Mile End in 1934 and a mechanical production line was in¬stalled, bringing daily volume up to 40 vehicles. Two years later, production had more than doubled to 88 cars a day.

In 1935 the Company fulfilled all the Australian re¬quirements for bodies for the Chrysler organisation —Chrysler, Dodge, DeSoto and Plymouth. Additionally, Richards made bodies for Dodge and Fargo trucks, Studebaker cars and several individual contracts.

As a result of investigation while on an overseas trip, one of the Richards sons, Claude, the then Managing Director, introduced steel frame con¬struction for bodies. Wood had traditionally been used to make the body frame, with sheet steel panels being fixed to that base. As a result of the new process, more than 90 percent of woodwork was replaced with steel. It was claimed that tests had proved the steel body to be "unsurpassed for safety".

One of the local bodies taken at random from the production line was shipped to Detroit and fitted to an American chassis. At a testing ground the vehicle was rolled completely over at least 50 times while travell¬ing at 96 kilometres per hour. When examined, the doors still opened and closed perfectly.

In 1936 the "Chrysler Hell Drivers" arrived in Australia and gave public displays in capital cities. Their "activities" demonstrated the safety of Richards bodies built to Chrysler specifications. The only alterations made for the display were the replacement of local armour plate glass by Triplex (U.S.) glass.

World War II interrupted motor vehicle produc¬tion. The Company, the name of which was changed to Richards Industries in 1941, diverted its entire capaci¬ty to the production of munitions. Products included cartridge and ammunition boxes, flame floats, land-mine cases and mountings for anti-aircraft guns. Con-struction of aircraft components and major assemblies were undertaken and by 1945 the Com¬pany was engaged extensively on aircraft work.

Motor body building was resumed in 1946, but an aircraft annexe was retained at the then acquired Finsbury plant with a nucleus of skilled aircraft workers. The plant operated for many years as the principal sheet-metal contractor in South Australia to the Department of Supply for Government Aircraft Factories, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation and Department of Munitions. From the plant came major components and assemblies for Lincoln bombers and the main fuselages for the famous Jin¬divik pilotless aircraft.

Chrysler name in 1947

Back in 1936, a Company was formed to co¬ordinate the purchasing and marketing for the 18 Australian distributors of Chrysler and Dodge pro¬ducts. The Company, Chrysler Dodge DeSoto Distributors (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. also acquired an in¬terest in T.J. Richards. In 1937 the Melbourne registered Company bought a controlling interest in Richards and the following year the Melbourne head¬quarters were transferred to Adelaide. It was not un¬til 1947 that the Richards name lapsed and the vehicle manufacturing Company became known as Chrysler Dodge DeSoto Distributors Ltd.

In June 1951, the Chrysler Corporation of America purchased a controlling interest in Chrysler Dodge DeSoto Distributors Ltd. and the name of the Company was changed to Chrysler Australia Limited, later to become Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd.

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Attached are documents relating to the subject.

Also, I found an email from Eric, describing a few things relating to Richards:

Yes that's correct, the same Richards-built bodies, again on Plymouth chassis like Dodges, were also badged DeSoto 1946-1956, I'm not sure about prewar but Richards did build all the Chrysler Corp. local production from 1936 on; before that Holden built a lot of the bodies. Just what Richards built during the war I don't know, other than there is evidence that they were heavily involved in aircraft manufacture.

As far as Chrysler itself is concerned, Richards made bodies for some models before the war, but none after the war. The Australian government had a fleet of 24 1942-style Chrysler Windsors, which they appear to have purchased as late as 1944, but these were bought direct from Chrysler USA. There were a few USA built Chryslers, fluid drive Dodges and DeSotos imported in 1946-7 but in mid 1947, the importation of these was banned by the Government.

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Edited by Bill Kreiner
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From Chrysler export division's 'Overseas Graphic' magazine...

attachment.php?attachmentid=37744&stc=1&d=1344818297

I think the caption should read 'uploaded' and the location is Port Adelaide.

The cowl tag here is a Lynch Road Detroit number suggesting it left there partially knocked down...

attachment.php?attachmentid=37745&stc=1&d=1344818297

-Andy

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The tag on the cowl looks like the VIN tag attached to the right front door hinge post. Judging by the cars being shipped to the assmbly plants, Chrysler shipped chassis without the cowl. Thus there would be no door post to attach the tag. In that case, the tag would be been shipped with the chassis (or separately by post) and attached to the body when the car was assembled.

TJ Richards would have attached their tag to the body giving the body details, just as Briggs did with Plymouth bodies.

It appears to have been quite an arrangement in Australia before Chrysler took over the show.

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That sounds possible Bill ...but I can't see why anything less than a cowl-chassis would have a a VIN. Richard's stamped a VIN (model and body style with a number) on the cowl and attached their body # tag next to it with screws while the Lynch Rd tag is attached with drive rivets. A chassis number was also stamped on the LH rail below the cowl and I think that and the engine number were used for registration purposes.

I don't recall seeing a Detroit tag on a donor sedan I had which leads me to think they were shipped as both cowl-chassis and CKD.

-Andy

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Bill, thanks for posting these. I found them very interesting and had wondered how Canada Cycle and Motor fitted in. They seem to have been Dodge/Plodge dealers and I wonder if they played a part in the supply of the Plodge parts.

No problem! Thanks for that photo with caption, and the pic of the '39. It's always good to see data on Australian vehicles.

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Many years ago, late 70's, I found an old wrecking tard in the Wingello area of the NSW Southern Highlands. This wrecking yard had been on the edge of a state forest and had been burnt out. There were the remains of 3 of those airport/hotel limos......my memory is a little hazy but there was at least one 1938 Dodge/Plymouth version, the other 2 were I think 36/37, maybe a 38......nowadays they would have been quite a restorable proposition but I think they went to the big wrecking yard in the sky soon after i saw them..................have never seen a current pic of one , let alone heard of one that still exists........andyd

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I'd intended to do some exploring yesterday myself but the weather didn't play it's part. I did however come across this...

attachment.php?attachmentid=37952&stc=1&d=1345436519

in an article in this rail publication www.aattc.org.au/The%20Times%20February%202008.pdf which states TJR bodied 6 of these 'tigers' for Canada Cycle & Motor Co and SA Railways.

Considering this and Andy's sighting I guess these were pretty much production bodies.

-Andy

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This great source info belongs here

DeSoto and Dodge chassis were imported from Canada from 1934 through 1936. In 1941 and then from 1946 to 1954, Kingsway and Diplomat chassis came from Canada. Chassis came also from Detroit prior to 1941 and again in 1955, which were actually leftover 1954 chassis.

Some 1933 Chryslers came from Canada, but after that all U.S.A.

Plymouths came from Canada in 1933 and again from 1946 to 1954.

The 1956 Plymouth, Kingsway and Diplomat chassis were Australian units and used engines from England. The engine number started with "KEW".

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The Daylesford Tourist Railway in Victoria are restoring a 1936 Dodge mail car.

http://www.dscr.com.au/rollingstock.php?item=74RM

There's some photos of the restoration in the main sites photo gallery. The work they are doing is fantastic - makes the work I have on the Chrysler seem insignificant...

Rick

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