Going on what I remember from my youth of growing up with old military vehicles and also having over the years a large collection of Chrysler based products in NZ including Fargo trucks I can confirm that there were no real body building plants in NZ so I can believe that the C8AX bodies were gas welded rather then spot or electric welded. NZ at that time was a simple country about 30 years behind the rest of the world.
The vehicle plants of the day were really only Assembly plants, putting togeather vehicle kits and as they did not have equipment or machines capable of stamping out large all steel body parts all truck cabs, rear bodies etc. for imported chassis/cowl/windscreen models were wooden frames with simple sheetmetal panels tacked on to the frame and the tacks covered with a molding. Even cab doors were wood framed and in a lot of cases simple sliding windows fitted.
It was not until after WW2 that the assembly plants and body shops were equiped with metal stamping machines large enough to do full body panels. WW2 and it's aftermarth resulted in the modernisation of NZ industry especially in the vehicle related field.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Cliff
