Aussie DeSoto Ute

[Mike K]

I remember the long block Canadian engine in these as having a bore of 3 and 3/8" and a 4 and 1/16" stroke. The T212 I believe used the same engine as did a few other Canadian sourced Chrysler light trucks . My 1946 T116 Dodge ute had the same 218ci engine.

Used to be one of those Plymouth army utes in the Bathurst NSW wreckers but that was so long ago I doubt either the wreckers or the ute still exist.

There was also a Dodge version of the 12cwt army ute but as I have written many times they are actually all 1941 Plymouths with some 'badge engineering' The trim and grills were altered in order to to make them look like a DeSoto or a Dodge which they are not.

Apart from myself, another VMVC member had two of these utes one of which was a DeSoto , they ended up in Sydney in the hands of Bob K. and I believe they later went to the Hughes collection .

The DPCD logo is seen on Chrysler parts , stuff like the bolt heads and other bits. At a guess it is: Dodge Plymouth Chrysler Desoto ?

The registered example I bought, the chap told me he towed a caravan up to Mildura for many years with the ute. He worked at CIG at Preston and he drove it to work well into the early 1980s - he said he bought it in 1956 at a Govt. surplus auction . It was finished in a red/black livery at one time, I would say likely used by the PMG after the war.

I think I still have the negatives, I took lots of pics of the Marong example which was a DeSoto. The original wiring looms were still intact , the glass instrument panel cover was unique to each version, the DeSoto had a fancy family crest , probably from the Spanish conquistador .