C8AX production

[Mike K]

Arthur Poll had a new GS body made for his truck, to the original pattern. Some years ago , he rang me and we had a nice chat , he also kindly helped me out with some drawings of the GS body . I've been told he has sold the C8AX recently ....?

Some people say the GS bodies were made by the NZ post office workshops , others say it was the Govt. railways workshops . Does anyone know ? The GS bodies were a very crudely made thing , rough oxy welds held it all together . Whoever made them , didn't have access to a spot welder. I had never seen corners oxy welded together before, until I saw a C8AX body ! I cannot imagine the bodies would have held together for long . Once the wooden bearers rotted , the whole thing would have collapsed .

The C8AX's pictured above ( except Arthurs) all seem to have non original bodies fitted . There was a LWB version of the body built also , same as the C8AX GS body, but stretched ,it was fitted on the C60L chassis ?

A friend in the Nth island is restoring a house type wireless body for his C8AX , he's done heaps of research and its still a guessing game as to what's correct and what isnt' It's a complicated affair on a wooden frame . There was one getting around , a mock up of the wireless version , not that original though . They had the ZC1 radio set fitted in them .

And , don't forget that the aussie found C8AX's actually did see active service in the Bouganville area. We think they were sold in situ as a lot, to the highest bidder , rather than being transported back to NZ . So , in a funny way , that makes them very special . They were there !

Mike