► Soft Skinned Vehicles

[kfbr392]

In spite of my limited German I think I now have the story of the first pic and no indication that a 1,8 liter engine swap was involved.
As far as the second one that is still a mystery. I suppose since the 1,2 and 1,8 were released the same year, 1931, some engineer might have got the bright idea of a swap. But again no telling what is under the bonnet just from the pic. It's interesting nonetheless, especially with those big rear wheels. To me that could potentially be a logistics own goal, having to carry different spares. But we see the driver is NSKK so maybe this is some one-off prototype, or for a competition, or maybe just an umbau. In any case I'm removing the 1,8 liter reference from the captions until otherwise convinced.

I may have found something.
I attach a view of all Opel vehicles with engines in the range of 1,1l to 1,8l produced from 1930-45.

You see there was a light truck/van ("Lieferwagen", or "Lief", or "Lieferwg"), the "Opel 1,8l Lief. 0,5 to" in production from 1931-33, as well as a car, the "Opel 1,8l". It stands to reason that a number of these vehicles were finished as Kübelwagen around 1932 by a workshop or a coachbuilder. So keep the captions!

[Maxschnauzer]

Hi kfbr392,
First, thanks for taking the time to translate that interesting conversation with your colleague. It fills some of the gaps in my mind and confirms some of my impressions. The fact that he agrees that these early kübels were "individual solutions" certainly opens up many engine/chassis possibilities and explains why they aren't mentioned in the standard references. As your engine table shows the 1,8l was certainly available and could have added a little extra tourque for trials. Larger rear wheels coupled with the big motor could have proven beneficial for hill climbs.
So I'll follow your advice and keep the captions for now while keeping an open mind about them. Thanks again for your help.

[kfbr392]

Thank you for the pics and all your highly informative vehicle posts.

Matt

[Maxschnauzer]

Hi Matt,
And thank you in return for all that I've learned from your posts about early Opel based kübelwagens, a subject to which I had paid little attention previously. Fast forward a few years and here are we have some more "individual solutions" based on the Super 6:

[spannermann]

Hi,
The Opel Super 6 Kubelwagen is not really an individual conversion, although I suspect you meant made in very limited quantities, its the kind of Kubelwagen that maybe was constructed in 10's, 50's or a few 100, unfortunately there seems to be no information regarding quantities, other than to say the Opel Super 6 was a popular car and approximately 46,500 were manufactured in 1936-38.
Consequently there was a huge pool of this one Opel car that could be taken in and converted, but of course finding photographic evidence is always a problem.

Attached photo of Super 6 Kubelwagen.

cheers Paul

Opel Super 6, Berlin 1945 - Copy.jpg

[Maxschnauzer]

Thanks very much, Paul. Yes, by that I meant non-series factory production as opposed to the P4. It's interesting from the pics that there seems to have been at at least two variants of a Super 6 kübel conversion. As you know there were also some Admiral conversions kicking around out there, but obviously not as many as less than 7000 chassis came from the factory during 1937-39.

[spannermann]

Hi,
These kind of Kubelwagens are a big subject, after all there are a huge number of them, nearly all German motor companies manufactured them from the late 1920's to late 1930's, often using several different models from each motor company. and then you get early and late versions plus body differences etc.,

cheers Paul

[Maxschnauzer]

Hi Paul,
Indeed. That's kind of what I thought of with respect to "individual solutions". Do you know of any books that concentrate on these vehicles?

[spannermann]

Hi Max,
Unfortunately I do not know of any book dedicated to these limited production Kubelwagens, even the official and mass produced Reichswehr Kubelwagens, their very close relatives, do not seem to have a dedicated book anywhere .

Its just the occasional mention in some book, odd photos, often in the background of something else, and most remain largely unidentifiable.

Attached photos of three Ford Kubelwagens, two identified and one unknown ( to me ). Plys a Steyr 220 Kubelwagen

Thanks to Holger for one of them.

cheers PAUL

Ford_Mod_1939_umb_zu_Kubelwagen_Kfz4_Flak_Korps_II.jpg

FORD V8 Bundesarchiv_N_1603_Bild-071%2C_Partisanen%C3%BCberfall%2C_durchschossene_Autoscheibe.jpg

Ford V8 Limo 1935-36 photo.JPG

Steyr 220 of 218 ID.jpg

[Maxschnauzer]

Hi Paul, Thanks very much for the wonderful photos. I have never seen a Steyr conversion before. American made beute vehicles were also fertile ground for Kübel conversion. Here are a 37 Oldsmobile and a 39 Chevy:

37 Oldsmobile Umbau.JPG

1939 Chevrolet Kübel.jpg

These two below I find especially interesting. The appear to have identical "standardized" bodies, possibly similar to the Chevy above:

[spannermann]

Hi Max,
Thanks for the above photos, have not seen them before, its seems this can be a never ending subject, I have only really been looking at the classic Kubelwagen bodies with the triangular doors, but if bodies with square doors or no doors at all are taken into account, the subject gets to be vast.

Those last two you show do have identical bodies, suggesting a body maker supplying several different chassis modifiers.

Have found another Opel Super 6 Kubelwagen, same as the earlier photos above, but cannot seem to post it.

There is a second body style for the Opel Admiral, different to the one you posted above, where a standard mEpkw Type 40 body has be added, there are several different photos of this version, suggesting a small production quantity.

cheers PAUL

016-01.jpg

[Maxschnauzer]

Hi Larry,
Thanks for that Admiral photo which I hadn't seen. You are right, these types open up the subject to what are probably more equivalent to mittlerer Pkw.'s but still are literally kübelwagens- bucket seat vehicles.
On another level than umbaus, I've come across this beautiful allrad Ford prototype built in Köln but based on the 1939 American Ford V8 1 tonner chassis. Regrettably, it was tested but never produced in series. Source- Reinhard Frank, "Cars of the Wehrmacht, A Photo Chronicle":

[kfbr392]

On another level than umbaus, I've come across this beautiful allrad Ford prototype built in Köln but based on the 1939 American Ford V8 1 tonner chassis. Regrettably, it was tested but never produced in series. Source- Reinhard Frank, "Cars of the Wehrmacht, A Photo Chronicle":

Thank you for this picture. It is also featured in Reinhard Frank's book "Waffen Arsenal 123 - Ford im Kriege".
There, the caption reads:
"Dieser vierradgetriebene Kübelwagen basierte auf dem 1-Tonner-Fahrgestell des US-Ford Mod. 1939, hatte laut Radkappenprägung einen V8-Motor und wurde in Köln ausgiebig getestet. Leider liegen keine Angaben über dieses interessante Fahrzeug vor: vielleich kann einer unserer amerikanischen Leser das Geheimhis lüften?"

translation:
"This four-wheel drive Kübelwagen was based on the 1-tonne chassis of the US Ford Model 1939, had a V8 engine according to the wheel cap embossing and was extensively tested in Cologne. Unfortunately, there is no information about this interesting vehicle: perhaps one of our American readers can unravel the secret?"

Well... can you??

And: was this chassis (mass-)produced in Cologne? Or is it an import chassis? The caption could be read that way.

[Maxschnauzer]

"This four-wheel drive Kübelwagen was based on the 1-tonne chassis of the US Ford Model 1939, had a V8 engine according to the wheel cap embossing and was extensively tested in Cologne. Unfortunately, there is no information about this interesting vehicle: perhaps one of our American readers can unravel the secret?"

Well... can you??

And: was this chassis (mass-)produced in Cologne? Or is it an import chassis? The caption could be read that way.

Hi Matt,
Sorry, but I'm not the lad with the answer. All I know comes from the caption in Frank's Cars of the Wehrmacht (Personenkraftwagen der Wehrmacht-English Edition) which I reproduce below:

20220319_051428.jpg

There is an old thread on the Maple Leaf Up site where it is speculated that the Ford Chassis may have originated with Marmon-Herrington either in Belgium or the Netherlands. While a plausible theory, this is pure speculation however, as no documentation was available: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showt ... 38a&t=2518

[kfbr392]

Max, that already helps a lot. Thanks!
Matt