Swedish Umbau

[Bill Murray]

Evening Stellan/David:

Last two, Chrysler and a Plymouth.
I really should correct my post here as the first pic I sent is not, in fact, an umbau but merely a probably conscripted private car in Swedish service. I apologize for that. The typical raid cars and open personnel carriers built by the Germans would not have served well in Sweden's climate.

Thank you for the compliment, David. Not of interest here, but limousines and taxis are another of my collecting interests and I have many, many pics of "stretched" American cars of the 30's, 40's and 50's in service as taxis in such places as Turkey and Greece as well as in Western Europe. I doubt if any of them would have passed any kind of MOT, TUV or SBP exam.

You are correct, Stellan, those flat fronters were called Bulldogs.
As a small piece of history, when Sweden switched from driving on the left to the right, they sent hundreds if not thousands of RHD busses to various African nations. I believe SIDA was in charge of this (Swedish International Development Agency). It seems it was cheaper to get new busses than convert the old ones so they gave them away. Nice bit of business for Volvo and Scania for a couple of years.
Just a little more trivia.
Cheers
Bill