You probably haven’t seen too many of these before. We featured this 1937 Stewart Coupe Utility here on Barn Finds in 2017. It is again up for sale here on eBay with a requested opening bid of $20,000. The cute-ute was a bit of a mystery when we first featured it a year ago and it seems to still be a mystery today. If you can shed any light on the history, production, or details regarding this Stewart, let us know.
Reading through the comments in our previous article, some readers thought these Stewarts may have been exported to New Zealand. Small utility vehicles or “Utes” are very popular in Australia and New Zealand. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that there are more of these trucks running around parts of the globe. If you know of one of these Stewarts somewhere out there, leave us a comment.
The ad states the engine is a four-cylinder Waukesha. Some readers commented on our previous article stating it may be Continental, but the seller probably (hopefully) knows for sure. Unfortunately, there aren’t many details in the ad regarding the condition or the functionality of the powertrain. It does say that they are in very good condition, but could use freshening up.
The ad states this truck was restored from the ground up about 15 years ago and spent about half the time after that in a museum. The right-hand drive, small gauge cluster and wood trim are all pretty neat.
Even if there were some of these exported, they are very rare in the United States. This seems like a pretty neat vehicle and would be a great addition to anyone’s collection. It will certainly be the only one at any car show.
The green and black combination apparently was popular, even down under. The sloped cab-back looks really odd, almost like they had some coupe parts left over and needed to use them.
There were local body builders in New Zealand and Australia that would build a variety of passenger and commercial bodies for motor vehicle importers. These included the more mundane marques, along with the more bespoke ones.
I wonder if this example might have started life in Australia, home of the ‘coupe ute’ before being imported into NZ early in its life?
I wanted this then and I’d like it now..but at 20 K?
Here’s one for about the same price…which one would you buy?
The green one
Definitely not the blue bomb!
I could see myself cruising around in this thing. It’s a cool unique ride.
I wish I could scratch together the dough for it.
With a hacksaw and my trusty mig welder, I think I could make a really neat looking roadster/pickup out of that. As it is, it’s about the most dumb*ss looking truck I’ve ever seen. It looks like it has a mullet – it’s the Joe Dirt of pickups..
Here is a bit on Stewart Motors at
http://dailydieseldose.com/stewart-motor-truck/
Looks like a nice coupe that got hit in the back by a flatbed, and the flatbed got stuck!
From the back it looks like the Chevy SSR.
Kinda grows on ya. That flatty 4 sure looks like a ball of fire—Barnfind quote–0-60 eventually….
Good luck to new owner..20k is a thrifty restoration!!!
Sweet looking coupe ute. I’ve never seen one, but then I’m not from Australia, or even New Zealand. So naturally I wouldn’t, unless it’s imported to the USA.
Very COOL!
can’t believe these were made in USA – till I looked at the link to the Stewart book.
The RHD made it even more convincing to me, but… wrong. I wondered how the
Waukesha motor got in there but seemed possible thru export. Wrong again, I guess they exported the whole vehicle rather than just the motor.
We missed out on alot of stuff frm Down Under. I like the mid 70s Holden 4WD station wagons (look a lill like the 60’s 70s USA chebby models as the 2 co.s were affiliated).
Now Oz has kicked out every foreign car manufacturer. Is this to go in country only (w/all ele vehicles only)?
Stewart Motor Corp purchased engines from Continental, LeRoi,, Herschell-Spillman, Buda, Lycoming and Waukesha. Although this truck has a Waukesha that does not mean all Stewart trucks used Waukesha. Their trucks were available in ½ ton to 5 ton in load capacity and used engines suited to the capacity of the truck.. The chassis and cowl unit for the 1936 Stewart 31X (5 ton capacity), body extra, weighed 9,340 pounds. The ½ ton was 2,110 pounds. Engine was a 516.7-cid Waukesha 6. The 3/4 ton used a 169.7-cid Continental engine.
There were a number of small car and truck manufacturers that used their own chassis and suspension bits and purchased engines and transmissions from other companies. And larger ones – Durant and Kaiser-Frazer used Continental engines. Checker was the last of the U.S. auto manufacturers to purchase engines from outsiders.
Australia after WW I set up their tariffs on imported vehicles to be lowest on chassis with powertrains, brakes, steering and cowl. Completely assembled cars and trucks came with very heavy tariffs. A fair number of auto body companies sprung up to build bodies for the imported chassis.
GM used Holden bodies and would eventually acquire the firm. The design of the first Holden car, in 1948, was based on a cancelled project for a compact Chevrolet. One of the Chrysler distributors in Australia used T.J. Richards. In 1951 Chrysler acquired the distributor and T J Richards to form Chrysler Australia Limited.
Holden also supplied bodies for other manufacturers before WW II – Willys and Graham come to mind. In 1936 Graham Crusader chassis were exported to Australia and Holden was contracted to build the bodies. Holden supplied 1935 Chevrolet bodies with a Graham Crusader front clip.
So, in this case, the Australian distributor for Stewart trucks imported the chassis, complete with powertrain, etc., and had a local body builder supply the body. Which explains why the coupe utility body style, a popular choice in Australia back then.
By rights, there should be a body tag on the body of that Stewart truck identifying what company built the body. Of course, after all these years it is probably long gone.
The seller states the truck is a 1937 model 40A, 3/4 ton, but the listing I have in the 1943 edition of Branham Automobile Reference Book shows the 40A in production only for 1938. Less than 200 model 40As were built, and this one is #49.
The Waukesha engine was 4 cylinder with 3-7/16″ bore and 4-3/8″ stroke for 206.8-cid.
Branham’s show the Stewart being built into 1943. Possible the 1942-43 models were built for the government – WW II. Or they were leftover models from 1941.
Hmmm……..(from the diesel blog)…………..hello I also own a 1937 stewart it is a ute pick up and would love any more info on these rare trucks as production numbers etc thank you George 805 272 5073 california. Looks like George is trying to sell now
Ended: Sep 25, 2018 , 9:36AM
Current bid:US $20,000.00
Reserve not met
[ 1 bid ]