Austin A40 Devon 10cwt pick-up truck

In 2006 I managed to get hold of a green A40 pickup dating to 1953, and early in March 2007 I stumbled across a blue 1951 floor-change example to go with it. For this one I have to thank dad, who spotted it first and tipped me off about it.

Austin 10cwt pickup

Dad had been idly perusing the Rolls-Royce section on eBay (for some reason!), and was looking at a listing for a Spirit when he noticed in the background the shapely back corner of an A40 Devon pickup. Knowing my liking for these old pickups, he forwarded me the link. Curious to know more, I contacted the seller and asked what his plans were for the pickup. Handily he said that he wanted to sell it too, as his wife was fed up with having the old Austin cluttering up the driveway. He named his price, I agreed to it, and set to organising a trailer.

We found the house quite easily, and had a chat with the owner. He'd purchased it a few years earlier, from an elderly chap who had done quite a lot to it, but wasn't able to complete it due to ill health, so he took it on. With various business interests on the boil, he didn't do much more to it. He then lost his storage and the Austin was parked up at home, exposed to the elements which were doing it no favours.

It didn't take long to safely load the Austin onto the trailer and we headed off back up north. The photograph above shows the pickup at a motorway services. Over the next few weeks I did some basic work to the Devon's engine, getting it running once more. The fuel tank had some very old gloop in it, and that took a while to clear. Fresh fuel, new plugs, plus a cleaning of the points and carb, got the Austin's 1200cc engine running something like. The green pickup has column change, but this example, being a little older, has floorchange like the A40 saloon, which I prefer. I've driven it a few times, up and down the driveway, and the basics seem ok. The brakes work, and the engine and gearbox seem to function too, although the latter is very noisy in first gear.

The blue pickup is now in the garage, and awaits further attention. I bought a new waterpump for it, as the original leaked like a sieve, and is ready to go on. Fortunately the aluminium rear wheel spats, not visible in the photograph above, were in the back, along with the dzus fasteners that hold them on. Included in the paperwork is a purchase receipt from 1976, when the pickup was sold at a secondhand car dealers for £65!

Despite being separated by only two years, there are many detail differences between this and the green pickup. Both have the painted grilles - earlier examples have chrome/mazak grilles as found on the A40 saloon. Generally speaking, the later the pickup, the more Somerset-related parts seem to appear. One good example is the Somerset-style column gearchange fitted to the '53. Brake parts on the later truck are also more closely related to the Somerset saloon. The rear bodywork on the pickups varies slightly in detail: the blue '51 has flat rear panel sides and tailgate, whereas the '53 has pressings in the panels. The aluminium rear wheel spats are the same on both pickups, although they did vary in design throughout the long life of A40 pickup production, with later examples, as in the brochure shot below, having a more open cut-out over the rear wheel to aid swift wheel changes.

Austin A40 pickup

All pickups feature front wings that are different to those found on A40 saloons. The front wheelarch openings are larger on the commercial variants, to accomodate the 17" wheels and tyres used. The saloons run on 16" rims. Therefore watch out when buying a pickup, many have switched to wearing (incorrect) saloon wings over the years, and possibly roll on saloon wheels. More about Austin A40 Devons can be found here.

Update. The pickup returned to the road and I ran it for a some time. While the Dodge was away being restored, I decided to cut back on vehicles and the A40 was sold on to a new home down south.

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