Posted by Clint Dixon [108.162.216.31] on Friday, May 12, 2017 at 13:21:31 :
In Reply to: Re: Some additional observations posted by Kevin in Ohio [162.158.79.50] on Friday, May 12, 2017 at 09:28:35 :
I basically agree with Kaegi, but with a slight different angle.
Dodge did reuse a lot of the existing tooling, that was produced during WWII to build the WC series military trucks, in order to build the newly designed Power-Wagon. I think some of this tooling they probably owned. The question as to whether they designed it and owned it right from the start, or whether the government paid for it initially and then Chrysler bought it from them later may be lost to history.
Of course, not all of the tooling for the military trucks was unique. Some of it was previously existing Chrylser tooling from before the war. Since new tooling had to be made for the standardized gauges, my guess is that Chrysler never owned that. They may have had an agreement that since this was to be a change to an existing proven design, the government had to foot the whole bill. Chrysler may have never owned it, may have never wanted to own it, and it may have never even been in their possession. It could have al taken place in-house at Budd with sole agreements between Budd and the government.
I think there was probably a proprietary separation between tooling that belonged to the government, that which belonged to Chrysler, and that which belonged to other vendors such as Budd.
Ideas?
Junior
Follow Ups: