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Originally Posted by TimM
I was wondering if there is any way to tell when a Huckster body was built and, if so, by who? I've read some of the posts here and they know what company built theirs and have some great history of the company, but how can you tell? Did original companies leave any type of marking or tag on the body? Can one look at certain features or parts and make a determination from that?
In looking at the photos here and on the web in general, it appears as though it might have been a free for all! Many design features appear to be in common, but no real "standard" seems to have been in place.
My Huckster came from Hawaii where it was used in the movie, but I have wondered if it was "built" specifically for that and was just cobbled together then, or if was a period body. It has several "unique" features about, such as the wooden windshield frame which I don't see on very many. Tends to make me think it was more of a prop than an original car. Still love to own and drive it, just wondering about its "upbringing"
Tim
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I am no expert on this subject but I don't know of any way you could tell when a huckster body was built. In the early days (1929-31) someone would buy the Model A chassis and then build a huckster body on it. York-Hoover was one company that did this but just about anyone could buy the chassis and do their own thing. There may have been other companies also that built the huckster bodies that I am not aware of.
So this being said, you could find any number of ways people or companies would have attached the bodies to the chassis. The one we have is suppose to be patterned after the York-Hoover body and it attaches to the metal windshield window frame. I have seen pictures of ones that have wood around the windshield and a lot of other different "styles" of hucksters. They were build like now days when someone buys a Ford or whatever chassis and mounts a motor home on it but I think there were a number of people in those days, that did this.
If anyone knows more of the huckster history than I do (which I know very little) please post it. I would like to get more information about the history of hucksters.