US car with Fordson Major Diesel engine

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47175389

Hope the link works this time
Untitled URL Link

There was a documentary about cars in Cuba a few years ago.

The old American cars being driven beyond their driveable days were commonly repowered with diesel tractor and marine engines, whatever was cheap and available.

I remember them showing some of those transplants... Not a pretty sight.

Said the cars are basically a painted Bondo shell, the frames spliced and welded from rust and fatigue. None have gas tanks, they rotted away years ago. Everyone uses plastic cans in the trunk or back floor with a hose hung in the top. Besides, a working tank is too easy to steal the fuel!

Deboss garage on YouTube had a video awhile back where Stephan went on a trip to Cuba (being Canadian, they are able, I guess). He showed a lot of the diesel conversions, most looked well done. The cars looked solid, too. But, he was looking at the ones being used as taxis, average citizen cars may be far worse.

Had a neighbor that put a Fordson major engine in a 52 ford pick up. He said it got about 38 MPG driving it around. This was just before diesel powered pickups were available

Yeah, but they have top-notch health care.

I grew in NJ with the ocean salt air. The cars rusted fast! Most of the cars in Cuba right before Castro won were of US manufacture. So when I was 5-6-7. Either someone in Cuba is building new bodies and frames or those things are patched together "Bondo Buggies".

Rick

Average citizen doesn"t have a car....

i always thought they had old tooling from the US 1950s vintage that they were making "new cars" from. i would expect by now those tools would be shot or broke.

maybe not.

There was a South American company that did that, Brazil, Chile? Bought the tooling to make 70something Falcons.

Made them for years, wanted the average person to be able to afford a car.

Made them all the same model so all the parts would interchange, anyone could repair on it.

Brazil got tooling for mid 1960s medium Ford sedans, Galaxies, etc with the iron blocks derived from 292, 312 engines and they were basis for the Ethanol burners in Brazil.. Body panels were sent to USA for collectors to use 1980s, a few crate engines. Argentina got Falcon tooling for bodies, 4 bearing 6 cylinder engines- some body parts sent to northern states for replacement later. Security police got a lot of them as usable pool cars and the Falcon body got bad reputation from the drivers that would grab people off street, torture and 'disappeared' leftists. Argentina also got 2 cylinder JD tooling after the new 4 cylinders were introduced, some Argentine engine parts came to JD dealers later, good quality, replacement boxes had Spanish and English descriptions. Mexico, Argentina, Brazil industry got a lot of 'old' style tooling and made a lot of units for domestic use, some times restricted to the domestic market, some times parts came back to US dealers or after market. Brazil VW Beetles and their variations parts came to USA, some from Mexico from Puebla factory- engines made in Mexico moderately popular for dune buggies, replacements. RN