Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all of my Friends
please can you explain this

1.CKD ( Chassis )- Completely-Knocked-Down cars
2.1948 EX SMM /500 two –door Prototype car.

Many Thanks
Sandun
Sri Lanka

The CKD were cars that were exported in pieces in crates for local assembly which would also use some locally sourced components. The "C" has been quoted as meaning both "crated" and "completely" but either fits. Local assembly might include fitting body panels, windscreen, lights, etc to a chassis, and also painting. The exact specification varied according to the agreement with each distributor. This was done for sound commercial reasons such as taxes, shipping costs (relatively small crate easy to handle) and labour costs.

#2 is the identification details of the final prototype made before official production started. The first Morris Minor off the line was #501.
The 'EX' indicates that it could well have been re-numbered & sold under a different chassis/body number seeing as it was virtually a production vehicle.

EX/SX 132 was built 27 January 1947 as a prototype (Reg NWL 433) and them broken for spares in 1949 to help build SMM 500, a red LHD tourer, sold by the factory as a road car in June 1952. I think SM 132 was a narrow-body prototype.

All the older references I have seen give the c as 'completely'. It denotes that the car is in a state such that it can enter the importing country at a reduced rate of import duty compared to an assembled car. Many countries had such schemes to protect local manufacturers and provide assembly work for local people. The crate would be self evident.

http://www.mgexp.com/article/australian-hardtops.html

First bit on this page gives a good idea about CKD.