Yestercar2014

A nice shot: while in Sweden on our first trip in May 1976 we met at the demolition of a P445, also clearly a Grip. In a pretty bad condition, however, an estimated 1953 car.

(Volvo itself gave birth to the first P445 from its own factory mid 1953. However, the stock chassis produced for car buiding companies was this numerous that in 1953 and later Volvo P445's were produced both by Volvo as well as by external companies.)

Today, if we would encounter another copy then it's up for a new life in the Netherlands.

The market demanded a bigger car than the Volvo PV444 and the answer came in 1953 with the arrival of the PV445, called the Duett. The name Duett came from Volvo's idea to make a car for (small) entrepreneurs, who could use it both professional and as a leisure vehicle. (The idea was two cars in one, a Duett!) In fact, the word combi (combination vehicle) was born in the automotiv industry. It was basically a two-seater car with only front seats and a large cargo area. Thanks to an easy to assemble backseat there was a second row on which, with a little goodwill, three people could sit.

The Duett can be seen as Volvo's first station wagon, and become most popular among small business owners. The Swedish postal and telephone companies used the car massively. The versatile car was developed by Ir. Erik Skogh in Volvo's own design department using the design and technology of the Volvo PV444. That made the car reliable, inexpensive and simple to maintain what is an advantage for a company vehicle. An important difference between the two models was that was developed a separate chassis for the Duett, while the PV444 had a self-supporting body. It has separate chassis of the Duett advantage that the car is very strongly constructed and has a higher payload. Due to the separate chassis, it is also possible to remove a portion of the vehicle body without affecting the strength of the car so that there are many have been converted to Pick-Up (Utilities or Utes). The separate chassis has also been used to enhance the self-supporting bodywork of a PV444 or 544 which makes it possible it was to build a convertible car, because otherwise when removing the roof, the strength of the monocoque would have been affected.

After the successful launch of the PV444 in 1947 there was a demand for small cargo van with the same size as the passengers car. Since this one has a self-supporting body, engineers developed a separate chassis with the same wheelbase and track width. This chassis, with a B4B engine and other technical equipment of PV444, was sold to body-builders with nothing but the nose and dashboard.

Often according to customers specifications these cars were built.
Some well-known larger coachwork builders are: Valbo in Gövle, Grantorpets Fabrik in Västervik (so-called Grip coachwork), Ringborg in Norrköping.
Some smaller works are: Kabo in Umea, Sala in Atvidaberg, Floby in a village with the same name.

These companies mainly built vans, but also small utilities with open loading space, (the Yestercar Foundation owns one) and even convertibles.