Solved: PN #1159 -- Mercedes 3750 rebodied by KAG, Kaunas, 1947

[pnegyesi]

Please ID this bus for a point. Donor is fairly easy, but I'll need the coachbuilder as well. And I won't lock after the donor is identified. (original pic was a repost)

[pnegyesi]

Experts?

[smodmog]

Mercedes Benz  OP 3750 base ?

[pnegyesi]

yes, it seems so

[smodmog]

German coachbuilder ?

[pnegyesi]

no

[smodmog]

Austrian ?

[pnegyesi]

no

[smodmog]

Scandinavian ?

[pnegyesi]

no

[D-type]

From the Netherlands?

[gte4289]

The photo was taken in Kaunas, Lithuania, with the bus belonging to Kauno Autobusai. Was the coachbuilder Lithuanian or Russian?

[gte4289]

The photo was taken in Kaunas, Lithuania, with the bus belonging to Kauno Autobusai. Was the coachbuilder Lithuanian or Russian?

By the way, this bus appears to be one of 15 such buses purchased from Mercedes-Benz by the city of Kaunas in late 1937. I have yet to find a reference to a coachbuilder, however.

Might the bodies have been assembled locally? Perhaps at KAG (if operational at that time), or by the workshops of the American Lithuanian Joint Stock Company or John Hulstroem?

[pnegyesi]

You are right, this Mercedes was bodied by KAG. I'll award the point tomorrow. Good detective work

[gte4289]

Excellent puzzle. Thanks!

[pnegyesi]

After the war, Kauno Autoremonto Gamykla, the Kaunas Auto Repair Factory rebodied several prewar buses, this one in 1947
BTW there is a nice book in Lithuanian language dealing with the history of buses in Kaunas, which was published in 2014.