History Help ID this 32 Ford pickup

Just towed this beauty home today. I got some of the back story of the truck. Just wondering if anyone can ID the pickup in any mags, photos, video or possibly have known builder.

The pickup was built or at least owned by the late Jimmie Hudson

I’m hoping it was Pinstriped and possibly painted by the late great Dean Jeffries. See attached pic of signature. It looks like his work that I’ve seen on other cars. It also looks to me like the same paint color as the Kookie T who Dean pinstriped. I’m not sure if Dean painted the Kookie T, maybe someone can fill me in.

It was obviously a purpose built drag car at some point in its life. I have no idea if it may have been sort of a transformer type of pickup that was used for shows then converted to drag racing or just used only for drag racing. The pickup came with a radiator but its current set up Don was running a mag off the front cover. The olds has a block off plate and chopped off distributor shaft in the distributor hole, no starter or battery and only water in the block.

I have no idea what kind of set up he was using for the mag since it’s missing. The cam has a pump drive with a slot machined into the drive like he was running a shortened hemi type shaft. See pic

The rearend and radius rods are chrome. It has a closed driveline and a manual trans that I’ve honestly never seen before. I have zero clue what this transmission is. It has a side cover on the passenger side but is shifted with a stick that is inserted into the top of the side cover.

Anyways, the plan is to just get the truck running again and put it back together just as it was. It needs a mag, seat and I’ll probably add a starter that will be used with a remote battery for start.

any info on this time capsule will be greatly appreciated.

 

That's Rad! Trans looks to be a Lincoln

 

All I can add is that its badass...

 

Thanks Dedsoto! And you’re correct on the transmission. Just looked it up and looks just like a zephyr trans.

I’ve never seen one together. I’ve only had clusters that I used in 39 boxes.

 

Thanks Black Panther and I agree. I seriously got goosebumps when the guy selling it pulled off the cover. I had to have it.

 

Damn that is cool
And it’s a rare big back window to boot
Nice score

 

Gall Dang that's cool...what a time capsule...Hambtastic!!!

 

Looks like a Keith Weesner painting

 

Don Hudson was a member of the Long Beach Qualifiers and operated Don’s Trim Shop.

...From Kustomrama...

 

Keith may have seen this in a garage back in the day and well...a painting is born...and now this...

Congrats @GoJoMoJo...You just made my day sharing this...

 

Sweet truck!
Where did you find it at? Close to home?

 

Budget36, it was in Stockton.

 

Any evidence of a rollbar?

 

I agree. It has perfect proportions for a 32 pickup in my opinion.

 

It looks like it had a removable roll bar. It didn’t come with the car unfortunately. I’ll get more pictures of that later today.

Behind the rear license plate is also a 1.5 inch or so hole drilled in the license plate reveal with a tube crossmember between the frame rails. The tube crossmember is a few inches from the roll pan and is inline with the hole so I’m thinking it also had a removable push bar.

This is why I’m thinking the truck was definitely both raced and showed/street driven. It’s wired for headlights with a dimmer but the taillights have been cut at some point and I have yet to find anywhere a battery could have been mounted.

The truck was definitely not street driven in its current condition with the motor mods.

 

I visited George Klass's site and it seems the only place there was pickups was the Gasser section...no hits...did a fair bit of Dean Jeffries and Don Hudson searches on the web...no hits...Any drag strip identifiers/Stickers...I see the Moon eyes...

Is there any red paint under the blue...I saw one channeled Pickup but it was red, chopped and the box was channeled, not shortened but it sat similarly and was a drag truck...it was in a video...

 

can you shoot me a link of the video? I’m familiar with the site.
I’ll look closer at the paint when I get back out to the shop later today but if you look closely at the steering column you can see some red overspray.
Most of the chipping paint on the fenders looks like it has factory black paint underneath. The undercoating is coming off on areas underneath the fenders and it looks like factory black paint as well.

Thanks for the investigation on your part. Dons daughter apparently lives near me and had the truck at some point. I don’t know her name yet but I’m working on making contact in the future. Im crossing my fingers she has some photos and possible info on the truck. I was also told she had the truck running 5-6 years ago. I’m not sure about that but I’m hopeful and she may know where the missing parts may have gone.

 

...it's at 2:57...its not it but does have some similarities for sure...Heck maybe it's not the same year...trucks are tricky in 32-34...

It's hard to believe a truck that special didn't have ink or pics...I am sure something will pop up...

 

Hope you can find more history. That is definitely one cool little pickup!!! Congrats on the find!

 

TITS!!!

 

That looks to be a different truck in the video, big differences is the door handles were shaved on the one in the video, thats a decent amount of body work as the pad for the handle is in the bead area. The box has been channeled as well based on how tight the rear fenders is to the upper bed rail where the blue trucks box is still sitting at the stock location (key is to look at the bedside beads) Also another key detail I caught in the video, @3:13 you can clearly see the bottom of the cowl where it meets the fender, they reshaped the cowl to curve with the fender for the channel job, blue trucks cowl has not been modified. The fender was relieved to clear instead.

 

Thanks Taboo, I came to the same conclusion you did. The box channel was one of the more notable things I saw that gave me pause. You noted even more reasons this is not a match. Closest I found after an extensive search...

It's truly amazing such a Looker evaded the point and shoot, however something may come up.

 

I'm going to call on @jnaki again...yes California's a big place but I know J has been a Hotrod photographer and a Drag participant in that period.

Maybe he remembers this vivid racer with some pretty notable provenance...

Perhaps a couple more of our veteran Go fast Hambers from California with equally great memories @Dean Lowe and @296ardun may also remember this...

I'm sure there are others who blasted down the California Strips in the late 50s early 60s here that I'm not as familiar with that may have their memories jogged with this capsule emerging...we'd love to hear from you...

I can't say enough how valuable your sharing the history means to what the Hamb is as a whole...thanks to all of you...

 

No help but it's cool as hell! Looks like a Lindberg kit come to life.

 

Stogy, the roll bar was cut off at some point. I thought perhaps it was removable but I don’t see any through holes that would secure it to the car.

 

Great details...Such a cool Hotrod Gojo...and so intact...what is the last year on the plates?

 

Here’s a pic of the distributor cover. You can see the shaft that spins in the cover that would still drive the oil pump off the cam. Don must have been running a cam driven mag. Has anyone ever seen a mag on an olds motor like this? I know I haven’t.

 

67 and 72 are the 2 stickers on the rear plate. The last registration that was in the truck was 61