Drug this home...FINALLY

This is the last Diamond T I am bringing home.

Ironically, this is the truck that started my entire collection. Please allow me to tell the story of how these trucks keep finding me and how the HAMB made this addiction worse.

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There'’s a fellow in these parts that buys and sells old cars as a profession. He finds the basement treasures and barn ornaments that aren’t advertised for sale. Wherever there is a widow or a geezer out of time and money, he’ll be there with cash and a trailer. Occasionally, when he finds something old and weird that hasn'’t run in a long time, he will bring cars to my Dad for him to breathe life back into them.


Last December he brought Dad this Rolls Royce and a tip that there was a pair of Diamond T pickups for sale in central Missouri. He didn’t even have to tell me where, because I had seen one of these trucks years ago,and there can't be that many Diamond T pickups around. I had seen it sitting next to a barn within sight of a country road. The front clip was missing, but I recognized the unique deep-vee of the windshield as a Diamond T. Not only did I take note of this rare pickup, but I took a hazy photo from the side of the road. That was 1995.
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Famous last words unless you died right after bringing it home? but again your writing about it~~~UNLESS you're a ghost writer?

 

I had no idea that a better truck was being stored in the barn nearby. Not until December of 2012, when I went to visit the curator of these fine antiquities. The photos you see here were taken after I bought the trucks and after hours of moving junk out of the way. I understood immediately why our tipster passed on these beauties. He never would have had time to dig them out from their tomb of garbage. This was no job for a professional. This was a job for amateurs.
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I know, right?

I'm starting a support group for junk hounds. "My name is Don, and I am addicted to rust." It has been 20 hours since I last drug home a derelict vehicle. It has been five minutes since I was online trolling for parts to build the last parts car I bought and then decided it was too good to part out, so I'm building that one, too."

 

There really was no way to assess the condition of the truck in the barn. I’m sure it was in far worse shape than the farmer believed it to be when he stashed it there a quarter of a century ago. The price was right and the intrigue was high. I didn’t buy a truck as much as I bought the excitement of an archeological dig.


It took us longer to get it out of the barn than it took us to get it running. Dad really does work miracles with neglected vehicles. The next miracle will be to erase the damage done to the rocker panel by the farmer’s poor choice of locations to store his garden fertilizer. GRRRRR! Have you ever seen rust-cicles? Little stalactites of iron oxide were all that was left of the driver-side running board. It really is a shame, because that ugly rocker panel betrays how solid this old truck is.

Here's a link to a Youtube video of the truck driving under its own power for the first time in 25 years, and you can see the rust I'm talking about. http://youtu.be/rKpXq8zn5fo<O</O</O

 

After getting the barn truck home, but long before I could return to retrieve its mate, I started boning up on Diamond Ts and growing an appreciation for these rare birds. That’s when I decided to call the guy in Utah about the Diamond T 201 we had seen on our road trip last summer. The road trip is described (with photos) in a thread I’m constructing about Dad’s REO pickup at http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=799746 . On the trip to retrieve Dad’s REO cab, we also found a Diamond T pickup. When I heard the history of that truck, I decided I needed that one, too. I was not trying to be greedy, but rather thought these trucks deserved love. The history of the Salt Lake Diamond T is in the thread at http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=801156

 

Not only did that truck from Utah find its way into my barn before I retrieved the second Missouri truck; but this darn forum put me in touch will a member who offered to sell me yet another Diamond T 201. By now, I’m, just a sucker, so I drug that one home all the way from Ohio.


That is how the first Diamond T I saw became the fourth one I drug home. If you have any hot leads on Diamond T trucks out there for sale, please keep them to yoruself. I'm full!

Today, I have the fun job of sorting through all the loose pieces packed inside the cab of the last, repeat LAST Diamond T I am bringing home.



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Here's my story of digging Diamond T's out of barns: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409683&highlight=diamond

 

That's cool. The guy in the picture with the white hat looks familiar.

His name wouldn't be Wes, would it.

I grew up in central mo.

 

Am I wrong or do those look like Model 80s-even more rare than my 201s!

 

Here's a bit of inspiration for you from last Weekend's truck show I went to.

 

Tim, This is Don. Your flatheads are awesome! Miss seeing you around. Still got this newspaper clipping of your bro and our Dad's from 1989.

 

I thought that was you. I keep informed on what you guys are up to through my dad. I stay impressed with what you guys manage to find and bring home. I don't make it home very often, family and work keep me busy.

I talk to weber frequently, as he helps me out on early ford stuff. If you ever come to KC, let me know. Keep in touch.

 

Last Diamond T i'm bringing home.
Kind of reminds me of my signature

 

Exactly!

 

Yep, Web is an inspiration.

Dad really does all the work in our family. Like you, I am busy with job and family. The computer is a convenient outlet to get my car fix. It also gets me into trouble, becuase it is so easy to find new toys. Check out the REO thread . It is a testament to how the Internet made a project possible that would have otherwise not have happened. That is my contirbution.

 

Very cool story.

 

That would make a great work truck.
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Very cool. You are lucky to be able to live so close to your mom and dad and share that with them. You will cherish that forever. I will let you know when I swing through town.

 

I learned a few things about this truck today.

It was a southern truck, This one never had a heater. There are no holes in the dash or firewall where one would have been. It had a 1966 inspection sticker from New Orleans. The bed and frame are real soild. It must not have been run in salt or many gravel roads. The paint under the fenders is better than anywhere. I bet this truck was in real nice shape whne the farmer put it out to pasture in the 1980s. This headlight stancion was in a small box of parts that was in protected storage, too bad it no longer matches the truck.

 

This truck is no more. It is giving its parts so that others may live on. It has a really nice 1-ton frame and pickup bed.

 

Diamond Ts and spiders and rats and snakes...oh my. I've always liked these trucks and love a good treasure hunt. There is no cure for this addiction....sorry.

 

Great line, that will get reused. Bob

 

I accept the sketpcism, but I really mean it. There are too many cool trucks around here. No more can come, and at least one of them has got to leave by the end of summer. I don't care how cheap I have to sell it.

I've already gone from 4 to 3 by consolidsting the best of the two parts trucks. Almost all of the Diamond Ts were red, so you can't even tell that I put the bed of one truck on the more complete chassis of the truck that has a title and a motor that turns over. I've got some fender s to slap on there, yet.

 

Stater Brothers Markets in Colton, CA has this nicely restored Diamond T.

 

I know a guy that has this...You interested?

 

Can I join your group?

 

This was no job for a professional. This was a job for amateurs.

GREAT line. And cool trucks! Bless you for saving the orphans - many happy miles in the classy chassis they will be when you're through with them.

 

The Stater Brothers truck is sooo cool...I took a pic of it at the Redlands 4th of July parade..If I had the extra money and time I would of bought this one to make into a car hauler..I really need to be filthy rich...