Those are some cool old pics, my grandpa was and still is a truck driver, never met anyone more proud of his rig. I bet he would sit and polish the chrome whether it was 20 degrees or 95 in the shade. The guys that drove stuff like that are real men. Brad
Here's mine. Just picked up this Diamond Reo cab for my project. I believe it is a 1963, although I could be wrong. It is dimensionally similar to, and looks like, a pickup cab from the late 1940's. It served its time as a cement mixer in Oscoda Michigan. I will go onto a '47 Ford coupe chassis and be powered by a 401 nailhead (both of which I have). Just picked this up, only spent a few hours with it. It is full of odd switches, gauges, and tons of air lines. I plan on keeping most of the switches and electrical terminal blocks and working them into my project. I will probably just fabricate a bed.
Another of dads Jimmies from 62. He was a heavy equipment operator first and traveled the country with work till he settled down and started our family.Thats when he started trucking,hiring drivers while he still worked road construction,wrenching in the evenings and weekends and buying wrecks to rebuild during the winters when road construction was shutdown and he could drive some himself. Whenever the aluminum bodied GMC "crackerbox" cabovers came out he started switching over to them with 6-71 Detroit's . The wrecked one at the bottom was he rebuilt over a winter I think they were called"glider kits" and was the first one locally with the new 318 Detroit.Correct me if I'm wrong,I was still pretty young when this was happening. One of the cool things I remember is him showing me how to work the grease gun that came off the recoil reel.The grease was orange so it was easy to see it coming out of joints. Seems like I spent the whole afternoon searching out grease fittings. The other guys in the shop seemed to get a big kick out of it and would help me find more fittings on at least a couple different trucks. They GoJo'd me up when we were done at I got to go eat with them all at the truck stop.I remember mom raising hell when we got home about my clothes being ruined. Seems like I'm still a grease magnet...
The truck shown by fairlane2k looks kinda like a Federal, one of which i have under the knife right now. It is a bit roomier than an 'A' model but with 7 1/2" off the top and 3" channel, trying to reuse hood and grille she will be most evil for sure.
Here is a pic of a friend of my Dads, Skippy Greaves... The truck is a 1954 154TS Brockway with dual updraft Zenith carbs right from the factory. The pic was taken near the Delaware Water Gap in PA... Tom
Hey Tom, you forgot to mention the FnBig WWW on it! That is a great looking piece of gear and a great photo. How about some shots of yours???
Here is a link to photos of What I believe is a 413 Dodge/Chrysler Industrial 6. I pulled it from a Dodge truck last registered as a '52. It was running a ball mill in Nevada. The engine does not have the proper Dodge numbers and may be a replacement. It has a Chrysler Industrial ID plate but I haven't found info on it yet. In a '52 Dodge it wouldn't have been a 413 just a wimpy 386. There is discussion on big Dodge sixes on the Inliner's site in the Mopar forum. inliners.org http://picasaweb.google.com/sixpics/52DodgeBigSix?authkey=BZdrDZ3_kiY
Where did all those old big trucks go and does anyone from the southern Michigan area remember a rounded cab white cabover(mid 50s?) that was on poles advertising truck repair or parts back in the late 60s to early 70s. I tried finding it again but its probably long gone and I can only remember it was on a highway that ran north and south as I seen it coming from Ohio to go to my grandfathers vacation property in michigan. Jeff
Yes, they were called "glider kits". Cab & chassis with front axle, tires & wheels, less engine, trans. and rearends. Best part of a glider was you got a title issued to you as a brand new truck, even though the engine, trans and rearends were used. I bought and built several in the 60's and 70's. I too liked to drive the trucks with a set of boxes in it 4 & a 3, 4 & a 4, 5 & a 4, first truck I drove had 10 speed roadranger with a 3 speed brownlite in it. The good ol' days of trucking, rough riding, freeze in the winter and burn up in the summer and lots of two lane highway.
There's a bunch more here starting on pg.2 http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/Ramblur/Street Fair 08/?start=0 Check out the chain oilers...
This one was the start of a fairly large fleet,although later almost all were Kenworths. This one is a Hayes,that belonged to my Great Uncle (Walter Millar)
the gmc tower of power, and a fer others. I think the 1960 minuteman missle launcher used two gmc v12's
I always wanted to build a fenderless truck out of one of the big truck cabs...that way I could comfortably fit in it. I've had some 30's cabs and they are too darn small.
Cool, there's an old White utility truck not far from me I'd like to approach the owner about buying the cab off of for a similar build. It has all the glass knocked out and I think he got it to scrap when the price goes back up. How'd you get all the cement chipped off the inside of that cab , sorry, couldn't resist.
Sweet thread. Still looking for mine. Looking at a late 40's federal, 36 chevy, and 48 diamond this week. Keep up the posts guys. BH
Somebody said that "Truckers are Hot Rodders at Heart" well I think they still are Hot Rodders at heart. Look at these 2009 International rigs. I took these pictures at the Wheeling, WV IH dealer just a week or two ago.
Here are a couple pictures of 1956 Ford Heavy Duty Rigs.....log trucks and heavy equipment haulers. Also a car carrier or two.
It is amazing to see what shows up on the HAMB... I love to look at old pics like this. My grandpa(he passed away in 1996) drove OTR for 52 years before retiring in late 1995. He also loved old cars.. although he like them a little different that I do... I used the spend the summers on riding in the truck with... drove my first one at 13... He was a great man, and one of my heros...
The Jalopy Journal
