OK rather than continue with my original post on this (Which was just a question really) I thought I’d start afresh.
I always wanted to build something original and different. As a teen I bought Custom Car and Street Machine and LOVED the wild creations from the likes of Ray Christopher and Nick Butler. In fact Revenge is still my all time favourite car. (If the owner of Revenge is listening, when it’s back on the street there’s a beer in it if I could just have one ride in it).
In the mid to late eighties I built my first proper modified car which was a Honda Acty pickup with a 1275 Mini engine trans etc all mid-mounted. This made it to a Garry’s Picnic and all in all I had a ball. Sadly however something broke and sent the tail sideways which resulted in a 2 ½ turn barrel roll and a totalled Honda.
Nothing much changed in the Knowledge stables after that. A Dodge B100 van doesn’t count for much as a Rod or Custom.
Late in the ‘90s I was wondering what I could build and thought about my old Honda. I had a Rover V8 that my brother had given me just before the roll and I had thought of dropping it into the Honda. It had sat around for some time just begging to be used. This is when I had my inspiration. I’d seen pics of a mid-mount Ford special in a Petersons press ‘How to build a Street Rod book’ and although a nice enough idea was a little impractical for the UK. So I thought “How about a T truck in the same style and size as my old Honda?”
So I sat down with a pencil and paper and doodled a few ideas and came up with the ‘Woody’ look. I approached ex prez Nick Harrison and asked if he could fashion up the doors. Deal struck I supplied him the two front A posts and billet hinges along with detailed drawings and he set off to make them. Back in darkest Northampton at our engineering shop I set too and started cutting steel box for the chassis.
Now some people love to sort rust on an old body, and although I can do it I must admit I’m far happier with new metal and parts. This fact is reflected in the way it took me MONTHS messing with my now sold 100E but yet I started with some box section on the Monday and working after hours in the evenings and that weekend rolled out a finished rolling chassis on the next Monday morning.
All seemed well but I’d made a big design faux par. In the desire to keep it short I’d taken the Rover prop apart and created a single UJ with a flange front and rear. Now although a Jag IRS third member doesn’t move there will still be flex in the frame and engine and box mounts so it was quickly realised that my BW35 Trans would break its tail shaft casing under the strain. After cutting the frame at the rear to lengthen it I got just a little disillusioned and then just to ruin everything the entire machine shop along with the doors Nick had made and I’d since collected were plunged into 18” of flood water. The doors almost survived, but as they dried the Maple split and warped. The result was two dead doors.
I shelved the whole thing and waited for the day I could resurrect it.
Fast forward to end 2009 and life has changed for me. Now divorced and struggling on with a 100E Anglia I was thinking of how time was moving on and realised that if I didn’t make a push to build a Rod now I most likely never would. So I decided to sell my 100E and bring back the Truck.
Following my original posting “So what do you think” I was pleased by the positive responses and decided to push on. The frame has now been lengthened so that a ‘short’ prop can be fitted in, which in itself is not such a bad idea as the wheelbase is now 90”. Another Rover and GM180 Trans obtained and soon I should have a rolling chassis again. Sadly my late Father retired in 2000 and I no longer have a full machine shop at my disposal, but that will just present problems rather than obstacles. My new job as a design engineer gives me a full on 3D engineering design package to work on (Solid Works) and it’s JPEGs from that you see here along with an old B&W photo of the Truck from the ‘90s.
After pondering a few things I decided that this Rod should have a name. Considering its 13-14 year delay in production and my love of Pink Floyd there can only be one name for it. I give you the “One of these days” Model T Truck.
Pic of the Truck as it was in the ‘90s.
~original
Pic from my PC.
Model ‘man’ is 6 foot tall.