MORE FREE TIME A SILVER LINING TO SELF-ISOLATING
Retired Calgarian embarks on pet project based on 1940 Ford Express pickup truck
Since the self-isolation order came down, Trevor Wannop has had more time to spend working in his garage in Calgary. His project is an ambitious build based on a 1940 Ford Express pickup truck.
While he realizes people are suffering, and front-line workers are the true heroes, he does see a plus side for him to shelter in place.
“With a few more hours each afternoon to work on the project, suddenly progress is speeding up,” he reports.
He bought a pair of the trucks in the fall of 2016, retired from a 29-year career at Shell at the end of that year, and started modifying his oversized double garage to accommodate the work.
“I bought a hoist from Lift King but had to cut a two-foot hole in my ceiling to allow a vehicle to be raised up on the lift,” Wannop says. “I had to get my garage organized before I could start on the project.”
With his workspace renovation finished and the lift, a new air compressor and welder in place, Wannop brought home the first of the pair of 1940 Ford Express trucks. Why a Ford Express truck?
“I grew up in Ontario with a buddy who got into drag racing,” Wannop says. “I was always interested in cars and had a 1969 Mini Cooper at 15. I drove it without a licence, got caught, and had to sell it to pay the fine.
“I had a few other cars, including a Datsun 240Z, and I rebuilt a 1970 GMC truck, but I was always interested in building a kit car.”
After getting married and while raising a family, Wannop says he never had time to focus on a big project. As he approached retirement, he was thinking he’d build a Factory Five Racing kit car.
“My wife just couldn’t get excited about a kit car,” Wannop says. “And one day at a car show, she pointed out the obvious — there’d be no room to carry luggage or anything else and it would be close to useless.
“That’s when we saw a 1938 or ’39 Ford truck that had been stretched into a crew cab, and I thought that was a great idea.”
He found the pair of one-ton Ford Express trucks for sale in B.C. One was a 1941 truck, and it was together and actually ran, but wouldn’t have been roadworthy. The other was a 1940 model and was mostly a parts vehicle.
His first priority was to strip the cab, fenders and box from the ’41. He sold that rolling chassis and kept all of the sheet metal. He then stripped down the ’40, choosing to use that chassis for the base, and sandblasted the frame at Consolidated Compressor. After the surface rust was cleaned away, he says, it was like new.
Wannop learned from Rodwerx in Red Deer about kits produced by Flat Out Engineering of California that would enable him to install the front and rear ends from a donor C4 Corvette. He bought the kits, and Western Corvette sold him the rebuilt front and rear suspension, complete with Corvette disc brakes, from a 1989 ’Vette.
For power, Wannop bought a Ford Performance 5.0-litre Coyote crate engine mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. He is modifying an 80-L universal gas tank to fit, has plumbed and routed brake lines, and recently took delivery of a modified driveshaft from Pat’s Driveline in Calgary.
“The truck’s going to have quiet mufflers, navigation, a good stereo and heated and cooled Cadillac power seats because I want to do long road trips, and I want it comfortable for both of us,” he says.
To accommodate all of these creature comforts, Wannop is getting ready to cut apart the cab and weld in panels to stretch it nine inches in the doors and three inches behind the doors.
Even with the extra hours to work on the truck during the pandemic, he says there’s no rush to the finish line.
“I’m enjoying my time in the garage during COVID-19,” he says. “But I’ve always said it will be done when it’s finished.”