DAILY GRIND
Nice truck, Richard; how long have you had her?
Probably five or six years now, but it has been in the country for about 10 years. I always liked the look of the ’58s and ’59s, with the twin-headlight front end — better looking than the earlier models, in my mind anyway. It wasn’t that pretty when I got it, though. In fact, it was a bit of a roughy and painted matt black, but I could see the potential. It has taken a bit of work, a good panel and paint, obviously, plus a new deck tray in the rear, a new interior, shiny wheels, etc., but she’s looking pretty sharp now, and it’s nice that others think so, too. Pretty much any truck or car show I go to, Beach Hop and the like, I come back to ‘if you ever want to sell your truck, call me’ notes under the wiper, but I have no plans for selling. It has done OK at the shows, too, taking out Top Truck at the USA Haulers Club show in Taupo back in 2015 and a few trophies before and since in smaller shows.
She certainly looks the part now — the stance is just great. There’s a bit of work to getting these things to sit just right, but the effort is worth it. I’ve got a Jaguar front end in it; that transforms these old trucks. Going from a front beam and leaves to an independent front end with rack-and-pinion steering plus disc brakes makes a huge difference to the handling — it really is a must-do swap. The chassis has been C-notched at the rear to give room for diff travel when sitting this low. It’s got a Camaro drum-brake rear in it, too, which works well and has a much better ratio than the stock rear end.
What else have you done mechanically? This truck was a bit unusual, as it had a three- speed manual Y-gearbox in it with a splitter, so it was effectively a six-speed and the overall gearing was awesome. However, I must have been a bit hard on it and shattered the internals, so we put a five-speed out of a Silverado into it, and that is working really well. The engine is a 283, which I have modified a bit with a big cam, Air Gap intake, Holley carb, etc., all of which we thought would be too big for the little engine, but it all worked out fine. It sounds pretty angry, and it loves to rev through all the gears. Having the manual is awesome, and makes it a lot of fun to drive, especially on the windy roads. Some might say it’s a bit nice for a dailydriver, but you obviously use it as a work truck. Yeah, it’s a work truck all right. While I like it looking nice, I am not too precious about it. The outside is kept clean but it hardly, if ever, needs to be vacuumed. I just blow it out with the compressed air when it gets dusty or dirty inside. For me, it is a dailydriver with all the stuff you need, such as the USB adaptor for cell phone, iPod — which also plugs into the radio, so I can listen to what I want — and a licence protector (radar detector) on the windscreen in case I have a lapse in concentration. If you take a look inside there, you will see my chainsaw sitting on the passenger seat. It was definitely built to be used, not to be stored away.
What are your future plans for the truck? Just to keep driving it, really. I am now working on a second one, which will be a lot flasher than this one. A cousin bought the other ’58 a few years ago, and I went to look at it with regard to doing a full panel and paint on it for him. Somehow, I ended up owning the truck when he decided he didn’t want to go any further with it. It’s also running a 283 with a Silverado five-speed, but that is getting swapped out for a 327 fairly soon. I’ve also fitted the Jag front end and Commodore diff, but it’s a disc-braked rear this time; it was the right width and worked out well. It’s currently also being used as a shop truck for doing parts runs or whatever — there’s a load of wheels in the back of it at the moment. While it looks rough compared to this one at present, it will be a lot nicer than this when it’s done.
If this is just a work truck, we can’t wait to see how the ‘nice’ one turns out! Thanks for your time, Richard.