Retired firefighters help rebuild 1937 firetruck

You have to figure Arthur Relph would be pleased.

The fire pumper truck he built from the chassis up in 1937 for the Alta Loma Fire Department is not only back home but running like new with its red exterior as bright as ever.

Just before Thanksgiving, the truck returned to Rancho Cucamonga after sitting idle in storage since 1987 at the Washington home of Relph’s grandson, Donald Beattie, who donated it to the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District.

But the truck has been anything but idle since returning home. A team of seven men, most retired from the Rancho Cucamonga district, spent 100 days cleaning, replacing and repairing nearly everything on Relph’s truck. The work was supported and financed primarily by the Rancho Cucamonga Professional Firefighters Association, Local 2274.

“One thing you can count on with a bunch of retired firefighters is that they will get right on restoring and repairing an historic truck like this, and they sure did,” said Tony Gonzalez, president of the Route 66 Inland Empire California Association.

Once restored, the truck made its official appearance as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony March 3 of the new Rancho Cucamonga Public Safety Facility, at 8870 San Bernardino Road.

This team repaired, tuned and serviced the engine and transmission. The siren was completely rebuilt, and the wiring was replaced, tested and diagrammed. The hydraulic brake system was replaced, along with the cooling system and fuel system.

All the lighting was restored to almost original, including the rear Dodge taillight and a replacement red beacon has been ordered. The wood decking was restored, along with the fire appliances and some hose and hand tools. A professional detailer polished the old red paint.

“In the future, we would like to have the paint clear-coated to preserve the charm of this old Dodge,” said Sammy Dominick Sr., a retired firefighter who helped organize bringing the truck back to the area as well as taking the lead in the rebuilding of the truck. “We would like to rebuild the front-mounted fire pump and restore the water tank as needed.”

“This has all been a labor of love,” Dominick said. “The volunteers devoted 1,020 hours completing the project.”

He said the team worked out of the Rancho Cucamonga workshop of retired Corona Deputy Fire Chief Chris Cox. Other members of the team were current RCFD Engineer Abel Castaneda, retired district fire mechanics Armand Gionet and Tony Varney, and Chris’ dad Karl Cox, a retired RCFD communications supervisor. Two other key workers were Chris Cox’s wife Heidi Cox and sonin-law Kevin Quinn.

The truck will be housed in the old Station 172 at 9612 San Bernardino Road, said Dominick. There is hope that the location might one day serve as a RCFD fire museum.

COURTESY OF JEFF MITTMAN The restoration of the 1937 pumper truck of the Alta Loma Fire Department was completed earlier this year by a team that included mostly retired firefighters. Chris Cox, in whose workshop the work was done, drives out the completed truck.