30s cars made into trucks

[junkyardjeff]

I have plenty of rough Monogram 34 Ford parts and got the idea of making a depression/,WW II home made truck.  Thinking about cutting down the bed from a model A or similar era bed to go in where the trunk lid was kind of like some of those kits that were sold back then. Anybody ever build one.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Even Duesenbergs got chopped down into trucks.

Howard Hughes built the one below to tow a glider.

    

Duesenberg J-model, converted from a limo, below

Duesenberg Model A, 1924, below

 

 

Edited September 28, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, junkyardjeff said:

I have plenty of rough Monogram 34 Ford parts and got the idea of making a depression/,WW II home made truck...

How about a ute?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Here's a Hudson Terraplane sedan cut down with a pickup bed from something unknown.

[Brian Austin]

That Duesenberg stakebed has a relatively short bed for such a long vehicle.  ?

[Brian Austin]

Compare the Hudson shown above with this one listed as a 1946.  Factory built.  The cab back in the one above seems to be lacking a little finesse, but it would be easier to model.  ?

[Brian Austin]

1929 Packard welding rig, 1936.  Trinidad, CO. (According to my notes, though I forget where I found the pic).

Edited September 28, 2024 by Brian Austin

[Brian Austin]

Coupe-bashed.

[NOBLNG]

My dad apparently made a car into a truck. I never saw it, but I remember my mom chuckling when she told us about it.?

[ChrisBcritter]

Coincidentally, fellow LMMC Model Car Club member Glenn Bliznick recently posted this fine '28 Lincoln tow truck he built on the club's FB page:

Now I want to scrounge up a Jo-Han '31 Caddy and do something like it.

[ChrisBcritter]

And here's a '33 Buick I found years ago on the H.A.M.B.:

[junkyardjeff]

What I will make it from is a 3 window coupe and do like the ute but since my parts are on the rough side I am going the home made look,I have seen beds that slipped in the trunks so that is what I will try first.

[rattle can man]

how about a model T bed? it might slide in place with just a little finagling

[oldcarfan]

One I always wanted to build was Travis McGee's Miss Agnes. It featured in pretty much every book in the series. It was described as a 30s Rolls Royce that had bad been sawed into a pickup at sometime in its past.

Not the same time period, but a man in our old town had a 50 Ford that had a pickup truck bed that bolted in place of the trunk lid. He said Sears sold truck conversions for most makes from the 30s to the late 50s.

[Mr. Metallic]

On 9/28/2024 at 4:35 PM, junkyardjeff said:

What I will make it from is a 3 window coupe and do like the ute but since my parts are on the rough side I am going the home made look,I have seen beds that slipped in the trunks so that is what I will try first.

May I suggest widening the trunk/rumble seat opening when you do it? I've seen conversions in scale where the builder just stuck a bed in the stock opening and the bed is just ridiculously narrow in my opinion. Open the width to the molding and the height down to the splash pan and it should give it better proportions. 

[stitchdup]

18 hours ago, oldcarfan said:

One I always wanted to build was Travis McGee's Miss Agnes. It featured in pretty much every book in the series. It was described as a 30s Rolls Royce that had bad been sawed into a pickup at sometime in its past.

Not the same time period, but a man in our old town had a 50 Ford that had a pickup truck bed that bolted in place of the trunk lid. He said Sears sold truck conversions for most makes from the 30s to the late 50s.

the ww1 british army used cut down rolls royce as trucks and ambulance. the over engineering worked well and they also armoured them

 

[Brian Austin]

1920 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost service car, body by Brewster.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2024 by Brian Austin

[Brian Austin]

More R-R pickups

[Richard Bartrop]

8 hours ago, stitchdup said:

the ww1 british army used cut down rolls royce as trucks and ambulance. the over engineering worked well and they also armoured them

 

THey worked so well that they ended up using them in WW2 as well.

[Brian Austin]

Rolls-Royce ice cream trucks

https://www.automotiverhythms.com/phantom-ii-rolls-royce-ice-cream-beauty/

https://jalopnik.com/this-rolls-royce-ice-cream-truck-is-the-most-british-th-1851493456

https://mccreathfamily.scot/italian-connections/the-italian-cafe-heritage/other-italian-businesses-listed-by-shire/east-lothian/s-luca-olympia-cafe-musselburgh/

Here's a 1:43 diecast

https://www.tacot.com/listings/rolls-royce-20hp-ice-cream-van-1923-s-luca-purple-metal-glm-86435-0

 

Edited October 1, 2024 by Brian Austin

[Brian Austin]

Packard Ice Cream Truck

[rattle can man]

As for proportions, what are you after? I will give you that the proportions may look odd, but the kits that were marketed to convert coupes to pickups were designed to slide into the existing opening. I believe the factory '36 Chevy Coupe-pickup used the factory opening with bed extensions added. If the body work was cut away, you can either build a custom bed or utilize a stock truck bed. A used truck bed would probably have been the cheapest

[junkyardjeff]

I can imagine the trunks in the later 30s coupes were wider then a 34 so I will have to cut on the body some,planning on using a model A bed.

[Richard Bartrop]

On 9/30/2024 at 8:18 PM, Brian Austin said:

Packard Ice Cream Truck

Lindberg's 1/32 1930 Packard would make a great starting point if you ever wanted to build that.