Cars to hay wagons and other conversions

[Fossil]

2 hours ago, J.H.Boland said:

My '21 Chevy 490 was originally a touring car,but neatly converted into a roadster pickup when still relatively new.

That is one nice looking conversion!

 

 

[1939_Buick]

5 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

BINGO! 2004 Audi A4 Ultra Sport sedan converted to a Ute pickup. 6-speed, 1.8 turbo, quattro, leather, etc. Drives great for a custom built thing and ridiculously fun. Totally absurd. Everyone cranes their necks to figure out what it is. I think I'll put some Audi rings on the tailgate to help them out, I plan to make it look like the factory built it this way. Didn't cost much and turns out to be a lot of fun to drive. Melanie wants to go buy a new dishwasher just to make them load it into this thing.

 

 

 

 

In South America, Asia & even EU small FWD car based utes/pickup/vans are still made

Keeping the structural integrity is the hard part of vehicles without a full chassis

Been rumours of a new Ford Focus based pickup/ute

https://www.carscoops.com/2020/05/fords-focus-based-pickup-could-be-called-the-maverick/

Edited October 18, 2020 by 1939_Buick (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

6 hours ago, Mark Shaw said:

My daughter claimed the canoe, so it is still for sale without it.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Mark Shaw said:

Here you go...

 

 

 

Reminding folks of the extremely modest price, as well as the quality of the Buick, should encourage potential buyers-

sorry we cannot take advantage of the really neat toy

[cessna195]

1919 Stoddard Dayton Saybrook chassis.

John

 

[Fossil]

9 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

BINGO! 2004 Audi A4 Ultra Sport sedan

    Matt whoever converted that sure knew their way around bodywork. Easy to see why your liking it. 

[Craig Gillingham]

11 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

BINGO! 2004 Audi A4 Ultra Sport sedan converted to a Ute pickup. 6-speed, 1.8 turbo, quattro, leather, etc. Drives great for a custom built thing and ridiculously fun. Totally absurd. Everyone cranes their necks to figure out what it is. I think I'll put some Audi rings on the tailgate to help them out, I plan to make it look like the factory built it this way. Didn't cost much and turns out to be a lot of fun to drive. Melanie wants to go buy a new dishwasher just to make them load it into this thing.

 

  

 

  

I like this a lot.

[Pfeil]

 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Pfeil (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

2 minutes ago, Pfeil said:

 

By far my favorite episode!

[Pfeil]

On 10/19/2020 at 9:34 AM, Matt Harwood said:

 

By far my favorite episode!

Yeah, and that boxing glove can just be seen on the driver side "A" pilar

  

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Pfeil (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

On 10/18/2020 at 10:57 AM, Mark Shaw said:

My daughter claimed the canoe, so it is still for sale without it.

 

 

 

The canoe added even more character, and possibly amphibious?

[nzcarnerd]

This Daimler in New Zealand was converted in the 1980s - 

 

 

[nzcarnerd]

Back in the day it was quite common to use car chassis for ambulances. These are all from the South Island of New Zealand town of Timaru. There were quite a few of the post war Mercurys built and some survive.

 

 

 

A recent photo of one of the mercury ambulances

 

 

[AHa]

Any guesses as to what this was converted from? Looks like a differential under the rear but too short not to have been cut and the front axle looks to be turned upside down. The differential looks to be a clamshell type and therefore quite early, no? Looks like the rear wheels are set up for duellies with the front wheels perhaps being the other half?

[JACK M]

5 hours ago, Ben P. said:

Drove past this on the way to work a few times - finally pulled over to take pictures. Used to only see wagons like this - farmers didn’t used to spend money for purpose built wagons....

(The rocks are what are for sale, and no, I’m not stopping again to get the ph. #🙂)

 

Good looking crop of rocks.

[PFitz]

A Locomobile converted to dealer delivery truck. Your's truly at the wheel about 1980, when it was still in Austin Clark's Long Island Auto Museum. 

 

Walt G can tell you more about it as he owned it for awhile.

 

Paul

[28 Chrysler]

When I was a kid farmers would hire yougens to pick rock but I never could tell when the rocks were ripe and ready to pick.

[coachJC]

17 minutes ago, 28 Chrysler said:

When I was a kid farmers would hire yougens to pick rock but I never could tell when the rocks were ripe and ready to pick.

That is funny that you mention that as I did that as a kid in graperies around home. we would get paid an extra .10 cents per rock we would pick up as we were out working in the grapes.

[Ivan Saxton]

Rock trailer source for axles and wheels is Ford truck, probably late 1930s 3 or 4 ton size.  My father and his brothers had several of those and a few similar size Chev and Maple Leaf.   At the start of the war when use of petrol was forbidden they were converted to use kerosene; and later, all had diesel engines fitted of various make determined by what was available.  One larger truck was known as a "Ford Thornton."   This had a very wide front, and a pair of Ford V8s, mounted side by side below the cab.  Those were removed and probably sold or used for replacements when petrol would again be permitted.   The two v8swere replaced by a 5 cylinder 5LW Gardiner diesel engine, which worked in a "dog kennel" protruding from behind the truck cab.   I have photos of the truck, one with a huge diameter log on the log trailer; and the other with an Inter TD24 on a low- loader with a big overload bend in the middle.  The truck never remained in service for long, for it broke three sets of differentials. I surmise now that there was no power divider between the tandem rear drive axles.    It was left parked with no engine or rear axle set for perhaps 12 or 14 years.   As above, if someone could be kind enough to write for me in plain English uncontaminated by computer jargon I feel I could share a lot of photos that people would enjoy photos . 

[Borough Essex]

Pictured are my dad, brother and I in our 1938 Buick Straight 8 farm ute in Western Australia in 1966. Dad's friend in Perth had this sedan blocking his driveway and gave it to him. I watched him chop the back off with an axe and brush paint it.

 

Currently have a 1925 aluminium bodied Hudson tourer in the shed which was converted into a ute in the 1940s for hauling livestock to market. The photo earlier from F&J of the 1920 Reo with the wooden door tops has given me a few ideas as I go about restoring it.

[3macboys]

14 hours ago, Ben P. said:

Drove past this on the way to work a few times - finally pulled over to take pictures. Used to only see wagons like this - farmers didn’t used to spend money for purpose built wagons....

(The rocks are what are for sale, and no, I’m not stopping again to get the ph. #🙂)

Looks to be about a 30 AA Ford

[28 Chrysler]

This was taken sometime in the mid to late 1930s

[Pfeil]

[keiser31]

Dust bowl refugees....my mother-in-law is the baby pictured....she'll be 94 in two days....

[AHa]

Here is a very nice Locomobile tow truck in the Chattanooga transportation museum.

[Fossil]

45 minutes ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

And the Hell of it was there is a new crop of rocks every year.

Around here anyway they bring more on the market every year.  Landscaping and shore stabilizing.  They are now probably worth more than that old trailer. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Fossil (see edit history)

[Mark Shaw]

On 10/19/2020 at 10:40 AM, Marty Roth said:

The canoe added even more character, and possibly amphibious?

The canoe with my split bamboo fly rod and wicker creel made for a great display.  Thanks Marty...

[kgreen]

These folks left the engine in this one:

[JACK M]

6 hours ago, kgreen said:

These folks left the engine in this one:

 

Hope the exhaust doesn't get to hot.

[kgreen]

Here's one.  Not as much converted as stripped but still in use.  I'm not sure of the advantage of this unless the body really rusted out.  Speaking of rust, I hear a lot of 50's and 60's cars rusting but was salt used as much in the prewar years as afterwards?

[58L-Y8]

34 minutes ago, kgreen said:

Here's one.  Not as much converted as stripped but still in use.  I'm not sure of the advantage of this unless the body really rusted out.  Speaking of rust, I hear a lot of 50's and 60's cars rusting but was salt used as much in the prewar years as afterwards?

Practicality of use was the order of the day on the farms then.  When the old family 'bus' had been replaced but still ran well enough to repurpose for other jobs such as using as a power source to run a thresher or other implement, then the body was mostly removed, shortened, the power take-off set-up installed and put to work.  While there were tractors available, not everyone had the money to buy one or could scrape up the funds to do so.  Borrowing money was anathema.  There was also the old Yankee adage: Use it up, wear it out, make do, do without.

[AHa]

Can anybody recognize this chassis? The hubcaps should be a giveaway. It looks like the motor is running but the vehicle is setting at an odd angle to the work to be driving it.

[58L-Y8]

1 hour ago, AHa said:

Can anybody recognize this chassis? The hubcaps should be a giveaway. It looks like the motor is running but the vehicle is setting at an odd angle to the work to be driving it.

The power transmission is by a belt drive running on a pulley mounted on the short drive shaft to the drum on the thresher or elevator pile up into the silo.  They had to be parallel to make it function.

[TAKerry]

One summer, probably around 1978/79, I was a laborer for a local stone mason. He had a big old mixer that he welded a Model A axle onto for highway speeds. One evening on our way home from work the tire went flat and it was riding on the wheel. Everyone that pulled up beside were sure to tell us that we had a flat. Roy ( the mason) just smiled and grinned. When he got home he cut it off and put another complete axle off of another junk car he had laying around. He said that was easier than finding a tire and tube.

[kgreen]

This conversion is better the the universal SBC swap although the resultant horsepower suffers.

[Fossil]

2 horse power and EPA approved. 😄 Love it.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Fossil (see edit history)

[dibarlaw]

1923 Buick Model 35 Touring made into a pretty neat pickup.

 It showed up for sale several years ago. I wonder who has it now?

Edited November 25, 2020 by dibarlaw (see edit history)

[3macboys]

6 hours ago, Fossil said:

2 horse power and EPA approved. 😄 Love it.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought that the exhaust had to exit behind the passenger compartment for a safety though

[Fossil]

1 hour ago, dibarlaw said:

1923 Buick Model 35 Touring made into a pretty neat pickup.

The long box and wheel base would be a nice option. 

 

[Fossil]

This is some pretty neat conversions in this thread.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/great-depression-homemade-trucks.1156761/

[Haisley]

On 10/10/2020 at 9:08 PM, dustycrusty said:

OOOOOOO, Doggies! That woulda looked powerful sweet behind the Clampetts rig. Then they could brought all a' Ellie Mae's critters wit 'em!

 

They are super cute furr babies!