Donald Gibbs of Modesto, Ill., brought his beautiful 1934 Ford Model BB truck to the Spring Festival in Carlinville. “The truck was bought new by a potato farmer up in the Red River Valley,” Don said. “The farmer used it for several years, then he traded it.” The next owner was a farmer as well. “A wheat farmer bought it and used it to haul wheat from his farm.” Don saw the tractor while working up north.
“I had a job up in North Dakota to bury 400 miles of water pipe lines. I saw the truck in 1975 and I bought it from the wheat farmer. I brought it home put it in my building and stored it.” The truck sat until 2014 when he decided to restore it.
While the truck was sitting though, Don wasn’t idle. He had been preparing. “Over the years I knew there were many things the truck needed. I had been buying them so that when I decided to restore it, I would have the parts I needed. It just took time.”
To get the things the 1934 truck needed, he went to a lot of auctions and scanned the truck ads. One ad in a car magazine that he subscribes to really paid off – “The greatest fi nd was tires that fi t that truck. They were size 32 by 6 inches; they were in a car magazine. I found tires out in Pennsylvania and learned that that they had been manufactured by Ford Motor Company in Dearborn.” This was just what he needed to make his 1934 Ford Model BB authentic. “I kept that truck as pure as I could, the way Ford Motor Company built it,” Don explained. “It took about three years to restore. There were times there were delays.”
While a friend who has a body shop did the body work, Don did all the mechanical work. “I took off every nut, bolt and screw except for the differential; I did not disassemble that.”
The hardest part of the restoration was all the effort he took to keep the Model BB original – the time to search for the right nuts, bolts and screws. Don said he also was blessed on the engine he has in the restored Ford.
“I was very fortunate. I had met an old man that had a machine shop in Lincoln, Illinois. He and his partner rebuilt engines for Sears and Montgomery Ward back during the (19)30s and early ’40s. When the Second World War started, the government came and said, ‘You either go into the war program or we will take your shop equipment.’ This was the last engine they built in the shop.”
That engine remained pristine, as the man kept it for himself. “He thought he’d do something with it down the road,” Don said, “However, he never did use that engine and one day he called me and said, ‘Don I’m going to clean my shop out and I have something I want to give you.’ It was this engine. He gave it to me and it was never started. He said, ‘Don, I used to get $35 for this out the door.’”
The engine purred like a cat. “I put the engine in the truck and a carburetor and oil and it fired right off. It has not given me a bit of trouble.”
As far as the pristine paint job, his friend at the body shop did that. “I have restored vehicles prior to this, but he has the facilities to keep the dust and dirt out of it.”
Don said his own business is excavating, grading underground, working on bridges and doing demolition and such. This is a family business and he plans on retiring sometime soon.
The 1934 Ford Model BB hasn’t been too many places because he just finished restoring it last fall. There are other vehicles waiting in line for their turn. “It sat in the building with several other vehicles. I have got several cars and a few trucks; I have a 1940 Diamond T unrestored and a 1946 Ford ton-and-a-half truck I’ve had probably 10 years.” “I started collecting about 50 years ago,” Don explained, adding he still has his first car, a 1947 Ford sedan. “I bought it in Jefferson City, Missouri, and drove it home.”
Retirement will have its benefits. He plans to visit the Ford Museum and added, “I might use some of the money from selling equipment to restore another vehicle or two.” He is in no hurry, though, because he wants it done right.
“I guess you could say I am a perfectionist. That’s the only way I can judge a vehicle to see how close it is to factory-built.”
Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com |
