When I saw this picture, I knew I had to find out more about this little pickup. It’s just so unorthodox. Photo credit to Hemmings.com.
The front suspension was also Buick, as the guy just sub-framed the whole setup of the car under there. For years, it was common to put the torsion bar front end from an Aspen or a Volare under a fat-fendered 50’s Ford pickup, which resulted in you getting a 318 or a 360 for power. Unfortunately, you also got one of the worst carburetors Holley ever produced as a bonus, but at least that’s easy to swap out.
Nowadays, I believe the Crown Vic sub-frame is the hot ticket for those trucks, giving you the 4.6, which is an overall nice engine that sounds great through an aftermarket dual exhaust. I knew a guy with an early 50’s Chevy wagon that he built on a budget, and as crazy as it sounds, it had a Ford 302 under the hood. A Chevy V8 may be the most affordable swap for the most part, but he had a 302 sitting on the floor that was already paid for.
My truck has an Oldsmobile 455 in it, mounted to a TH455 transaxle in the bed. It looks wild, handles and stops almost like a sports car, and it’s weird. This little Model A hits me the same way my truck did when I bought it as a spray-painted pile of combined parts. It has a weird engine, and it’s mounted to a transaxle in the bed.
Normally, if a Model A doesn’t have the stock banger motor in it, it has a Chevy or Ford small block. They’re cheap, easy, and they fit. The aftermarket is ripe with parts to the point that you hardly need to own a welder as long as you don’t mind drilling holes and putting nuts onto bolts.
Here, we have a DOHC 4.6L 32-valve V8 out of a Mustang Cobra, mounted to the same ZF five-speed manual transaxle that the DeTomaso Pantera came with. As shocking as it seems, the engine fits perfectly in the bed without encroaching on cab space. There’s even still bed space behind the engine, which is where the fuel tank resides. Under the hood, the cockpit has been extended out for added leg room, and the radiator remains in the stock location. The coolant runs front-to-back through the tubular frame rails of the custom ladder-style tube chassis. Inside, it’s standard street rod stuff, with a classy tan leather interior and a small bench seat. There’s four-wheel independent suspension sprung with front and rear coil-over shocks and four-wheel power disc brakes. The coolest part is how the engine is accessed. The body itself is on a separate sub-frame of some sort, and the whole thing lifts up hydraulically, the opposite way a funny car does. I’m a sucker for front-and-rear buggy springs with a greasy old small block Chevy under the hood, myself, but I guarantee this thing would be way more fun to drive.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
