Truck of the Week…
You may think you know exactly what this roadster pickup truck is and think it is a factory built truck with some modifications. The truth is, Ron Wiggins scratch built this truck from a 4-door sedan. We hope you enjoy reading the “short story” from the words of Ron below. Be sure to scroll down for more of the article and photos of the complete build. Thanks goes to Ron for sharing his amazing ride with us!
“For some crazy reason, I have built several cars out of four door Model A sedans. Maybe because they were inexpensive compared to 32-34 gold. Or maybe because I wanted to prove cool cars could be built out of four door cars. I built a nice all independent sedan delivery out of one in the mid 70’s. Soon after, I bought another 1929 Ford Murray body Town Sedan for a extended cab pickup idea. Upside down in a landfill, very rusted, for $5 with title. But the only good sheet metal was the body rib, so I pended the thoughts for a few years and built other cars.
My wife and I were on a Sanibel beach in 1981, and I drew a couple of cars that could be built from that four door body – the extended cab pickup hiboy, and an A-400 sedan convertible hiboy that could also be built from the sedan body. But the pictures sat for over ten years before I started to build a hiboy extended cab pickup. It didn’t take long to change my mind towards a roadster pickup body instead. I spent the next ten years building my version of a 1929 Ford RPU. I love the ribbed lines of the Murray four door body, and I like curves instead of straight lines, so the body is unique but still looks like it could have been an original body. Kinda…
Once the body was done, I created a curvey frame to match and added 32 highlights to the side rails. Over the next ten years I pretty much built most of the pieces of this car. For power I chose a real 1971 Boss Cleveland 351, made my own dual four intake manifold for it, mated a WC Tremec 5 speed to it and used a Halibrand QC with 4.11 cogs. Probably the hardest part of a ten year build is keeping it looking current, as things get outdated so quickly. But completed in 2004, I still love it in 2020 so I’m real happy with the way it turned out. The detail sheet explains most things that people have had questions about (See below).
And now I’m in year 15 of the A-400 project build, which is from the other drawing on the beach in 1981. It’s probably a year away from completion, but I’m really excited about this one too. So there you have it… when you’re insane and believe ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way!” – dreams can come true. Street is CERTAINLY Neat!”
This all steel Street Rod was built by Ron Wiggins, Bloomington, Illinois in his residential 2 car garage over a ten-year period.
