Spotted Saturday at the Donut Derelicts car show in Huntington Beach, CA. was this 1931 Divco Twin Coach-Helms Bakery #5. The new owner got it a few weeks ago and says paperwork indicates this is the 5th Divco delivered to Helms Bakery of Los Angeles in 1931. The current engine is a GM-Chevy of unknown vintage but the first 5 digits of the casting code read as 81828. The exterior colors are very close to the original Helms colors. Most of the interior has been gutted but the console looks very close to original. That tach looks like something I've never seen before. The new owner says the Divco will be restored inside and outside but will have their company name on it, a local brew establishment. Enjoy the photos.
I've always admired the Helms trucks. Hope the new owner replaces the wheels/tires with a something that better fits the wheelwells as well as period of the vehicle.
For some reason these things are stalking me lately! I was just at All Ways hot rods here in Phoenix on Wednesday, and they have one! ...And were a bit amazed that I knew what it was. There was another one at another local shop about a month ago, too. I crawled all over the one I saw this week. I never realized the clutch and brake pedal and linkage were one and the same on these. It had to be hell driving these things from the middle of the truck standing up... Pretty cool!
It's a tachograph and not tachometer/rev counter. A tachograph records the speed and distance travelled by a vehicle - which fits with it being a commercial delivery vehicle.
Just want to add that the one pictured isn't a tach. There were 2 versions made, this one is a speedometer version, if you open the case you will find a disc with pens that keep track of speed, elapsed time, engine rpm, etc. These discs were turned in at the end of every work day, so the boss could keep track of you, while you were out on your route. Gee, now day they have electronic logging for commercial drivers, big deal, they had it 50+ years ago.
The aroma of fresh cookies when the drawers were open was intoxicating. The best sugar cookies on the planet were from the Helms Delivery Coach.
That is not the Divco,that is a Fageol Twin Coach,Divco didn't come into the picture with Fagoel intill 1935/36 I think, the dash in that isn't orginal it has been changed and Steve is correct that Sangamo is a tattle tail for MPH,That was not on any of the Helms Coaches either. I finished up a 31 a couple years ago then the guy sold it but I have a 30 here waiting its turn. They take a bit to get used to the brake and clutch in one pedal,adjusting the linkage is a bitch. I'd have to see paper that says it was # 5, the very first ones had spoke wheels, from what has been researched about them it looks like maybe it was only 12 with the spoke wheels, the rest of the Fageols had artilery wheels,other than that they were all the same,someone may have changed axles on this one to facilitate the later wheels.
That's very interesting! I'm going on the mans word about the authenticated paperwork being #5 in 1931, which I did not see. If the coach shows up again at Donut Derelicts I will examine it much closer. From what I've seen to this point it's a very convincing example.
http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/t/twin_coach/twin_coach.htm And the rest of the story. You can definitely see the family resemblance here. The trucks are part ways down the page.
The one in Slychamp's Hemmings post is the one I finished for the guy that owns the Futurliner car hauler,then he sold it to that ass bortz. That being the 31 with the artilery style wheels, the earlier one had spokes and no solid hub.
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