’33 REO Speedwagon build w/ a twist

I like the proportions.....I think they flow very well. Proportions are the most imporant detail, and sometimes the hardest to deal with. I think you guys got it right.

I also love the Franklin "Aerowagon" name....has a great ring to it.

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good story.. great build... hope to get up your way someday and get a eyeful of some really good craftmanship

 

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I definitely agree with keeping the
long bed to better match with the
long Franklin front end. I'm pretty
sure that if the Franklin designers
had ever designed such a truck,
that's what they'd have done too.

Mart3406
===================

 

Rear Bumper? Most of the restored Speed Wagons have a rear bumper. Don&#8217;t know if these are original or if they were borrowed from Flying Cloud cars as a dress up item. We have a nice bumper from the sedan donor. Used as-is, it would hang somewhat under the rear of the bed. It wouldn&#8217;t be that hard to build a bracket to hang it out behind the bed. However, we don&#8217;t think this looks right. We think a real, early-30s pickup would not have had a rear bumper. What do you think? Should we leave it with no bumper? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

I think they look over dressed with a full bumper and hung out behind stopping you from dropping the tailgate goes against their practical nature.

 

Looks = no bumper. Practical = bumper, or something that will help stop the rear from getting dented in modern traffic, parking, etc. I just saw a 55 Chevy with no bumpers and a $10k paint job and new small dents front and back from simple car show parking action.

A simple thin inconspicuous thing would be fine, and would save your tailgate if there is a pylon or stump you didn't see while backing up.

It would also give you something to stand on when loading bales of hay. 'Cause trucks are for work, right? Sure.

 

I've missed your posts for a bit but glad to see it's progressing. As for the bed, I've come to appreciate the old trucks with a working sized bed. And 2 inches would not be worth cutting anyway. I vote for a rear bumper btw.

(very minor progress on my luxury pickup- the Pierce Arrow)

 

Thanks for the advice. One thing that was discussed earlier was putting a script on the tailgate. We haven't eliminated that option, but one reason not to put a Franklin script on the tailgate might be to recreate the original lettering that was on the &#8217;37. The tailgate said &#8220;24 HOUR ROAD SERVICE&#8221;. The bed sides said &#8220;SAM SCHNEIDER OIL&#8221;, which was a Shell station. If anybody knows where Sam Schneider Oil was, please let us know. We think the &#8217;37 donor truck may have come from Colorado-not sure. I found this matchbook on ebay, but it is the only clue we have regarding this service station.



<O</O

 

Looks like it might have been Hutchinson, Kansas.

 

Awesome. Thank you!

 

Those newspaper searches are how I found a lot of the info on the Salt Lake Diamond T. I hadn't gotten around to snooping the REO background yet.

 

As mentioned before, several of the restored Speed Wagon pickups have rear bumpers. The REO script on the tailgte below is a custom touch.



This photo of a pre-restoration project appears to have no bumper.



And this original sale literature shows no bumper. What you do see is tail of the frame hanging down. This is because the pickups used a car frame. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't be designed that way.



So, we're probably not going to hang a bumper off of the back.

 

We are choosing not to over-accessorize the back, which may be inconsistent with what we're likley to do up front. The first photo shows the pickup un-adorned for reference.



These bumper guards were on Dad's Olympic sedan when he bought it from the junk yard in 1981. He had them polished and chrome plated when he restored that car, but he never installed them, becuase they looked too...well...truck-like. He thought they looked too ugly and utilitarian for a high-class sedan. I'm excited that we now have a use for these push bars that must be a super rare accessoy. We actually have two pair. I guess the other set will not get used, since we nixed the rear bumper. We briefly considerd putting all four on the front, but how you see them now is likely how it will end up.



What do you think of the bumper guards?

You can alos chime in on the horns. I don't like them, but Dad does.

 

Could you move the horns back a bit, under the headlights more? I like them but I think the take over from those nice headlights where they are.

 

Awesome read man. I really enjoyed reading this. This is one heck of a ride. Thanks.

 

The Bumper Guards are just wonderful! I have been a car nut for more than 70 years. Having followed the industry closely, I noticed early on that pickups came basic. Things like spare tires and rear bumpers were extra cost. Since the guards were probably extra, the rear bumper was probably extra also. The rear bumper on my 38 Ford hangs way out back for instance.
Love your thread and your project!

 

That would be an improvement. If it were up to me, I'd put them under the hood.

Thanks everybody for the encoruagement.

 

Cool thread!

 

Here’s an option I am excited about. In some truckload of random parts, Dad came upon a set of four fender skirts or aprons-not sure what they should be called? We are pretty sure they are vintage aftermarket. We have a full set of four-one for each fender. I think they are designed to update a 1931 or 1932 car to look more like a ’33-‘34 . Don’t know if they were specific to a certain model car or somewhat universal? Presumably, they are meant to be welded to the fender? Here is a photo of the Franklin with these vintage accessories held in place via vice grips.

There are a few reasons why I really like these. 1) The ’34 Franklins and REOs did ad skirts to the front fenders (not the back). 2) I like how they visually shorten-up this long, skinny beast of a pickup. 3) I think it is neat that we found a whole set, and I can’t imagine a better opportunity to use them and show them off.

Do you like the skirted fenders, or do you hate them?

There is one thing I don't like about these aprons. Before I tell you what it is, I want to see if anybody esle notices. So tell me, what's wrong with this picture?<O</O






Second photo for comparison with no skirts/aprons on the fenders.<O</O

 

Definitely skirted


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The bumper guards are an interesting accessory, mini skirts too and good looking. I concur with BuiltFerComfort's horn comment. Are you going to fit a tow bar between the chassis rails?

 

They used to say "clothes maketh the man" Those 'skirts' certainly add to the visual appeal and as you said make it appear shorter. It's a shame they don't have an arch closer to the wheels circumference. Sheetmetal must have been at a premium in those days!
RodL

 

Fan of the build. I can't put my finger on why I don't like front skirt, but I do like the rear one.

 

Has anyone seen add-on skirts like this before? I'd like to learn more about them. If those skirts were made for a common car like a Ford, they are too short for our long REO fenders. I think the problem with this picture is the egg-shape of the front wheel opening. The skirt should drop down closer behind the front wheel to look right. We might be able to corect this by repositioning the apron.

 

Way better with the skirts

 

I like the skirts gives the truck a classy look , good job so far ,

 

And the skirt hides the spare tire well. We are going to keep the dual sidemounts form the car, even though a truck should have only one sidemount.

Here is a close up of a REO skirted fender. The bottom of the apron is not horizontal, so we should be able to slide our skirt forward to make it look right. I think this phot come from Down Under. It must have been a woody or custom commercial cowl.

 

I was wrong about this part. The big truck cowl did not fit the '33 frame without modification. Dad had to modify the lower part of the reveal to match the one in this photo. While the big truck cowl looked like his '33 Franklin cowl at first glance, the reveal on the Franklin was constant width, but it sloped up toward the front.

This project is still ongoing. I have been too busy to post updates, but progress continues.

Many of Dad's other old drivers have two-speed rear ends or auxiliary overdrives to highway driving. However, it was noted that he rarely uses the low range in most of these vehicles. So when building this pickup, we decided to get a usable rear end ratio and leave it at that. Dad knew a guy on the East Coast who modified a Scout II rear end to fit in a Franklin Olympic. The Scout Dana 44 could be obtained in a number of common gear ratios. I happened to have a 3.08 Scout rear end I was contemplating on using in by '78 diesel Scout, so that seemed like a natural course. However, I just didn't think the Dana 44 would look right in this vintage ride. I thought a Ford 9 inch housing carried more resemblance to the REO and Columbia axles of the period. I sought to weld a Ford center section in an extra REO axle. (astonishingly, Dad has piles of extra REO rear ends that could be used for parts) That way, Dad could keep all the brakes and wheels matching the original. Getting custom axle shafts tapered to the old REO hubs wasn't going to be as easy as I hoped, but the project took another convenient turn. To help me research dimensions, I grabbed an old Ford 9-inch off of Dad's scrap iron pile. My intention was merely to disassemble it and measure a few things. Coincidentally, the 9-inch, which came out of a '57 Ford car fit the REO spring perches exactly. All we needed to make it fit was a set of custom axles shafts, so we could convert the brakes to Ford truck, which has the same bolt pattern as the REO/Franklin. Some aluminum spacers were milled to fit the contour of the back of the vintage wheels exactly, and we are ready to roll. Dad even found a late model flange for the pinion that he milled down to fit the vintage REO driveshaft.

With the rear end now rolling 3:1 gears, Dad pulled all the engine main bearings and determined it could go back together and run as-is. All the sheetmetal has come off since the staging pictures shown above. Dad has since been working on new wood for the cab and getting all the doors fitting exactly.

 

All the way to the end.....loved every page. Adding my footnote, so I can catch the next bump to the top. Love what you do. You and your dad rock.

 

Impressive Barn Find....impressive indeed!

I have been following this for years. I have been nothing but impressed.