’33 REO Speedwagon build w/ a twist

Wasn't it Reo that built the Mack Jr pickups too?

 

Nice to see people using them. Hated to sell ours, but had too many toys and a race car project in the wings. One of these days the HA/GR will make noise. It's Dodge powered too, 1934 218 flathead 6.

 

MORE.Please sir.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

wow! great thread, more please.

 

Excellent read about Reo, Franklin and a father, son team. Enjoy the whole thread.

CRUISER

 

ya the emblem is great ,i know this will always be in your family .

 

Yes. 1.5 ton trucks, too. This arrangement lasted from 1934-1937. All the small Macks were built by REO until '38. The collection from which you posted photos probbaly has a significant portion of all the Mack Jrs left in existence.

 

Great thread!

 

Yes,I have heard others say largest # of Mack Jrs. in captivity. Sadly he passed last year shortly after his annual 'open house'. He had an early REO there too. Never realized before seeing his stuff that Buick,
Packard, etc. built trucks early on.







My favorite was the Mack Jr dually panel truck

 

Dad likes to sleep in his own bed, so instead of going along to retrieve the REO cab from Nevada, he volunteered the use of his EcoBoost crew cab. Three friends eagerly volunteered to spend five days in a pickup to bring back some rusty old metal. True friends! My crew consisted of a life-long friend (one of those kids climbing on Dad's Franklin back in '81) who builds vintage Mustangs (Bandelier Mustang Connection) as a profession; a Chemistry PhD who's into tri-five Chevys; and a museum curator who formerly worked at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum and collects war-era and bathtub Packards. You can't beat good friends! 3,000 miles of talking about cars and women never got old. Four pairs of eyes scanned every junky lot and every old car or truck tucked away but not out of sight along the way.

We made an adventure out of the entire trip. We tested the Ford's off-road capability by exploring some old mining sites in the mountains high above Georgetown, Colorado. We took in the sights through Glenwood Canyon and marveled at the San Rafael Reef in Utah. But perhaps, you'd rather see some of the old vehicles we saw in Kansas?

 

We rolled pretty steady with our mission in mind. We resisted temptation to stray too far off course until we acquired our REO cab. We ate a lot of gas station food as a result of rolling into town too late each night to catch a restaurants open; we didn't want to waste daylight sitting in one place eating; or because there simply were no restaurants in some remote areas.

We did pause briefly in Utah to look at a Diamond T. That turned into a whole other story that I tell in the thread at http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=801156 . While we immediately recognized it as a rare Model 201, this little Diamond T pickup was a roadside treasure that we could not leave behind once we learned its history.

 

After we stopped to admire the Diamond T, we traversed the Loneliest Road in America. The section of US Highway 50 west of Delta, Utah is 100 miles without businesses or homes until reaching sparse civilization in Nevada.

50 miles from our destination, our jaws dropped when we saw this truck sitting along the highway in Ely, Nevada. Had my accomplice in Nevada known about this truck, perhaps he could have ventured 50 miles instead of 500 miles. This was a '36 model as evidenced by its fold-out windshield. These cabs were used from '34 to '36. In '37 REO changed to a cab with a split windshield, and the pickup got entirely different front sheet metal.

 

On the morning of day 3, we loaded up our treasure. It was actually in relatively sound shape. It fit perfectly in the bed of our pickup.





At the next town, we stopped and got a piece of OSB board cut, and strapped it to the REO roof. It was catching air causing a lot of vibration to the sheet metal edges as we rolled down the highway. The board worked perfectly to stiffen up the roof, keep from dragging so much wind, and provide a little shelter to our luggage riding inside the REO.

 

Don't leave us hanging
Love the build, love the truck(s), love the roadtrip and love to know more!!
Subscribed !!!

 

We did a little more touring on the way home. We stopped to see the coke ovens at the ghost town of Frisco, Utah.




Day four started with a visit to the Crystal Geyser along the Green River. The geyser is the pipe sticking out of the ground just above the roof of our F150. You can see the mineral staining and rimstone deposited as the geyser effluent flows to the river. John Wesley Powell noted this seep when he explored the river in 1869. In the 1930's, and exploratory well was drilled into the seep, which resulted in this geyser. Interestingly enough, this geyser is not powered by hot water, but by carbon dioxide.

 

great thread! more pls!

 

What a great adventure and to rescue a rare truck makes it all the better. Hope there is more to the story.

Frank

 

Subscribed, great thread. Is that the old Franklin that I saw at Pate Swap Meet 2 or 3 years ago?

 

I don't know. It found it's way to us in 2011 via Kansas City. I don't think that guy had it very long. I think it had been listed for sale before that.

 

It sure looks like it. I had never seen one prior to that. That engine really sounds good.

 

You need something like that in your Federal. Maybe bigger?

 

I'm still leaning towards using my big Hall-Scott in the Federal. It sounds like you guys had a great road trip. Looking forward to seeing more of the build.

 

That's bigger alright.

 

Our next detour was a place called Sego Canyon. This little canyon has some great petroglyphs, ghost town remnants, and JUNK CARS! Here's what we found most interesting in this historic valley.

 

Awesome, Barn Find. Not quite sure how I missed this before but I'm glad I decided to scroll through your posts. That's exactly what I was fishing for on my thread about the Pierce Arrow. Big, luxury sedan hacked into a powerful pickup. I'm hoping to drag the pierce home this weekend- I sold a car today and have a garage slot to spare. Subscribed! Thanks again. Greg

 

had a junk 1934 REO Flying cloud 4 door that I converted to a truck about 9 years ago. I used the back of a 1935 Ford cab. I had to make a new beltline molding, but it actually worked great. I never finished it and I sold the truck some time ago. I bought one of those heavy metal REO tailgate stampings from the guy that has that restored blue 35 REO 1/2 ton.
I'm a huge REO nut, so I'm happy to see you working on this project. My daily driver was an unrestored 1934 Flying Cloud from 1998-2001! I've had three 1934/35 REOs and I found another 34 a few weeks ago. I would love to have one of those 1-1/2 ton trucks that you have found!

 

Would love to see photos of your truck project.

Did you catch the REO Flying Cloud in the post at http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=3643 ?

I sent you a PM with contact info for the truck in Colorado Springs. It would be a good one to restore.

The guy who owned the one in Ely had died. Not sure what the family was going to do with it? It is sitting near some stuff owned by another collector. I got the impression he would see that it didn't get scrapped. We can look him up, if you get nowhere with the Colorado lead.

There was one that sold at a farm aution in MN last spring. I found this posted just after the auction. I don't know what happeded to it?

http://www.faheyraa.com/Auctioneers/Scott_-_Carver_Threshers/Threshers_Photos/threshers_photos.html

 

Here is another photo of my 34 REO Flying Cloud that I took in 1999. None of my old photos are digital, so I'm going through boxes trying to find pictures of my other REOs now.

 

I like pictures. Keep 'em coming. It looks like '34 car is entirly different than the '33 cars and the '34 trucks.

 

1929