Restoration: D750 Ford—Part 33

By: Lyndsay Whittle, Photography by: Lyndsay Whittle

Date: 29.04.2022

This is exactly the 100th issue of Deals on Wheels in which I’ve been sharing the ups and downs of my restoration experiences since August 2014, and I have to say that it’s probably going to be the most difficult story to put into words to date

Unfortunately, this truck’s going nowhere until COVID departs

I can recall starting this restoration journey with my 1953 K Bedford, a truck I’d had sitting around in bits for 35 years, then moving on to a 1942 International fire truck belonging to the Titirangi volunteer fire brigade.

Work in progress back in 2019

The next move was to a 1991 Mitsubishi transporter I’d bought that looked good on the topside but was in much need of a ton of work done on its underside. Next, somehow or another, I became fixated with a Morris milk truck that I eventually turned into an old-fashioned style tow wagon, when along came the D Series begging to be restored as well.

Making headway in 2020

A common thread weaved itself into each of these restorations—apart from the fact that they all presented me with different sets of problems, some large and some small—is that every single one eventually reached a definite conclusion.

That ‘definite conclusion’ in each case ended with a trip to the testing station. Now I’d be telling fibs if I said that each vehicle drove out of the said testing station with a COF after the first visit, however, they all did gain a pass at some point in time and each one is still carrying registration and is in current roadworthy certification.

While the transporter and the fire truck had recently been on the road prior to my pulling them apart and putting them back together again, making things a whole lot easier to gain approval from the vehicle testing guys, the Bedford and the Morris were totally different kettles of fish.

As I said earlier, the Beddy had been off the road for a long time, as had the Morris, with the slight variance between the two being that the Morris ended up being a totally different animal from what it had started off as, thus both required re-VINing.

A brief encounter with several previous restorations

The D Series was somewhere in the middle of all of these examples, as it was reasonably intact and had its registration on hold. When I started pulling the D apart nearly three years ago, using the previous restorations as a benchmark, I figured that a typical rebuild should sit somewhere between 15 months and three years to complete.

Almost cosmetically complete in 2021

When comparing the general appearance of the D with the others, at the same time as taking into account that its registration was on hold, I couldn’t possibly see it taking longer than 15 months to complete.

I even had a rush of blood to the head in the beginning and said to myself "could possibly get it done in nine months—with a tailwind that is." Well, things did start off with a hiss and a roar.

Things were happening in March 2020

I came across a little more rust than I’d expected to find in the step-wells and the bottoms of the doors, but these problems were overcome much in the same way as were the problems encountered with the other vehicles.

A few weeks later in April 2020

A big setback was encountered when my restoration buddy, Murray, and I found to our horror that the leak in the aftermarket exhaust manifold that we thought could be easily repaired was, well, I think there’s a technical term to describe the manifold’s actual condition, but I’ve forgotten what the experts call it.

Anyway, moving on, Murray spent countless hours manufacturing a new manifold, which we eventually fitted to the truck, solving that wee issue. Now I’ve become accustomed to having setbacks with these restorations, but even I couldn’t get my head around the problems I’ve had with the D’s brakes since I took the booster off to clean the chassis.

Let’s be clear about this, I’m not a mechanic. Moreover, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so it would’ve been entirely expected that any solution to the problem wouldn’t have come from my quarters. I think you can see where this story’s heading.

I’ve replaced almost every brake component on the truck, I’ve even given it to some experts in truck maintenance to try to sort the problem out for me, but I can see that even they are starting to throw their hands in the air.

I must bear in mind that the experts have bigger fish to fry by keeping their commercial customers on the road, not to mention dealing with staff shortages due to current COVID conditions, so all in all, things are looking grim for the D at the moment.

So here comes the crunch. Sadly, unlike all of my previous restorations that have reached the finish line by taking the trip to the testing station and winning the ultimate prize of a COF, I’ve had to make a difficult call and postpone the final leg of the D’s journey, at least until we can get back to some normality after COVID-19 is consigned to the history books.

It’s been a huge blow to what has been a dream run for me in keeping some old vehicles alive and on the roads for people to hoot and holler to as they go by. Unfortunately for the D at least, although to all intents and purposes it’s decent enough to go on static display, it’ll be a while before anyone gets to see it cruising down the highway.

However, in the meantime, I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of the D’s woes, but I think you’ll agree that we can’t go on ad nauseum about this particular restoration while we wait for the few final steps to be completed.

We have other trucks that need attention, which brings me to a Dodge or is it a Commer?
The next restoration was always going to be an A3 or an A5 Bedford, as I have one of each waiting in the wings, but I’ve decided on the Commer/Dodge for reasons that’ll be explained next month.  

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