Restoration: Dodge—Part 9

By: Lynsday Whittle, Photography by: Lynsday Whittle

Date: 22.01.2023

Lynsday Whittle's latest updates from his restoration project

The last ride through its old hometown of Napier

While all the stories have been told in previous issues of Deals on Wheels, the long and short of it is that one restoration became two and so on, until here we are, telling the story of restoration number six.

Where this is all heading is that every one of these stories would have never been told if it hadn’t been for the generosity of people who’ve been willing to share their knowledge, their expertise, and in many cases, their precious spare parts.

In this month’s instalment, I’d like to introduce a few of my true restoration heroes because without the huge amount of time and effort they put in sourcing parts in order to help this strange dude who in many cases they’ve never met before, most of the work wouldn’t get very far past first base.

A bunch of cash

Old Commer awaiting restoration

Right from the get-go with this particular job, I knew there was going to be some extra effort required to get it over the finish line, simply because one of these good guys did something I had never encountered before.

You see, I’d bought the truck at an online auction, after visiting its owner Simon Coombes, to give the truck the once-over. He must’ve sensed that I’d actually get stuck in to restore the vehicle and wasn’t just a tyre kicker.

Colin Dunn, who owns CRD Automotive, has been very kind to me with all of the restorations, and this time, he lent me his transporter to collect the RG13 from Simon, who aside from adding in some extra bits and pieces that I hadn’t paid for, presented me with an envelope that I didn’t open until I arrived back at the workshop.

Opening the envelope, to my surprise, I found a whole bunch of cash, which Simon later told me was the amount I’d paid above his actual reserve price — a pretty nice gesture I thought and something I’d never encountered before.

Making it a Dodge

As I was in the middle of restoration number five (the D Series Ford), there was going to be some delay before starting on the RG13. Given that I had some time to think about the level of detail I’d put into this job, I only intended to get the truck up to COF standard and then go on to the next restoration, probably one of the Bedford’s waiting in the wings.

When the day came to finally start working on the Dodge, I was faced with a conundrum, because while it was registered (on hold) as a 1982 Dodge, the cab was quite clearly from an earlier Commer.

Now, there isn’t a lot of difference between a Commer and a Dodge cab (or so I thought). To that end, I decided then and there that it was going to have a Dodge cab by adding some extra trim. The only problem with this notion was going to be where to find the appropriate bits and pieces to make it all happen.

Noel to the rescue

Noel Galloway with the tidiest G-1311 Dodge you’re likely to see

Six months into the restoration and despite asking for help from the readers, nothing appeared to be forthcoming, until one night when I received a call from Noel Galloway in Woodville, who told me he’d seen a truck that was sitting in a paddock minus its wheels, with a cab covered in lichen.

Upon checking more closely, he could see that although the cab was rusty, it did have a lot of the parts I’d need, including a much-coveted Dodge badge, so he promptly made the owner an offer, which was accepted.

Noel collected the cab and chassis the next time he was in the area and took it back to his yard where I could carry out my parts-gathering exercise. While there were quite a few parts on the truck that Noel could use on his own projects, he suggested I pay a visit to his place in Woodville near Feilding to gather whatever I needed.

After giving the situation some further thought, Noel phoned me back and suggested that we simply remove the entire unit from the chassis and lift it onto my truck to take back home to Auckland.

To me that sounded like a fine idea, as removing the cab should only take a morning or so rather than the day or two it would take to remove all of the parts individually.

Woodville via New Plymouth

Graeme Blackstock and his working D Series Ford

Having made plans to make the trip south and take up on Noel’s most generous offer, I decided to make a road trip out of the exercise and pay a visit to Graeme Blackstock in New Plymouth, the man who’d been of so much help.

Graeme’s generosity knew no bounds when it came to finding the rarest parts I needed to finish the 1970 D750 Ford a year or so back, and although we’d talked on the phone many times, we’d never actually clapped eyes on each other.

My trusty old 1991 Mitsubishi transporter (restoration number two) made the first leg of the journey without incident as expected, and I spent several hours with Graeme, his wife Nancy, and his restoration buddy, master craftsman Kevan Austin.

The tip of the iceberg of Noel’s restored collection

I needed to get as close to Woodville on the first day in order to get a good head start on cab collection day, so I managed to drive into Wanganui at 7pm and start looking for accommodation for not only me but also a truck with a cab-full of tools that I’d rather weren’t pinched in the night.

I finally found a nice motel called BK’s Magnolia Motor Lodge where hosts John and Sandra Carrick allowed me to park the truck under CCTV surveillance. Day 2 was a shorter though more tortuous trip across to Woodville via Fielding to meet up with Noel for morning tea in Woodville township before making the final leg out to Noel’s farm to collect the cab.

The donor truck

Noel stood aside as I gave the donor truck the once over, and to my surprise and delight, I could see that he had undone 99% of the bolts I’d fully expected were going to take me several hours to take out myself.

Realising the removal part of the job would take less than an hour, I had time available to have a guided tour of Noel’s extensive collection of trucks, which consists of Commer and Dodge in the main but with a smattering of other makes as well.

There was even enough time to have a walk around what Noel refers to as ‘the graveyard’. While I could have spent the rest of the afternoon ogling the beasts in the sheds and the graveyard, it was time to come back down to Earth and get onto the job I’d travelled 600km to carry out.

Loading made easy courtesy of Noel’s forklift

It was only a matter of half an hour and the last of the bolts that Noel had already loosened had come apart, and it was time to lift the cab onto the transporter. Another half an hour and the load was ready for the long trip back to Auckland.

Noel and his wife Penny escorted me through the twists and turns out onto the main road north at Dannevirke where we said our farewells before I headed to Napier for an overnight sleep.

The trip home

Day 3 of the trip was a simple matter of negotiating the Napier-Taupo highway and on the way back to Auckland. Despite the precarious-looking load that I checked every 50km or so for tightness of the straps, the truck, its load, and the driver all made it safely home from what had proven to be an incident-free trip.

Noel has since told me that he had a stage of worrying about whether or not I’d "growl" at him for coaxing me on a 1200km round trip for a few bits and bobs that were of little use to me. I’m here to tell you that he had absolutely no fears of being "growled’ at. I’ll tell you all in next month’s issue.

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