MY 1969 PETE ON YOUR STEPDECK? SHOT IN THE DARK!!

I had brakes smokin like that once but never tires. lol

 

The old pete on the right looks like this one. Colorado, do you know the owner?

 

That's me in the drivers seat, trucks were built by a couple of the slightly more unhinged folks I know in this industry. Truck has a 10-speed and yes, I'm picking up gears in the burnout. That's a lesson in everything you never do when driving a truck. Slipping the clutch at 1800rpm, snapping the clutch on a powershift.

Oh, and I can do it backwards, too!

I've never met Tony VanBeek, but, I am well aware of his truck. It's a '46, and he shoehorned a later engine under the hood, as I believe he does periodically use it here and there for moves. The truck on the right in the photos Bigzilla posted is a '39 Pete, first year, can be spotted by the distinctive "egg-crate" grille. Only a handful of those in existence anymore, beautiful old rigs. Peterbilt themselves have at least one, and there are a handful in private collections, as well.

 

Tony & his wife have been best friends with one of my aunt & uncles for years. He put on a hayloading demo at the 2010 show in Pleasnton at age 70+. Quite a character.

 

Of the "Buks" rigs, there's been four, and I actually drove (as a company driver) at one point for the guys who built them. Low Buks was originally a mobile home toter that only needed a clutch, but, after a weekend with a sawzall and welding torch... it was no longer a mobile home toter... of course, his brother, being a brother, wasn't gonna' be left out of the fun, so he built No Buks, another truck that didn't need much to be serviceable but was "re-purposed". The third one is green and black and built by one of their drivers, a nut case named Freddy, good guy, good lowboy hand, and about a half bubble of plum. The original was a '52 Kenworth. The cabover and '52 have automatics whereas No Buks and Freddy's have 10-speeds.



A few more are out there, like Joey out of Missouri who built a racing truck in a similar fashion. Joey's is an automatic.

Fun fact, all of these have more or less been built on the principle of junkyard finds and stripping weight. Naturally, on one of the burnouts at the show, I got her pretty hot and she was puking coolant by the end of it, but hey, it's all in good fun. That's pretty easy to do on a hot day with no engine fan and ripping her at 2400rpm a few spins below floating the valves. Joey bent a pushrod on his. You can see why these aren't built as big-time show-pieces.

 

I believe his son is starting to take over some things, as well, as they do have a trucking operation if my memory is right. Hard life getting a '46 Pete as one of your work truck choices...

 

@BIGZILLA Did you fall off the edge of the earth? Did you ever get the gearboxes checked for metal?