Friday, April 07, 2023

New Zealanders Steve and Sue Keys have spent the last five years in a spectacular resurrection of what may be the last Texaco Diamond T Fuel Truck










 Texaco, Standard Oil and Socony had their own small fleets of Dodge Airflow trucks 

But not all Texaco trucks were Dodge Airflows. Mack and International chassis reportedly served as the basis for other Texaco tankers of the Thirties, as did Diamond T. 

Detroit-based Garwood Industries, Kansas City-based Standard Steel Works and Milwaukee-based Heil Co. all built trucks for the Texaco fleet - and each built the tankers slightly different, making the restoration of the Diamond T anything but straightforward.


It originally was a fuel truck in South Carolina, where the Texaco distributor used it for local fuel deliveries before eventually selling the truck to an adjacent lumber mill. 
The lumber mill then used it as a water tank truck in its yard until 1980, when the lumber mill closed and a salvage yard bought it. 
The operator of that salvage yard then stored it at a friend's place and had to buy it back from that friend's estate before offering it for sale on eBay in 2010. 
A couple owners, one cross-country trip, and a trans-Pacific boat ride later, it ended up in New Zealand




With everything coming together in the fall of 2022, the Keys scheduled the Diamond T's debut for the Ellerslie Concours d'Elegance in February 2023. Unfortunately, Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand's North Island that same weekend, leading the concours to be postponed. While they still plan to present the Diamond T at the concours, they've since privately unveiled the completed truck and have arranged to place it in the Classics Museum in Hamilton, New Zealand, until the concours's new date in late April.

3 comments:

  1. Wow ! That looks magnificent!

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  2. What love to restore that vehicle and a treasure that it is! Thanks for finding this for us to enjoy.

    ReplyDelete