Photos and Text by Chadly Johnson

Ever build a car around a single part? I’m sure this process is most often done around a body or an engine, or perhaps something smaller like a rare multi carb intake. In any case that single part sets into action a thought process that manifests into a complete build in your mind, and before you know it, wrenches are flying. In the case of Chris Sogge of Des Moines, Iowa, it was nearly the smallest of components that set the build you see before you into motion…an oil pressure gauge.

Chris purchased the bare 28 cab sitting on a roached out frame back in 1999 with intentions of parting it out. As fate would have it, Chris found himself checking out an old Eleco oil pressure gauge he had in his collection, and he thought about the Eleco feet stickers someone had placed on the 28 cabs dash and firewall many years prior. That’s when the thought hit him, “why not build this thing and put the Eleco gauge in it?” Chris grabbed a miscellaneous 30s dash he had laying around, narrowed it to fit the cab, added a homemade aluminum insert, placed the gauge inside, stood back, liked what he saw, and the build was on.

If you were thrown off by the appearance of the 28, don’t worry you are not the first. The truck cab is actually a 28 tudor that was cut down into a truck during the depression as was popular for higher gas credits. The cab was then hot rodded during the 60s, but its full history is not known until the early 70s. Chris purchased the project from Kenneth Keith who purchased it from his brother-in-law in Montana, and flat towed it to Fort Madison, Iowa in the 80s. The cab had a 55 Chevy rear end under it hung on an original Model A spring with ugly tube trailing arms. Up front was a stock l-beam, split wishbones, and 48 brakes & spindles. Since the paint looked to be from the early 60s, Chris set out to create a build with components that would have been available in 1963. Using his vast Hot Rod magazine collection and a 1963 1/2 Honest Charley catalog as his bible, Chris pulled off his goal with very few exceptions.

Dueto one too many hack sessions on the original frame, Chris opted to start over with a clean Model A frame that he fabricated an X member for and boxed. When the rear section of the frame was kicked up, Chris used a portion of the original frame’s rear rails and cross member. The welded-on rear shock mounts were also left in place as homage to the original buider even though there was no plan to use them.

Living in the Mid-West, Chris finds that farms are a good source for digging up early car parts. In this case, he sourced out the 36 rear bones from a discarded farm wagon from his Grandparents-in-law’s farm, and the 34 front bones are from another neighborhood farm. The truck bed that was being used as a trailer was also scored from a farm’s fence line not 5 miles from Chris’ shop. The front l-beam is a 34 with a mild drop performed by Titus at East Side Speed Shop in St. Paul, MN. The spring and perches are still the original Ford pieces, and the 48 spindles and steering arm are the ones that came with the cab. The chrome backing plates are off a T-bucket that were replaced for updating purposes. The 312 Y-block was pulled from a project belonging to Chris’ father and has proven to be a good runner utilizing ECZ-G heads, external rocker arm oilers, and an old Mallory dual point. The engine’s Carter AFB was swapped for a Fenton 3X2 running Stromberg 97s that Chris robbed off his 57 wagon. Mated to the Y-block is a top loader 4 speed from a 65 Galaxy which is probably the biggest violation of the pre-63 theme as these transmissions were not available until 64, and few hot rodders would have had access to one right away. On the flip side according to the tag on the tranny it was backing up a 427 from the factory which leaves Chris to wonder what the muscle car restores think of him “wasting” the transmission on an old jalopy. Finishing off the drive line is a 9″ out of a 61 Ford.

I love how aware Chris was with his thought process when it came to even the smallest details when assembling the 28. For example the clutch/brake pedal assembly came out of a 55 Chevy wagon that he parted out, later he used the headlight and ignition switch out of anther 55 Chevy flowing with the notion that a rodder most likely would have robbed parts off the same car in a junkyard. Another example is how Chris based his wiring off fram a schematic of an early Falcon with only glass fuses being used in the fuse panel. Keeping with that theme all the wire ends were soldered, no plastic crimped or wiring ends were used as well as only Adel clamps and electrical tape in place of wire ties…small details make a big difference.

The pickup’s seat is out of an old school bus, a trick picked up off a 29 coupe spotted in a picture taken in the 50s. When it came time to upholster the top and door panels Chris took asmall piece of the seats fabric to a long time upholstery shop in DesMoines in hopes of finding something similar. The shop owner immediately identified it as school bus seat material then walked to the back corner of his shop. When the owner reemerged he was carrying a roll of the exact same material with roll’s tag indicating the last time any of it was purchased was in 1982.

When it came time for a grille shell, Chris was noticing that many cars back in the day still ran their factory grille shells instead of the all too familiar deuce shell, and he liked that look. Unfortunately the best shell he had was missing its Ford emblem. One day Chris’ brother showed up with an old brass emblem off an “Otis” brand elevator. After a backet was fabricated it fit like a glove, and the name did too, so since that day the 28 has been known as Otis wherever it goes. Last of all is that unknown dash with the oil pressure gauge that started the whole build. Chris has purchased the dash at an auction for cheap due to the fact that part of the lower center section was cut out of it, but after narrowing it for the 28 the removed section was no longer an issue. Years later it was realized that the dash is from a 31 Cadillac. The rest of the dash was filled with Stewart Warner gauges along with a canister mounted Sun Tach. The tachometer comes with some family history as Chris’ uncle had it in his car in the 60s but removed it before he sold the car prior to hisdeployment to Vietman. The tach sat on a shelf in his Grandmother’s house until Chris’ brother spied it some 30 years later.

Otis has been on the road for 6 years now and Chris has cruised it all over the Mid-West as well as trying his hand at the strip while attending the HAMB drags. Chris says he had a blast running at against other Y-blocks and Old Rockets, and managed to hold his own…though he admits his reaction time was pathetic. Regardless of his time slips, Chris andOtis are out there putting a lot of miles in the rear view mirror, and that is as good as it gets.