Hagerty Hot Rod Truck
By noderel:
It was a simple idea: Build a truck at a swap meet using parts sourced from swap meet vendors. The truck was a '46 Ford that employees of Hagerty Classic Insurance found squirreled away in Michigan. The swap meet was Hershey - the biggest such event in the world. The builders were a team of men and women from Hagerty headquarters in Traverse City, Mich.
Hersey is put on by the Antique Automotive Club of America in Hershey, Pa. The plan was to put a truck together in 100 hours, during the show in October, and drive the truck home to Michigan.
The pickup was obtained before the show so that it could be plated and insured. The Hagerty people involved were social media analyst Matt Lewis, parts finder Davin Reckow, staff writer Tara Hurlin, and client relations manager Brad Phillips. They completed the build in time and drove the truck home.
Lewis told Hot Rod Hotline, "We landed at Hershey on Tuesday and started looking. It wasn't like we had arranged things ahead of time. The crowd helped a lot. We had people stopping by our tent and telling us where they had seen a part we needed. They were rooting for us to get the truck done."
The truck was assembled more than restored. It wasn't prepped or painted. The team had the frame, cab, and front clip. The brakes were sorted out, too. The steering system and the lever shocks were functional. The cab had a considerable amount of rust in the floorboard. Woodward Fab helped make a lot of the panels with the big piece of sheet metal The Hagerty team brought for them.
Since Davin knew how to weld, he made repair panels. A man who came by to watch the fun at Hershey had a flathead V-8 at home nearby. He sold it to the team who went to his home, brought it back, and installed it in the truck. The pickup bed was picked up from Posies Rod & Customs. The Hagerty team put the wood flooring in. It squared up the bed and everything fit right.
After the truck was assembled, team members drove it over 700 miles from Hershey to Traverse City. A few minor problems were sorted out along the way. It has been running strong ever since. It gets about 15 mpg and can drive along at 60 mph. The truck was a hit at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.