Story and photos by Chadly Johnson
Shop trucks, the hard working public image of many hot rod related businesses from “back in the day” to present times. The list of duties carried out by these work horses includes everything from transporting precious speed equipment to trips to the local dump, and everything in between. Many trucks became the mirrored images of the shops they represented. Some, such as the Barris shop truck were molded piece by piece over time becoming hot rodding icons. While some trucks have been lovingly restored after their many years of service others were used and abused until they could serve no longer, then discarded. The truck you see before you was leaning strong towards the later until Jeff (Titus) Bloedorn breathed new life into it, and put it back to work for his East Side Speed Shop business.
Jeff was turned onto the truck by a buddy’s son who claimed it was a 32 truck for sale for $500. When he went to investigate he realized he had driven by the truck for nearly a year on his way to a garage he was renting. Jeff had seen the back end of the truck but never really looked further to figure out what it was. The truck turned out to be a 34 one ton truck with a dump box running a 33 grille shell. The truck was an eye sore overall, still, Jeff could see the potential. A call was made to the owner who said if he wanted the truck to just leave the cash inside the door of his building, and take it. Purchasing the truck was easy, getting it onto a trailer to haul home was another story. The dually wheels were torched off were the truck sat, and a come-along was tried to pull the project onto the trailer. It was quickly discovered that the come-along was broken so the trailer was unhooked from behind Jeff’s fathers truck and then the truck was used to drag the project up onto the trailer, not an easy or safe task, but it got the job done.
Once to his shop the cab, grille, hood, guide headlights, and 1948 flathead were removed and the chassis sold on E-bay for $1.00! A 32 chassis that was once used under a channeled deuce 3 window was picked up from a friend as a replacement for the 1 ton chassis. Jeff states that the cab is not in the right place because it is a 34 on a 32 frame, but he extended the wheelbase of the frame to keep the truck in proportion. Jeff states that nothing is really in the correct spot but it all is where it needs to be! An 8″ rear end was picked up from a friend for a cool $100, and is held in place with a ladder bar and coil spring combo. Up front Jeff recycled a drilled and dropped Mor-drop heavy 32 axle with split and drilled 40 Ford wish bones that he got back from a model A sedan he had once sold.
The 33 grille shell and hood that came with the truck were utilized along with the nasty radiator that it surrounded. Jeff says the radiator needs patch work every year, but has held up for over 10 hard years so far. The issue of not having a truck box was solved by a friend of Jeff’s shearing sheet metal to size that Jeff and a buddy then formed into bed sides. Jeff then assembled the components it into a bed. The deteriorated paint on the neglected cab was matched extremely well to the bed through the application of layers of house paint that were then partially scrapped back off with razor blades. The East Side Speed shop logos were added by Kathy Weeks in Lake Elmo, MN. Jeff laughed when reveling that the phone number used on the truck was from “Junior Samples Used Cars” from the show Hee Haw. Kathy came up with the idea as she watched the show growing up. Interior duties were handled by John Zechbaurer who covered the seat and door panels with a red and white pleated nagahyde. Jeff admitted the interior has never been cleaned, but realistically, it’s a true shop truck, how clean could it stay?
A free 307 small block Chevy & 3 speed were dropped into the tuck, upon the first firing of the engine a rod knock was apparent, how ever, Jeff ran it anyways. Jeff was hard on the drive line, more or less attempting to blow it up because he had nothing to loose anyways! After about a summer of abuse a frost plug in the block rusted out resulting in the engines demise. Jeff then installed another free engine, this time in the form of a 350 from a 1977 truck. The motor smoked and was assumed bad. When Jeff pulled the engine apart he found it to be beautiful inside, but holding about twice as much oil as it should. The source of the extra fluid proved to be a leaky fuel pump that was pushing fuel into the internals of the engine. Jeff gave the small block a new cam and camel back heads, then, hit the open road.
One of the first trips Jeff made with the truck was to Des Moines, IA for a Goodguys event. Along the way the truck began to miss and fouled a plug heavily. Jeff found the truck down 3 of the 5 quarts of oil it held, all of which ended up being sucked into a pcv valve that was placed in a bad location…hard lesson learned! The problem was fixed, but the engine picked up a rod rattle upon start up that it still has to this day over 8 years later. On another trip, a buddy’s car had a dead battery. A bad generator ended up being the culprit, so Jeff pulled the good battery out of the shop truck and put it in his friend’s car. The shop truck was then pushed started and everyone made it home safe. The East Side Speed Shop truck has been used to haul an endless list of things, and it’s a peppy little truck, so its even hauled ass! Shop trucks…you gotta love them.
Model: Jeff’s wife and incredible upholstery wizard Jennie…AKA “The Stitch Bitch.”
