Photos and story by Allen W. Gross – Part 1
Old ‘Hose Nose’ started life as a Ford Model 81C, 85 HP farm truck. ‘38 was the first new cab design since ‘35, and the first new bed since ‘31! It was a pioneering design with its classy center creased fenders. When it called to me in 1970, it had a well-worn 289 SBF, an equally old leaking C4 and a singing unknown vintage Chrysler tail. But it ran, and I got it cheap-now in reality, I think the previous owner should have paid me to take it!
I quickly realized that the beast had absolutely no rubber molding, padding or seals, worn out shocks, and a cracked front frame horn that twisted off the left motor mount bolt when I hit a pothole! But, at only 2,800 pounds, if I stuck my foot in it, it would still try to boogey. I needed aircraft goggles and a wrap-around face scarf to wring it out. Floorboards were mostly gone, patched with a couple of pieces of old concrete form plywood, firewall was full of holes with just enough left to support the throttle pedal, and nothing-doors and windows- sealed properly. I was driving in a dust storm concentrated in the cab. I did class it up by installing the ubiquitous Indian Pattern Mexican Blanket upholstery that was so prevalent in the 70’s. Later I discovered it also had a broken front cross spring leaf-fortunately one of the middle of the stack. But-the grill was perfect-just needed the old chrome stripped off.
A ’friend’ took one look and muttered, who did you buy that rolling death trap from-Lucifer? So, I immediately named her Luci, And the name stuck. There were 16 inch rims with cut out Kelsey-Hayes center and spokes, each spoke re-welded to the aftermarket rim. It would do for the interim.
I soon came to realize that a smooth running, hopefully attractive and maybe even a safe hot rod (stock restoration never crossed my mind), was going to be a frame-off, frame apart project, properly engineered and then constructed with updated amenities including a ‘new’ driveline and running gear and maybe even air conditioning! So, apart it came, rusted bolts, rotten wood and pop-riveted braces. The next few years were spent trying to earn a living while identifying needed parts and assemblies, searching for them all over the US, Canada and Mexico, and then figuring out how to physically retrieve the parts, and unfortunate fact of life, where the money would come from. A solid, basic design philosophy had to be developed! But first some clean up-well, maybe a whole lot of clean-up!
