It’s really easy to mess up the proportions on a small street rod pickup. Tim and Clint Standley made perfection look easy with this Diamond T. Photo credit to Standley Creative Works.
Honestly, probably ten percent of Model T’s that people have shown me have actually been legitimate Ford Model T’s. Everyone assumes that every old car with wooden spokes and tiny doors is a Model T, and often differences from brand-to-brand are subtle to the average person. That being said, one-hundred percent of the time, when someone says there’s an old Diamond T on the rock pile, there actually is a Diamond T on the rock pile. They’re easy to pick out, as they’re fairly unique, and they’re also fairly well-branded, with the name plainly stated in various locations on the trim. You’d think that a truck on a rock pile would have had the trim and emblems stolen off of it long ago, but that’s rarely the case with a Diamond T, and I think that’s because they’ve never been popular enough to be pillaged. Now that this little pickup is out there showing the potential of the big old trucks, people may be begging to buy them.
It’s hard to believe that something so compact and well-proportioned started out as something so bulky and utilitarian. They started with a 1940 Diamond T 201 cab and a stock frame. The cab roof was chopped two inches, and the frame was chopped in half. The front half was utilized, and set up with typical street rod parts such as a four-inch dropped axle, transverse leaf spring, split wishbones, and a Ford F1 steering box. Out back, the frame was custom built to get the low stance, and again features common street rod parts like a Ford 8.8 differential and Jeep Cherokee parallel leaf springs. The front disc brakes look great, with the rotors encased in vented canisters, and the calipers hidden under finned covers. Artillery wheels are wrapped in Coker bias-look radials, which are also standard street rod fare. What’s not standard, however, is the totally custom pickup bed out back, custom hood, side panels, and grille out front. It all flows so well that you’d almost think they were stock parts. Out back, the exhaust tips are connected with a bumperette of sorts, and there’s a third brake light riveted on above.
Up front, the grille looks like a tribute to the stock truck unit, and features a center-mounted single fog lamp trimmed out in an art déco fashion. The interior also has a real art déco flair to it, with a big instrument cluster centrally mounted in the dash. My favourite part has to be the engine, as it’s like the rug that ties the whole room together. A basic 350 Chevy is capped with a three-deuce intake, custom air cleaner, and custom Hercules valve covers. It’s painted in a grey and red color combination that looks just subtle enough to be authentic. It’s everything it needs to be, and nothing more. The best part? It’s a Diamond T street rod, and at the moment there’s not many of those to appreciate.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
