Tag Archives: Pick

Santa’s Li’l Pick Up – Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT

Primarily aimed at businesses and municipalities the F-650/F-750 range replaced the F-600/F-700/F-800 range of vehicles that had been in production since 1980.

Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Today’s featured vehicle is a 2000 crew cab powered by a 185 hp 5.9 litre / 359 cui turbo diesel Cummins straight 6 and

Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

6 speed automatic transmission, which might come in handy for Santa when he sets off on his annual nocturnal round the world odyssey.

Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

F-650’s and F-750’s were manufactured in a joint venture with Navistar International and Blue Diamond Truck Company LLC at a Navistar factory in Escobedo, Mexico. F-650 production will move to Avin Lake Ohio in 2013.

Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

The ladder chassis is an International ladder frame with an F series body on top.

Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

This model is fitted with disc brakes front and rear which have an anti lock braking system, ABS, fitted as standard. Is it me or are the pick up body rear wheel arches too small for the dually rear wheels ?

Ford F-750 Super Duty XLT, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

With a gross vehicle weight of 30,000 lbs and 20,000 lb load capacity there should be plenty of room for Santa’s surprises in the back and if he needs more space there is a substantial towing hitch, maybe Rudolf and his friends will get to take this evening off !

Wishing all GALPOT readers and contributors a Merry Christmans and best wishes for the New Year.

Thanks for joining me on this “Santa’s Li’l Pick Up” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Pick Up Man – Hillman Imp Super Pick Up

Bob has a passion for Hillman Imps which can be traced back to learning to drive one. Since then he has owned many more and become something of an expert on the model.

Hillman Imp Super Pick Up, Bristol Classic, Shepton Mallet

Living out in the country not far from Bristol he has need of an all purpose run around and one day Bob had the good fortune to be in his autocross racer friend Philip’s garage when Philip was poking holes with a screw driver through an Imp he had just acquired.

Hillman Imp Super Pick Up, Bristol Classic, Shepton Mallet

Philip agreed to give the Imp to Bob for nothing and before Philip could change his mind Bob got the car home and chopped the roof off with an angle grinder and then strategically added some steel to maintain structural rigidity.

He then matched up the C pillars and tailgate with the remaining roof behind the door frame which allowed the seats, rescued from a Peugeot 205 GTi, to be moved all the way back on their runners.

Hillman Imp Super Pick Up, Bristol Classic, Shepton Mallet

Bob has made a few mechanical improvements to the car including removing the original transverse mounted radiator and installing one from a Nissan Micra longitudinally which improves cooling of the alloy engine.

With five years on and off work completed and expenses that “didn’t run in to thousands” Bob took his Imp Pick Up to an Imp Club meeting for it’s first run and came home with second place prize in the modified class.

Best of all his wife finds the pick up far more comfortable than his other car, a Sunbeam Imp but with out the Peugeot seats. Which all goes to show as Joe Diffie observed there is something women like about a pick up man.

Thanks for joining me on this “Pick Up Man” edition of “Getting a li’l psycho on tyres”. I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to came back now !

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Hauling Marbles & Lego – Chevrolet El Camino

Some of my readers who have been reading my blogs since I started writing blogs at Rowdy.com may remember I once posted a video of myself singing a Joe Diffie song ‘Pick Up Man‘.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

The words have always resonated with me in part because when I was a kid, way before I went to school I had a ‘Dinky’ 1/32nd scale two tone bright green and white Chevrolet El Camino pick up truck which I used to delight in filling with marbles and lego and drove at least 100,000 miles on my knees.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

I don’t remember that it was big enough to carry a Barbie Doll bed but I am sure I carried plenty of smaller dolls house accessories, for the girl next door.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

Last time I recall seeing that Chevy it looked something like this, which might be considered a shame because one in good as new tip top condition is worth about £120 on e-bay but then y’all never met the girl next door !

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

The concept of using a coupé as the basis for a utility pick up truck came at the suggestion of a farmers wife in Victoria, Australia who wrote to Ford Australia asking for “a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays”.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

Lew Brandt at Ford Australia is credited with designing the first such vehicle in 1934 and General Motors Australian division Holden produced a similar vehicle in 1935.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

Surprisingly the coupé utility vehicle idea did not transfer across the Pacific Ocean until 1957 when Ford launched the Ranchero, based on the two door Ford Custom/Ranch Wagon/Courier platform and in 1959 Chevrolet followed suit with the El Camino based on the Brookwood platform complete with tail fins.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

When Hot Rod magazine conducted a test between the Ranchero and El Comino in 1959 they found the El Camino fitted with the top of the range 5.7 litre / 348 cui motor was capable of accelerating from rest to 60 mph in around 7 seconds and estimated the top speed at an astonishing 130 mph.

Chevrolet El Camino, Shakespeare County Raceway

The first generation El Camino, like this ’59 model seen at Shakespeare County Raceway, outsold the Ranchero in the first year of production but when sales plummeted in 1960 the model was promptly discontinued, after around 36,409 examples had been built until 1964.

Thanks for joining me on this marbles and lego edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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