When restoring a piece of my family’s history, such as a home-built log hauler built by my late father, Reginald Thomas Bradley in the early 1950s, the next obvious question was how to transport it to shows so that the general public could see the ingenuity and skill of the old time loggers from the Wyong district of New South Wales.
After the passing of my mother, the family property was sold on and we moved the log hauler, which was built by my father, to my brother’s place as I had informed the family that it was my intention to get it going again.
It had served the family milling business well for more than three decades, in the forest around the Yarramalong Valley on the NSW Central Coast.
I thought that the transportation of the log hauler could be achieved by a table top truck – nothing too big as the log hauler only weighs 31/2 ton. I had mentioned to my brother Phillip, that I liked the style of the Dodge Power Giant, as I could remember seeing them at the local PMG depots.
In 2015, Phillip came across a dealer’s ad, with a Dodge for sale in Casterton, Victoria, so he and I, along with our wives, hooked up the caravans and made the trip south to have a look.
Casterton, is situated on the Glenelg Highway, 40km east of the South Australian border, and through which the Glenelg River flows. The Dodge carried South Australian registration RMZ-607, and was most probably used in meat, wool, or dairy farming.
Once at the dealers in Casterton, as they say, ‘a deal was done and the rest is history’. A short time later, Phillip and I returned to Casterton, to pick up the Dodge and bring it back to Wyong.
‘Wheatcroft – Clinton Centre’ was the wording of the signage which was still evident on the driver’s door, which indicates that at some stage of its working life the Dodge was located at Clinton Centre, 99km north-east of Adelaide, South Australia.
This model of Dodge, being a 7-71BV Power Giant was only manufactured from 1960-62, with only 423 being produced.
As mine is number 275 which is part of the chassis number, it leads me to think that it was built in 1961, being about halfway through the production period. It had a stock crate on it when I purchased it, and, considering it had spent the best part of a half a century out on the land, it was in fairly good condition.
Of course, the brakes weren’t working, and the steering alignment was terrible, but the cab only had a few small dents in it, along with two rust sections around the guards.
With the start of the dismantling process, one of the first things I did was send the generator and starter motor off to be serviced, along with getting the radiator re-cored. This fell in line with me rebuilding the motor as I wanted to be able to do decent trips with the log hauler on the back. The Dodge runs a 313cu. inch (5.1 litre) ‘A’ engine, commonly known as the poly-head small-block produced by Chrysler from 1957-67, primarily for the Canadian and Australian export markets. This engine has a bore of 37/8 (98.4mm) and a stroke of 35/16 (84.1mm).
Parts for the Chrysler engine are still easily obtainable, and I got a set of hydraulic lifters out of Canada, and kits for the rings and bearings out of Melbourne. Along with the fitting of the electronic ignition, connecting the electric fuel pump (which was bypassed for some unknown reason), and replacing the oil bath air cleaner with a paper element air filter, she was set to purr like a kitten.
When I got down to the chassis I blew off the rivets and separated the sub frame. I did this as the truck had been used for carting sheep during its life, and I knew what the effects of urine would have had on the chassis.
With the sub frame separated, I cleaned off the rust which wasn’t too severe, had it sandblasted, then painted, and I bolted it back together. This was something I didn’t really want to do, but I’m glad I did.
As I have mentioned, the Dodge was in really good condition for its age. I had to tidy up the hydraulics for the clutch, and the gearbox, differential, and centres only required a good cleaning. One of the cogs in the transmission had a minor chip, but nothing too serious. Other than replacing some bearings and universal joints, the rest is basically what you see. I did extend the gearstick by 6 inches as I found it was too low and I was taking my eyes off the road while trying to get it into gear.
When it came to choosing the colour for the cab, I wanted to find a red with a little cherry through it, and settled on the final colour, which is actually a Fiat car colour.
I have rewired the Dodge from front to back, but I have retained the original generator as it was working fine, although I did have trouble finding a regulator (and someone to understand it). If, one day, it stops working, I’ll look at changing it for an alternator, but I’m not keen on this as there is not a lot of room in there. The ignition switch still operates off the original key.
At the time I didn’t refurbish the gauges, though I probably should have. Instead, I fitted a temperature and oil gauge, vacuum gauge, and rev counter (not original) to the centre of the dashboard face.
While the front headlights are still running on globes, the rest of the lighting system has been changed over to LED with the addition of roof lights and manually operated reversing and hazard lights – mainly for safety reasons. I have also added a Klaxon horn, just for fun.
Initially, when cutting out the dead rubber and removing the glass, I was very frightened about breaking one, or both, of the curved pieces on the rear corners of the cab.
A point of interest is that this Dodge cab is the same as that from the AS International. The differences being with the back windows. The AS has two rectangular rear windows whereas the Dodge has one centrally positioned along with two corner windows. I eventually found someone confident to re-fit the glass using International rubbers.
As I got closer to the end, attention was turned to the original Gitsam tray which I have retained and rebuilt. A new headboard was added and the deck was lengthened by 400mm, along with two runners being fitted underneath and spaced the same width as the log hauler to take its weight.
The deck has been finished off with 3mm checker plate over two layers of marine ply which have been sealed. We didn’t change the width of the tray which unfortunately is not a full 8 feet.
It should have 8.25x20 rubber on it, but I replaced the old 9.00x20s with the same, not knowing at the time, which is why the speedo is out a little. I reckon one of the original owners wanted a bit more road speed.
The Dodge will do 100km/h @ 3,000rpm which is a little high, but at 85-90km/h she sits at 2,800rpm and hums along nicely.
During the restoration of the Dodge, the presentation was always in the back of my mind. I wanted to glamorise it a bit – some things have been done basically for safety, and other things to personalise it with a bit of flare.
I knew I wanted to drive it on decent trips, and I have already been to Brisbane in it – it is a guaranteed pleasure to drive.
There were some frustrating times during the rebuild, but it was overall, very enjoyable.
It makes you feel good about the effort that we put in. I couldn’t have done it without the input of my brothers, and I am especially thankful to Phillip who put a lot of time into it with welding, spray painting, and other bits, and I am ever grateful.
*Russell Bradley
