Interesting Custom Truck..

Stumbled upon this on Feacesbook..
Started out as an AEC.



Finished up Looking like this.. 3070 Cab & a Roadboss Bonnet grafted onto It..

Hayseed,
Old m8y, are you sure this story is correct? To change a cab-over truck to a bonneted one appears to me to be an awful lot of work. Both trucks appear to have (different) New Zealand numberplates. I am not doubting you, just the source of the story.

Here you go Morris...

www.facebook.com/groups/571928599531216/...ink/6729629867094361

My old eyes make the Number plate to be KZ-8613 in Both Pics..

Morris wrote:

Hayseed,
Old m8y, are you sure this story is correct? To change a cab-over truck to a bonneted one appears to me to be an awful lot of work. Both trucks appear to have (different) New Zealand numberplates. I am not doubting you, just the source of the story.

I think Morris if you have the skills a build is a lot more cost effective than four or five years of repayments, I up graded my MAN a couple of sizes and stretched it out a couple of meters in the 70's with bit's from Royans for 3/5 of bugger all, not sure how you would go now with all the regulations though, a 7.3 IDI into a F100 wasn't a big deal so it would probably be OK.

Hayseed, you are correct about the number plates.

The story says the only parts left of the original truck are the front axle and part of the chassis.

I am amazed that the authorities allowed it to be registered. I suppose they did not know it had been altered.

There used to be massive taxes on new stuff in NZ......IIRC a new Holden cost 4x as much there as in Oz ,so there were lots of 1920s and 1930s cars on the roads there........so rebuilding a truck was likley very cost effective.

Hayseed,
I expect the alterations were done over a number of years. If they were to be all done at once, there would not be much point in wrecking a good truck just to get a front axle and part of a chassis.

John K,
The massive taxes were Import Duty. For several years New Zealand could not export enough to pay for imports. Unless you had money outside the country, you had to pay the duty. When I was there in the late 1960's, a new Cortina cost $1200. A friend and I were discussing something that cost $28.000. My friend said, I suppose if you had that sort of money, you would be looking at a Holden. I replied "If I had $28,000, I would be looking at a Mercedes"

New Zealand had a lot of very restrictive regulations, not only on imports.
I was on a bus in Auckland when the driver had to detour around one block because of roadworks. He told us that he was breaking the law by deviating from his route, even for one block because the bus company should have applied for an amendment to the route. (the roadworks would have been finished before the application was heard) I remember Derrin Hinch telling us on Australian television that his Father had a corner shop in New Zealand and could not get a licence to sell milk.

Morris, I've NFI on how long It Took.. !!

But I can say that whoever did the Fibreglass work was/is a True Craftsman..!! The way that the, Highly modified Roadboss Bonnet is grafted onto the ACCO cab you'd think It grew there..

Hi,

I don't know if it is in anyway related but the cab peeking out behind the Interwhite is the same or similar cab to the original AEC pictured. Perhaps there are other photos showing the before and after next to each other.

Terry

I have often made the comment that NewZealand is the king of custom trucks
Nothing it appears was out of the question and a lot of the cconversions were on a scale like this
And it wasn't just the odd truck here and there, it was custom built as a normal practice
They have very different country side than most other countries and the trucking is also very different and as such the trucks were very special
Plenty of businesses were operating doing this style of conversion

NewZealand is a country that has fascinated me since I was a little kid
The more I have learnt the more Im interested
It really is a little country that should never of made it but against all odds has done remarkably well

Anyway I'm going off topic

Paul