When I relayed a message from Tom to Dave about a Chrysler Traveler, I had no idea that in the process I would get to see Dave’s amazing Ford Model AA Truck. Rather than ramble on about it, I’ll just let Dave tell you the story in his own words: I found the truck on my way home from bow hunting. I decided to take a different route home and see if I could find some new land to hunt on. I stopped at a classic looking old farm with the long driveway, old barns etc… While talking with the owners about hunting, the subject of old trucks came up because they had a 1949 grain truck parked in the front yard. I mentioned that I liked restoring old stuff and had been keeping my eye out for a truck to restore. The grain truck was one her grandfather had purchased new. It hadn’t been used in years and they said they would consider selling it to me. After looking it over I decided that it probably wasn’t the truck for me. That is when the gent said “Well I have a 1929 AA truck in the barn. Would you be interested in it?”

Silly question… Yes, I was certainly interested! Turns out the truck hadn’t been run in 50 years. For 10 years it sat out in a pasture and then the following 40 years it sat in the barn. The barn had settled quite a bit. So much so I had to dig trenches for the tires so the top of the cab could clear the door header while pulling it out.

After I got the truck home I hung a temporary gas tank from one of the roof headers, cleaned and set the points, put in a new battery and gave it a crank. Only took me 20 minutes of work to get it to run. The engine was pretty worn and since the serial numbers matched the frame I decided that a complete rebuild was in order as I didn’t want to risk throwing a rod and damaging the engine beyond repair.

I did what I call a preservation restoration on the truck. I pulled everything apart on the truck, inspected and replaced, as needed, every gear, bearing, and seal. Over the course of the restoration I ended up having to purchase two more parts trucks and more to get the correct nuts, bolts, brackets to make it as original as possible. The remainder of the parts not needed from the parts trucks went to other restorers all over the U.S. and Canada.

When I got the truck both rear fenders were long removed from the truck. I was lucky to find two fenders in Washington State. The right rear fender was nicely rusted and pretty much matched the truck but the left rear fender was N.O.S. This posed a problem because when I stripped the paint off the fender looked like it had just come out of the fender press. Since this would look way out of place on the truck the rusting process began in earnest. It took me a full year to get it to rust up, but it turned out nice and no one has yet to notice that the fender is not original to the truck.

The front and side boards of the box are all original to the truck. Originally the truck would have had three sets of side boards, but the father of the man I bought the truck from needed some wood to fix a hog trough and since the truck was parked in the pasture, that’s where he got the wood. The rear of the box I had to fabricate out of some old barn siding. The hardware for the end gate came from a box in Colorado that the wood had all rotted away from.



The finish on the truck is really quite simple. I used a “fine grade” wire wheel (lots of them as it turned out) mounted on a drill to smooth and polish the surface rust. After that I used some steel wool along with a small fine grade wire brush to work the small spots and hard to reach spots. For the finish I washed and dried the metal well and then applied a thin coat of Johnson’s Paste Wax right out of the can. Parking the truck in direct sunlight on a warm day is a plus in applying the wax, as it helps melt it quickly. When you first do something like this it takes a few coats of wax to really bring up the luster but after that, a quick wax a couple times a year is all it takes. Nice thing about the paste wax is it takes very little buffing and leaves no white residue like regular car waxes.

The truck is not fast, even though it has the high speed rear end. The cursing speed is 30 mph. If you happen to get the opportunity to own one of these trucks, you soon learn it’s not how fast you go but how fun it is getting there!

Dave, you did an amazing job with this truck and it looks fantastic! It sounds like it was an enjoyable project that just keeps on giving. Thanks for sharing it with us and we all wish you the best of luck with it and any other projects you have going on!