Mon Jan 28, 2013 6:59 pm by hotrodbrent
Thanks Gary. The D's do have a unique look don't they? I guess I should tell some of you the history of the truck that I now own. This truck was originally modified into a pumper truck by Darley, then purchased by the Yorksville,IL fire dept in 1939. In the mid 60's it was then sold to the St.Anne fire dept of IL. It wasn't until 1975 that St.Anne put the international into retirement. At that time my father was a paramedic for the Aroma Park fire dept,which was only 10min away from St.Anne. This truck intrigued my father enough for him to purchase it from the fire dept. My father was and still is a man of many skills, and autobody work was one of them. After purchasing the truck he preceded to repaint and pin stripe it back to it's former glory. The Old International was manily used then for parade duty until the birth of yours truly:) With a now growing family the truck was then tucked into a friend's barn for storage. Even though dad's time was short he always managed to take me out when I was only knee high to start up the truck once a year. I remember as a small boy observing him start up that old red goliath. As the starter moaned and groaned the engine would suddenly come to life with a sharp crackle of gun fire from the cherry bomb muffler beneath. A sound that still amazes me to this day. Dad always took care of the truck,but as time went on the beautiful lacquer paint deterioated and became immobile after failing break cylinders. As a teenager my father took the truck from it's tomb to refurbish the entire break system. It wasn't until recently that the truck was moved home to where it currently resides at my father's shop.
As you have noticed from the pictures the rear half of the truck that Darley had attached back in 1939 is no longer there. A few years back my father and I had decided to turn into a flat bed truck. Although the actual truck is nearly rust free, the rear half that Darley had built was completely cancer ridden from the inside out due to the failing water tank. In a way we hated to remove that part of it's history,but it really wasn't finanically feasible to repair it. Darley I know for sure made great fire equipment,but some of there installation methods were appalling and crude. I can't tell you how many crooked miss cut angle iron braces I removed that were welded to the frame of the truck, along with the patching of the torched cut hole in the back of the rear cab they made when installing the pumping unit. Many of these problems were not know of until removing this equipment from the truck. Out of sight and out of mind or just the plain old attitude that "nobody's gonna see it", can never validate poor workmanship.
Just this past year my father decided to give me the Old International. It needs a little tuning up and the tires will more than likely have to eventually be replaced,but with only 10,000 miles on it mechanically it should be a forgiving project. I can't wait to introduce it to the new generation of our family, and will continue to be it's care taker for many more years to come.
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Hello from Illinois!
