Imperfectly Perfect 1951 Diamond T

[Music] hey guys winslow bent here i've got something really cool to show you today it's a diamond tee [Applause] [Music] as a chicago boy these things are near and dear to my heart diamond t was the only auto manufacturer from chicago illinois [Music] they called them the cadillac of trucks you see it coming down the road and you're like oh my gosh what is that my friend mike hulse came down from yukon idaho in this truck he's going to tell us a little bit about this thing thanks for having me winslow so this is a 1951 921 series diamond tee which is the predecessor to the diamond rio when you're coming down the road in this thing everyone's got to be waving at you oh yeah everybody waves at you thumbs up i mean this is such a unique looking vehicle the big swooping fenders sitting still it looks like it's going 60 miles an hour it's very aerodynamic it's back before they started going wide in the nose which just didn't look as cool and so you're saying over time these things just started getting wider and wider why is that just more engine more engine which means they need more cooling capacity so everything in the radiators up front for air flow i'm looking at all the details as i come along here i mean look at the badging along the driver's door this is so cool and everything's here i mean the attention to detail these swooping lines that go through the whole cap you look at this and you go there's no way it came from the factory like that this looks like an extended cab correct yep so they made this model in a two-door model and then they made it with the extended cab so this would have been more of like your long haul or log truck or something that you could sleep in the back get in trouble with the girlfriend you sleep back there that looks like some tight quarters is this a a heavy truck is this a medium duty truck this would have been your big girl these would have come with a single axle or in a tandem tandem axle you'd use for heavier work yeah single axle version you'd be in the city you know doing deliveries things that had a lighter load yeah exactly i know you pretty well i know holst truck parts this is probably not the original engine no so originally this would have come with either a four or a six cylinder gas motor with a manual transmission so it wouldn't have moved out of its own way no currently this baybell cruise 65 70 mile an hour down the road so and how'd you do that so we actually took um a bus motor and transmission and put in here a cummins 8.3 i think this one's set at 250 horse four speed automatic and then it has a three browning auxiliary box real man could probably shift that on the fly but i'm not one of those guys i put her in high range and we just cruise down the road the guy that fabbed all this stuff together was a good old boy from yukon reed lemons he was a house mover he actually dug this out of a ditch bank he was moving a house he saw it over there and his love of trucks he just restored many many other trucks right i gotta have it and that's probably why it says lemons on the license plate he actually passed away about four years ago we ended up with it and we're cruising around and letting everybody see it and see his imperfect perfect work so he fabricated the flatbed on the back here and then it looks like he got a hitch so you can do some towing he can haul stuff if we throw grandkids on the back it's been converted so it's air ride in the back spring over air in the front has a valve in there you can adjust it and for whatever weight you put on the back and i assume nowadays this is mostly just kind of light duty cruising around that's right just a parking lot princess well let's take a better look at this thing and maybe we can take it out for a little drive sounds great [Music] all right here we go when you get into the eight liter and above is when i think diesel trucks really start sounding good it's like i'm sitting on top of a subwoofer rev this thing up a little bit yeah these old trucks weren't designed to have long conversations in them either it was just one dude with a pack of chesterfields just sitting here smoking away and if you notice there's no radio yeah you don't need a radio with the a3 cummins that is the radio i'm just not sure which fuel gauge works and which one doesn't the mp wanted to pull one i think we're about to find out [Music] i'm digging the power steering man [Music] remember that we might not be able to slow down as quickly as you guys all right we're chugging up toward grand target ski area i mean right off the top this thing has absolutely more power than it needs like a lot of these trucks with allison transmissions it's not until you get to like third fourth gear the torque converter locks that the truck really takes off it's pulling pretty good right now when the turbo spools up i mean you are absolutely gone [Music] i wonder if that's a prescribed fire up there or uh something's going wrong i would think so i mean this time of year [Music] but i love the seating position i mean it's sitting up here nice and high looking down that hood ornament this truck i feel like i could drive this all day it's nice you don't have to go see a chiropractor or the dentist we get done driving it for a while no kidding [Music] how'd you get doing this is this like is it a family gig or what in the 1930s my grandfather was actually a dairy farmer slash mechanic on the side he'd always fix everybody's things and he just kind of acquired a bunch of old trucks behind his mechanic shop the mechanic shop kept going but he also started just selling parts off those old trucks fast forward you know 30 40 years my father now kind of started taking over in the 70s and now we have 40 acres of truck parts 30 plus employees was this in yukon in yukon yep so you guys have been there you guys have been there forever that's very very cool and it's great to teach the younger generation because it's kind of a dying breed the grease monkeys the mechanics the backyard guys they're just they're not there anymore here's some more kids up here see if we get away from the kitties maybe we give them a honk but so far i am very impressed with this thing yeah with this cummins motor and allison and then the air ride where it's got an air ride rear and partial front yeah it cruises very well you know i would have no problem cruising through yellowstone how fun would that be it would be a good time it's freaking awesome man and perfectly perfect and perfectly perfect that's a good name for this segment this is the imperfectly perfect 51 diamond tee [Music] wow mike thank you so much that was a great time this thing's the real deal i mean it was she was well behaved the entire time absolutely an incredible truck like i feel like i could drive this thing anywhere they don't make them like this anymore no they don't and you know it takes a special kind of person to keep them on the road and i really appreciate what you're doing i also appreciate all the help you give in my my business you know we need a lot of oddball car parts we appreciate the friendship and if you like what you've seen today please subscribe to my channel and be sure to click that notification bell that way you'll get notified when new content comes up we're going to be having lots of great stuff if you like this subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: This Old Truck

Views: 65,144

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Id: Nf9Efl5383c

Length: 9min 31sec (571 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 14 2021