1949 Diamond T Model 201 factory custom build (beginning restoration)

Hello everyone,
I’m a youngster, and I just graduated high school, but am now in a welding and metal fab class. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a newbie when it comes to Diamond T Restoration. However, I have always been into classic cars and trucks and have interned at a Model A restoration shop for several months now, which has started me off in my dream career of auto and truck restoration. Anyways, I guess I could say I’ve been a Diamond T enthusiast ever since I found out about the truck make and wanted to learn more about them. I did research on the nameplate of Diamond T in my spare time, and was pretty interested in it. I had never seen one before, but I was really impressed by the history and everything behind them.
Then, a few years ago, I asked one of my mentors, an older gentleman I know that I sometimes work for, if he had ever heard of a truck make called “Diamond T”. He said yes, and that one of his friend Craig actually had one sitting on his property. Excited by this, I asked Craig about it and he said told me that it had been sitting for fifteen years on his property. It apparently was built for Pleasure Point Lumber Company (ow Big Creek Lumber) out in Santa Cruz, CA. He said that it was custom-built with 16″ wheels, lower to the ground, and with an extended wheelbase for stacking lumber on the back. I asked him if it was for sale, I can’t remember exactly what his response was, but i could tell he didn’t take me seriously at first.
I had taken Auto Body Repair for a semester my junior year of high school, and then senior year took truck mechanics for both semesters, which earned me my certificate in Heavy Duty Truck Mechanics. Now that I had this under my belt and I started to talk to Craig about the class I took, this is when he started to take me seriously. Long story short, I went and checked it out twice, the first time I took some basic photos of the truck where it had been sitting. It came with an extra cab that was mounted on the frame backwards behind the actual cab of the truck, and a whole bunch of extra sheet metal parts. Then when I went a second time to check it out, we moved it out of the grass and I took an inventory of all the extra parts there were. There were a lot, thankfully, and I looked and took pictures of all the nameplates and serial numbers on the truck. It turned out, while I had thought it was a 306, it was actually a model 201 with dual rears and a factory extended frame! I had never seen any 201 quite like this one, but apparently it came from the factory that way. I know the 306 was available in three different wheelbases, but this is the only 201 I’ve even seen that is this wheelbase. I am right now in the process of transferring the title over to my name, which the state of CA makes anything related to the DMV very complicated.
I had found another guy near Santa Cruz who had three Diamond T 306’s and a whole ton of extra parts, and I was lucky I had found that guy, because he has a lot of years experience working on these trucks under his belt and he has helped me tremendously so far.
I have started the restoration now, I took the extra cab to my metal shop class, where I am dismantling everything on it (carefully) down to the last nut and bolt. I will then take it to get media blasted to strip off the coatings of rust, paint, and primer. I intend to use the extra cab as the cab for the truck, because it is in better shape than the cab currently on the truck. Any advice, tips, tricks, knowlegdge, anything…is appreciated. Thank y’all, and keep on truckin’!!

• This topic was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Dylan Young.