1925 Indiana Truck
Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:34 pm
Some of you have seen this before but its been a while and its time to share again.
In 1980 I was staying with my Grandpa on the farm just up the road from the farm he was born on and decided to go down to see what was in the old barns that still stood near where the house had been. The barns were full of old farm items and doors and windows from the old house that no longer stood there and some newer farm equipment that was still being used to farm the land owned now by my Grandpa's brother. One building was smaller and had a dirt floor and a loft with a square hole in the middle of the floor and a rope on a pulley hanging over the hole. I found a way to climb up and have look in the loft and saw this cab sitting at one end by a window that had been covered over.
I decided to ask about the old truck cab and was told if I could get it out of the loft it was mine so with the help from my Dad we lowered the old wood cab down the square hole with the rope that had pulled it up so many years before. I later found out this thing had been in the loft since at least 1942 and maybe longer. The parts found were the wood cab, fenders, cowl, hood, radiator shell, running boards, and later the floor boards were found in the pile and the wood doors were in another barn mixed in with house windows. I had no idea what make the truck was and never heard of a Indiana Motor Truck. IT took a while to find out it was built in Marion Indiana and the company built its first truck in 1910 and built up a strong business that later sold to Brockway in 1927 who continued to build Indiana's in Marion until selling the line to White in 1932. White moved the line out of Marion in 1933 and built an Indiana Truck till 1939. These trucks are all considered rare today and very few are known to exist of the early trucks.
It took me 32 years to track down parts and restore this 1925 to its original condition. Parts from other Indiana's were used but they had to come from the same model and year or the parts would be different size and not fit my truck. That is why it took 32 years to find the missing parts.
This is how the truck turned out, it looked just like this when it left the factory in 1925. Every part is painted its original color and even the stripe on the side of the cab is the exact size and in the exact location it was when it left the factory. I was lucky to find the truck with the original paint still in place but in need of a repaint. I also found the rear half of the frame still on the farm and it had some paint left in spots as did the rear wheels. The spec sheet for this model 11 Indiana 1 ton Truck listed the paint colors that matched what I found on my parts. I almost painted this truck red with black fenders but decided to make it right because this might be the only one left. I later found another 1925 model 11 so there are at least 2 of this make and model left.
More info on this truck posted here along with some video of it. http://www.angelfire.com/in/Bobshome/in ... truck.html
In 1980 I was staying with my Grandpa on the farm just up the road from the farm he was born on and decided to go down to see what was in the old barns that still stood near where the house had been. The barns were full of old farm items and doors and windows from the old house that no longer stood there and some newer farm equipment that was still being used to farm the land owned now by my Grandpa's brother. One building was smaller and had a dirt floor and a loft with a square hole in the middle of the floor and a rope on a pulley hanging over the hole. I found a way to climb up and have look in the loft and saw this cab sitting at one end by a window that had been covered over.
- 1stindy.jpg (50.05 KiB) Viewed 7400 times
It took me 32 years to track down parts and restore this 1925 to its original condition. Parts from other Indiana's were used but they had to come from the same model and year or the parts would be different size and not fit my truck. That is why it took 32 years to find the missing parts.
This is how the truck turned out, it looked just like this when it left the factory in 1925. Every part is painted its original color and even the stripe on the side of the cab is the exact size and in the exact location it was when it left the factory. I was lucky to find the truck with the original paint still in place but in need of a repaint. I also found the rear half of the frame still on the farm and it had some paint left in spots as did the rear wheels. The spec sheet for this model 11 Indiana 1 ton Truck listed the paint colors that matched what I found on my parts. I almost painted this truck red with black fenders but decided to make it right because this might be the only one left. I later found another 1925 model 11 so there are at least 2 of this make and model left.
