3 days Ago By Alyn Edwards
Article content Who would take delivery of a brand new 2024 Peterbilt highway tractor and then pull it all apart and do it all over again – as a show truck? That would be Johnny Vershuur of Valley Waste and Recycling. It was all about karma. While displaying his glistening, newly rebuilt new truck at the annual B.
C. Vintage Truck Museum show, he explained that this model would be the last Peterbilt to have the traditional look. This truck was the 65th new truck he had purchased and he turned 65 about the time he bought it.
“I’m just an old trucker at heart,” Johnny said while looking at the chromed-out engine compartment with neon green highlights. He had Peterbilt Pacific in Abbotsford do a complete custom leather interior to complement the glistening white paint job with bright green fenders. Remarkably, he has located the first truck he bought – 1988 Freightliner.
He is in the process of restoring it, hopefully completing it in time for next year’s truck show. Johnny’s customized new Peterbilt was displayed among dozens of vintage highway haulers that had helped build this country. Ross Stevens drove his 1955 Hayes which was built in Vancouver and hauled freight between Vancouver and Calgary with two drivers going non-stop.
Then it went into service with Hart Transport hauling hay. Ross did a complete body-off-the-frame restoration on the 50-year-old highway transport truck. Another mighty Hayes was a 1972 dump truck model displayed by Jim Falconer of Port Alberni.
As a new truck, the Hayes was taken to the Sarita River camp to build logging roads on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Jim bought it 40 years ago and put it to work before totally restoring it. “It’s the best truck ever built,” he says.
The truck show celebrated the 100th anniversary of Kenworth trucks and one of the rarest on display was a 1955 bullnose model. Sean Duling drove his well -preserved silver and red 1970 Kenworth from Ferndale, Washington. The star of the show was a 1981 Kenworth highway truck rebuilt to better than showroom condition.
The chrome under the hood must have cost a fortune as the deep blue paint job would have. Restoring cars is one thing. Trucks are many steps up the ladder.
Big trucks. Big restoration budgets. The B.
C. Vintage Truck Museum is located in Cloverdale. it is staffed by volunteers and is open Wednesdays and Saturdays.
For more information go to www.bctruckmuseum.org Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and a partner in a Vancouver-based public relations company.
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