The wheel has turned full circle for an Angus baker in his latest effort to boost business.
Neil Elford of Pie Bob’s in Arbroath’s Grant Road is usually inundated with interest in the sweet and savoury treats on the shelves inside his shop, but it’s been an old timer outside the premises which has been recently catching the eye of customers.
The 49-year-old has acquired a 1927 Model T Ford which he plans to put back on the road as a head-turning promotional runabout and even in its current rusty state Neil said the interest in the one-ton truck has been through the roof.
And for Neil it has been a case of back to the future to get the vintage machine rolling again after he leant on the skills gleaned through his first career as a wheelwright to fashion the wooden rims for the shop’s automotive pride and joy.
“I’m a workaholic but wanted to get something that would give me an interest outside the business and managed to track this down,” said Neil.
“It’s an original British right hand drive Model T Ford and it was just an engine and a chassis when we found it down south.
“I’ve managed to source some bits for it and got it to the stage where we have been able to get it running and bring it out to the shop and it’s already created colossal interest.”
The shop has named the truck Brum after the popular children’s television show and talented Angus custom airbrush artist Bob Falconer will apply his skills to the machine during the restoration journey.
Neil added: “The body parts are quite difficult to come by – the one-ton trucks are not so popular so they’re a bit harder to find.”
But he had no problems crafting the hickory and ash wheels having served his time as an apprentice wheelwright in his teenage years.
“My dad was a butcher and my parents had Shire horse so my interest stemmed from there and the carts they pulled.
“I was the last apprentice to be trained as a wheelwright so I’ve been able to use those skills again.
“The intention is to build the truck in a traditional style and we’ll have a flat bed to begin with, but then maybe add a back to it later.
“I’m completely gobsmacked by the attention it’s had, it’s phenomenal the amount of people who have stopped at the shop to take a photograph and ask about it.”
The Model T Ford, affectionately known as Tin Lizzie, was the vehicle that brought motoring to the masses of middle-class America during a production run stretching from 1908 to 1927 – making Neil’s truck one of the later examples.
The company’s first vehicle to be mass produced on moving assembly lines with interchangeable parts, Henry Ford once said of the Model T: “I will build a car for the great multitude.
“It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise.
“But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.”
