Chuck Most Posted February 23 Posted February 23 Bill Peters of Deerwood, Manitoba was a little bit of everything. A Mason. A mechanic. A municipal truck driver by trade and a tinkerer and junk collector by habit. A highly skilled welder and machinist, and he was even a halfway decent carpenter. And he was the go-to guy whenever somebody local needed something fixed or improved. Some time around 1987, Bill found himself needing a hook. His wife Abby politely reminded him about "that old orange wrecker parked on top of the sheet metal pile". He'd gotten the 1968 Mercury M350 two years earlier as a partial payment for some work he'd done on a friend's Cockshutt 2655 tractor. He used the wrecker for various odd jobs over the next thirty years, and when he passed away, the wrecker was one of only two vehicles on the property that weren't hauled off for scrap. Don't feel bad, nothing good got scrapped. And the other vehicle? Maybe some other time... His grandson Hugh Martin is the wrecker's current caretaker. Huey has been spending much of the 2024-25 season getting the old hook back up and running, seeing as how it had mostly just sat since 2012. Bill, when asked about the truck's origin, would usually say- "It was a wrecker when I got it. I've no idea what the hell it was prior." In his repair and maintenance tasks in the old Mercury, Huey has had to get creative a few times to accommodate earlier modifications. Nothing on the truck matches the FoMoCo and Holmes manuals he has. He's also working on tracking the truck's history. Huey has no plans to restore the wrecker, just preserve it, use it for odd jobs around his property, and occasionally take it to shows. The model is just me throwing together a bunch of spare Moebius F-Series kits. The main bulk is the '68 Mercury M100, with the Holmes wrecker unit from the '72 F350. The heavy duty front cross member and radius arms are included as spares in the wrecker kit, along with the 2WD front wheels. I cut down the sides of the wrecker body and attached the extra wrecker kit hooks to chain and hung them up in back. The Manitoba plates are Gopher Racing decals. The issue of Hemmings on the dash came from @spencer1984's eBay store. 15
Belugawrx Posted February 23 Posted February 23 Nice work on Bill's old beater Chuck,..and great story.
BrianC Posted February 23 Posted February 23 Great build Chuck, the background certainly looks like the Prairies too.
espo Posted February 23 Posted February 23 Your great story explains the accurate looking patina finish on this. The bed and boom look very realistic. The cracked windshield is a nice touch.
Steve H Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Another great build Chuck. Love your patinas…. wait, that’s not weird is it?…😂
dino246gt Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Beautiful build and great story. We'd love to see it at one of our Winnipeg Model Car Club meetings! The third Sunday of every month except July and August. St. Alphonsus hall 341 Munroe at 11 til 1. Love to meet you and see your cool model!
happy grumpy Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Another really nicely weathered build. Looks the part.
Chuck Most Posted February 24 Author Posted February 24 9 hours ago, dino246gt said: Beautiful build and great story. We'd love to see it at one of our Winnipeg Model Car Club meetings! The third Sunday of every month except July and August. St. Alphonsus hall 341 Munroe at 11 til 1. Love to meet you and see your cool model! That's only a 17 hour drive 😁
dino246gt Posted February 25 Posted February 25 Wow, I didn't know where Deerwood Manitoba is, now I know. Great model! Stay warm, cheers!
RoninUtah Posted February 25 Posted February 25 Outstanding build, beautiful patina. It really looks real!
johnyrotten Posted March 1 Posted March 1 Great looking build and a cool back story along with it. I always get a kick out of the history, Fictional or otherwise.
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