Give new life to your old truck

Have you ever had a dependable tow truck that reached the end of the line due to rust or other body damage? It’s frustrating to let go of a solid truck regardless, but when you look at the cost of a new one, the thought becomes even more painful. Instead of buying new, consider rebuilding old reliable. While the cost of a rebuild might seem high when first considered, a properly done rebuild could save you thousands of dollars and add years of life to your truck. Tom Graham, owner of Superior Wreckers, a division of Southside Body and Fabricating in Holland, Michigan, has been building and rebuilding tow trucks for 12 years. According to Graham, there are a number of factors to consider before attempting a rebuild and there is specialized equipment that can make the job much easier. Rebuilding tractor-trailers was Graham’s regular business and it led him to start rebuilding tow trucks. “People with wreckers would pull semis in and would see what I’m doing,” Graham said. “One guy had a homebuilt wrecker. It wasn’t hydraulic, it had a mechanical bull winch. He said the old girl had more power than even the new trucks. He said it was rusted out. And he asked me, ‘You can’t repair the body, can you?’” Graham rebuilt everything on the truck except the boom, a-frame lift and decking. “Welding is my first love,” Graham said. “I told him I could make a new body pretty much from scratch cheaper than patching up what he had. It was quicker really than to just try to patch it. I still see him running it every day.”

More Projects Graham did the same thing with a Ford 450 about six or seven years ago. He made new side panels for the fender area, cut out and replaced the rotted-out bottoms of the truck’s toolboxes and replaced the panels around the doors. He still sees that truck on the road as well. “Other towers around [have] seen what I did for that man, so I did a handful of other trucks as well. They’ve all held up well,” Graham noted, adding that, “you may have a bill of $5,000 to $6,000, but even if it’s $10,000, it’s still much cheaper than replacing the truck.” But not every truck is worth rebuilding. One tow truck body Graham rebuilt for a shop in Ann Arbor should have been scrapped. The tower owned a Ford 550 with an 84-inch cab-to-axle chassis, but he wanted something to tow larger vehicles. He approached Graham about placing the body of the old truck onto one with a 102-inch cab-to-axle chassis.

The original old and rusty body. Note there is no tunnel box or side step on the original – these were added later.

The finished truck with the same body but installed on a newer, longer chassis. A PTO,new gas tank, and all new wiring were added

Graham sandblasted the body, built in a saddle box to match the old body, and added a custom step to make it easier to reach the tower’s car dolly. “By increasing his wheel base he could lift more and still be able to handle it well,” Graham said. “I put in the step so it and the saddle box bottom were even. I matched everything to the new doors. You couldn’t even tell it had been rebuilt.” The expense incurred to fit the old body on the new chassis left Graham thinking the tower would have been better off to start with a new body to begin with. “If you’re going to take something old and rusty and put it on another truck, it’s not worth it,” Graham said. “If you’re going to rework and modify it, it won’t be that much cheaper than if you bought a new one. It was a learning curve for me too there.”

To Rebuild Or Not

What should you consider before attempting a rebuild yourself or hiring someone to do the job? First, ensure the truck you want rebuilt is still worth rebuilding. “Just make sure it’s a good runner. Check and make sure the hydraulics are sound, the linkage is in good working order and tight. Make sure you have something to start with,” Graham said. Second, skip the rebuild if you’ve got a smaller truck. “Medium to large trucks would be the most cost-effective because they cost more. Some towers can drop $150,000 in a heartbeat,” Graham said. “Even if you put $20,000 in one good running truck, that’s worth it.” Once you’ve inspected your mediumto large-sized truck and decided you want to get it rebuilt, look for a shop that is equipped to handle the work that will be required. Graham’s body shop is stocked with metal-working tools, machining tools, and a paint booth. He also recommends finding a shop that has experience with hydraulic systems and can manufacture its own hydraulic lines to keep costs down. The main items a shop will need are a brake press to bend the metal body and a shear press to cut the metal sheets. However, Graham also relies on a 20- year-old Lindy flame table to manufacture tool boxes, bumpers, and any number of other metal parts. “My flame table, according to nowadays’ standards, it’s obsolete,” Graham said. “I draw a life-size pattern on a piece of paper with black India ink, take that white paper and put it on the table under the machine’s eye and it’ll run across that white paper and pick up the line and follow it.” Graham modified the flame table to not only fit the original torch head but to allow for the attachment of a plasma head for cutting materials such as aluminum.

A Longer Lifespan Many of the items Graham rebuilds for his customers are built off the original measurements on the truck. However, towers have found that his equipment will last longer than commercial tow trucks. “The reason they last so long is the way they’re prepared,” Graham said. “With most places, they just wipe off the oil from the new body and just use primer and paint it. If the metal isn’t really etched, the paint doesn’t stick good. By blasting the body, that makes texture. It puts a little peck in it, sort of like a football, but not near that rough. It gives the body a micro-texture. Then you apply a good epoxy primer and it will really stick.” Towers should also insist on getting a spray-on coating such as Rhino Coat or Line-X sprayed into any toolboxes and on the underside of the body to make the truck last longer. “If you’ve got a wrecker that is mechanically sound and you prep it right then you can easily get 10 more years out of it,” Graham said.

Used Wreckers and Tow Trucks