What did we tell you back in our April issue about the rise in popularity of early shop trucks? Back then it was Paul Borrmann's Hemi-fied '33 we were waxing lyrical about, and hot on its heels comes Danny Burroughs' '32. Both are fenderless, both have quick-change rearends, and despite the paint finish being at opposite ends of the spectrum, there are other similarities, the most important to us being that they're both drivers. Unlike Paul's '33, Danny's Deuce is a real shop truck, doing daily duty for Bruce's Rod Shop, the business he runs with his parents in Spring, Texas. We remember being impressed with the pickup at last year's Lone Star Round Up, but had no idea it was the truck's maiden voyage. As Danny told us, "For me, it takes a show or a trip to get a project finished on time. This one was no different; it took the '09 Lone Star Round Up to get it done. The Wednesday before the show the truck was ready to make the trip."
But what of the two-year buildup to the Round Up? We'll let Danny tell it: "As a car builder, I always have ideas running through my head. I have always liked the look of old shop trucks. One day I was looking at some parts we had lying around the shop and thought, 'these would work great for a shop truck.' That's how the two-year project got started.
"In early 2003, Dad was looking on eBay for '32 Ford parts, and found a '32 Ford BB truck. For kicks he decided to place a low bid on it. Much to his surprise, he won the auction. Now we had to figure out how to get it from Snyder, Oklahoma, to our shop in Texas. After a long weekend, we had the truck back at its new home. For a work truck it was in very good condition. For a few years it sat in the back of the shop, lonely and unattended. Every now and again, we fired it up and drove it down the street, but mainly it sat. During this time we bought several '32 Ford projects, and two of them were smaller trucks. It started to look like we had a fleet of trucks for our hot rod shop. It had been a number of years since I had built a ground-up project for myself, and I decided it was time to dust off the old BB and make it a cool shop truck.
"First thing on the list was to pry the truck out of Dad's hands. So with a lot of sucking up and promises of labor on his roadster project, it was mine. Over the years we have gathered up bits and pieces for different projects, and with a quick look around I found the makings of a new chassis for the truck. This started with a pair of well-worn '32 'rails with a center crossmember that left a lot to be desired. After all the ugly was removed, the frame was ready to be put into our jig and start its new life. On past projects I'd used more modern suspension components, but on this one I wanted it to look old and 'mechanical'. I have always thought that trucks were for work, not a beauty contest. Keeping that in mind, I decided that the least amount of shine the better.
"The frontend started with a Chassis Engineering forged I-beam, Posies rolled and tapered front spring, plain steel shackles and spring perches from Magnum Axle, and original '40 Ford spindles, along with a split '34 wishbone, pulled from the parts shelf. Also from the shelf came the '40 front brakes. The rearend is an old Halibrand quick-change, designed to use 3/4-ton Ford truck axle bells. This type of rearend has a real industrial look that works perfect on a truck. In trying to keep an older look, I decided to run a Model A spring and rear crossmember. The rear end is held in place by handmade ladder bars with a custom V-8 logo used as a gusset. The rear brakes are a mix of '40 drums with '39 Lincoln front backing plates with the centers re-drilled to fit 9-inch bearing ends.