Firstly, let it be known, Trar: A portmanteau of truck and car; A car on a truck chassis.
Before Eagle and the original Wagoneer, innovative ruralites were putting cars on truck chassis for reasons known only to themselves. And now the ultimate irony is that a quintessentially redneck vehicle configuration has become one of the most most mainstream, high-volume segments of the auto industry. Every Traverse out there needs to come pay Grandpa 4×4 Bel Air a visit.
The specifics of this beast? How about a 1941 GM 1-Ton Weapons Carrier chassis, 283 V8 and 4 speed manual? The body’s not perfect, but pretty danged good. The seller rivals our Short Sentence Fiesta Guy for odd ad diction style. The word count is high,; the font is courier new. He’s refreshingly un-optimistic about the condition and magnitude of the restoration effort needed, to the point that I find myself disagreeing and longing to pull a Roadkill/Dirt-Every-Day grade driveway rescue and drive home. The fact that it’s sitting 30 minutes from my house might boost my confidence in that adventure a notch.
Still, we’re looking at a (literally) bomb-proof drivetrain and a motor that can be replaced by countless cheap examples over a weekend. What’s not to like? Besides, the $4,000 to $4,500 price is pretty danged reasonable for what you get.
1957 Chevy Bel Air 4×4 for sale – eBay Motors
Jeff Glucker
Yes. No. Yes. No.
No.
Yes.
Hell, I don’t know…
The advantages of this over a ’57 dropped onto a regular 1973-2015 Chevy 4X4 truck frame are that you can you can be cool and say that you have a ’41 1-ton weapons carrier. The disadvantages are: very hard to find parts, top speed of less than 60 mph, no power steering, no power brakes, all drum brakes, semi-odd tires size, etc.
Is the wood pile a yard decoration or is he just very, very particular in his firewood assemblage?
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/Mzc1WDUwMA==/z/YlgAAOSwmrlUwwy2/$_57.JPG
I love the seller – He holds NOTHING back on condition. The way he highlights the negatives makes me think he doesn’t really want to sell.
Those appear to be concrete cylinders. Round these here parts when building slabs (bridges as well) are poured, they pour a test cylinder or two and in 28 days, the curing time for concrete, these are smashed to determine the p.s.i. of the concrete slab. If it doesn’t meet a minimum psi, the product has to be taken up and repoured. Surprisingly, I have yet to see a slab that needed to be replaced but have heard of them. Apparently something to do with water/cement mixture. At least that’s what those appear to be.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/05063/images/fig14.jpg
http://ranprieur.com/land/images/cylinders.jpg
You can’t really be like Roadkill until you’ve spilled copious amount of transmission fluid on your driveway
*Your friend’s driveway, who’s graciously allowing you to work on your piece of shit there.
TIL… “trar” is not a synonym for -camino/-page/-chero.
What about “cruck” – inverse of trar, or same-same?
I believe we already found the right word with 4×4.
As in: Fiat Panda 4×4, Lada 4×4 Niva, Citroen Mehari 4×4, Skoda Octavia 4×4, Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4×4… wait, what?
And Nomad would be the best name for a Dakar-spec Bel Air.
It may be a Belair Family Truckster…. a rare find indeed.
Yes. Looking forward to the first drag race between the HoonTruck and the HoonTrar.
Have you bought it yet?
I have other poorly (or is that excellently) reasoned purchases to consider this weekend:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/4944140294.html
Nice heads up, Mr. Science.
“project freaking 62 Ranchero pretty much straight body complete” seems unreasonably excellent, considering the asking price. Show up with 5 Benjamins & it’s almost certainly yours for the towing.
Do. It.
Straight outa Road Warrior!
OK, my new favorite word – “Trar” . . . since I’m a redneck from the back woods, that was everyone’s dream car when I was in high school.
The only thing that would be better is if it was a Ford.
So yesterday I was scanning the aisles at a truck stop, because, well, that’s just something I do from time to time.
And there is this free magazine – we all like free magazines, right?
It’s called Road King and there is this guy in it that has turned a DeLorean into a Trar.
Only they haven’t learned this splendid new word over at Road King yet.
So if you want to see a (not TOO well written) article about a DeLorean Trar, just stop by your local truck stop and if it’s not too late you might be able to score a fee copy of the current (march/april) Trar edition of RoadKing magazine.
I don’t know if they have an online version or not.