Bradley and Wade Wooldridge of Spring Hill, Tennessee, along with their crew – Ricky Clanton, Kenny Baltimore, and James Bogle brought this old farm truck back to life. Bradley tells the story…
“This truck was originally built for a dairy farmer in who ordered it through Larson Motors in Gothenburg, Nebraska. It was pretty rare for someone to order a crew cab, as it was double the price of a standard cab pickup – $3650 up front for the truck and an additional $3650 for the crew cab conversion.
Back in the day, when someone purchased one of these trucks, the customer would place an order and pay the dealer up front. Once the truck rolled off the GM assembly line, it would be sent to Scott-Bilt in Oklahoma City, for the conversion. Scott-Bilt was a coachbuilder who would lengthen the frame, double the cab volume, and create a truck that was not available ‘off the rack’.
Conversions on the 1969 trucks included a full back door and back seat, and these trucks were massive. The old farmer had taken the rear seat out so he could carry more milk jugs with him after milking cows. We put a restored full-size bench in the back and utility buckets up front with console with plenty of space.
When I bought the truck, it didn’t have a single panel that wasn’t dented. The cows had literally rammed the sheetmetal over the years. We ended up buying mostly new metal from Truck Haven in Unionville, Tennessee.
Most of these crew cabs were ordered as US government agricultural trucks or for forestry or railroad use and almost always 2WD. This was a rare 4WD, so I decided to build and restore it. The truck ended up beautiful and the name, Big Ugly, stuck like glue.”
