One of the great things about being around the Street Rodder office is the chance to gather at our editor’s feet while he regales us with tales of the “good old days.” Evidently back when Editor Brennan was a young’un braving the harsh SoCal winters and walking up hill both ways to magazine school, most people referred to ’28-29 Model A closed cab pickups as “phone booths” due to their tall, skinny profile. Of course that was back before an enterprising Australian, by the name of Kelvin Waddington, introduced the 6-inch stretched version manufactured by his company, Roadster Ute.
Moal Coachworks’ new heater tucks up out of the way behind the dashboard of the Roadster Ute’s reproduction Model A pickup.
Since Brennan has never seen a pickup he didn’t like, when the super-sized version hit our shores he had to have one. Since the plan is to make this a daily driver, there were a couple of options he chose to include: a heater and dual windshield wipers. Waddington has made them available on the new cabs, but they can be added to an original as well.
To keep the confines of the cab warm when it’s chilly outside, Waddington installed a compact heater from Moal Coachworks. Known far and wide for their one-of-kind handcrafted bodies, Moal’s heater is everything you’d expect it to be. The compact underdash design measures 12 inches high by 10 inches wide by 6 inches deep. It has a gelcoated fiberglass housing that’s ready for painting and a machined aluminum trim bezel and stainless steel grille that are ready for polishing. A single switch controls the three-speed blower motor and the on/off water valve.
The pickup’s dash houses a set of slick new instruments from New Vintage Gauges with no-nonsense white on black faces.
In addition to being cold, one of the realities of driving a hot rod regularly is that it’s going to get rained on. But this pickup won’t be parked when the skies open up because it’s going to have real windshield wipers from New Port Engineering. They offer wiper kits for a wide variety of vehicles, including ’28-29 Model A pickups. Ours came with a new, two-speed electric motor, linkage arms, wiper transmissions, wiper arms, and blades. Also included is a drill jig to accurately locate the mounting holes for the wiper shafts.
With a heater and wipers Brennan can be cozy when it’s cold outside and see where he’s going when the skies open up in his all-weather A. Can’t wait to hear all the stories about that.
