All-Canadian tow truck combo is a magnificent, period-correct restoration

**TowForce** · December 2, 2023

Medicine Hat man has had many vehicles over his life, but this one is a keeper until the end

Published Dec 02, 2023 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 4 minute read

Restored classic cars, hot rods and rat rods are commonly seen at automotive gatherings. But how often does a vintage tow truck appear? Ted Boylan plans to change that. The Medicine Hat man is working on a 1937 Chevrolet truck fitted with a 1957 Weaver wrecker. Importantly, both the truck, which was built in Oshawa, and the wrecker, from Chatham, Ontario, are Canadian made. “Weaver was from Springfield, Illinois but they had also had a plant in Canada,” Boylan explains, and he continues, “It’s the all-Canadian angle that intrigues me.”

Boylan’s life has been spent working with his hands and tinkering with vehicles. “I think I was born with a screwdriver in my hand,” Boylan laughs. “I started when I was five, taking stuff like toasters apart in my mom’s kitchen. Before I was 16, I probably owned about 44 vehicles – not all at the same time, of course, but I’d buy, fix, sell, trade, and part some of them out.”

Motivated by his appreciation for vehicles, at age 19 Boylan began working in a transmission repair shop. He’d pull gearboxes, clean them, and was taught how to rebuild them. Eventually, he moved to Brooks, Alta. to work in another transmission shop before moving back to Medicine Hat to open his own business where, for four years, he specialized in refurbishing automatics. While continuing to buy, sell and restore cars, he’d also come across a great deal of service station signage. Often referred to as automobilia, Boylan bought oil and gas signs and picked for the likes of Calgary collector Ron Carey. It was the bulk of Carey’s collection that ultimately became Gasoline Alley at Heritage Park, a world-class transportation museum that officially opened in April 2009.

Now working with a company that builds roads during the warmer months, Boylan spends his winters restoring vehicles in his own home-based shop. One such vehicle was a square body short box Chevy, built using parts from several 1981 to 1985 trucks. Built from the frame up, with a new motor and running gear, Boylan got as far as finishing it in black primer. At that point, “A guy I work with really wanted that truck and would ask me on a daily basis to sell it to him,” Boylan recalls. “I told him the only way I’d sell it is if I could find an old truck and wrecker.”

His workmate tirelessly searched Kijiji and in 2021 located a 1937 Chevrolet 1.5-ton truck in Edmonton. Pointing it out to Boylan, a deal was made to buy the ’37 sight unseen. With that purchase, Boylan finally relented and sold the square body Chevy to his workmate. “He found me the ’37, and he also found me the Weaver wrecker in North Battleford, Sask.,” Boylan says, “So I had to sell him my truck.”

With the ’37 and the Weaver on his property, Boylan removed the original 6-cylinder engine, transmission, enclosed ‘Torque Tube’ driveshaft and rear end. From a 1942 Chevy 1.5-ton, Boylan harvested a rear differential that would accept an open driveshaft. He mated a fresh Chevrolet 350 cubic inch engine with a Turbo 400 automatic transmission and installed the drivetrain. “It fit so nice in the engine bay,” he says of the V8’s transplant.

Regarding the body of the Chevy, Boylan’s first thought was to completely restore it. However, “As I got looking at it, the truck has all this patina on it because it had been a work truck, and I fell in love with it – why would I destroy all of that?”

Boylan got the hand crank Model G 3-ton Weaver wrecker fully operational. Referred to in period marketing materials as its Auto Crane, Weaver began building garage and auto equipment in the early 1900s. Weaver offered a diverse range of gear, including jacks, lifting cranes and hydraulic presses. Its Auto Cranes first appeared in 1915 and seem to have been most popular during the 1920s and 1930s.

“I always had a fascination with tow trucks,” Boylan says. “I even built them as a kid to play with out of wood.” He now has a full-size toy and he’s been hunting accessories such as a period-correct commercial licence plate, emergency lamps and even the forged hand crank for the Weaver – which he says are often missing or broken. On Facebook, he connected with an enthusiast who was planning to cast new handles. Boylan got in touch and said he’d take two.

“I’ve got everything period correct for this truck,” he says. “It’s got all new bushings, shims, bearings and brakes. I’ve used new old stock parts, all sourced from eBay, on everything. I love this old truck, and I’ll keep it ‘til I die.”

https://nationalpost.com/column/on-the-road/all-canadian-tow-truck-combo-is-a-magnificent-period-correct-restoration