TT Square Cab mounting question - and a backstory
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 9:58 pm
I am in the process of throwing some stuff together to make a Beverly Hillbillies type of truck.
Question: What kind of blocks are used between the front cab mounts and the frame? Not the mounts to the firewall, but the ones right behind them under the floorboards. Also, were there any blocks on the rear of the cab, or was the cab just bolted solid to the frame?
The running gear I am using was purchased over 20 years ago. It is a early TT - low radiator. BUT, someone cut the rear cross member out and slid a car frame and cross member inside the TT frame rails. There is an aluminum cased Warford so the wheelbase is oddball. Someone had thrown this together from a bunch of odds and ends. It has a 26/27 block, narrow band transmission and hogshead, a small drum rear end with the correct early front fenders and short running boards for a TT. The engine has a distributor and I have no reason to change it as it runs very well. When I bought it, it had a platform bed built on the frame with a bench type seat sitting on top with the gas tank bolted down just right of the seat. No windshield. This thing will run 60 mph with the Warford ------ and very little brakes.
That's what it was. Now, I've taken off all the bed etc and am mounting a square cab from a 26 TT No real problems except for my previous question.
So, the rest of the story:
I bought this 26 TT off ebay maybe 20 years ago. FROM - Stan Howe -RIP. We traveled to his ranch in Westmore, Montana to pick it up. On the trip out there, we stopped at The Taylor Horsefest in Taylor, ND to attend a concert by none other than Stan Howe. It was planned that way and after the concert was over, several folks were standing in line to buy one of his CD's and as I came up Stan said "Hi Fred". Opps, I guess my baseball cap was a little out of place in the west where everyone else was wearing cowboy hats. No biggie.
We stayed the night there and Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Horsefest with Stan and then headed west following him. We arrived at his ranch that afternoon which is just across the railroad from the abandoned town of Westmore. Stan informed us that it used to be a water stop for the railroad in times past. This was where he was born and raised.
There was quite a bunch of "stuff" sitting around and I drove my pickup and trailer through some knee high grass and left it running and got out to figure out how we would get the TT up on my trailer. Stan ran over, jumped into my pickup and drove it out of the grass. He informed me that we had to be careful out there of grass fires as there no way of putting them out. Opps.
Anyway, we got it loaded and we headed for Mount Rushmore and Stan headed for Helena. I hauled the TT home and put it inside of a semitrailer and there is sat until recently. The engine had no oil plug and was pretty much junk, again, no biggie. I knew that then I bought it. Stan had bought it at one of his auctions in North Dakota, so he didn't know anything about it.
We met again at the 100th WhingDing at Richmond in 2008. If you were there, you probably listened to more of Stan's fiddle playing and such.
Stan was a very interesting and talented person. He played the fiddle, banjo, guitar and did vocals. He auctioneered, he rebuilt Ruxtell/Ruckstell?, and carburetors. I'm sure there was more that I don't know.
My thoughts: It's a shame that Stan had no offspring to spread his genetics around. It is a loss forever.
Question: What kind of blocks are used between the front cab mounts and the frame? Not the mounts to the firewall, but the ones right behind them under the floorboards. Also, were there any blocks on the rear of the cab, or was the cab just bolted solid to the frame?
The running gear I am using was purchased over 20 years ago. It is a early TT - low radiator. BUT, someone cut the rear cross member out and slid a car frame and cross member inside the TT frame rails. There is an aluminum cased Warford so the wheelbase is oddball. Someone had thrown this together from a bunch of odds and ends. It has a 26/27 block, narrow band transmission and hogshead, a small drum rear end with the correct early front fenders and short running boards for a TT. The engine has a distributor and I have no reason to change it as it runs very well. When I bought it, it had a platform bed built on the frame with a bench type seat sitting on top with the gas tank bolted down just right of the seat. No windshield. This thing will run 60 mph with the Warford ------ and very little brakes.
That's what it was. Now, I've taken off all the bed etc and am mounting a square cab from a 26 TT No real problems except for my previous question.
So, the rest of the story:
I bought this 26 TT off ebay maybe 20 years ago. FROM - Stan Howe -RIP. We traveled to his ranch in Westmore, Montana to pick it up. On the trip out there, we stopped at The Taylor Horsefest in Taylor, ND to attend a concert by none other than Stan Howe. It was planned that way and after the concert was over, several folks were standing in line to buy one of his CD's and as I came up Stan said "Hi Fred". Opps, I guess my baseball cap was a little out of place in the west where everyone else was wearing cowboy hats. No biggie.
We stayed the night there and Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Horsefest with Stan and then headed west following him. We arrived at his ranch that afternoon which is just across the railroad from the abandoned town of Westmore. Stan informed us that it used to be a water stop for the railroad in times past. This was where he was born and raised.
There was quite a bunch of "stuff" sitting around and I drove my pickup and trailer through some knee high grass and left it running and got out to figure out how we would get the TT up on my trailer. Stan ran over, jumped into my pickup and drove it out of the grass. He informed me that we had to be careful out there of grass fires as there no way of putting them out. Opps.
Anyway, we got it loaded and we headed for Mount Rushmore and Stan headed for Helena. I hauled the TT home and put it inside of a semitrailer and there is sat until recently. The engine had no oil plug and was pretty much junk, again, no biggie. I knew that then I bought it. Stan had bought it at one of his auctions in North Dakota, so he didn't know anything about it.
We met again at the 100th WhingDing at Richmond in 2008. If you were there, you probably listened to more of Stan's fiddle playing and such.
Stan was a very interesting and talented person. He played the fiddle, banjo, guitar and did vocals. He auctioneered, he rebuilt Ruxtell/Ruckstell?, and carburetors. I'm sure there was more that I don't know.
My thoughts: It's a shame that Stan had no offspring to spread his genetics around. It is a loss forever.