It was no easy feat though. The couple
had actually been touring around Australia
looking for a 1418 for a while. It seemed every
time they heard of one for sale they arrived
just after the truck had been snapped up.
Fate has a way of intervening with
these kinds of things though and it just so
happened that Trevor and Phyllis were
visiting the Mt Gravatt Show in Brisbane
when it was announced by the in-field
commentary team that Roy Thompson was
looking to sell his immaculate 1418. Before
he’d even put the microphone down Phyllis
had sent Trevor over to lock up the deal.
Within the week ‘Gracie’ was in the Davies’
shed. The truck was already in exceptional
condition. Roy Thompson was the truck’s
third owner and used it to cart his restored
Dennis trucks around to shows. The name
‘Gracie’ came from the previous owner Ian
Chapman, who bought the truck to cart
machinery around. He set it up with the deck
and ramps and admitted the cost of the truck
and the work it did meant the truck became
his saving grace, hence she became known
as ‘Gracie’.
There wasn’t much that was needed
to be done to ‘Gracie’ as Roy had kept it
immaculate. Trevor did replace the diffs
and a few other little jobs to keep it in top
condition. His plan to get a bull bar for ‘Gracie’
would be the decision that would result in
Phyllis getting her own 1418, ‘Thelma-May’.
A quick side note: with the purchase
of ‘Gracie’ came the introduction to the
Heritage Truck Association. Trevor and
Phyllis both joined as a way to meet and
learn from like-minded truck enthusiasts.
It was one of the friends they met there
that happened to phone Phyllis up one day
in 2013 and point out that there was a 1418
being used as a garden ornament down in
Jimboomba that had a perfect bull bar on it.
Trevor and Phyllis took ‘Gracie’ down to ‘stiff-
bar’ the old girl out of a paddock and onto the
back of a friend’s transporter. When the truck
was dropped in at their property another
good friend and expert in truck restoration,
Ron Toy, had a look over and declared: “It’s
in good nick, it wouldn’t be hard to fix up.” At
this suggestion Trevor lost the bull bar and
Phyllis vowed this would be her truck. So
began the restoration of ‘Thelma-May’.
The single-drive 1972 1418 they had
rescued from paddock life had been used
as a water truck for a construction company
in Pimpama, south of Brisbane. Most of
the truck was in good condition with theThe interior had
been rewired
and then new
upholstery fitted‘Thelma-May’: Thelma is
Phyllis’ mother’s name and
May her middle nameDEALS Resto
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