Truck & Driver August 2019^9
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Lee Stewart: from a Ford D-series to a Scania Sability to extract and
re-use metals, whether
gleaned from vehicles,
domestic appliances or even
wiring, is a detailed and complex
process, and continual advances
are being made in the techniques
involved in reclaiming every last
gramme of raw material.
Modern scrap car processing
has few similarities to the same
operation 20 years ago.Movie magic
Today the company is run by
Jamie Davidson, along with his
sons Lee and Luke and daughter
Jamie-Leigh. Their main site was
custom-built in 2009 and the fleet
of trucks now numbers 20, of
which seven are artics. The firsttrucks to enjoy airbrushed
customisation were a pair of
eight-wheel hook-loaders,
featuring the films Iron Man and
Burnout. Both trucks are still on
the fleet, although, after a hard
working life, Iron Man has now
been sprayed in plain silver.
As is often the way with
project trucks, the next one has
to top the one before it. The first
tractor unit to be done was
Terminator, a Volvo FH16 660
completed in 2008. This was
followed by an FH16 750
emblazoned with artwork from
the famous action film Die Hard,
then there was a James
Bond-themed Scania R730.
These trucks are complemented
by a classic Scania 143, which iscustomised but not airbrushed.
Driver Lee Stewart, who has
been with the company for 21
years and is the current driver of
Die Hard, will be taking on the
new S730 when it eventually
goes on the road. Lee has been
driving since he was 18 years
old, having started out in a
D-series 7.5-tonner. “The Ford
had no power steering, and we
did house removals with it,” he
says. “It wasn’t a very big truck
but it was seriously hard work to
drive. The level of trucks we have
today is unbelievable.”
Lee started at Davidson’s via
a friend who was already
employed there; his first truck
was an N-registration Scania 143- “It was a proper bit of kit.
Even back then the trucks were
customised with lights and it was
a beautiful truck,” he says. That
was followed, eight months later,
by one of the very first Volvo
FMs. He’s been driving the FH
750 for the last five years and
thoroughly enjoyed driving the
big Volvo. He’s looking forward to
getting the Scania though.
“I was never that big a fan of
the old R-series Topline cab. I
reckon the FH had it beaten, but
Scania has upped the game
again with its new S-series.”
When you see the trucks
lined up at shows, it’s hard to
believe that not only do these
trucks work, they work in
a sector that often
involves getting dirty, and