Chevy C-Cab Delivery Van

Here’s an easy way to create your very own C-Cab – you convert one from an existing T-Bucket.

That’s what New Plymouth’s Ross Spranger has done with his vehicle, which will make its first official outing at the 2025 Americarna.

“I’d had my T-Bucket for some time, and I was sick of getting wet,” he says of the open-topped style of the traditional hot rod.

“So I took the body off and made it into a delivery van.

Ross had built his T-Bucket in 2012 and had used it regularly – mostly in fine weather. But then a few years ago he and a mate decided to travel to a rodding run in Whangarei.

“It was hosing down in New Plymouth, but my mate spotted some blue sky, so we headed off. But the rain didn’t stop. We wore wet weather gear and we had rubbish bags over the seats, but we got soaked. The rain didn’t let up all the way to Hamilton, and there were huge amounts of water coming off all four tyres.”

The men decided to stay the night at a motel in Hamilton, and fortunately the next day dawned cloudless and sunny, and it didn’t rain for the remainder of the event.

But the soaking convinced Ross his T-Bucket needed a roof, so in 2018 he began converting it into a C-Cab. A toolmaker by trade, he fabricated the cabin in his shed and installed it on the vehicle’s existing chassis.

Local firm Eagle Automotive created new seats and did the hood lining, and also supplied an attractive blue paint, which Ross thinks is the first local use of a 2023 Ford F100 colour from USA.

The C-Cab is powered by a 410 cubic inch big-block Chevy V8, and the transmission is a two-speed PowerGlide that has been modified to suit race conditions. Differential is a 9-inch Ford.

Ross describes his creation as a 1923 Chevy C-Cab delivery van, and he is looking forward to getting it registered and warranted in time for its first official outing at Americarna 2025.

“And I won’t even mind if there’s a shower or two,” he says of his beautiful creation with its closed-in cabin.