The Champagne Truck Seconda Parte
We said we wanted to share every step of the way with you all so here we are with part two. Did I mention that our Ape officially has a name? We can’t share it just yet but I promise the wait will be worth it. If you’d like to see the progress on the truck, keep scrolling!
If you followed along from our first blog, you would know who Ken is! I just had a great visit with Ken last weekend and I asked him what his thoughts were on giving “HER” a name. I thought it would be cool to give the Ape a feminine name. He already had two names picked out that he thought would be well suited. Turns out, “HE” now has a name. When he told me one of the names I couldn’t steer away from it, it was too fitting for our truck. I can guarantee that you will love it so stay tuned! Small hint: The name is Italian!
Our truck was in pretty rough shape when Ken received it since it had been sitting in a field for years since Coby’s cookies and cream business closed down(Coby’s cookies and cream business sold ice cream bars out of this truck at Wasaga Beach back in the 80’s). The first thing that needed to be done was “plucking the chicken” as Ken said. This term made my laugh so hard when he said that(Ken has lots of hilarious terms). It meant stripping the entire truck of all the parts in order to replace them with new one’s. Our truck obviously needed some love and we had to work from the inside out.
He started by taking out the motor which was visibly full of hay and fur that either birds or mice had put into it. Cool fact: a Piaggio Ape’s motor is located at the back of the vehicle in the middle of the box; there was no way they could ever fit a motor in the front of it lol! He then started to remove taillights, gas tank, exhaust, all the wheel parts, and finally all electrical parts for steering, lights, and horn. I honestly look at the Ape and think of a Rubik’s cube, the layout of it is so unique and it’s a total puzzle. Luckily this is Ken’s specialty and he is the one working on it because I would be very lost and would potentially do more damage than good! Lol
The next step was to refurbish parts that were salvageable, this meant rust proofing and getting them painted so they would look good as new! The motor has now been completely rebuilt and is ready to be put into the truck once it’s all painted. We can’t wait to start it up! Once the chicken was plucked, the entire truck was sent to a local body shop to be stripped and primed. There was quite a bit of rust on some of the body parts of the truck from sitting for so long that they took a torch to the metal and removed pieces that were useless(as seen in the far right picture below). In the far left picture, you can see sparks fly as they torch underneath! A whole new floor is being added since the previous floor couldn’t be saved. All our body panels are soon going to look completely smooth and rejuvenated.
I love sharing all these steps with each of you because I truly want clients to be as excited as I am to see the progress. We have given him a name, he’s starting to look alive again and I’ve even put some sketches together for the inside of the box where the taps will be located. Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for a new blog post to see an amazing transformation(aka the facelift as Ken like to call it). Now the real fun begins!