Restoring
Memories
from Rust
Producers find that restoring antique mixers helps recall
what concrete delivery was like in the old days
B y R i c k Ye l t o n
E
ven though there’s a sign
imploring the passing
spectators attending antique truck shows not to
touch the 1927 Hug
mixer truck, they can’t
seem to stop themselves from reaching
across the cord divider. “Everyone
wants to have a real feel of the past,”
muses Farris, a retired Missouri concrete truck driver who owns the
antique vehicle.
It’s easy to see that Farris has more
than just a fleeting touch with the past.
His mechanic hands, outlined by a trace
of grease under the fingernails, reveal
just how often Farris tinkers with modern antiquity. “It must be something in
my blood because I can’t seem to avoid
rescuing a rusting car,” says Farris.
Whether it’s done as a hobby or as a
public relations effort, many producers
are restoring faded pieces of history to
crowd-pleasing jewels. Often it’s a key
mechanic or driver who accepts the difficult task. When the restoration task is
completed, each producer finds that the
time and expense has resulted in something more than a piece of pretty iron.
Capturing a piece of history documents
to current employees and the community just how far concrete production
has come in the past 50 years.
From the backwoods to stardom
If the appraisers would calculate
personal wealth on the theory that one
Chronology of Bill Farris’ 1927 Hug mixer truck restoration
April 1974: Rebuilding the cab.
December 1974: Spray-washing
metal parts, including wheel hubs.
man’s junk is another man’s treasure,
Farris would be a rich man. An avid
automobile restorer for more than 30
years, Farris has gathered more than his
fair share of rusting doors, fenders, and
special small items.
Now Farris enjoys tinkering on his
projects in the daylight rather than in
the evening after delivering concrete
for long shifts. Even so, the retired
mixer-driver from Breckenridge Materials Co., a multi-plant St. Louis-area
company, still finds time lacking for all
of his projects. “If I see an older piece of
equipment has rust on it, I find myself
wanting to take it to my shop and fix
it,” says Farris, whose shop is in
Augusta, Mo.
On non-exhibition days, the 1927
Hug Roadbuilder with a 1-cubic yard T.L.
Smith mixer sits in a special position.
While Farris has a number of other
antique units in varying states of restoration, the mixer holds a special place in his
heart. Since 1973, the Hug Roadbuilder
has been a work in progress.
The project began with a phone call
from a friend who had been surveying
some old farm property in south St.
Louis County. Knowing Farris was a
concrete mixer driver by day and an
auto restorer by practically all other
hours, the friend reported the sighting
of an abandoned and unidentifiable
mixer while staking out the client’s
property lines.
Spurred by the thought of restoring
a mixer truck of his own, Farris soon
drove to the farm to scope out the
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BILL FARRIS
February 1975: A shiny
restored chassis.
April 1976: The least glamorous
part of the job.
July 1976: Ready for the
Bicentennial.
GREG KIGER
Bill Farris (left), a retired teamster, spent more than 20 years as a mixer
driver for St. Louis-based Breckenridge Material Co., a company owned by Gil
weed-covered, weather-worn chassis.
Seeing the missing cab roof and rotted
wood interior, Farris immediately
knew he had met his match.
Farris’ restoration project, which
would take 5 years, became a family effort. In the 1920s, truck manufacturers
used wood for the firewall and cab’s
interior, and the Hug’s complete
restoration required a craftsman. “My
father was a retired cabinetmaker and
completely rebuilt the entire interior,”
says Farris. Farris’ brother, a tinsmith,
topped off his father’s work by replacing all of the truck’s body steel.
Another family member upholstered
the seat.
Farris extended the “family” restoration effort to his employer of more
than 20 years, approaching the McKean
McKean (right) and family. They’re shown here with Farris’ favorite restoration project: a 1927 Hug Roadbuilder with a 1-cubic-yard T.L. Smith mixer.
“It must be
something in my
blood because I
can’t seem to
avoid rescuing a
r usting car.”
Bill Far ris, retired
Missouri concrete
tr uck driver
family, which owns Breckenridge
Material. In exchange for the promise
to paint the truck with the company’s
black-and-gold color scheme, Breckenridge shared the necessary maintenance supplies, nuts, bolts, welding
rods, and grease.
With the support of his extended
family, Farris’ biggest challenge was finding replacement parts, design drawings,
or even production records for the truck
manufacturer. His research uncovered
an interesting history not only of the
truck, but also of concrete production in
the 1920s.
The Hug Co. was a concrete producer in Highland, Ill., a town about 35
miles northeast of St. Louis, in the ’20’s.
The company was a major producer of
concrete for the nearby portion of the
Restoring that moment in time
There must have been times in his
32-year career as equipment manager
for Central Pre-Mix Concrete Inc.,
Spokane, Wash., when Jan Hodneland
must have felt like the Northwest’s version of Indiana Jones. In addition to his
normal duties, Hodneland accepted the
challenge to find and restore a mixer
matching one depicted in a photo of
the company’s first truck.
It’s not every day that one hunts for
a vintage 1936 chassis and mixer, but
Hodneland received an unexpected
stroke of luck when he located a chassis
at a nearby fuel supplier. The fueler had
purchased it from a farmer and used it
for light-duty deliveries. “Even though
it was old, the frame was still in good
shape,” says Hodneland.
PHOTOS COURTESY CENTRAL PRE-MIX CONCRETE
transnational Lincoln Highway using
its steam-operated central plant. Hug
had been delivering mix in dump
trucks but suffered production delays.
Truck dump chassis often snapped
from the sudden shift of their concrete
loads.
To keep production moving forward, Hug management decided to
build their own beefed-up chassis
to withstand the strain of dumping.
Prior to World War II, the Hug Co.’s
emphasis switched from concrete production to chassis building. Over time,
its chassis was commonly found on
off-road construction equipment and
pit equipment.
Despite the challenge of finding
salvageable parts from those trucks
that avoided the scrap drives of World
War II, Farris painstakingly restored
his treasure to original standards.
Today, the vehicle is widely recognized
by the entire St. Louis-area construction community.
Gil McKean, Breckenridge’s current
owner, knows just how popular the
vehicle is. Even though the company
had little to do with the restoration
efforts, the producer receives many
phone calls requesting information
about the unit. “We feel very fortunate
to share in Bill Farris’ efforts,” says
McKean. “It’s been a definite plus for
our community relations.”
Mechanics at Central Pre-Mix Concrete Inc., Spokane, Wash., have rebuilt two mixers At top is a
1936 International chassis mounted with 1940 2-cubic yard Jaeger mixer. At bottom is a 1954
International chassis with a Challenge mixer, a truck similar to one driven by Central Pre-Mix
Concrete’s current president, Dan Murphy, at his first job.
“It’s been a
definite plus for
our community
relations.”
Gil McKean, owner of
Breckenridge Material
Co., on Far ris’ 1927
Hug mixer
Several months later, a producer
in Yakima, Wash., who had learned
of the quest, phoned Hodneland and
told him of a wrecked mixer discovered
in a ravine. The unit had been abandoned after tipping over off the road
and still contained about 3 cubic yards
of “oldtime” hardened concrete. “It
took us a long time to chip it out,”
Hodneland recalls.
Central Pre-Mix Concrete plant
mechanics restored and combined both
the mixer and chassis, which had been
discovered separately. The result was an
award-winning vehicle that continues
to draw praise from observers today.
With that successful restoration
completed, Central Pre-Mix Concrete
President Dan Murphy offered Hodneland another challenge. “He asked me
to find and restore a 1954 International
that would have been similar to the
truck Murphy had driven while in college and first employed at the company,” says Hodneland. The request also
brought memories back to Hodneland,
because it had been his job to help train
the “rookie” who would later become
his boss.
This search proved to be a bit more
difficult. Hodneland established contacts throughout Idaho, Montana, and
practically all of Washington. Finally, a
friend spotted a chassis in a log mill’s
scrap area near the WashingtonCanada border. The truck was a mechanical mess, since it had been used as a
logjammer for at least 25 years. Pulling
logs over rough, poorly maintained
roads had left a bent chassis missing
fenders, hood, and practically all other
“cosmetic parts.”
Hodneland found a 6-cubic-yard
mixer at a small producer’s scrap yard
near the Grand Coulee Dam. Even
though it didn’t have a pony motor,
Hodneland found enough parts off
other junkers that could be combined
to rebuild one unit.
he National Ready Mixed
Concrete Association publishes
a calendar that features photos of
antique trucks submitted for its
annual fleet graphic contest.
Calendars may be ordered by
phoning 301-587-1400 or by
shopping on the association’s
Web site marketplace at
www.nrmca.org.
T
Both trucks display the now-retired
Hodneland’s contribution to Central
Pre-Mix Concrete’s success. “These two
restored mixers represent all that’s been
good in our company’s history,” says
Don Marcille, the company’s current
truck superintendent. “With good men
like Jan Hodnelund maintaining our
equipment, we’ve had a long history of
excellent customer service.”
How to rebuild an old drum
All but one of the pre-1950 mixer
drum manufacturers have been out of
business for many years, so finding
replacement parts that are true to the
design can be difficult.“Customers rarely
call for many true ‘antique’ replacement
pieces,” says Tom Shumaker, president of
Shumaker Industries, a manufacturer of
replacement drums. On the other hand,
BONANZA CONCRETE INC.
Ed Kramer, a mechanic at Bonanza Concrete Inc., Van Nuys, Calif., contacted a retired engineer at
Blaw Knox Mfg. for the exact drawings of its 1951 vintage mixer that was mounted on the 1951
International chassis.
what’s considered an antique part? “We
typically sell a few small 21⁄2- to 4-yard
mixers each year, and some cause us to
reuse the engineering drawings dating
back to the 1950s, when our business
was started,” says Shumaker.
Jim Prickett, president of De La
Rosa Industries, a California mixer
drum rebuilder, recalls a restoration
project undertaken by Ed Kramer, the
mechanic for Bonanza Concrete in Van
Ives, Calif. During the restoration of a
1951 International chassis, Kramer
identified the drum as one manufactured by Springfield, Ill.-based Blaw
Knox Inc., which had not made mixers
for more than 20 years. Kramer’s desire
to have an original restoration put him
in contact with a retired engineer that
retrieved the correct blueprints for the
mixer’s age and style. With the right
blueprint, De La Rosa manufactured a
drum that was true in shape, size, and
blade arrangement. It wasn’t that much
more expensive than a modern standard model. “The early drums didn’t
have as many blades, so it required less
steel,” says Prickett.
If you are considering restoring an
antique drum, both manufacturers
offer one important tip: Send in the old
drum with all the pieces attached to it.
“There were so many small manufacturers that each drum was practically a
build-to-order project, so drawings
may not show if charging hoppers or
chute braces were exact,” says Prickett.
“Not only is it easier, our fabricators
can determine what is original and
what was added on,” says Shumaker.
With the help of Ron Gomey, a
driver who did much of the bodywork
and painting, Kramer’s diligent 7month restoration effort resulted in a
winner. Bonanza Concrete’s owner has
taken the truck to several local antique
vehicle rallies, coming away with ribbons and recognition.
From chains to computers
orty Broom probably recognized his destiny when he
stood on the Army tent’s freshly poured concrete floor
somewhere in the desert of North Africa during World War
II. After unofficially commandeering a portable Ransom
concrete mixer, Broom and his cohorts hauled enough
buckets of sand and gravel and “acquired” enough sacks
of cement to provide his platoon with the comforts of
home, while other units battled either dust or mud.
Before and after his military service, Broom’s successful
career was tied to concrete production. Broom’s experiences paralleled the growth of ready-mixed concrete. As a
young man with an aptitude for mechanical things and
numbers, Broom’s first feel of concrete mixers came when
his brother-in-law got Broom a production welder’s job for
Ransom Manufacturing, a mixer manufacturer that is no
longer in business.
After Broom returned from the war, Walter Mueller,
president of Ransom, placed Broom in a sales management training program that would propel Broom to division sales manager 16 years later for Worthington
Manufacturing, which had bought out Ransom.
During his more than 50 years of manufacturing and
marketing ready-mixed concrete, Broom’s career took him
F
Publication #J00C040
Copyright© 2000, The Aberdeen Group
a division of Hanley-Wood, Inc.
All rights reserved
coast to coast. When Worthington Manufacturing stopped
making concrete mixers, Broom sold for Challenge-Cooke.
Later Broom moved on to selling for CMC, and finally
ended his involvement in the industry as a consultant for
T.L. Smith.
Broom’s exploits are legendary in the world of concrete
equipment manufacturers. He might be the only salesman
to have taken five separate orders for 100 mixers each.
When asked what he considered the most important
technical change in concrete trucks, Broom has one firm
answer: the load-span truck. “Increasing the truck’s payload greatly improved a producer’s profitability,” he says.
Working for Challenge-Cooke when the liftable axles were
introduced, Broom saw firsthand how innovation requires
try-try-and-try-again dedication. “Our first extended rearlift axles were too narrow, so even our demonstrator drivers found it difficult to keep a truck from tipping,” says
Broom.
If it wasn’t for deteriorating eyesight, Forty Broom
would still be helping to design the next generation of
mixers. Living an active retirement life in Pinehurst, N.C.,
Forty is said to be a frequent visitor to any nearby construction site to check out new mixers.