Secret Men’s Business 106: Terry Mumford
From Yarragon in Victoria’s Gippsland, Terry Mumford’s father began Mumford’s Furniture Removals when Terry was just a wee lad, with this very trailer behind a petrol powered Bedford. Originally an Ansett Air Freight Express Trailer on a bogey drive, his father converted it to a single axle and travelled the country with it – so much so that a young Terry sometimes cried when this ‘stranger’ walked back into the family home. “He did the hard yards; it was a nature of that era.”
Terry worked in the family business for a period before moving into logging, but kept the trailer when the business closed, re-sheeting it and painting it back in the company’s original colours with signwriting done by Grant Fowler. The trailer now acts as a home away from home for Terry and fiancée, Sheree Richer when on the road.
The 1974 C-line International is another ode to Terry’s past, being the model he gained his licence in. Pressured into buying it as the owner, “had another buyer interested”, he grabbed it, only to find out the 160 Cummins was cactus. He bought another donk, figuring that he’d be able to make one decent engine from the two, but it had suffered the same problems.
“You can’t get parts for them. The only place you can get a rebuild kit is in America and that’s $16,000. I had to spend $5000 on the block and the head was cracked –an unrepairable leak.
“So then I started thinking I would have to put something else in, so decided on a 3208 V8 cat. I put a 13 speed overdrive Road Ranger on it and it’s got a pretty high speed dif, so it’s now a pretty quick bit of old gear, if you want it to be.”
The chassis rails were also bent resulting in a ground up restoration, and here Terry relied on help from his good friend and “resto magician”, Tim Dawson. “He is an awesome mechanic and craftsman. He works for a company called Mountain Logging. The boss of that company is Andrew Mahnken and I wouldn’t have this truck without them.”
Terry has their names on the back of the cab as an acknowledgement of their input. “I’ve tried to keep the history alive.” That you’ve certainly done, Terry.
Enjoy the video.
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