Evan Williams was on his way home from a holiday back in 2014 when he spotted an old Diamond T on the side of the road.
“My wife and I had a caravan and we were coming home from a trip down south somewhere,” he tells Deals on Wheels.
“I spotted this Diamond T at Halfway Creek on the Pacific Highway in NSW, looking a bit forlorn.
“I had no contact details for the owner or anything, but I kept thinking about the truck.”
For the next two years, the Brisbane man couldn’t get the rig out of his head. Eventually, he said enough was enough.
“I got in the car and I drove back down to Halfway Creek.
“I told my wife, if the truck is still there I’m going to buy it.
“If it’s gone, it’s gone, and I’ll forget the whole thing.”
Luckily, the truck was still on the side of the road – with a cardboard sign “for sale” sign in the window.
Delighted, Evan called the owner and a deal was struck.
“His name was Les Roby, he lived in Corindi and he was a Diamond T collector,” he says.
“He hadn’t been using the truck, and it was looking pretty rough and ready.”
Before Les bought the truck, which is a 1966 model, it was working as a tipper on a wheat farm in Wee Waa in western NSW.
“It had what they call ‘hungry boards’ up the sides of the truck, which allowed it to fit more of a load on,” explains Evan.
“It was grossly overloaded at the time, I suspect!”
When Evan got his hands on the rig, it was fit to drive around the paddock, but the brakes were shot.
“I had it put on a truck and brought up from Halfway Creek to Brisbane — you couldn’t put it on the road,” he says.
From the start, Evan had a clear vision in mind for the truck.
“I needed something that was going to perform to modern transport standards and modern highway standards.
“The old Diamond T just wasn’t up for the task, so I decided to do something different.
“It’s ended up as one-of-a-kind vehicle.”
To make his dream a reality, Evan enlisted the help of a man called Trevor “Bronco” Brehmer.
“Trevor did the bulk of the manufacturing and building work on the vehicle,” he says.
“I’m not a tradesman and I didn’t have the skills, but I did have some cash.
“So, I ran around and collected parts and did some of the menial work, and I signed the cheques.”
When Evan approached Trevor, he advised him that to do what he wanted to do, he would need to purchase another donor truck.
So he bought a Western Star from Cairns and had it shipped to Brisbane.
“Trevor took the cabin off the Western Star and we sold that, but kept the chassis and the running gear.
“Then we took the cabin off the Diamond T and placed it on the Western Star chassis.”
Next, Evan purchased a Peterbilt sleeper cabin and added that on.
“We had to lengthen the chassis and change the wheels and all of the bits and pieces that went with it.
“Then we sold all the remaining parts we hadn’t used.”
When Evan got the Diamond T it had a 160 horsepower Cummins engine, which he replaced with a C12 Caterpillar.
It also came with a five-speed Clark gearbox and a four-speed Joey box.
“The five by four gave it 20 gears, but it had two gearsticks.
“You would select one gear with the five-speed gearbox and then you would work your way through the four speeds of the Joey box.
“It was a long and laborious process and there was a long time between gear changes.
“Because of the time it took to shift gears, the truck would lose momentum each time, so it wasn’t very practical.”
Evan also admits the two gears “frightened the life out of him” so they had to go.
“I was never going to attempt to drive something with two gearsticks!” he says.
“I did away with the two gearboxes and put in a 13-speed Eaton Roadranger, that did the job.”
Inside, the truck is a home away from home – with two bunks, a microwave, fridge, and shower with hot water.
“The shower attaches on the outside, up on the deck plates at the rear, and there’s a shower curtain that fits around above the deck plates.
“The hot water heats up in around 15 minutes and the controls are on the dash, so you can turn it on while you’re driving and then just pull up and take a hot shower!”
Although the truck is a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster of different models, everything has a reason behind it.
“When I was a teenager, my dad had a Diamond T working interstate,” says Evan.
“Those memories stayed with me, which is why I went with the Diamond T in the first instance.
“The 1998 Peterbilt sleeper just happened to be available at the time and it was a sympathetic shape.
“Then the Western Star donor truck…When Diamond T faulted in Australia, it was purchased by White Trucks.
“Then when White Trucks faulted in Australia, they were purchased by R Trucks, so Western Star was part of the same family, so to speak.”
Also joining the party is a cabin connector from a Kenworth, air filters from a Freightliner, wheel stubs from an International Eagle.
The bonnet was custom-built because the original bonnet wouldn’t fit around the Western Star engine.
“It’s got some original components in it, but the whole thing’s been enlarged.”
The final product is pretty remarkable – and Evan is proud as punch.
“I’m very happy with it,” he says. “It won’t be found anywhere else in the world.”
Although Evan isn’t a truck driver himself, he spent his life working in the transport industry.
“I started out working in the shipping industry, and then I moved on to local road transport.
“At some point, I found myself working in an interstate depot, where I saw lots of interstate trucks coming and going.
“From road transport, I moved into the interstate coach industry and then on to rail, and for a short time, I worked for an air express freight company.
“So, I’ve worked in all facets of transport, as an administrator and manager, but I never, ever drove a truck!”
In fact, Evan had to get a local truck club member to teach him how to drive his truck after he had built it.
“It has power steering and the Roadranger transmission and it’s beautiful to drive,” he adds.
On top of spending his working life in the transport industry, Evan also grew up around trucks.
“My great-grandfather was a bullocky, and he operated hauling wheat and wool from Narrandera in New South Wales down the Murray River,” he says.
“My grandfather was a contractor for the Main Roads board in Victoria and he operated a truck, an Austin I think.
“Then my father operated a series of trucks over his lifetime, working in Gippsland, in Melbourne and interstate.”
The name of Evan’s truck is inspired by his great-grandfather’s experience with bullocks, as well as a 1975 movie called White Line Fever.
“The movie was about a trucking contractor who fell out with the mob, and the truck in that movie was called ‘Blue Mule’.
“In Australia we don’t have mules, but we do have bulls.
“So the truck is called Red Bull!”
The bright red colour definitely stands out from the crowd, with the signwriting done by a man named Sam Keddie in Jimboomba.
It’s no surprise that the rig has won multiple awards at truck shows, from Lights on the Hill to Mount Gravatt to Oaklands.
“It definitely gets attention!” admits Evan.
Taking a total of two years to complete, Red Bull was Evan’s retirement project — but there were some strings attached.
“Included in the cost of the truck build was a new kitchen and a new car for my wife,” he laughs.
“That was the only way the restoration was going forward.”
Evan had never built a truck before this one, and says it was definitely a learning curve.
“I had spent the budget I had set aside for it by the time I was only halfway through the build,” he says.
“But I couldn’t just walk away from it, so all I could do was keep going and finish it off.
“The problem today is that regardless of how old the machine might be, as soon as you employ labour you’ve got to pay for it at today’s prices, and any materials are also priced at today’s prices.
“So, it turns into an expensive undertaking!”
Thankfully it all paid off in the end, and the rig is undeniably a head-turner.
However Evan recently made the decision to part with his pride and joy, selling it to well-known truck collector Bernie Tobin.
“I had the truck for quite a few years, and it had been around the show scene for a while,” he says.
“I just thought it was time to move on to another project.
“It took me about three hours to sell it — I advertised it and Bernie contacted me and came and looked at it that same day.
“Within ten minutes, a deal was done.”
Evan’s next project could potentially be the conversion of a Japanese kei truck.
“Kei trucks are very small, they’re built for the little alleys and laneways in Japan.
“Honda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and all the Japanese manufacturers make them.
“I’m toying with the idea of converting one into a lookalike prime mover, with exhaust stacks and air intakes and new wheels.
“I think it would be cute and kids would really go for it, and it could just be a run-around truck or something.
“But that’s just a thought process at the moment!’
After selling his Diamond T, Evan wondered if he had made a mistake.
“I was emotional for a few days,” he says.
“But I was starting to get sick of washing the truck every time I drove it!
“I’m confident that whatever Bernie decides to do with it, he’ll do it justice.”