[Turdpolisher]

I am considering rodding a Divco. As I am fairly inexperienced in this truck and the materials it was made of, several questions arose:
1. Because the box was refrigerated, am I going to run into a lot of galvanized structure and/or sheet?
2. Is the box exterior steel or some other material?
3. The exterior on trucks last a long time, will media blasting remove the finishe without damaging the large flat sections?

I know the frame and front sheet metal probably will not be a problem.
Thanks for information.

My plans:
1. Big hoursepower for heavy truck (possibly 383 sbc because of space requirements)
2. Narrowed 9", tubbed rear, big meats
3. Big oak wood dash w/ antique gauges
4. Auto trans (gear shift would be too long for standard)
5. Loud ice cream cone paint scheme with "toppings"
6. Bed in back
7. Tow package for going to long distance shows

And...................
What be cooler than to have a street rod with bi-fold doors?

[deadbodyman]

Never heard of one .....got any pics?

[matt167]

most were used as milk trucks... for a short period of time when my grandfather worked for a local creamery, he drove 1.. all of the creameries that were in my area used DIVCO's for the milk trucks.. I used to know where 1 was but it dissapeared, but it was an electrical contractors service truck and not a milk truck

[deadbodyman]

Thats cool looking ...

[TucsonJay]

My cousin is crazy for Divcos! He found a couple hot rodded Divcos on the internet. Just start searching with Google using different combinations of terms.

[ogre]

i realy like thos divcos. manufactured by detroit industrial vehicle co, thus divco. i've seen many turned into sweet rods. they weren't refrigerated but had big galvanized tanks that stored chilled antifreeze. there are a couple of divco sites out there. the body is all steel, the rear doors have wood frames and usualy fall apart. big project, especially if you do a frame off. go for it. there is a divco thread here but no updates in a couple of years.

[deadbodyman]

looks like a chop would be in order...

[dinger]

The family that owns the local A&W's has one, it pumps root beer, they take it to all the rod runs. Very cool machine. One of our members here has one, Toomanytoyz. Many have rain gutter rust. Good luck, keep us posted.

[2-manytoyzs]

Well, I know this is an old thread but I havent been able to be on here as much now that I came out of retirement. I have 3 Divcos, they are not galvanized, flat panels are easy to work on, I made fiberglass fenders for the rear of my current project. For one of my other trucks I will need to pull molds off one of my current truck and build a new front end out of 'glass. There is nothing out the ordinary on these. They are seemed together with rivits and rust gets under the panel overlaps. Rust can be bad on the drip rails but no worse than another old car with drip rails. Some of the areas of the lower floors where it meets the body side panels can get areas of rust from the condensation from inside the truck (if it came from the factory with the original refer system in them). One of mine was a school delivery truck and is rust free. The other ones were refers and have some rust issues but nothing that cant be repaired using normal procedures. Go to the project journals and look at the progress I have made on mine.

[JeffB]

They were probably built per spec depending on what they were used for,the first job I got in '67 after my Army service was a milkman for Urbana Pure Milk in Illinois.The Divco was steel exterior but had galanized interior walls,in those days milk was in glass bottles and was kept cool by ice filled canvas bags layed on the crates.It was hard at first getting used to driving standing up And some of those old stories about milkmen were true