The truck shown here was manufactured in Tarrytown, N.Y. in
late1957 and imported into Kenya in November 1957. It spent it's entire first life as a
company delivery truck for an outfit called Malmont Electroplating Limited. The company
still exists in the industrial area of Nairobi. I believe the truck was based in
Nairobi it's entire life which is above 5,500 feet in altitude with very moderate weather,
which accounts for the good state of the metal work.
Sometime around late 1976 or early 1977, someone performed an oil
change and forgot to fill it up with oil again before driving it! I found the truck
in October 1989, parked beside the road in the Nairobi industrial area up to it's hubs in
dried mud with a seized engine. The oil filter was still new and hadn't had any oil
in it. There was no oil in the sump either. The previous owner told me it had been
sitting there in the open since the engine had seized. This is absolutely remarkable
and a near miracle since anything in Kenya that is left in the open automatically gets
turned into something else, like cooking pots. Even the
generator was still on the engine,
which an item that would normally be gleaned for other uses. Someone was saving it for me!
It took me 5 years of working in my garage and several shipments
of parts from the States to get it on the road. I spent an inordinate amount of time
cleaning and repairing rust damage in the rolling stock since it had been buried in the
mud so long. Every part, and I mean every part, was disassembled, cleaned, repaired, or
replaced before re-assembly. The bodywork was done off the frame and had to be redone
since the first restorer I hired did not do a good job.
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