Diamond T stopped making cars while Taft was still president, becoming a noted truck manufacturer. But what if they had made a spiffy roadster in the 1930s? VintageRacer had his camera at the ready when the time came to answer that question; make the jump to read his description.
I've seen this beast several times (on sunny days), but never when I had my camera with me. So, of course, the day I've got it with me, it's later in the day and the sky's threatening rain and snow.
It evidently is owned by the guy who owns the repair shop, and the story I got from a couple of the guy's who work there is as follows:10-12 years ago, the owner (who's a big Diamond T fan) started wondering what a Diamond T roadster would look like - if they had built one. The story was that they really had, but no pictures could be found. There evidently was an outfit called either Close Enough Engineering or Close Enough Cars here in Seattle, and they started with the nose of a 1947 truck, used the front fenders to fabricate the rears, used the gauges, dash, I believe he used the frame, and the wheels and axles. A Chevy V-8, handbuilt metal body (wood for the rear), real Brooklands windscreens, and a holster for his pistol mounted on the firewall in the cab. It could use a little TLC under the hood, and the wood needs to be varnished again, but it's driven pretty regularly during the summer.