Hare & Forbes MachineryHouse is turning 90 this year, so we wanted to do something special to celebrate this significant occasion. A little while ago we revealed the first look of an exciting new project truck we were working on aptly named ‘Flatbed Felix’, and we’re excited to announce that it, or should we say he, is almost ready!

Flatbed Felix is a fully restored 1927 Chevrolet flatbed truck, a similar model to the store delivery truck we used back in the 1930s.

Why name the truck Felix we hear you ask? For those of you who aren’t die-hard Chevy fans, the cartoon character ‘Felix the Cat’, designed by Australian cartoonist Pat Sullivan in 1919, became the mascot for a Los Angeles Chevrolet dealership in the 1920s – of which the owner was a friend of Pat Sullivan’s. Felix was adopted onto a three-sided neon sign that still stands today. So, it was only fitting that we named this iconic truck after a true icon of the time.

This entire restoration project including all wood, metal and automotive work has been overseen and completed by Master Builder Sean Hagarty from OG Customs.

Hare & Forbes also has a 1926 Chevrolet flatbed truck that lives on the display floor of their Northmead, NSW store. However ‘Feral Sheryl’ is still in her original condition.
Rick Foster, General Manager of Hare & Forbes MachineryHouse commented
“The previous owner called her Feral Sheryl and the name just stuck. She was so beautiful in her original state, I just didn’t have the heart to change her. Her floors are still worn down where people have driven her for the last 94 years and her tin cab still has all the dings in it. Why would anyone want to erase all that history?!”

Flatbed Felix will become an heirloom for the company, and an excellent example of what can be achieved using Hare & Forbes MachineryHouse tools.
Rick stated “I’m excited to show our customers how we’ve taken something old and broken, and breathed new life into it using our machinery. Flatbed Felix deserved to be resurrected. His previous owner had started to restore him but somewhere along the way, lost interest. As there was nothing really original left on him, we had no issues pulling him apart and fixing him up.”

We’ll be releasing more information about the restoration of Flatbed Felix in the weeks to come, with a big reveal happening in June 2020, so stay tuned!

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