Check out this wild custom built by Ralph Hellyer of Mount Gambier in South Australia! This beast was uncovered by our mate Simo from Brisbane, who’s best known for ‘Ol Daze’, his gasser inspired Val. He’s also a van tragic, and when he’s not spray painting with the vacuum cleaner in the backyard or building his John Holmes porno van, he’s scouring vintage Aussie mags for mopar features. It was in an old issue of ‘Custom Rodder’ that he found this beauty.
“I was flicking through issue 23 from June/July 1974 and found this feature on a Dodge Deora replica”, he explained. “At first glance I just figured it was just a feature on a vehicle from America built similar to the concept trucks built by Gene Winfield and the like around that time, until I saw the SA rego plates and half-assed door frame/window area which probably would never have made the cut on a US show truck, and realised it was from Oz.
Now this sort of vehicle doesn’t usually get me too excited, and I find it pretty ugly to be honest, but it just made me wonder what the f*ck happened to cars like this in the years since; it amazes me how something as oddball as this could just fall off the face of the earth and in my 37 years of loving Mopars, had never even heard of this vehicle.
The same really can be said for the 1000′s of cars built up in Aus from the 60′s through to the 90′s, and although this particular truck is not my cup of tea, I can appreciate the hard work there must have been for this bloke from Mt. Gambier to make it out of a 54 Fargo (Dodge) pickup truck, especially the bodywork and swing-away steering setup.”
Following his discovery, with a little detective work Simo was able to track down these pics of the Deora Two in its current condition. While its obviously a lot worse for wear these days, it’s remarkably complete. Its apparently in an undisclosed location in country Victoria, but no word as to what its future might be.
Thanks again for sharing the pics Simo!
I hate seeing her in that condition, it’s not fair! She deserves to be restored as part of our automotive history and out Kustom car history!
Nice detective work.
Good to see that she still exists.
Someone must be thinking of a resto in the future, or it would have been scrap by now.
Let’s hope so!
Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Alex
This trucks existance has been known about for many years but getting access for photos has been hard. is great to see someone finally has.
The comment above comparing it to a Gene Winfield custom is totally incorrect, as the original Deora was built by the Alexander brothers, and designed by Harry Bradley.
There were some stunning OZ built customs from the 60′s and several survivers were featured in the Newsledder when it was in production
At the moment an American is building a replica of the original A Bros Deora and its build is featured on the net
Paul, just to clarify I didn’t state that the original Deora was built by Gene Winfield, I have more of a respect and love of his work than to be that inaccurate –
“…similar to the concept trucks built by Gene Winfield and the like around that time”
was my wording and with that generalised comment I was thinking more of the ‘Pacifica’ Ford Econoline based pickup he built.
The Aussie Deora is slated to have restoration started in early 2011 so fingers crossed its returned to its former glory one day!
Simo
Ralph Hellyer who built the Diora was a fibreglass boat builder by trade, so he used a lot of thos skills on the Diora, he was helped by his brother Ron (who I used to work for) who was a motorcycle racing champion and built racing bike frames. On their fathers farm they had a wrecked Avro Anson Bomber from world war 2 and thats where the steering column and many other bits of the original vehicle came from. Ralph was also a founding member of Lake City Rodders in 1974. He drove the Diora for many years until it developed an engine problem, then it sat in his shed for a long time. He always intended to rebuild it and fit a V-8 but work and then ill health got in the way. Ralph died a few years ago from lung disease caused by fibreglass fibres and Ron died 4 years ago from
asbestos related lung disease. They were both very talented people, I hope the Diora’s current owner does bring it back to life, it is an icon of past custom car history
that way cool, id love to fiind an old custom,,lieing aorund here, id snp it up real fast.soooo over finding a-models …
its not that ugly, i dont like the straight edge of the rear pillar or how the top of the bed squares of but i think its a pretty cool machine, looks like it had a real cool interior and the side glass suits it nice.
hopefully it will be restored well and correct to the period it was built before it rusts away.
[...] Kustom Kulture Australia has a neat story about the Dodge Deora 2, an Australian custom obviously influenced by the Alexander Brothers’ Deora, and how one [...]
“At the moment an American is building a replica of the original A Bros Deora and its build is featured on the net”…
Hello from Canada!
Tis’ I who am building a replica of the original Dodge Deora, but it’s in Canada, not America!
By the looks of this creation, it was definitely “inspired” by the original Deora, much the same as my attempt. However, I would go so far as to say that although there are definite similarities, the builder of this version took it to the next level! Bravo to him for having the balls to do it!
I know as a fact that it is an extremely difficult task!
ha robin . rick form madman kustoms in canada can you contact me on your deora build at madmankustoms@yahoo.com
deora 2
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