Old Macks Never Die

The saying, “Old Macks never die, they just rust away,” might have been a true description of this 1959 Mack B-61 if Cam Hiltz of Queensville, Ontario, Canada hadn’t intervened.  Originally, the Mack was a Texas truck that hauled groceries from Phoenix to Dallas.  As a kid, Cam worked for Mel’s Express out of Bradford, Ontario, washing trucks and helping out in general.  Later, he drove for Mel’s Express for about ten years.  Mack’s history as a truck manufacturer in the U.S. is pretty well-known, but in Canada, not so much.  By 1911, Mack had become one of the largest builders of heavy-duty motor trucks in the U.S., and in 1912 the Fairbanks-Morse Co. of Montreal became Mack’s first Canadian sales agent.  In 1921, Mack established the first official Mack-owned sales outlet in downtown Toronto, and by the 1960s, Mack was building trucks in Canada.  Although Mack no longer builds trucks in Canada, the company still has 40 distributors and 63 service centers there.  When Cam bought this B-61, he decided to restore it to resemble one of the Mel’s Express trucks he’d admired.  Performing a full body-off restoration, Cam painted the Mack in Mel’s two-tone green color scheme and added a lift axle.  The single-axle Mack with a tag axle is equipped with an integral sleeper, a 673 turbo engine, and a 5×3 Triplex transmission.  Now, the hardest work this old Mack has to do is pose for cameras at truck shows!  To see more “weird and wonderful” old trucks, visit www.oldtimetrucks.org.