Kelly’s Pride — Leo Kelly’s restored 1984 Kenworth W model SAR

Leo Kelly’s restored W model brings a much-loved truck back to its former glory.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Chris Smith.

It’s a case of history repeating for Leo Kelly with his immaculately restored 1984 Kenworth W model SAR cleaning up on the show circuit once again.

It was the first, and only, truck Leo has ever bought new. He bought it in 1984 for $140,560 with that distinctive colour combination put on by the factory.

Back then he did the customisation himself and says his job was made easier because of the well thought out combination of colours.

“If you have the right paint job then all you do is put the extra bits on it,” he tells Australian Custom Trucks.

It wasn’t that easy customising it though and it did take him a long time. In fact, Leo spent close to five years getting his truck looking just the way he wanted it.

He must have done something right because the W model started winning at truck shows around the country.

“It won every truck show in the country in its early days when I had it,” he says proudly.

The Penshurst Truck Show became an annual pilgrimage for Leo and he was rewarded with a first prize that sits front and centre of the W model today.

“I had a cheaper bullbar on it from the start but the one which is currently on it I won that in the 1990 Penshurst Truck Show, about 10 months before it won Rig of the Year for Truckin’ Life,” he says.

As well as venturing to Penshurst the W model won truck shows in Ballarat and Castlemaine as well.

He says he even won a few shows multiple times.

The truck ventured far and wide crossing the Nullarbor to win Truck of the Year in Perth in 1990 as well.

As good as she looked back then, she continued to be a hard working truck and Leo had it on a run between Adelaide and Melbourne, two and a half trips a week carting wool to Adelaide and talcum powder back to Melbourne.

In 1992 Leo made the decision to sell the W model. At the time he says it was the right decision so that he could get off the road, get out of trucking and spend more time at home with the family.

“I did have regrets but I wanted the money to buy a farm. I was sick of it running interstate,” he says.

“I sold it for $100k, after eight good years working it hard.”

Leo explains the farm life led him straight back to the transport industry, he couldn’t escape. He ended up carting his own stock and stockfeed. Soon this would turn into a business of its own.

Fast forward a couple of decades and a few farm trucks bought in between. It came to a point a couple of years ago he was looking for a second truck and always in the back of his mind he’d longed for the old W model he had sold.

Fate intervened and 20 years after selling her his son Daniel saw her for sale on Facebook. It had found its way to Adelaide. The body was painted white and it was in a very bad state. Nothing like what Leo had left her in.

The initial asking price took him by surprise as well.

He reckons the fella wanted $70K and although the W model was close to his heart he couldn’t justify the purchase at that price.

He declined the opportunity and 12 months later the seller came back with an offer of $40K, which Leo took up.

He says he has paid just as much doing her up as he did when he initially bought her. However, he has no regrets whatsoever.

“I’ve got no regrets, because it’s the only truck I bought new, it is very sentimental to me,” he says with emotion and pride in his voice.

Initially the W model was going to join his T900 as a working truck however after spending what he did to restore it, the decision to find another truck was easily made.

“This was going to be the second truck when I bought it but then after I spent so much money on it well then we found a really good 604, we bought that and now we don’t have to use this,” he laughs.

“And I’ve got something to cherish for the rest of my life.”

Upon buying her back the restoration process was to begin. It would have to be a major job and Leo enlisted the services of Barry Dickson from Cobram to bring his beloved W model back to the state she was in when she won the Truckin’ Life 1990 ROTY.

“I took one of those posters up to him and said this is what I want it to be. He’s done a pretty good job,” he says.

Barry Dickson Paint & Panel began the journey to restoration.

“Barry Dickson did everything; new rubbers, new windows, pulled the whole door to bits, painted inside and out, cabin and all, upholstery, painted underneath the cabin. He put a lot of work into it,” Leo explains the amount of work needed to get her up to scratch.

He says the W model retains the CAT 3406 b motor he put in it.

When it was bought brand new the truck came with a 350hp motor but Leo had it upgraded to 400 for the obvious power benefits when he had it the first time.

He says although the top of the engine was still good, the bottom of it had to be reconditioned.

“I got the Cat bloke in to fix it. It was leaking oil something chronic underneath,” he says.

The gearbox was originally a 15-speed overdrive but Leo decided to change that to an 18-speed.

He considered putting back the 15-speed but says the gearing is very similar anyway.

Needless to say the W model was stripped right back to bare chassis rail. An arduous process involving sandblasting and scraping everything back to bare metal.

The chassis rails were then repainted back to its original blue to match the rest of the truck.

To finish off the rebuild process a full paint job was done. All parts that needed to be replaced were and all the original parts that could be salvaged were put back on. Now the truck looks like it did in its prime.

Overall Leo is happy with his beloved W model and is proudly taking her on the truck show circuit.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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