Many people would remember seeing the Divco delivery trucks driving through their cities back in the day. They never imagined one day someone would have the courage and creativity to build one as a drag truck. But Mark Cryer and his son had their own ideas of what to do with this 1963 Divco Twin-Turbo Milk Truck.
At around 14 or 15 years old, Mark would attend races at the US 30 dragstrip in northwest Indiana with his brother. These days of going to the races influenced Mark and led him to a lifelong passion for cars. He has built several cars over the last 40 years and became more involved with every build. When it was time for a new project, Mark and his son, Nick, found a picture of several Divco trucks on the side of a trailer at a swap meet. With a choice of 3 Divcos, this was the chosen truck because of the natural patina and how much potential they saw.
The first stage of this build took three years. It started with a 95 Chevy 1500 truck frame which was cut at the firewall and built with their custom back half using 2”x3” rectangle tubing. With the help of his brother, Bill, they built a 496 Big Block Chevy engine. Behind this powerful 496 is a used turbo 400 with trans brake, gear vendor overdrive, and a Ford 9” with a 3.73 Detroit locker.
The next step was to work on the cosmetics of the truck. This entailed rebuilding all the floors, bracing, and mounting the body to the frame. But there was another build that Mark needed to put his attention towards before working on the cosmetics of the truck and that was his house. Mark took a 2-year break away from the Divco project to do a remodel on his home. Once the home remodeling was done, it was time to make it run and drive. While Bill did the wiring and plumbing, Nick and Mark were able to finish the interior.
With the use of leftover hardwood from remodeling, they were allowed to use the extra wood to floor the whole inside of the truck. In addition, Dodge Caravan seats, miscellaneous stainless-steel trim, and a full dash of AutoMeter gauges were added to complete this hot rod milk truck. Since this Divco was built for Hot Rod Drag Week, it was time for some road trip and dragstrip testing. With some new and used parts failures, the three of them were able to fight through the problems and continue to make changes to it.In 2020, they were ready to race it for Drag Week. Due to the cancellation from COVID-19, they were able to use that extra year to work out all the bugs. In the final push until Drag Week, they installed an additional trans cooler. Fan and trans temperature gauge turned out to be an important part of their drag week success. By using the trans temperature gauge, they were able to drive based on the temperature of the trans. They exceeded their expectations and look forward to participating in future drag weeks. However, all this would not be possible without the help of his friends and family who contributed and supported the project along the way.
