“I always wanted to buy one of Dad’s trucks back. I found the Foden on Trade Me. It was at the wreckers, in a state. Of course, Mum was like ‘No!’,” Rocket says with a laugh as he relates how his dad Neville Little’s Foden S106T was given a new lease on life.

“Dad bought it new in 1987 for $227,000 while he was working for Transpac. He sold it four or five years later to David Pope in Masterton. We bought it back pretty much 20 years after he sold it.”

To ‘get around’ Mum, Rocket and Neville went halves on the Foden and bought it from the wreckers for just $9000. Poked though it was; all the right bits were there…

“It’s still all original – the motor, gearbox, all the mechanicals,” Rocket explains. The interior is the same as it was, except for new seats and steering wheel. “They were F-ed, but we managed to match the seats up quite similarly, and the wheel was a new one out of the UK.

“Only thing I couldn’t get was the bottom spoiler he originally had bolted onto the bumper – that’s why it has mudflaps on it now,” Rocket adds.

Other than the sandblasting, the truck was rebuilt completely by Neville over six years … with a hand from Rocket on some bits and pieces. How on earth could he not?

The Foden debuted at the 2018 Alexandra Blossom Festival and will be instantly familiar to Kiwi classic truck buffs today, often attending South Island truck shows and runs with either Neville or Rocket loving their time behind the wheel.