The story of YOUR FORD...car , pickup , truck , commercial vehicle

[Bruce Lancaster]

My '48 tudor was purchased new by my Father with money saved up during a vacation in the Pacific with the USMC 1943-45. He had gone into civilian life as a Foreign Service officer, and was stationed in China where the Chinese were in the last stages of the war between Mao and Chiang, and ordered the car via diplomatic sales channels.
The car was built for export (Metric speedometer, tropical wax) at Edgewater in late '47 and arrived in China in a crate. It was fortunately shipped back to the USA before Mao got it.
I as brought home from the hospital in Nanking in that car, and rode in the backseat with our dog all over Germany and Europe through the early fifties, the USA in later fifties and early sixties.
It gradually became mine, and I still have it. My name is the same as my Father's, and titles were never formally changed, so it is still kind of a one owner.

[Old Henry]

Here's the poster that I display when showing Old Henry at car shows that tells his story:

[rheltzel]

And how many miles have you put on Ol' Henry since purchasing him in 1959?

[amodel25]

Found my Avatar '51 at the Conroe, Texas swap meet. It had been wrecked, hit hard on the right front. I thought, I can buy this thing, fix it, and turn a quick profit when I sell it..........that was 26 years and 46,000 miles ago.

[Lawson Cox]

I could not find a 35 PU to restore, so I started collecting parts, literally from all over the world. A correct fan from New Zealand and some part from Germany, but I can't remember which part that was. Hershey, Carlisle, Moltrie, GA. Charlotte, NC, and a correct pair of front fenders from Michigan I believe it was, you name it and I probably got some little part from there. A pile of stuff from Fred Landis in TX and Joe Smith in
Atlanta, and many misc. parts through eBay from all over. Worked on it for close to 22 years and finally got it "completed" (if there is such a thing) about two years ago. Everything is stock Henry except the reproduction bed from Mac Hils. I sat down and figured out how many vehicles were involved in the build. 65 according to last count. Make that 66 counting the correct oil filter I am in the process of installing now. It is truly a truck that never was. His name is Apatchy35, and he runs and drives great and is a real eye catcher.

[FrankWest]

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Originally Posted by 34pickup

I am the original owner of my 34 pickup. I bought it brand new In October of 1934 after I worked at my first job for a while. I saved up for years to pay cash for a new truck after I wore out my old Model A.

That is fantastic! What kind of repairs have been done on your car over the years.

[34pickup]

Originally Posted by FrankWest

That is fantastic! What kind of repairs have been done on your car over the years.

I can't believe anyone really believes what I wrote.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by rheltzel

And how many miles have you put on Ol' Henry since purchasing him in 1959?

Sorry, don't know how many miles were on him when bought in 1959 but he was only driven a mile or two a day for most of the 16 years until he was parked in 1975 for 31 years. When I finished restoring him in 2007 and started driving regular he had 172,000 miles on him and I've put 87,000 miles on him since. Odometer is now at 59,000 (that's 259,000) and still going strong. I'm headed out for a three day trip up into Idaho and Montana tomorrow totaling about 1,300 miles. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Orem...8979!3e0?hl=en

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by 34pickup

I am the original owner of my 34 pickup. I bought it brand new In October of 1934 after I worked at my first job for a while. I saved up for years to pay cash for a new truck after I wore out my old Model A.

Let's see. By my calculations, if you worked years to save up to buy this truck new in 1934 while you were already driving your model A, you must have been born before 1915 which makes you at least 101 years old this year.

Right?

[TonyM]

Originally Posted by 34pickup

I can't believe anyone really believes what I wrote.

I didn't buy it at all. The math did not add up.
And your profile says the truck was a former utility vehicle.

[34pickup]

Originally Posted by Old Henry

Let's see. By my calculations, if you worked years to save up to buy this truck new in 1934 while you were already driving your model A, you must have been born before 1915 which makes you at least 101 years old this year.

Right?

Lets see, Uh, I was born on February 29 1912 so a leap year baby would only be 26, right? Yeah, thats the ticket.....

Just having fun. I have been stuck home sick and my mind is bored.

[TonyM]

Originally Posted by 34pickup

Lets see, Uh, I was born on February 29 1912 so a leap year baby would only be 26, right? Yeah, thats the ticket.....

Just having fun. I have been stuck home sick and my mind is bored.

If you bought the 1934 truck in 1934 when your Model A wore out, well, everyone knows you could not wear out a Model A in just six years.

Get well soon.

[41Joe]

That is too funny. I saw your post when you said you where 26 34pickup and nobody commented about that right away.
I was trying to do the math too. That's great.
I am 37, my car doesn't have any special story.
I got it from an 18 year old that gave up working on it and would rather use the money to get his 83 beamer on the road. Not being a flathead expert and only using the knowledge from when I was 18 and bought my first flathead and had it rebuilt, I bought the car. Now after tearing into it, I think I paid too much. But I guess it is worth it no matter what.
It's a 1941 Super Deluxe Tudor. Original color is Lochaven Green (I believe). Eventually I want to paint it that color. For now it will have to remain primer gray. Don't know anything about it's history. Under the dash there was a weird transistor contraption which I am told was for Ham Radio operation. I don't think it was a military car at all, I thought only the Fordor was used in the military.
I want to keep it as stock as possible, but I am not a purist. So a few upgrades are fine to me, as long as it has the flathead, steelies and wide whites I will be happy.

[browke]

Hello! Here's my 1940 model 01C pickup.
I purchased her last year from the original owner - a university had owned it from new. It was purchased in May 1940 by their Conservation and Survey Department. Eventually, it found it's way into the university motor pool where it was only occasionally used, but it was stored out of the weather. It even came to me with the original title from 1940 (only $0.50 to register it back then). The nice thing about the original title is that it tells me what the original color was (Blue). The truck is black now (resprayed in 1978) with very little evidence of the original color. Oh, and the truck has 97K miles on it. She came with enough documentation of past work that was done, like oil changes, to confirm that the mileage is almost certainly correct.
The original steel body, bed and frame are in remarkably good shape. The only sign of accident damage is the driver door which was nearly torn off the hinges long long ago. The welding job to fix it looks like is was done by the "Intro to Welding" class. But the door does operate just fine. There only other damage was to the front grill, presumably from hitting something or from being towed by a rope that wrapped around the bumper mounting hardware and pulled tight, crushing the chrome grill.
The good part about being owned by the Conservation and Survey department is that those people didn't normally go out during harsh midwest winter weather, so the truck was spared from the worst of it. It is surprisingly free of rust for a truck that was never meant to be collector's item and was used like a truck for many years. The driver side floor pan needs to have a replacement panel, but the cab corners are perfect. There isn't anything other than a little scale anywhere else. The wood in the bed was gone, and a single sheet of plywood was cut to fit and painted with about 50 pounds of paint - man that thing is heavy! When I lifted the plywood out, the metal bed was lying underneath. It looks like it is still serviceable without too much repair.
Of course some of the components aren't original, but are still period correct and not unexpected for a truck that was used like one. It has a '46 Ford Carb (Model 59), and a later model fuel pump with the glass bowl (Made in Canada). An aftermarket horn (1950's vintage) was added but the original horn was left in place (it still work fine). It was running when I bought it, although a bit rough. A simple tune-up got it running pretty well. It's still 6-volt positive ground (lovely) with the original generator. I thought the vintage electrics were cool until I drove the truck at night and saw how dim the headlights can get while at idle. It also has just the single taillight - like it had when new. Now that was probably fine for people surveying property and roads in the midwest, but it's definitely not enough for city driving today. It's also a cop magnet with just the one tail light. I'm now well versed in local laws regarding tail lights. It's actually legal, but I still have to argue (politely) each time I get pulled over.
I really thought it was great to find a truck that was so remarkably untouched - I thought every '40 pickup was either a restored trailer treasure or had been hacked up to become yet another gawd-awful hot rod. Unfortunately, the thing about a "survivor" is that everything, and I mean everything, needs some sort of attention. The wiring? Original - meaning lots of exposed metal and electrical tape all over. The radiator? Also original meaning it's about half clocked with dirt and mineral deposits. The gas tank? Also original - meaning it's rusty with a thick layer of grime on the bottom. The interior? Mostly there, but the green cardboard panels that remained showed plenty of mold damage and had to go. Rubber parts? Yup, mostly original, meaning the rubber is now hard and brittle. Fortunately, that makes it easy to remove. One tap with a chisel and those parts shatter into a million pieces. Even the valve cores in the inner tubes were old. The first time I added air, the valve cores shattered and shot out like bullets!
So now the plan is to stop the rust, repair the floor pan, strip it down and return it to the original Lyon Blue. I'll rebuild the engine - the heads have never been removed so it's probably a good time to just go through the whole thing. Sadly, the original wiring is mostly held together with electrical tape in dozens of places and will have to be replaced. It also looks like someone added a radio at one point - AM only. I think the radio is from the mid 50's when such things were really big and really heavy. Also, it had a replacement heater - also from the late 40's or early '50's. I found an original '40 heater that I'll restore and drop in.
Once it's all done (hopefully by Summer '16), I plan to put her back to work as my truck. I won't have to drive it on the freeway all that often or for very far, and it's perfect for light duty work around town.
Cheers!
B

[al's28/33]

I bought my '33 pickup from a fella living in Dixon, Illinois......where Ronald Regan was from! Years before that is was used in Wisconsin and belonged the US Forestry Service having a giant helper spring on the rear axel. It was originally a 4 cylinder Model B but it was converted to a V8 engine with help from Nascar racer Rich Bickle.

that's my claim to fame.

[Mart]

34pu,

It's not that we believe you, it's that being polite, we don't want to outright call you a liar. Something you wouldn't want to do, especially to someone quoting the bible in their tag line.

It would benefit us all if people just write the facts. It stops a lot of head scratching and polite probing.

Hope you get better soon.

Mart.

[Markymark]

Awesome and amazing stories everyone!!!!! Beautiful fords!!!! Amazing journeys and transformations!!!!...big or small these are history and they are really great!!!... I'm going to start reading these to my little ford fans as bed time stories!!!! Thank you!!!... Please keep the stories coming!!!!.... Mark

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by 34pickup

Lets see, Uh, I was born on February 29 1912 so a leap year baby would only be 26, right? Yeah, thats the ticket.....

Just having fun. I have been stuck home sick and my mind is bored.

I'm diggin' that "funny-shaped" Chevy engine. Maybe a detail or two about that? I've always had a soft spot for 348s and 409s. DD