After the War Ended, This Truck Was Born

[Bama 1,743]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-the-war-ended-this-truck-was-born-11566309119

After the War Ended, This Truck Was Born

This 1945 Ford has stayed in the same family since the early 1960s, but sat for decades in storage before a complete overhaul in Sun Valley

Quote

 

My father was an insurance broker, and in the early 1960s, he bought four 1945 Ford trucks from a plumbing client of his, for $100 apiece. He gave one to a friend. Two others he used at a golf course he owned with some partners. The fourth one he took to a beach cabin we had on the Oregon coast.

He taught me to drive in this truck on the beach. When I was in high school I fixed it up a bit, and he was so pleased that he gave it to me for my 18th birthday. By that time, I was headed off to college, and I put the truck in storage. It sat for decades. When I retired in 2012, I trailered it to our home in Sun Valley and took it to a talented mechanic for restoration.

When he took it apart, it struck me how amazingly simple this truck is. A few bolts here and there, and the whole thing was in pieces. The vehicle doesn’t have that many moving parts. There is no power steering. It is so fundamental, it is just one step up from a Model T.

You do not see a lot of 1945 Fords around, or 1945 vehicles of any kind. Firstly, cars get old and disintegrate. You can’t find parts to fix them, and people let them go. Secondly, in 1945, Detroit car companies had not made customer cars or pickups for years because of the war. Ford made huge numbers of airplanes during World War II, and in 1945, the company was just getting started again building customer vehicles.

If you look at pictures of production back then, it’s a bunch of guys, each doing their part. There were no robots. It was a different world. Interestingly, during the restoration, we found a wrench underneath the gas tank, which is actually under the seat. (You’re sitting on the gas tank when you drive. What could possibly go wrong?) That wrench must have been left there by mistake, when the truck was built 74 years ago.

Now the V-8 engine runs like a top, and the truck can do 55 miles per hour comfortably. Idaho is a great place to keep the truck, because the air is so dry and the roads beautiful. The Ford has been in the family for a long time. When I am gone, my son will get it, so it will stay in the family for another generation, which is pretty cool.

 

 

[+Dafey 15,245]

My Grandfather had a Model A tuck we used to drive from Syracuse to Vermont to pick up 'wheels' of cheese for his store. There is something special about old trucks. Of course if I point one out to my wife she gets sick to her stomach but I could be happy tooling along the road in one of these.

[lamoe 14,555]

35 minutes ago, Dafey said:

My Grandfather had a Model A tuck we used to drive from Syracuse to Vermont to pick up 'wheels' of cheese for his store. There is something special about old trucks. Of course if I point one out to my wife she gets sick to her stomach but I could be happy tooling along the road in one of these.

They're both Duseys  meant the charm

[SkyMan 23,722]

1 hour ago, Dafey said:

My Grandfather had a Model A tuck we used to drive from Syracuse to Vermont to pick up 'wheels' of cheese for his store. There is something special about old trucks. Of course if I point one out to my wife she gets sick to her stomach but I could be happy tooling along the road in one of these.

Dad had a Model A in Denver during the depression.  They had the old canvas belt friction brakes, right?  Don't get them wet.  His father blind since about 18 due to infection from getting hit in the eye with an errant snowball and the infection spread to the other eye.  He kept the family alive by tuning pianos.  Dad and a friend would drive to a client's house and remove the action from the piano to take back to the house for my grandpa to tune.  I've moved a piano with one other guy once.  No way would I do it again and the truck we used had a lift gate.  He had some pretty good stories about going down some of the hills in Denver in the snow with a piano on the back.  He couldn't afford anti-freeze so he'd put in a quart of alcohol.  One very cold morning he came out and there was a frozen fountain up out of the head.  He had to save up for the $4 it cost him for a used head he found.  Hard times then.  My aunt had their family ledger and there were entries in it like, "found a penny in the gutter on the way back from buying bread."  Maybe that's why I still pick up coins when I'm walking.

[Ozepete 9,586]

When I was a kid my mate (older) had a 34 Ford side valve V8 sedan.  He paid 29 pounds for it (about $60 but would be 20+K today!) We went everywhere in the old Henry but one night this over zealous copper pulled us over... no tail light. Trouble was it had no anything much but she sure was a fast old girl.  When the cop checked the steering... about half a lap either way with not much, he got a bit excited but more so when he checked the brakes and his foot went to the floor!!! He screamed at my mate "why don't you have any brakes?  mate replied " man, its a full time job keeping this old girl movin' we just haven't got around to workin' out how to stop it yet.   We walked home that night!   But great memories of the old 34.

[Ozepete 9,586]

Its a pity so many of these magnificent old trucks, utes and cars were chopped up for hot rods!  

[lamoe 14,555]

On 8/29/2019 at 8:51 AM, lamoe said:

They're both Duseys  meant the charm

The term refers to a slang phrase - same as cool, neat, rad, etc..

The Dusenberg was the epitome of class, style, and luxury for cars of it's time