I love old cars and trucks, just as I love old houses. This truck we found by the roadside in a quiet little bit of old Texas. Sam Houston's old house is about half a mile away, Texas' fight for independence started near here, on the banks of the Brazos river, About a mile to the east is the tiny town of Independence, Tx.
I explained to the Red Dirt Girl that the truck probably just needed air in the tyres, gas in the tank, juice in the battery, and a bit of coaxing.
Offer a few dollars, borrow a trailer.....
Maybe a weekend or two, and a couple of cans of paint from Home Depot.
See? Amazing what you can do in a weekend with a bit of elbow grease and fifty cups of tea.
Next one we do has to be red, she says. XXXX!
Amazing indeed. A coat of paint turned a '48 Ford into a '50 Chevrolet. You are a miracle worker, my Soub.
ReplyDeleteYippee! I just got home from saying good bye to my college bound boy - sobbing and wailing all the way. Seriously. This post brings a smile to my face and reminds me of happy times. Indeed, you are a miracle worker dearest Soub.
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Max: Top marks. I wondered if anybody would notice that they aren't the same truck. After all, to the untutored eye they're pretty similar.
ReplyDeleteThe Chevy was sporting a 'for sale' notice, beside the road near Tomball, Tx.
I would have no idea if the model years you quote are right, so I'll just trust you. I liked the Ford better of the two, and I'm inclined to think that if you put all that effort into a rebuild, it would look better in a colour it might have originally sported.
Metallic purply blue is not to my taste!
On another note, I'm always surprised by how small the truckbeds are, in comparison to the overall size. Aussies tend to build what they call a "trayback", above wheel level, higher to lift things, but much more loadspace.
RDG: Cease the sobbing. He's embarking on a rite of passage, next time you see him he'll seem all grown-up, but still your boy.
ReplyDeleteHe's going to succeed at whatever he sets himself to do, you've done well at producing great kids. Stop the worrying.
Thank you. Well, to be honest, they didn't change the truck body designs every year back then, or at least not drastically. So the old Ford could be a '48, '49, or '50. The chevrolets changed even less frequently, and this design was made '47 through '53, though some later ones had 5 windows, not all. You would have to know some little details like marker lights and such to tell the year for sure.
ReplyDeleteBeds above the wheels are called "flatbeds" here. And they don't just come on large trucks. Flatbeds with wooden framework sides that are removable are called "stake beds". A regular pickup with metal sides and a stake frame mounted in the holes in the top of the sides is probably home made. Farmers who haul livestock like to do that. :)
I am starting to respect you even more now.
I saw a '49 Rover in a junkyard photo. Have no clue how it made its way to the States. Or maybe a Rover is not the same thing as "Land" Rover. They are sold here now, of course, but I doubt it back then. I couldn't make out what side the steering wheel was on, normal or confederate (wrong side).
Max: Flatbed has the same meaning here. We have a whole genre of trucks here that few people ever think to put a name to, but if they did, they'd be called dropside flatbeds. The sides and rear of the bed can usually be hinged down, or completely removed for loading and unloading. Many of them would also sport a tipping body, mostly rear tipping, but some, with a quick re-arrangement of securing pins, are also side-tippers.
ReplyDeleteIn the late eighties? Ford, here introduced a variant which harks back somewhat to those older american ancestors, and called it the step-side. I think they might have sold about six of them, somehow they just failed altogether in the popularity stakes, whereas the same cab/chassis model sold countless dropsiders.
Stake trucks... I had a toy one when I was a kid. It's a thoroughly logical and sensible evolution of a flatback, yet somehow is virtually unseen here.
As for Rovers. The Rover Company started out by making bicycles. Then motor-bicycles, then cars.
In 1948, they built a four-wheel-drive utility vehicle, loosely patterned after the u.s. army Jeep. this was the first "land" rover.
in the eighties? the rover company split into two, with Rover building cars and Land Rover building Land Rover, Range-Rover, and Discovery, also, later, Freelander.
Rover went bust. Land Rover had several different owners, BMW, Ford, and now the Indian company Tata.
Soubry~
ReplyDeleteIt's not him I'm worried about - IT'S ME!! I've lived with him for 19 years and during the last 5, he's been the steady rock of the divorced household. I miss him, and I'm sad. Period. But thanks for trying, I think.
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Gas guzzlers that cause Yanks to invade others lands to steal oil should be banned by a decent society!!!!!
ReplyDeleteRDG, he's male, he will be OK. Of course if you are lonely call my number anytime......:)
Thank you Adullamite ;)
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RDG: Don't encourage Adullamite. He sometimes appears wise, but you have to remember he's a Scot, and they might not invade other lands for oil, but they've a reputation for crossing the border to steal cattle instead.
ReplyDeleteAdullamite: She drives one of those gas guzzlers... I'd better not tell you the engine size. and if she's lonely she's supposed to call ME!!!!!
Then answer your phone, dammit!
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I love that deep purple!
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