Racer X 69,
Some excellent images of old trucks. I like the creative touch you've brought to the pix.
Brings back some nice memories.
I recall an Autocar incident vividly. Back in the 1960's I was about 14 years old, riding around on my J.C. Higgins (remember those) bicycle . I was riding around an industrial area and came to a traffic stop. Some men were stopping traffic as a huge Autocar highway tractor was slowly moving an equally huge flatbed trailer out onto the street...with overload signs flapping in the wind. A large excavator was atop the flatbed and I still remember the very healthy diesel exhaust note coming from the Autocar's exhaust stacks.
I was impressed and I had a front row seat.
The picture of the White truck also brings back some memories. From the 1950's to about the mid '70's there was local beer delivery truck that used to make it's rounds to various pubs throughout my town. It was a '50's White 3000 COE with a reefer box mounted on the chassis. It was an excellent choice for a beer truck...the COE design allowed the driver to see up close different obstructions in the lanes behind the pubs. The local brewer that owned it, eventually sold out to Molsons (I think) and this White disappeared.
I heard later that it ended up as a grain truck for a farmer in North Dakota, which is a neighbouring state of my province. The delivery box had been removed and a grain box had taken it's place. This White cab over, was a work horse to the end.
Internationals (Cornbinders for the uninitiated
) are very familiar to me, as we had one on the family farm. It was a Medium Duty ...early '50's with a Black Diamond inline six. It had been a municipal dump truck before and after we got it, we attached some 3/4 inch plywood to the metal sides of the dump box (to add capacity) and reinforced them with a couple of heavy chains strung across the top.
It was a durable, reliable farm truck and with a full load of grain, I had to shift fast as a missed shift could bring it to a stop and then I would have to start moving that heavy load once again. This only happened maybe once or twice as I was a fairly quick, accurate shifter...and prided myself on executing graunchless shifts and being easy on the clutch.
We also had Ford F 700 grain trucks (370 V8), Chevy C60 and an old Canadian market '48 Fargo with an aftermarket electric/hydraulic lift kit for the box..also kitted out with the 3/4 inch plywood, reinforcing chains, etc...that was used as an 'extra' or spare truck if needed on the farm. It was a smaller truck (one ton)..with the old Chrysler flathead inline six. Not fast, but could take a kicking and keep on ticking as we used to say.
---------- Post added 06-09-18 at 03:11 PM ----------
Originally posted by ChrisPlatt My father installed a Mack bulldog hood ornament on our '69 VW Beetle.
Chris
I had a '69 VW Beetle 1500cc...but no Mack Bulldog hood ornament unfortunately. I ran it at the local drags...best time 19.4 seconds @ 68.5 mph..according to the Chrondeks. Great car, really enjoyed it.