Classic Cars and Trucks / Photos Specs Model History, Production Numbers

Old Ford Trucks / The 1930’s

The Driskill Hotel is probably the most historic hotel in Texas and for several reasons. For one, this hotel was built in 1886 and still operates today as one of the finer hotels in Austin. In fact, at one time prior to the Texas State Capitol building being built in the 1880’s, the Driskill Hotel was used at times for legislative sessions. Like many vintage cars, the hotel was expertly remodeled to reflect it’s original beauty and is a busy hotel as well as a piece of living history.

1934 ford panel truck — 1934 Model Ford BB truck

Usually parked outside the Driskill is a 1934 Ford truck shown in this article. Some of the restored old Ford trucks look great. More than anything else, this antique truck advertises the hotel’s 1886 Cafe and Bakery and stands out quite well among cars in downtown Austin.

1886 cafe and bakery truck — 1934 Ford panel truck in Austin Texas

The bakery opened in 2002. Prior to that the area was named the 1886 Lunchroom and was established by the Heritage Society in Austin.The 1886 Cafe and bakery is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and is worth the stop by.

Ford was very competitive during the 1930’s Great Depression years. They were known to offer reliable cars and trucks at affordable prices. This is one of the reasons Ford survived the depression when some other automakers ran into deep trouble. The 1934 Ford trucks like the one shown in this article was a panel design. Obviously good for a delivery service. The chassis was a Ford Model BB and the year 1934 was the last one using the 4 cylinder engine. The 1935 model year would show a lot of differences with both engine and design.

The second of our old Ford trucks, shown here, is a modified 1939 model. The year 1939 signaled some advances by the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford who was notorious for keeping things the way they were finally assented to a new braking system. Ford trucks now had hydraulic systems for braking replacing the old mechanical brakes even though the founder didn’t trust them.

1939 ford woodie — Modified 1939 Ford Woodie

This was a victory for the progressives. Ford’s competitors were using hydraulic brake systems for years. Henry Ford really had no choice by 1939 than to use the hydraulic system.

Ford Motor advertisements of the era pushed the truck’s powerful V-8 engine and the ruggedness of it’s construction. One of it’s slogans was “the truck for the jobs of 1939“. One advertisement has an owner claiming to get “1,100 miles of Ford economy every week“. The economy angle was pushed hard with testimonials from several purported owners of how they’re saving money with the new 1939 model.

1939 ford truck modification — Two-door modified 1939 Woodie

When looking for significant changes with old Ford trucks of the 1930’s, probably the most notable change was in Ford’s introduction of the V-8 engine. It’s main rival, Chevrolet, had introduced the 6 cylinder engine as a more powerful alternative to Ford’s four cylinder power plants. What Ford did was essentially go one better than Chevrolet with it’s V-8.

The dashboards in the late 1930’s Ford truck line unfortunately looked the same as in previous years. It was flat. It looked like it always looked. Ford’s competitors started to add style to the dashboards. This could easily have been another case of Henry Ford resisting change. It appears that Henry Ford, as evidenced in some of the ad slogans above, relied on pushing ruggedness in place of style and this included the dashboards.

modified 1939 ford truck engine — This restoration uses a Chevy V-6 engine

As far as design goes in old Ford trucks of the 1930’s , the company made major changes in their 1930-1939 series of trucks. In short, the design was more sleek. The model BB chassis used on it’s trucks produced everything from pick up trucks, dump trucks, fire trucks to school buses.

As mentioned above, competition was fierce during the depression years of the 30’s. The 1929 model year saw record industry sales of more than 5 million vehicles. After the Crash of 1929, sales were cut in half even though car prices dropped in reaction to the economy. Ford Motor Company employed about 120,000 workers in 1929. By mid 1931 the company had about 37,000 employees. The following production figures will give you some idea of how the Great Depression cut into sales and when the figures started back up. You can see the double dip that occurred during the latter 1930’s after a mid 1930’s increase.

Total Ford Production / Cars and Trucks

1929 1.5 million 1931 615,000 1933 335,000 1935 820,000 1937 942,000 1939 487,000 1940 542,000 1941 691,000

See our article and photos of the Ford Model A Roadsters

(Photos from author’s private collection)

Streamliner / 1947 Pontiac

The Pontiac Streamliner series of cars were produced from 1942 to 1948 with an interruption during the war years. Probably the most significant difference with the Pontiac Streamliners was that the car used the B-Body rather than the C-Body. The B- Body was both larger and had a fastback style. The vintage car shown here is the 1947 Pontiac.

1947 pontiac streamliner — 1947 Pontiac Streamliner

The Streamliner Coupe was first put on the market after the war in September of 1945 which was the 1946 model year.

The car in general was larger than previous models. It was both wider and lower. It was also considered one of the better looking cars of the time and was considered quality built. The Streamliner was also Pontiac’s higher priced series.

Pontiac’s “Silver Streak” styling continued with the 1947 model year. The Silver Streak styling was known for it’s chrome script really had it’s beginnings back in the 1930’s. All the coupes and sedans built in 1947 were fastbacks. The only model with fastback styling was the station wagon. Five bands of chrome were on the hoods. The Interiors for both the sedans and coupes were made with Berwicke beige panels for the dashboard area and windows.

Silver Streak 1946 advertisements of the time pointed out it’s advanced design and engineering along with it’s dependability and extra value offered. In 1948 Pontiac ads highlighted touted a big improvement in a “wonderful” car including General Motor’s Hydo-Drive. The 1948 Streamliner ads highlighted more powerful braking systems that were said to be easier to use in both city and highway driving. Performance was another big issue which Pontiac pointed out owners had been accustomed to with their vehicles.

pontiac streamliner coupe — Side view sleek design

The 1947 Pontiac six cylinder Streamliner production was 42,336 and the production on the eights were 86,300. To give you an idea of the sales increases after World War Two, the last pre war 1942 Streamliner model sold a combined 39,000 cars. The post war 1946 model year saw a total of 92,400 cars sold. The war years obviously created much pent up demand. Specifications for the Streamliner series was a 122 inch wheelbase, a length of 210.3 inches, an average weight of 3,600 pounds, and a price tag of anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500. The six cylinders produced 90 Hp and the eights 103.

Some of the changes seen in the various 1940’s Pontiac Streamliner models are the triple chrome fender grill on the 1946’s, the simpler grill on the 47’s and the nameplate on the top of the grill on the 1948’s. One of the things that made the 1940’s stand out for Pontiac was the sleek design of the Streamliners and the 1947 Pontiac shown here is a fine example. Immediately after the war, most automakers sold all of the 1942 designs that weren’t sold because of the war. This meant not a lot of big changes immediately in design. Pontiac on the other hand went against the grain with the Streamliner Deluxe.

pontiac streamline grille — Streamliner grille

General Motors Pontiac advertisements immediately after the war, like some other automaker’s advertisement, spoke of how they contributed to the war effort building tanks, engines, artillery, etc. They touted how their cars helped get workers to the factories producing war products. Now that the war was over, the advertisements essentially stated that they were back in the automotive business.

Many of these 1940’s era Pontiacs remain great collector cars. One is the 1948 Pontiac Streamliner Woodie Station Wagon. They were the largest on the market at the time and advertised as seating nine people. These Pontiac Woodies are considered quite rare. One reason is that the entire rear body of the 48’s were made of real wood, timber. Beginning with the 1949’s, the rear roof section used steel. In fact, steel was used more and more on these “Woodies” all the way up to 1953. The authentic 1948 model with over 500 genuine wood parts therefore is a real prized find.

Another very classic car from the 1940’s is the highly rare Tucker automobile shown in our article on AutoMuseumOnline. The Tucker automobile and it’s founder, Preston Tucker, is quite a unique story. Also see our article on the milestone car, the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk, the last of the Hawk series.

The Pontiac Division of General Motors Corporation has a fine history. After World War Two you could say they were among the new style leaders among American automobile manufacturers.

(Article and photos copyright AutoMuseumOnline)

Tucker Car

The Tucker Torpedo may very well be the most unique vintage car ever produced in the United States. Preston Tucker, the car’s founder and ultimate designer, produced an automobile that was in many ways very far ahead of it’s time. The problem was, and perhaps one reason why the Tucker cars are so valuable today, that only fifty-one were ever built. The Tucker car shown here is on permanent display at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Sonoma County California.

Preston Tucker was interested in building race cars and spent a lot of time in the 1930’s with people connected with Indy Racing. While he failed to sell his “fast combat vehicle” prototype to the U.S. government, he did make a fortune with the designing and patenting of a gun turret for World War Two bombers and Navy vessels. It was named the “Tucker Gun Turret“. For a few years during the war, Tucker was also involved with an aviation start up but soon turned his attentions to the automotive industry.

After the war, Preston Tucker introduced a radically different automobile. Referred to as the “48 Tucker‘, or “48 Torpedo“, the Tucker cars were about as futuristic as you could get in a post World War Two car in 1948. Just for starters, the 1948 Torpedo was designed to use a Bell Helicopter engine mounted in the rear of the vehicle. In addition to that, the Tucker Torpedo came with four-wheel independent suspension and a pop out safety windshield.

tucker car interior — Interior of Tucker car

The Tucker car was low and sleek, perhaps as high as a man’s shoulder. The aerodynamic flow was much better than anything else on the road. The roof was tapered in two directions and the drag coefficient was something like 0.30. Fuel efficiency was more than excellent with a reported 30 MPG and the automobile has a top speed of 120 MPH.

It was said that the public delighted over the Tucker Torpedo because, for one reason, the design was totally different than anything before. A lot of car lines stayed with certain basic designs and the Tucker automobile presented something totally new and different. Along with Tucker, the design of the Tucker Torpedo was a creation of Alex Tremulis who was a former designer for Auburn-Cord-Dusenberg. An example of this all new design was found on the front end. Featured was a fixed headlight lens that turned as the steering wheel turned. Another reason for the public attraction was the car’s reported safety advantages. This included an exceptionally wide track that helped cornering much easier.

three headlight tucker automobile — Center headlight

There were major glitches with the Tucker automobiles. One big one was with the Bell Helicopter 589 cid engine. The engine was advertised to produce 150 HP and was only capable of about 88 HP. After many attempts with aircraft engines, Tucker bought the Air-Cooled Motors company and decided on their flat 6 cylinder engine. The “Tuckermatic” transmission was developed to work with the new engine and because of the size and design, the gas tank had to be relocated. It was moved from the rear of the vehicle to in front of the dashboard. It seems that all major problems developed because of the failure of the original helicopter engine to perform.

The short lived Tucker automobile was produced from a leased former Boeing Superfortress factory in Chicago. Tucker acquired some $8 million by franchising 1,800 dealerships before he even had a working prototype of the vehicle available. That alone was astonishing.

sleek designed tucker car — Sleek, low body styling of the Tucker

The downfall came for Preston Tucker when securities fraud charges were leveled against him. Tucker’s aim was to raise capital through the issuance of stock. The charges had to do with the stock prospectus and the fact that it included many features of the new car which was not built on the production models. In other words, the SEC claimed the prospectus misrepresented the product. Eventually, Tucker automotive was unable to get loans for the needed production because of the SEC charges and he had to liquidate the company in March of 1949. Thirty-seven vehicle had already been built and another fourteen were added by volunteer workers for a total of only fifty-one cars built.

tucker automobiles — View of Tucker automobile from top

The Tucker automotive Torpedo was supposed to be a symbol of an entirely different automobile that marked the end of the war and the progress that was to follow. Most historians will say that it was too much, too soon and what there was was under financed. Just about any story you might read about the downfall of Preston Tucker’s auto company points out that many thought the Big Three automakers in Detroit had something to do with it. The theory is that the new design, which was what the public really wanted after the war, was lacking from the big Detroit automakers and the Tucker Torpedo represented a real threat. Nothing has ever surfaced to point to direct involvement from Detroit and the degree of threat his company posed to Detroit is unclear. Even so, the Tucker Torpedos that have survived the years are valuable. It’s said by some that a Tucker Torpedo in absolute mint condition might fetch up to $300,000.

See our article and photos of the Auburn Automobiles.

An excellent place to see the Tucker car on the west coast is the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Sonoma County California. Visiting the winery is not only a chance to see the rare Tucker automobile but the winery is one of the finest in northern California and a great addition to your California Wine Country vacation or side trip. The winery is located just west of US Hwy 101 in Geyserville California. This is about 75 miles north of San Francisco proper and 20 miles north of Santa Rosa.