Photos from the Cohort by Hyperpack.
There’s both natural and homemade aging on this ’59 Ford. The missing fender, dings, and rust are certainly the work of time. Meanwhile, the simple dry brush treatment on the paint is definitely someone’s handy work. Looks like something my SF coworkers would have done to their bedroom furniture.
Outside of that questionable aesthetic, I have to say I like the rest of the truck. Not hard to do, these old trucks are awfully endearing in general. And the new tires and golden rims suggest this one is still doing service; a good thing.
Further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1960 Ford F-250 Styleside – The Tonka Truck Truck
Curbside Classic: 1960 Ford F-100 – Sunshine Truck On A Sunshine Day
Looks decent to me, I hope it’s still a runner and gets out & about occasionally .
My very first vehicle was a rusty 1959 F100 like this .
-Nate
That fender looks to have been carefully removed, either for a little tin bashing or replacement. My speculation is that after cleaning up the wheels to put the new tires on the owner decided that a little fender work might be a nice touch on the ol’ gal. Well deserved too I might ad.
I was looking through a Ford F Series truck brochure and it is interesting what models got chromed headlight bezels and grilles, and which ones were painted white. Chrome helped their looks. Really non-nonsense trucks. If you wanted anything stylish – you were to buy a Ranchero.
Leroi “Tex” Smith (an editor at Hot Rod magazine back in the day) wrote a book back in the ’60’s entitled “How to fix up Old Cars.” One of his suggestions for a first car for the budding enthusiast, was an old pick up truck. His reasoning was sound; inexpensive to buy, simple and easy to work on, abundant cheap parts, obviously not their grandma’s old car, and finally, a good running truck will always find a buyer, making it a good investment.
An upside to the huge popularity of trucks being used as family cars, is that there are tons of used trucks out there that have never worked hard a day of their lives.Since trucks are engineered for heavy duty use, they will have a lot of life left in them when they get old.
I largely agree Jose ;
Since the 1980’s +/- ‘light duty’ really means it .
I used to (over)load my 1946 Chevy 1/2 ton 3100 series pickup until anything more would fall off, then I’d drive it wherever I and the load needed to go
I have zero illusions about my 2002 Ford Ranger, the entire body including the bed appears made of tin foil so I work it very gently and carefully .
-Nate