More than any other type of vehicle, pickup trucks get altered in some weird ways. Usually it serves a purpose, but sometimes it’s just because someone thought it would look cool that way. In either case, the trucks sometimes outlast the memory of how they got to be the way they are, and they end up as strange artifacts of a time no one can recall. Today we’re going to look at two old Ford trucks that are definitely strange.
Yesterday we looked at a crime-fighting duo of sedans, and as I expected, the better-condition Dodge Intrepid won, even though the seller is keeping all the Batman paraphernalia. The Chevy cop car’s encroaching rust scared off a lot of you, it sounds like. Used cop cars seem to be a love-them-or-hate-them proposition, and there wasn’t all that much love for that Impala.
It probably goes without saying that I’d pick the Dodge. I really like those old Intrepids, and while an ES with the big engine would be a nicer car to have, this one feels honest, and it doesn’t have many miles on it. I’d take it straight to a detail shop to have that interior cleaned, though.
Did you ever see a vehicle and wonder, “How the hell did that thing end up like that?” Some of the things people do to cars, and some of the purposes to which they get put, are just baffling. Sometimes it makes sense if you look at it in the context of the time, but then you have to wonder why it stayed like that. Why did no one undo the weirdness, in all the intervening years? Today we’re going to check out two Ford trucks, one built for a purpose that’s now obsolete, and one that’s just plain odd.
1939 Ford billboard truck – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: Probably a 239 cubic inch flathead V8, three-speed manual, RWD
Location: Portland, OR
Odometer reading: Ad says 250,000 miles
Operational status: Hasn’t run in many years
I know exactly where this truck is. I’ve walked and driven by it many times. It’s an advertisement for a huge furniture and thrift store called City Liquidators in inner Southeast Portland. My office used to be just a couple of blocks from it, ironically when I worked for a sign company. This gigantic, one-ton (at least) truck cab and chassis is set up to do exactly one thing: drive around with a billboard on the back. These mobile billboard trucks still exist today in some places, and they always seemed like a spectacular waste of fuel to me. But this one, from just before World War II, comes across as charming and quaint, and I can’t help but wonder what sorts of products it advertised back then.
This truck has been sitting in the exact same spot, in a fenced-off vacant lot, for at least ten years that I know of. And it’s probably been there longer than that. I seem to recall it had a friend at one point, an old flatbed of about the same vintage, but that one disappeared before I moved away. I don’t know if this truck even has an engine, but if it does, it’s a flathead V8, either 221 or 239 cubic inches. There’s a chance you could wake it up, but if you were bound and determined to put this truck back on the road – and anyone who did would be my hero – you’d probably be better off just swapping it for something more modern.
It has been sitting there with the window down for a long time, so I imagine whatever might have been left of the interior is pretty much toast now. It might make for an interesting exercise in urban archaeology, but wear gloves and a respirator when you first go in there.
Shockingly, most of the sheetmetal and trim is in very good condition. It’s not rusted out, even along the bottom of the doors, and the brightwork is still more or less bright. There’s a mural painted on the billboard section, and some graffiti sprayed on it here and there, but for a truck that has been sitting in a vacant lot in that neighborhood for that long, it’s remarkably well preserved.
1978 Ford F-150 Custom SuperCab – $2,400
Engine/drivetrain: 351 cubic inch OHV V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Warren, MI
Odometer reading: 53,000 miles
Operational status: Runs but has no brakes
Customizing pickup trucks has been an American pastime since pickup trucks were invented. Fashions and trends come and go, but personalizing one’s truck remains popular today. Making a smaller truck look like a bigger one is a common theme, and that seems to have been the goal with this F-150 SuperCab, which has a cap over the rear portion of its cab that resembles a semi truck’s sleeper, and tall smokestack exhaust pipes behind that. It’s in Michigan now, but it originally came from Georgia, and I have no doubt that its modifications date back to the late 1970s.
Under the giant chrome snout tacked on to its hood, which I guess is meant to resemble a Peterbilt grille or something, is a Ford 351M V8, which breathes through a two-barrel carburetor and wheezes out 156 horsepower. The ’70s were brutal on power output. It drives the rear axle through a three-speed automatic, probably Ford’s beefy C6. It starts and runs, according to the seller, but it needs brakes, and therefore has to be towed home.
It also needs some work inside. The front seat needs to be reupholstered, and the one door panel that we can see looks pretty rough. Restoration parts should be available, or you could just throw a blanket over the seat and call it good. Your call. The tiny back bench seat is in excellent condition; it doesn’t look like anybody ever sat back there.
Its Southern origin has spared this truck from rust, but the custom paint is pretty faded. It also has a broken taillight that will need replacing. Can’t give those county sheriffs an excuse to pull you over, now, can you? The semi truck add-ons are frankly ridiculous, but I guess if you just leaned into the cheesiness of it, it could be fun.
Honestly, I don’t know what the hell you’d use either one of these trucks for, but that’s your problem. I just present them. I guess you could take the billboard section off and use the ’39 as an actual truck, and the ’78 does have a full eight-foot bed behind that absurd fairing. Maybe there’s no amount of foolishness that can undermine the fundamental usefulness of a truck, at least not permanently. But the question is, which brand of foolishness are you more willing to tolerate?
Lean into the sign use-cases: ADD a billboard to the 78.
39: for a Christmas tree farm or gastropub
78: Skate rink or dirt race track
I’m gonna take the 78, strip it’s powertrain out to build a 351 Clevor monster and send the rest off for scrap, which should get me a few hundred.
I’ll use the engine/trans in some malaise era boat, maybe a Mercury.
I want the ’78, but my girlfriend really wants a “Christmas tree truck” and while a 50s Chevy is the platonic ideal, this could work.
Fix up that F-150, get yourself a chimpanzee, and hit the open road like you’re BJ and the Bear.
I have less than Zero use for the Ford, but the Billboard truck would be a fun build as either a ramp truck or a camper.
The fake sleeper was certainly a choice, but the 70’s Ford is still a viable vehicle that could do useful things. Sorting the brakes and getting a tail light lens for it wouldn’t be too hard to do, and you’d probably wind up doing what everyone does on that front bench seat – toss a southwest pattern seat cover over it and call it good.
I wouldn’t even know where to start with the billboard Ford. It’s more of a large lawn ornament than a vehicle at this point.
The ’39. Drop in a hotrod drivetrain and hotrod wheels.. maybe paint it candy-apple red.
If I was forced to take one of these, I’d pick the billboard one. Fix it up enough to sell it to a business that would use it accordingly.
I really want the ’39, but having to do an engine is a lot more work than fixing brakes.
Both are fully depreciated.
I’ll take the ’39. Even if it has not a single working piece of driveline in it, it shouldn’t be too hard to slot one in – and there’s plenty of room to make a modest repower fit.
Keep it original? Hell no. A 300 from the mid-80s is the money shot here, probably a small power bump but rugged like Rushmore and exactly the right kind of upgrade this beast needs. Easy to fit, reliability is not in question and pretty much every Ford transmission you can think of can be made to hook up to it.
Of course, it must also be said that if the engine isn’t stuck, a flathead V8 isn’t hard to make stone ax-reliable as well. It all comes down to what kind of project you want it to be, what kind of a driveable art installation you want it to become.
As for the body, it’s perfect as it is.
That reminds me of a story a coworker once told me about his wife’s car:
Taking her interference-engine car to a mechanic for timing issues, the mechanic asked whether she liked sunny plants or shady plants. She asked why, and he said “so we know whether to leave the sunroof open or closed when you park it on the lawn.”
Warren’s in my area. I’ll take that Ford.
Going with the old Ford – mural comes off and goes on a wall in the house, and the rear of the truck gets replaced with a motorcycle stand. Free art and a toy hauler? Win win (once you get it running)
To quote Jerry Reed, “Son, never mind them brakes.”
Dentside for me. I’d at least think about trying to make the sleeper more than just for looks.
I’m sure that’s not actually a baby-blue Nissan Pao with Batmobile fins on the ’39’s billboard, but part of me really wants it to be.
My neighbor has a ’39 Plymouth pickup he’s making into a rat rod. That means I need this ’39 Ford, even if it’s just sitting in the yard.
’39 doesn’t run, the ’78 doesn’t stop. I can’t get excited about either.
If I had an Antique Mall on Route 66…or even US 150 or 24 or 51…that ’39 would be the perfect billboard. But I don’t, so Bigfoot Blue sleeper-cab dentside it is.
The billboard truck looks pretty great, but I have no need for a billboard or a truck that can’t move under its own power. I guess the ’78 for me, since I have to choose.
I’d take the 39. It’ll look better sitting unused wherever I leave it.
’78 for me. I’d pull the cap off, but make sure those stripes carry on up the original metal. Brakes don’t scare me (too much…)
It would look very slick exactly as described. Throw a Mexican blanket with a complimentary color scheme over the bench seat and you’re good to go.
I have more use for the ’78 than the ’39, but the ’78 sure looks dumb. I guess I’ll stick with the ’78 and hope I can return it to stock without too much effort.
I’d offer $250 for the ’39, just in case. But at the asking prices I’ll take the semi cosplay. Seems easier to unmodify than to fix the billboard truck.
Can’t stop, won’t stop me from picking the ’78 SuperCab.