do you have any old pictures?

[Ford Blue blood]

Going to WI at Christmas offers a real challange for us.  We have no "winter" clothes.  My heaviest coat is passable to about 32, no long johns, no "snow bunnies", no mittens and no stocking caps (tabogins here in the south) so it is layer up and stay out of the wind.

[LAUDY57]

Back in the 57 era, before rail shipping, new cars for the West coast of Canada were all trucked across the States (better roads probably). My Dad would commercial fish in the summers and, for a few years, haul cars from Windsor and Detroit in the winter. Lots of stories from those truckers eg. when 2 of them got bored one day they stopped and each bought a case of ripe tomatoes and went down the highway side by side throwing them at each other, or one guy I knew lost only an ear lobe when the train he was trying to beat to the crossing cut his tractor in half right behind the cab! I went with my Dad to Windsor one trip with my broken arm in a cast, he always said I paid for my trip when he got caught without permits one day and when he appeared before the judge the trooper said my Dad had to leave me back at the truck with a cast on so the judge gave him a break so he could get back to me. That also was the trip when he blew his truck motor 150 mi out of Detroit and re-built it behind a cafe while I played in a scrap yard. I remember how he sent me into the cafe for a coke (I thought oh boy we're going to drink a pop) and then proceeded to pour it all over the rusted grill attaching bolts to break them loose. Running States in the middle of the night w/o permits, waiting for hours for a local to tell how to get around low overpasses on the secondary roads which had to be used to dodge scales, no air conditoning across S Dakota in a heat wave- lots of memories.

[6cyl57]

cool picture and great story LAUDY57, I think it would be cool to find a
old car hauler and duplicate a picture like that now.

[LAUDY57]

The tractors were usually 55-57 Fords, some with diesels, but never mind the truck - I'd like the load!

[RICH MUISE]

Lorne..interesting memories there! Is that pic a rig your Dad drove? I found it also interesting there is a Mercury on the load. Lorne..BTW..I showed pics of your car around where ever I went, and although I found three that had seen it, no one knew anything about it. I was holding out hope for the Goodguys show..but that got rained out. Are you back home?
Rich

[LAUDY57]

Thanks for trying Rich. Your comment a while back that the salesman said it was a Wash car might be true, I found a sticker on the driveshaft showing that it was made in Wash. I think I'l try posting on the NW Hambers group now that you've asked around.
The truck in the pic is the same as my Dad''s but actually is the guy that got hit by the train. The drivers were responsible for any car damage. I broke my arm falling from the top ramp to bottom, was taken to the clinic in one of the tractors which were odd looking with the ramp over the cab and no trailer on.
Back home now and wondering why I can't shove a fishtape up through the frame over the rear axle so I can run the battery wire inside. Seems to be bocked right at the top of the hump.

[57 Ford Kustom]

Really, really, cool pics!
Thanks,
Tim

[gasman826]

Every so far there are 16 ga. ? plates that are spacers when the frame was assembled.  The frame is two stamped C channels and the spaces were used to keep the frames at a standard size.  They are a PITA.  They keep dirt in the frame which eventually causes the frame to rust out.  I media blasted my frame.  Good luck getting the media out!!!!!!!!!  I was able to remove some of my plates.  I would have had to open up the frame to get them all out.  I wanted to do the same thing...run fuel lines, air lines, brake lines, and battery cables up the frame for appearance and safety.  The spring buckets in the front pinch off the frame also.

[Ecode70D]

Laudy57
   Thanks for sharing that picture and the  story of your dad with us.  It was great.

[LAUDY57]

Thanks Gasman, I don't want to hijack this thread but now I know not to waste any more time looking inside the frame rails. I need to move the battery cable because someone fastened it alongside the fuel line so I'll go on top as far as I can.

[gasman826]

I really do not want to run lines along the outside of the frame.  Factory fuel and brake lines run along the outside of the frame.  Both appearance and safety are the issue.  Running along the inside of the frame exposes lines to damage in the event of a driveline failure.  The brake and airbag lines are small enough to run on top of the frame and clear the floors.  But, pretty tight for -10AN fuel lines and battery cables.  I've seen battery cables run through the body but I'm not very comfortable with live cables buried under the upholstery.  On version 1.0, I ran the battery cables between the frame and the floor but the starter relay was in the trunk next to the battery.  The cable was only live in start mode.  Worked great.  The down side was there was no battery voltage in the front of the car.  All power feeds ran all the way back to the trunk...making for several live wires buried in the upholstery.  Some of the live wires can not be avoided.  Modern technology dictates that all printed circuits (processors...IE computers) have clean battery voltage and grounds.  In other words,  the MSD box, Vintage Air conditioning, fuel pump controller, fan controller, FAST engine controls, radio, air ride control, etc all require 12v and ground wires running to the battery.  To keep them 'clean', they can NOT be combined with any other device.

PS Hijacking the thread?...I think that happened a loooonnnnggg time back!!!!!!

[gasman826]

The truck stuff is really spooky.  As kid on the farm, we had a neighbor the owned one of those old Ford car haulers.  We played in one the wrecked ones in his back yard.  It was always a big event when he would get a fresh load of new Fords from Detroit and stop off at home.  Dad used spare time to do some outlaw trucking.  He owned one the new '57 C series Ford trucks.  I don't know how they did it.  NO interstates.  NO power.  NO brakes.  Those little semis did not have air brakes!!

[LAUDY57]

When I look at those pics now, "spooky" is a good word! Single axles on the tractor and trailer, a few thousand lbs up over the cab - I remember a brake fire coming down Steven's Pass in Wash.

[Carsavior]

Me and my sister- around 1963

[gasman826]

The '51 and my sister are long gone but cowboys and cowgirls ride forever.