Best in Class
Antique Trucks
Best in Show - Trucks
Eastern Fall Meet
Hershey Pennsylvania
Hemmings Classic Car
Early Ford V-8
1st Place Trucks Stock Class
James Wagner says in his book that the 1938 Ford trucks and commercial cars offered the most significant changes since 1932. Among those changes were a new cab and a new front-end design with the first front opening truck hood in the industry. The front design was also characterized by the large oval ‘horse-collar’ grill. The Ford Tonner was introduced in 1938 as a scaled down version of the 1 ½ ton trucks with a straight-line frame and 17” wheels and tires. Equipped with a 221 cu.in. 85 HP V-8, the base model Express Tonner sold for $730. The bed was a full 8’ long and 4 ½’ wide. The 1938 Tonner had mechanical brakes. Ford made the transition to hydraulic brakes in 1939. The 24-stud engine was introduced in the middle of the production year just before the January 18, 1938 build date for this vehicle’s engine. Following this truck’s build in 1940 the rear torque tube and radius rods were replaced by a Hotchkiss drive, and the front transverse semi-elliptic spring and radius rod arrangement was replaced by two longitudinal semi-elliptic springs.
This 1938 Model 81Y One Ton Express Truck began its service in Odell, Nebraska, a small farming center of about 400 people just North of the Kansas-Nebraska State line. The truck’s first owner, Henry Weiner, was the proprietor of a small grocery and refrigerated locker storage facility in Odell. The first owner’s son relayed to the current owner of the truck that the truck was used both to carry groceries from a warehouse in St. Joe, Missouri to the Odell store and to transport farmer’s animals to the meat processing and refrigerated storage facility to be butchered. The original owner purchased the truck from the Ford Dealership in Odell owned by Dick Callan.
This truck is one of 4,671 Tonners that were produced by Ford in that first year of production. It saw significant use over the years as can be attested to by its pictures before the frame up restoration was begun. It was also lucky enough to escape being melted down during World War II for the production of military equipment and armament. This particular truck is not a typical 1938 Ford Tonner. It was produced as a dealer demonstrator model and came with an optional 2-tone Deluxe Equipment package. The body and bed were painted black while the fenders and wheels were painted ‘demonstrator’ yellow. The cab and hood also received a triple pinstripe in ‘demonstrator yellow’. The grill, the windshield frame, the wiper and the outside rear view mirror were all chrome plated. Other options include a 4-speed transmission, a 4.11:1 rear axle, five 7.00-17 tires, a hot water heater and a split rear window.
This 1938 Tonner spent almost its entire life in a small triangle moving from Odell to Anselmo, Nebraska and later to Lenora, Kansas. Only in the last few years did it move outside of that triangle. When it finally stopped running, it was parked in a field in Lenora for a couple of decades before becoming the subject of a total frame up restoration.
There are extensive notes and pictures of the entire restoration process from the initial tear-down through the last steps of the reconstruction. All of the mechanicals including the engine, transmission, rear axle, carburetor, distributor, generator and starter were rebuilt using NOS parts. The entire suspension, steering gear and linkage and brakes were rebuilt. Wooden components such as the bed crossmembers and floor and the cab blocks were reconstructed. A new wiring harness was fabricated. All bearings and bushings were replaced. The shocks, the universal joints, the radiator, the heater, the gas tank, the water pumps and the windshield wiper motor were not forgotten in this thorough restoration. The interior of the cab received all new components, and the instruments were all reconditioned. The metal panels and pockets on the bed, the rear wheel tubs and the rear fenders received significant metal restoration which was completed by top tier restorers.
In order to meet the high standards set for this restoration, there was no hesitation to redo any body work or paint work that did not rise to that demanding level the first time around. This happened on multiple occasions. The chrome work on the grill is another job that was done twice. The paint scheme is the same as when the truck left the Ford factory in 1938. After prep work for paint, a base coat of epoxy primer, a skim coat of filler, and high-build primer, the color was applied in multiple coats. Both the black and yellow paint on this vehicle are single stage paints which are rubbed out to a fine mirror image as can clearly be seen. As evidence of the attention to detail in this restoration, the spot welds in the bed are still visible under the final paint.
Drive around Collinsville in a '38 Tonner
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