September 1951 Road Trip

[Jeff in ND]

Prior post on a road trip from 1949.

In '51 and '52, Dad and same uncle went on 2 more road trips from Minnesota. The '52 trip all the way to the coast in Oregon. For those 2 trips, only the 2 of them and they used Dad's 1939 Ford car (his first car, age 18).

There are a lot of pictures from those trips but here are few more farming or vehicle oriented. These ones are from the '51 trip.

Note said it was a 2 (pair) of 20 shoe drills in Kansas.

Seeding winter wheat in Kansas

Onion field in Colorado.

Combining grain sorghum (uncle called it sugar cane) in Texas

The sorghum field (aka sugar cane)...

My Dad with the '39 Ford getting a "grease job" in Colorado

They would camp out on the side of the road a lot and this is a scene of the uncle heating a pan with a gasoline blow torch. Notice the 5 gallon can in the car trunk. This was oil for the car and not spare gas!!! There is another similar picture of my Dad doing the same thing at another stopping point.

Hope you get a kick out of these.

 

[Brown David]

"Hope you get a kick out of these."


Sure do.

Post more if you have any.

 

[crsutton81]

Prior post on a road trip from 1949.

In '51 and '52, Dad and same uncle went on 2 more road trips from Minnesota. The '52 trip all the way to the coast in Oregon. For those 2 trips, only the 2 of them and they used Dad's 1939 Ford car (his first car, age 18).

There are a lot of pictures from those trips but here are few more farming or vehicle oriented. These ones are from the '51 trip.

Note said it was a 2 (pair) of 20 shoe drills in Kansas.

View attachment 7261

Seeding winter wheat in Kansas
View attachment 7263



Onion field in Colorado.

View attachment 7262

Combining grain sorghum (uncle called it sugar cane) in Texas

View attachment 7264

The sorghum field (aka sugar cane)...

View attachment 7266

My Dad with the '39 Ford getting a "grease job" in Colorado

View attachment 7267

They would camp out on the side of the road a lot and this is a scene of the uncle heating a pan with a gasoline blow torch. Notice the 5 gallon can in the car trunk. This was oil for the car and not spare gas!!! There is another similar picture of my Dad doing the same thing at another stopping point.
View attachment 7268

Hope you get a kick out of these.

Neat pictures and thanks for sharing them ! The one with the gentleman filling the grain drill seed box looks familiar to here. It seems that everyone knows exactly when to disappear when the time comes to refill it, leaving me to handle all the seed bags by myself. Lol.

 

[Buckhammer]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pics. I enjoy seeing them

 

[DoubleO7]

Were those fender skirts homemade?

 

[Jeff in ND]

Were those fender skirts homemade?

Not sure. If not from the Sears catalog maybe something the local body shop made. Dad had some "bling" on that car for sure. From other pictures of it, he had rear mud flaps, Sears aftermarket radio, sun visor, exhaust tips, seat covers, etc. All the stuff a teen of 18 would do within a limited budget. The sears radio and the sunvisor are still in around the farm 70yrs later. That '39 was traded for a '51 Mercury 4dr in '53 that was a rebuilder the body shop had. Dad commented that '51 was a dog and had a poor heater. The defrost was too weak to keep the ice off the windshield in bad weather. Also the frame broke off someplace in the front near the bumper mounts. But, it was a rebuilt from a crash so dunno.

 

[SweetFeet]

Prior post on a road trip from 1949.

In '51 and '52, Dad and same uncle went on 2 more road trips from Minnesota. The '52 trip all the way to the coast in Oregon. For those 2 trips, only the 2 of them and they used Dad's 1939 Ford car (his first car, age 18).

There are a lot of pictures from those trips but here are few more farming or vehicle oriented. These ones are from the '51 trip.

Note said it was a 2 (pair) of 20 shoe drills in Kansas.

View attachment 7261

Seeding winter wheat in Kansas
View attachment 7263



Onion field in Colorado.

View attachment 7262

Combining grain sorghum (uncle called it sugar cane) in Texas

View attachment 7264

The sorghum field (aka sugar cane)...

View attachment 7266

My Dad with the '39 Ford getting a "grease job" in Colorado

View attachment 7267

They would camp out on the side of the road a lot and this is a scene of the uncle heating a pan with a gasoline blow torch. Notice the 5 gallon can in the car trunk. This was oil for the car and not spare gas!!! There is another similar picture of my Dad doing the same thing at another stopping point.
View attachment 7268

Hope you get a kick out of these.

More great photos.

Most of my family's photos were destroyed when my parents got water in the basement of the house in town, where they moved after selling their farm. ☹

 

[J Hamilton]

Great stories and pics! I love that LA Case in the first pic

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

Prior post on a road trip from 1949.

In '51 and '52, Dad and same uncle went on 2 more road trips from Minnesota. The '52 trip all the way to the coast in Oregon. For those 2 trips, only the 2 of them and they used Dad's 1939 Ford car (his first car, age 18).

There are a lot of pictures from those trips but here are few more farming or vehicle oriented. These ones are from the '51 trip.

Note said it was a 2 (pair) of 20 shoe drills in Kansas.

View attachment 7261

Seeding winter wheat in Kansas
View attachment 7263



Onion field in Colorado.

View attachment 7262

Combining grain sorghum (uncle called it sugar cane) in Texas

View attachment 7264

The sorghum field (aka sugar cane)...

View attachment 7266

My Dad with the '39 Ford getting a "grease job" in Colorado

View attachment 7267

They would camp out on the side of the road a lot and this is a scene of the uncle heating a pan with a gasoline blow torch. Notice the 5 gallon can in the car trunk. This was oil for the car and not spare gas!!! There is another similar picture of my Dad doing the same thing at another stopping point.
View attachment 7268

Hope you get a kick out of these.

Thanks for posting.

 

[RBnSC]

Thank you, really enjoyed the pictures and story.
Ron

 

[formerly ny bill]

see the class 1 trailer hitch on the car bumper. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[Mark-Ia]

Were those fender skirts homemade?

I know a man with a 36 Ford with factory fender skirts, those on the 39 look the same.

 

[Pete-IN]

When I was a teen in the 1960s a lot of families from the coal mining states moved to Indiana looking for factory work. A lot of those guys pimped out their ride with fender skirts and mud flaps ( and of course the white dice hanging from the mirror). Us Hoosiers called the fender skirts "Tennessee Go Fasters" and the mud flaps "Kentucky Air Brakes". Thanks for the memories Jeff.

 

[Rich'sToys]

Neat story and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

You wouldn't happen to have any head on photos of that car, would you?

 

[cdmn]

That is a 1939 Standard Tudor. It was first year for hydraulic brakes and last year for the floor shifter. Also last year for the "wide-five" wheels.
It would have had 85 hp 24 stud flathead V8. Or possibly a 60hp V8. But a 60 wouldn't have been much good for long distance traveling. I had a
1938 60 hp and a 1939 Fordor 85hp. The 39 was a great leap in improvement. Of course, any Ford or Mercury V8 engine up to 1953 could be retrofitted, and often was. A rebuilt short-block from the mail order catalogue was about $88.98. It wasn't that Fords lasted so long, but that they were just really cheap to fix. Gas and oil were cheap, too. [Figure inflation about 20 to 1]
The Standard models were basically a carried-over Deluxe body from the year before, at a lowered price.

 

[Rich'sToys]

That is a 1939 Standard Tudor.
The Standard models were basically a carried-over Deluxe body from the year before, at a lowered price.

I thought I had read that once, but couldn't remember for sure. Thanks for confirming that.
I kind of suspected it when the OP said it was a '39, but in the picture it looked more like a '38. This would explain that.

 

[Jeff in ND]

That is a 1939 Standard Tudor. It was first year for hydraulic brakes and last year for the floor shifter. Also last year for the "wide-five" wheels.
It would have had 85 hp 24 stud flathead V8. Or possibly a 60hp V8. But a 60 wouldn't have been much good for long distance traveling. I had a
1938 60 hp and a 1939 Fordor 85hp. The 39 was a great leap in improvement. Of course, any Ford or Mercury V8 engine up to 1953 could be retrofitted, and often was. A rebuilt short-block from the mail order catalogue was about $88.98. It wasn't that Fords lasted so long, but that they were just really cheap to fix. Gas and oil were cheap, too. [Figure inflation about 20 to 1]
The Standard models were basically a carried-over Deluxe body from the year before, at a lowered price.

Yes, this was a Standard. It was a battleship grey color. Only had 1 tail light too. I do have pictures of the front end of it. At some point, Dad converted the headlights to sealed beam so some pictures show the original lights and others the conversion setup. I will see if I can post the those this weekend when I have time to look.

 

[David from Kansas]

Prior post on a road trip from 1949.

In '51 and '52, Dad and same uncle went on 2 more road trips from Minnesota. The '52 trip all the way to the coast in Oregon. For those 2 trips, only the 2 of them and they used Dad's 1939 Ford car (his first car, age 18).

There are a lot of pictures from those trips but here are few more farming or vehicle oriented. These ones are from the '51 trip.

Note said it was a 2 (pair) of 20 shoe drills in Kansas.

View attachment 7261

Seeding winter wheat in Kansas
View attachment 7263



Onion field in Colorado.

View attachment 7262

Combining grain sorghum (uncle called it sugar cane) in Texas

View attachment 7264

The sorghum field (aka sugar cane)...

View attachment 7266

My Dad with the '39 Ford getting a "grease job" in Colorado

View attachment 7267

They would camp out on the side of the road a lot and this is a scene of the uncle heating a pan with a gasoline blow torch. Notice the 5 gallon can in the car trunk. This was oil for the car and not spare gas!!! There is another similar picture of my Dad doing the same thing at another stopping point.
View attachment 7268

Hope you get a kick out of these.

Great story and pics. Two-drill wheat planting setups were pretty common in the 40-60 era. Dad pulled two JD van brunt drills with his '37 JD D, later with the JD 730 tractor. Thanks for the post and would like to see more pictures.

 

[Jeff in ND]

Some folks interested in the front end of the '39 Ford. Took me a while to get those shots. So, one must be from '51 trip as it has the factory headlights and the other must be '52 as those have been replaced with sealed beam conversions. The '51 photo my dad is heating up a pot with the blow torch and other one is the uncle with a beat up looking little pan and some snack.

BTW, the window sunvisor on that car was removed when Dad sold it and it later spent may years on a '47 chevy 3/4T pickup until I took it off in the 1980s. Its hanging up on the wall in a building on the farm today. A universal fit Sears one I think.

 

[DoubleO7]

Some folks interested in the front end of the '39 Ford. Took me a while to get those shots. So, one must be from '51 trip as it has the factory headlights and the other must be '52 as those have been replaced with sealed beam conversions. The '51 photo my dad is heating up a pot with the blow torch and other one is the uncle with a beat up looking little pan and some snack.
View attachment 61977

View attachment 61978


BTW, the window sunvisor on that car was removed when Dad sold it and it later spent may years on a '47 chevy 3/4T pickup until I took it off in the 1980s. Its hanging up on the wall in a building on the farm today. A universal fit Sears one I think.

Looks like he also added that triangular grill guard to the bumper, added side rearview mirror or maybe a spot light to A-pillar and maybe a different hood ornement?