Once Upon a Truck- Finale

Down at Aunt Mame's -Detail

The truck here was painted about 1.25" long (I know, insane)

Here's the 1952 Ford truck as I painted it in "Down at Aunt Mame's" This is a detail of the entire painting, which I'll show another time. In my mind's eye, I picture the truck in a more idealized state and painted it that way . Also note the yellow Dodge pickup we used on the farm. Sort of wish we still had that one too. It had a lot more guts than the Ford.

The finished truck rolled off Chad Bangerter's trailer at the Autorama last month. It won the award for best restored truck and it's easy to see why.

Enjoy the pictures and thanks for indulging me in this little series.I hope it was interesting for at least a few. Back to more art related posts again next week.

1952 Ford restoration previously on Life Needs Art:
Once Upon a Truck
Once Upon a Truck- Part 2
Once Upon a Truck- Part 3

Once Upon a Truck- Part 3

After our "52 Ford was carefully disassembled, the work of restoration began in earnest. Each part was evaluated and the few parts that could not be salvaged such as the chrome door handles and hood lettering were ordered from reproduction manufacturers.

he vast majority if the parts were sandblasted to remove the old paint and then repaired, reshaped and prepped for painting. Even the smallest parts and what might be considered insignificant details were attended to. Down to repainting the red needles on the dashboard dials and copying over the factory grease pencil markings on the engine compartment firewall.

Photo of the original factory markings on the firewall

Same markings carefully replicated on the restored firewall

The truck begins to come back together

Restorer Chad Bangerter said one of the most challenging efforts on the bodywork was reshaping the curve of the cab roof that had been flattened a bit from countless hay bales being stacked on it. If I had ever imagined we would want to keep this truck growing up, we might have been more careful.

Photos in this post are by Chad Bangerter- CB Rodz

Once Upon a Truck- Part 2

Our 1952 Ford Flatbed pickup underwent what you call a total tear down, meaning every component was disassembled, stripped, repaired and repainted, or if necessary, replaced before re-assembly. Most of the truck was salvageable and in pretty good condition given it had spent the better part of thirty years in an open air garage.

Fenders, hood and other parts await restoration

This restoration was as comprehensive as you could have hope for and was masterfully performed by Chad Bangerter. He owns and operates CB Rodz out of Sunset Utah.

His restoration and customization work won a number of awards at car shows across the country and he spared no effort in putting our '52 back in better than factory condition. This series of photos shows the tear down phase of the project. Next post I will show how the parts started to come back together. Photos are courtesy of Chad Bangerter.

As you can see, the truck started out in pretty rough shape. You'll be amazed at the transformation.

Check out more of Chad's excellent work here.