The Old Reliable Pickup Truck

There are a lot of stories out there on this unique little truck, so I decided to set the record straight and share some studio shots of the prototype I made for Franklin Mint during my time there.

When I first started at the Mint, there were many ideas floating around and they were just that, ideas. Some of the concept boards I saw were basically pieces showing cars in barns, old garages and such. At the time I was fairly new and I suggested that we do a rusty vehicle. We discussed several options like a tree growing out of the engine bay, beat up street cars and the like. Nothing had really gelled in those meetings. I had a concept in my mind and suggested that I take a model home and just make one. An exercise in opening the mind up and throwing out all those little details into a 3-D model. The ’40 Ford Pick Up was to be the test mule since it had been around for a while and I really wanted to show what could be done with existing tooling. I had a broken model in my office and it was begging to
be saved.

The truck was taken to my home shop where I took it apart, stripped off all the exterior paint and made it ready for it’s transformation into a pile of junk. The model already had a broken grille and to be honest, this was the deciding factor to use the Ford. The body was washed and then slightly distressed using a Dremel tool. I added dents, divots and other little defects. To simulate panel rust, I applied a bead of superglue and then added some baking soda to the wet glue. WOW! Was that an adventure! Once that mix fizzed up, the fumes lifted towards my face and my eyes watered for quite a while! I applied this around the top of the doors, lower door panel and around the lower parts of the fenders. In raw form it didn’t look like much and I honestly thought that I maybe made an error. I went ahead and applied the red oxide primer. Once in color, the decision was cemented (no pun intended). Flat black was then misted on in varying intensities to show dirt and grime. Using a Rust-All kit, I further rusted the vehicle. All the time, I had to keep in mind how this would be replicated in a production line setting. I tried to keep notes as to what I did and how I did it. I knew there would be some explaining to do later.

Dry pastel powders were then applied to the top surfaces of the truck to simulate dust, wear and oxidation. Additional “mud” was added using paints and some creative methods of ap- plication. The splatters were done using thinned ‘mud” paint and a toothbrush. This was fun explaining to China. The body was done being careful to follow splash patterns. I actually drove my real truck thru some mud to see patterns. My wife thought I was nuts. Before I did the model glass, I carved in some cracks and then masked off a wiper pattern before it was hit with mud. The tires were worn down using a chuck, sandpaper taped to my work- bench and a Dremel. It was fun smoking tires, but I had to be careful as to how much wear was to be applied. Then the tires were muddied by running them over wet paint.

The wheels posed a problem. When I popped off the hubcaps, the mounting screw was now exposed. I had one set of open rims in my parts box and shaved them down so as to ﬁt where the hubcap was. My initial set was 5 lug and when I was asked for a second set, I could only ﬁnd a set with 6 lugs. I actually didn’t realize this until I saw 3 samples show up with mud in varying effects. These were to be the only 3 models with 6-lug wheels as I made the change back to 5 lugs. A friend happened to have an extra set of “ﬁvers” that were then set to China. One of these rare sample trucks appears in my display photos. Looking at the photo, it appears that the truck used as “Sample C – heavy mud”. “Sample A” was light and “Sample B” was medium.

More dust and mud was added and thick greasy grime was painted in the engine compartment. It sounds like a lot of work but in reality it was pretty simple. I heated and then dented the front bumper with a wood dowel. Since the model had been initially dropped and had some damage, the broken parts were used to accentuate the “look”. The missing headlight pod was dented in a bit, rusted and a wire added. To add to the effect further, a scale license plate was added to the front that read, “I’d rather eat worms than drive a Chevy”. It showed how much of a diehard Ford fan the “owner” really was. Where the spare was on the original truck, I added a red plastic, gas can that leaked, of course. A black wire simulated the bungee cord and gloss clear painted on the running board simulated the leak. Other exterior features included the removal of the tailgate.

The interior needed special attention. I had seen a modeler at a national event once use masking tape to do his seats. I thought that I could effectively do the same and make it look worn. Tape was applied to the plastic seat and then painted with a military leather color. The original seams were followed and if some tape pulled back, it just added to the effect. I then “wore” the seats using a ﬁne grade of sanding sheet. The hole in the seat was drilled out prior to the tape effect and cotton was stuffed in the hole. The tape was peeled back. The ﬂoor was muddied and dirtied. The dash was ripped out and bare wires were left.

Now that the interior details appeared sufﬁciently distressed and abused, a few additional accessories were needed to complete the effect. There was a six pack of Bud on the ﬂoor and an opener on the seat. An old B-17 wool and leather hat was left on the ﬂoor. The hat from the FM Sportsman F150 was used but painted in leather and wool colors. The cans were made from small lengths of aluminum tubing and adhesive foil. Triangular holes were made in the open cans and some cans were purposely crushed. The seat had a Playboy magazine, Auto Trader and a Super Chevy issue. These were items that I had made when I had a photo-reduction business years ago, called Scale Vanities. The back of the truck also sported a PA commercial license tag, as well from my old collection. The bed craved special touches, too. I knew that rusting out the bed was not an option but I needed to have that illusion. So I placed thin plywood in the bed, weathered and stained it badly. An old engine block tossed in the corner, exsanguinating its life blood of well abused motor oil, added additional charm to the bed. Naturally a transmission needed the same fate. What old truck doesn’t have a cinder block tossed in for good measure along with a well-worn tire. A rusty tool box and the ubiquitous BMFH lay on the stained wood. To show that the hammer was throw a little too far into the bed, a nice greasy handprint was applied to the plywood, too.

I had an issue with the hood staying up after I had reassembled the model. I opted to add a piece of basswood to simulate a 2 X 4.

The truck was a hit. It saw a lot of meetings and got a lot of smiles. As a side note, at these meetings the truck was pushed from one person to the next. As the builder you can imagine my face when it nearly rolled off the table! I decide at that point that any future concepts would have their wheels glued stationary. This rusty truck was ground-breaking at the time. I was told that in China, it was secreted around the factory so the idea wouldn’t sneak out before its release. The investment was minimal and the response was huge. The sales ﬁg- ures for the ﬁrst 8 months were very impressive. It opened eyes to see that existing images could be made into worthwhile products with only a small investment. It paved the way for the Christmas truck variations and essentially for the accessories. Everyone who was involved with the truck got into the project. The photoshoot was fun! My prototype was shot on a dusty surface which was made from nutmeg and cinnamon

Some really neat collateral was also created, but the guy working on it felt it needed some- thing extra on the outer envelope. Taking it back to my ofﬁce I placed a wet coffee cup on one corner and returned it to him stained.....he loved the effect. We then came up with nice worn door graphics and the name belongs to a friend of mine who still has an immense, plastic model car graveyard at his house. Marketing didn’t like using phrases like “Jalopy” or “Junker”. They felt it gave a negative connotation to the Ford brand. I had to agree. When they came up with Old Reliable, I wasn’t too thrilled since I had a drag car concept in mind with that same name. All things said, my vote lost out and the model was named.

The days following receipt of the model in China were ﬁlled with rather funny emails. The guys overseas were upset that they could not get a nice glossy ﬁnish on the model and that they were having issues with the door and hood ﬁts. I had to explain that for this model only, defects would actually help the model. Misaligned doors and hood would be ﬁne. A dead ﬂat ﬁnish is what was expected. I found a couple of rare shots of their ﬁrst attempt. It was just too clean looking! In addition, I asked them to include some earth colored pastel powders. This really raised an eyebrow until I demonstrated what could be done further to weather the truck. I received many emails from collectors asking how they could make the truck dirtier and also asked if I had additional packets of dirt so they wouldn’t have to open their packets. It was a lot of fun answering those emails.

The D4C had asked me for a donation, so I signed a truck and it was auctioned off. It fetched a tidy sum for them. As a bonus, I gave the winner a complete set of original studio pics of my concept model, you see here.

Not only did this truck open doors at FM, it also opened professional doors for me. Lynda Resnick was shown the truck along with the Corvette diorama I had also done and I was im- mediately paged to come to the design approval meeting. She gave me quite a few compli- ments that day. For me, it wasn’t about the accolades. It was about showing what I could do to be a contributing partner in a building full of very talented people. To this day, when I see a production line dirty vehicle on a store shelf, I can’t help but think that my little truck may have prompted someone else to do one, too! Up to that time, there was really nothing on a store shelf like it.

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The Old Reliable Pickup Truck