Chuck Most

In 1961, a beat up '34 Ford pickup was handed down from farmer Ed Johnson Sr. to his son Roger, who had just gotten his driver's license. Roger was grateful for his newfound freedom and a free set of wheels. Well... Roger did title the truck in his name, as well as purchase his own plate and insurance, even though Ed had told him it would be OK to keep it in the elder's name. Being a responsible kid and wanting to prove that he was at least somewhat capable of being a responsible adult, Roger insisted on taking on the financial aspects. But the truck itself was free. Roger also would foot the bill for gas and any repairs the truck might need... and initially it did need a few. Ed was a "run it til it dies" kind of guy. Ed's wife, kids, and friends were frankly shocked that this truck had lasted almost 30 years... the last fifteen of which had been under Ed's ownership. In 1961, pickup trucks were the realm of farmers and poor folks. Pickup trucks weren't daily driven luxury barges like today, they were mere work vehicles, and if you used a pickup truck as a daily driver people assumed that you were too poor to buy a proper car. Even in a small Michigan farm town, being a young kid with a pickup made you something of a social pariah. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, Roger decided to have fun with his beater. He'd been picking up (no pun intended) Hot Rod and various "little pages" for as long as he could read, and he figured he might be able to do his part to make pickups cool, at least in his little corner of the world. Many custom pickups had been built, after all, and a '33-'34 Ford pickup wasn't exactly a bad starting point. Roger started small. Steel disc wheels and hub caps from a '53 F100 were added. The bumper was replaced by a unit from a '34 Ford car. Along the way, Roger spotted a junked Massey Harris tractor and was able to purchase the grille shell, and it was fitted to the little Ford. Painted (or rather, primed) to match the rest of the truck, Roger got a kick out of people trying to figure out what it came from, even people familiar with the tractors. Roger didn't get ribbed too hard for driving an old pickup from his schoolmates, though that may have been due to his easygoing nature rather than anything he'd done to customize the old Ford. Ed, on the other hand, would just shake his head and wonder what on Earth his middle child was thinking. However, on the way home from the last day of school that year, the old Ford's four-cylinder gave up the ghost, about a mile from home. Ed and Roger towed it home, and Roger debated what to do. His younger brother Ike, who was also developing an interest in the rod and custom scene, suggested wheeling it into an unused shed on the farm and redoing it. What began was a month-long thrash session, as the two teenagers dismantled the old pickup and set to work making it into something worthy of the hot rod and custom magazines of which they were fans. For that time, basically every spare moment and nearly all of their income was pooled into the old Ford. Ed just shook his head and stayed clear. He, like many fathers then, before, and now, just didn't understand his kids. He wasn't keen on the idea of them making a mess of the shed and blowing all their money on a junky old truck, but seeing how enthusiastic and focused his boys were with the project helped put his mind to ease. At least, Ed reasoned, if he wanted to know where they were, he knew the first place he'd need to check. The basic chassis was more or less left stock, though the front end was lowered about two inches by "removing a couple of leaves and farting around with the shackles" as Roger recalled years later. A junkyard 390 was secured, and to this was fitted a supercharger fitted with three two barrel Webers. The supercharger and carbs had been the first parts the boys had ordered for the project, and were the last things added to it. The truck sat about 99% completed while they waited for the parts to arrive. The F-100 wheels remained, but the truck was fitted with gold-stripe whitewall Firestones. Later, after the truck had developed something of a reputation, a local tire shop supplied the boys with a set of Firestone slicks for shows. The cab was channeled six inches, sectioned two inches, and chopped three inches. Their younger sister Sheila stitched up the green tuck and roll interior panels. Only a speedometer was displayed in the center of the dash- an oil pressure gauge, temperature gauge, and a fuel gauge were mounted to a small sliding rail where they could be hidden from view up underneath the dash when the truck was on display. That was Ike's idea, and Roger was struck by it, even though it served no practical purpose and they pretty much did it just because they could. A similar sliding plate was fabricated for the ignition and headlight switches. The bed was shortened, and Ike made the tail fins using steel cut from a scrap grain bin Ed had sitting out back. A '57 Pontiac donated it's front bumperettes, which were fitted with '59 Cadillac tail lights and pressed into service at the rear of the truck. The brothers lucked out when they found a piece of corrugated steel with a pattern that almost perfectly matched the interior pleating, and it was used to fashion a hinged bed cover. They'd planned to have Sheila do a padded cover for it, but the eleven year old sewing whiz had worked hard on the dash and door panels, and they didn't want to "work the poor kid's fingers off, even if she did enjoy the task immensely" as Ike said. The '34 Ford car front bumper remained, as did the Massey Harris grille, but the latter was mounted down lower, and the front fenders were flattened at the front and fitted with canted '59 Chevrolet headlights. The spare tire well on the passenger's side fender was also filled. While the boys waited for the supercharger to show up, they fabricated the exhaust system, from the "log" exhaust manifolds to the curved smokestacks. Playing off the "farmer" stigma of pickup trucks, and the fact that the thing had a farm tractor grille, Roger came up with the name "Hay Fever". The boys picked the brightest shade of green they could find and hosed off the truck with a borrowed spray gun, after lining the interior of the shed with about 400 newspapers. The name Hay Fever was then hand-painted onto the tailgate. As stated, the actual build took a month, but the duo spent the better part of the year working the bugs out of the truck. Being first-time hot rod builders, they made several mistakes and oversights which needed to be rectified later on. Though Ike was about a year off from having his license, he did take the truck out for a spin or two when the local fuzz wasn't looking. As far as Roger was concerned, Ike had just as much effort and input in the truck as he did, and he was effectively "co-owner". And of course, it was settled that eleven year old Sheila, who was something of a sewing maistro even at that young age, would get plenty of wheel time when she got her licence for her efforts with the upholstery, though things ended up not working out that way. She did get to ride in it numerous times, and nicknamed the truck "booger" due to it's bright green finish. The brothers entered the truck in several shows, and it began to garner quite a bit of interest. A locally published little book called Wheels, headquartered in Saginaw, did a four-page feature on the truck in their October 1961, and it was featured in full color on the cover along with a fetching young lady named Mary. It was, as far as the brothers know, the only time the truck was published in full color. The feature, of course, was black and white. The show displays got elaborate- the truck would be displayed behind velvet ropes, surrounded by fiberglass hay bales, with a banjo leaning on a tire and a straw hat casually hung from a corner of the front bumper. The brothers began getting requests from people to do work on their vehicles, and after mulling it over for a few months, the brothers opened their own custom shop. As for Hay Fever? By 1963, the stock banjo axle had been torn to shreds by the blown 390, and along with the display props, the truck became a trailer queen. It wore several different sets of wheels during it's time retired from the road. At it's final show in 1965, it was wearing a set of Ansen slot mags and narrow white walls, as the brothers were selling Ansen accessories out of their shop by that time and used the truck as something of a billboard. It sat behind the shop under a lean-to until about 1966, when a local drag racer bought it. He'd planned to refurbish it and use it as a tow rig for his dragster, but as typically happens, the truck sat in a barn until 1980, when it was passed onto a nephew, who himself stashed it in a barn and did nothing with it other than occasionally dust it off. At some point the original Firestone whitewalls and later Firestone slicks, on the old F100 wheels, were reunited with the truck. And after all these years, Roger still had the original 1961 plate. He'd kept it because he was amused that the first two letters were RJ- his first and last initials. It's back on there now. As you see it in the photos, this was pretty much how Hay Fever looked when it was dragged out of mothballs and purchased by Ike's grandson Scott in 2019. Eventually Scott plans to do a full restoration, but for now he's enjoying the old hot rod as-is. Roger and Ed are shocked at how well their paint and body work has held up- aside from some cracks in the fenders, some splits in the leadwork, and heavy surface rust, the truck has aged well, and Sheila's upholstery job, while showing signs of wear, is otherwise near pristine Not too bad for a couple of know-nothing teenage farm kids, huh?

The period of time which spawned wasn't a great time for AMT kits with correctly-scaled engines. If I recall, the American Graffiti T-Bird and '58 Edsel also had undersized engines. It's a shame too- the Edsel and Ala Cart mills are nicely detailed, but too small. The T-bird engine was junk though.

If you want the full version, check out the thread in the workbench section. Short version is it's Lincoln 368 powered, sports a PTO winch, and is generally cruddy and nasty.

I've always wanted to do some "hastily redone" door graphics. You know- where someone will buy a vehicle with existing lettering, sand it off, then hand-paint their own lettering. A cotton swab was soaked in 91% alcohol and wiped across the door, then the dissolved paint was wiped away with a blue shop towel. The J&G lettering was written on with a fine-point Sharpie acrylic paint marker. The J&G is a nod to The Terminator- the tanker truck chasing Sara and Kyle near the end is lettered J&G Oil Company- the J standing for James Cameron and the G standing for his co-producer (and future ex wife) Gale Anne Hurd.

May have this finished shortly- it's down to a front bumper, possible door lettering, and a CB antenna.

Air cleaner and exhaust have been figured out. The black washes are still wet in these photos.

The business end of the truck is pretty well dialed in. The wrecker boom was made from various bits of Evergreen stock. It's loosely based on an old Canfield crane. The boom was fixed into place with a fabricated a-frame. Since the boom no longer goes down, I figured right behind the winch would be a perfect place for the air tank. Originally the idea was for the tank to power an impact wrench via the retractable hose, but it never had quite the capacity to do that, though the tank still came in handy when the customer had a spare in the car, but the spare was low on air pressure. So there's that. Maybe the siren works, maybe it's just for looks. There was just enough room on the driver's side step for a jerry can, so onto the driver's side step that jerry can went

I got a laugh out of this.

8 foot bed and the bench seat is back? Yeah, I'm in. I could have used those Rupps last year when I did the '69 F100 Rupp dealer truck.

And here's what will be going into the bed. A makeshift wrecker boom and a bit ol' PTO winch, both scratched from various bits of scraps, and odds and ends.

The body and chassis are joined permanently at this point. I added one of the air horns but put it under the hood, right next to the air compressor. I also added the bracing and fitted the heater hoses. I still haven't settled on what type of air cleaner housing I want to use. I installed a steering box from the spares pile, but I'm not sure why- much like the interior doodads, it's practically invisible now. The basic cab had some "rust" cut into the door lowers and cab corners. Some spares box turn signals and spotlights were added, and the mirrors are leftover white metal mirrors from an AITM Ford F600 transkit. I added a couple of custom touches in the photoetched hood scoop and the '60 Olds grille, which came from the old AMT Blueprinter parts pack. I used the kit's F100 6.5 bed, reconfigured slightly. This and the PTO might give you an idea of where I"m headed with this. The idea was an F250 with the standard 8 foot bed that was rear-ended and rebuilt as a wrecker at some point back in the sands of time. A junkyard- sourced F100 bed was installed, with the fenders moved back and given a quick white respray over the factory dark green paint. The bumper was scratchbuilt, and the mud flaps are stick-ons from Diecast Promotions. Aside from lack of an air cleaner and exhaust, the model is close to representing a runner.

Added a makeshift PTO unit. Probably not the most accurate representation of such a unit, but it'll work for what I need. You'll see the reason I added the PTO unit sometime later. The addition of the PTO box necessitated another change to the interior- a second lever jutting out of the floor. I also finished out the interior by making kick panels to 1- house the aftermarket speakers, and 2- cover up the open sections in the inner fenders. I also cluttered the floor with a crushed Motorcraft box and an empty oil can. A tool box was set on the seat- it was pushed into the balsa foam a bit to simulate a weighted box squishing into the seat cushion. So that's another benefit to using the balsa foam to simulate the exposed seat foam.

Did one of those a few years back.

I mentioned the engine swap earlier. Well... here it is... The bulk of it is an AMT '57 Thunderbird Y-Block, with the Lincoln valve covers from the AMT Chris Craft boat and a later-model four-barrel carb. I'm calling it a Lincoln 368. I did swap on the four-blade fan from the '53 flathead, and modified some small block Chevy headers to fit. It also has an on-board air compressor, which was taken from the recent AMT Tip Top Shop accessories set. I added the filter and fitting to flesh it out a bit, and it's driven by an AC clutch from an old S&S photoetch sheet. A line will run back to a remote tank. You can also see the heater hoses, which will be fitted into the firewall once the cab is installed. I've also settled on the wheels and tires- open steel 8-bolt wheels and Firestone Town and Country mud & snow tires, both from Scenes Unlimited. The inner wheels are the modified kit parts for the custom wheel option provided in the '53 kit.

I haven't posted a work-in-progress chronicle here in years. Usually the number one way to kill a project for me is to start posting progress on a forum. But, since this project has pretty strong momentum, I think I'll wing it this time and present it as my way of celebrating 10 years as a forum member. Of course, I began with AMT's deathless '53 Ford F-100 Trophy Series kit. One of my all-time favorite kits of one of my all-time favorite subjects, so I always try to have a couple handy. The first little task was making up a heater box and duct work for the inside of the cowl. I have a 1:1 '54 F650, but since it's out in a cold shed (the door of which is pretty much drifted shut at this point), I used online photos and a little artistic license when creating the components. Since this Effie will feature an engine swap, I also added some auxiliary gauges from a Detail Master photo etch sheet. Also from a Detail Master set is the cassette deck and cassette. The face is the photoetched piece from the set, while the body is made from styrene strip. The photo etch cassette tape was fattened up with a thin strip of styrene on the back. It was then stuck into the opening on the head unit. Loose wires seem to sprout from everywhere under the dash on these old F-Series rigs, even more so if extra electrical accessories are added, as is the case here. So various scraps of plug and detailing wire were strung out from under the kit dash. I added photetched keys and ring, also from a Detail Master set, and to say that tested my patience would be a dramatic understatement. All that work and I doubt it'll ever be noticed. Oh, well! The gauges and cassette deck were also hung under the dash. The steering wheel and column were not overlooked. A turn signal stalk was added, and a machined aluminum tach (source unknown) was slung onto the side. The wheel itself was fitted with a scratchbuilt Brody knob. I've always wanted to try a ripped up seat. After messing around with some balsa foam for another project, I hit upon an idea. The molded cushion detail was cut out of the seat, and replaced with flat sheet. New "cushions" were then carved, and wrapped in some scrap fabric. Once the adhesive had cured, I sanded along the edges to wear through the fabric. It is kind of hard to see, but I worked a sag into the driver's side of the cushion to simulate years of use. I also weathered the seat a bit, by dragging a piece of sandpaper I'd used to shape the foam over the fabric. Here you can also see the shifter, made from scratch as the kit-supplied floor shifter wasn't quite as "burly" as I'd wanted. Moving on to the floor, it was sanded to wear down the engraved detail, then hit with some weathering powder. And a peek in through the back window.... yep, much of this won't even be visible. Here we can sort of see one of the flaws with the AMT kit- the wide open areas around the toe board, which makes the tops of the tires visible from certain angles when you peek into the cab. I have a fix in mind for that, and there's quite a bit more to come once I venture outside the cab.

Beats another LS swap.

A customer wanted a Grande, but "those hideous wheel covers" were a deal-breaker. So, the service manager popped them off and swapped them out for the dog dish caps on their new service truck. The whitewalls came later- they were on sale at the local tire shop. The big block actually comes with the GMC kit, even though the box says it has a 350. Mine had no stock intake, so I had to steal that from a Chevelle kit.

Shapeways! I'll have to check which store I know of two stores selling two different kinds.

This started as the Cameo kit. The frame and bed were lengthened, and it was fitted with Scenes Unlimited 8 bolt wheels. The bumpers were scratch built and the rear window was changed to the small version. When the original 283 blew up, it was replaced by a Pontiac V8 from a GMC, and when that one blew up it was replaced with a dual quad 421, because why not?

The idea here was a pickup that a GMC dealer would use to help out stranded truckers. Well, stranded truckers with GMC trucks under warranty anyway! I replaced the stock rear fenders with scratch built tool boxes and made a light bar. The rear bumper was also scratch built and fitted with a pintle hitch from Scenes Unlimited. In the future I may weather the signboards and add some tools and general clutter to the bed.

Love it! I'm glad this kit is coming back out. I just recently turned the monster truck version back to stock myself- the lack of stock mirrors in the monster truck version is a bit of a bummer.

The shop truck is done- For many years, Carl had used a series of Datsun/Nissan pickups for his shop trucks. By 2010, though, his tattered old 720 was showing it's age and he was looking to get something newer. Since opening the shop, Carl had picked up a side business of locating, and sometimes importing, various classic vehicles from Japan, Europe... and on one occasion, Australia. A local man had been looking for a kei truck- such as a Subaru Sambar. Carl found the man his Sambar, but while chatting with the dealer, he'd mentioned a Scion XB that had been converted into a panel truck. Carl had always thought the XB resembled a small Chevy Astro, and thought that maybe a panel conversion would be an eye-catching shop vehicle. The dealer said he'd keep his eyes peeled. A few weeks later, the dealer called Carl up and said "It's not a panel, but it might strike your fancy". Upon opening the e-mail attachments, Carl realized he'd just found his new shop truck. The vehicle was a 2005 Scion XB that had been converted, not into a panel truck, but a pickup truck. The dealer told him that it did have a salvage title, and had been built by a car stereo shop in Nevada from a wreck, but the car ran and drove wonderfully and the conversion work looked to be of very good quality. And the price was certainly right. It pretty much looked the way it does now when Carl picked it up- later on he had a local sign shop do the lettering. Eventually this will be parked on the diorama... someplace...

This began as the Tamiya Toyota BB. It was converted into a phantom pickup, then converted to a LHD US-market Scion xB. The lettering was done on my inkjet printer, and this will be the company vehicle for the Foreign Objects Import Auto Repair diorama I've been working on. The Scion itself was more or less just a quick time killer build, other than my drunken squiggle paint job on the windshield border (done after I'd messed up with the kit supplied template) is the one thing that will drive me crazy about it. Later on as the diorama goes together I'll come up with some kind of backstory for it.

Minor update... I thought a shop truck was needed. I took the Tamiya Toyota BB and converted it to a Scion xB that had itself been converted to a pickup. ?

I bought this kit a while back incomplete- apparently a previous owner had planned to build a stock pickup and had removed all the custom parts and accessories from the kit. I undid that. The basic kit is box stock with a few swaps- a front bumper, hood, tonneau, roll pan, and tail lights from the phantom Dually kit, and the wheels and tires from a Ranger XLT. I kept the original grille because I love the '88-'89 four-headlight setup. I also used the Edelbrock engine dress up parts and shifter from a '57 Chevy stepside, and I rusted it out to resemble how most of these trucks looked in Michigan by about 1994 or so. The decals came from AMT's two American Pride sheets, while the door logos are from the newest reissue of the '49 Ford kit. I really like the rear window graphic- Revell has done something similar in their recent reissues of several pickup kits, but this graphic is actually see-through, like the real rear window graphics you can get.