1931 Ford Panel Delivery Truck

[THarrison351]

A few years ago I won a heavily damaged 1938 GMC Budweiser delivery truck. It was complete, with box and accessories but the stakes were apart, the front suspension was broken and one tire was melted. I was able to glue the stakes back together and repair the suspension. The spare tire replaced the melted tire. Now I'm not a Budweiser beer fan, but a couple of years ago my wife bought me a Christmas painting to put on the fireplace mantle that I swear someone used the 1930's Budweiser delivery truck to model it. So, I decided I wanted the truck to go with the picture. I kept looking on eBay and waiting for weeks. Bidding and getting outbid. I won a 1941 Chevy sedan delivery in the mean time that was too cheap to pass up. Well, eventually I did win the Budweiser 1938 Ford stake bed delivery truck. I now had three Budweiser delivery trucks. I decided while I was in Montreal last year I'd keep an eye on the rest of the trucks and see if I could complete the set. Only five more to go. The first one I won was the 1955 White. It was new in the box. $15 plus $20 for shipping, who hoo! I'll show that one later. I'm doing these in chronological order of age. I did manage to get a version of each model except the Christmas version of the 1937 Chevy delivery van. Those for some reason, demand a higher amount of money than I'm willing to pay. I'm still watching and hoping. The first one up is the  1931 Ford Panel Delivery Truck. This one has the parent company Anheuser-Busch Yeast as the main livery and Budweiser Barley Malt Syrup as a sub product, 1931 was still prohibition. It comes with twenty boxes of the yeast and fourteen barrels of the syrup for display. The model is an older casting, but other than the wheel spokes being a bit heavy handed, has good detailing. The engine is fully detailed and wired, the doors are properly hinged,  the interiors headliner has seamed fabric with a dome-light,  the drivers seat flips up to reveal a tool box and the windshield flips out for ventilation. The tan top is actual cloth. My version is complete, but it's suffered from lots of display exposure. It was very filthy when I got it. All the white lettering on the paint was yellow, and there was a thick coating of dust. The chrome is still kind of pitted.  Also, the RH side spare tire has a lot of cracks in it. It did polish up well and all the white is white instead of yellow. Here's the pics.

[Danno]

That is just too kewl for skewl!!!  Nice catch, and, by the way . . . great job on the cleanup!

[randyc]

Yet another one I bought last year.  Mine came in a wood base case with nameplate.  My Hirihatat Merc lives in that case now and the 31 is in a regular case.  Dod your barrells come in teh black rubber square?   Looks like a TV remote, LOL.  When I was opening mine, my wife was asking what is that remote?   I was like huh?  New car.  Then we figured it out.  

The boxes were loose and once in a while I'll find one in a different car.  I thought I had them all contained in a ziploc bag, but not all of them.   At any rate, great little truck.  That one might have been in a smoker's house?  Yellowed lettering?   Or displayed in sunlight?  To crack the tire on one side?  I'd really like a Good Humore truck to go with mine.  I sold my HoJo 1/18 a while back and would like to have another ice cream truck for display.   

Have you tried more aggressive polishing on the chrome?  In my experience, these have the toughest chrome - full nickel metal plating instead of vacuum plated like a plastic kit.   They have always stood up to polishing with a moto tool and some chrome and plastic polishes.   I've seen them like this and polished them up before.  Like they have hairspray or someting sprayed polish on them.

[Gramps46]

Pretty amazing truck and educational too.  Did not know about Anheuser-Busch selling yeast and malt syrup during prohibition. 

[THarrison351]

11 hours ago, randyc said:

Yet another one I bought last year.  Mine came in a wood base case with nameplate.  My Hirihatat Merc lives in that case now and the 31 is in a regular case.  Dod your barrells come in teh black rubber square?   Looks like a TV remote, LOL.  When I was opening mine, my wife was asking what is that remote?   I was like huh?  New car.  Then we figured it out.  

The boxes were loose and once in a while I'll find one in a different car.  I thought I had them all contained in a ziploc bag, but not all of them.   At any rate, great little truck.  That one might have been in a smoker's house?  Yellowed lettering?   Or displayed in sunlight?  To crack the tire on one side?  I'd really like a Good Humore truck to go with mine.  I sold my HoJo 1/18 a while back and would like to have another ice cream truck for display.   

Have you tried more aggressive polishing on the chrome?  In my experience, these have the toughest chrome - full nickel metal plating instead of vacuum plated like a plastic kit.   They have always stood up to polishing with a moto tool and some chrome and plastic polishes.   I've seen them like this and polished them up before.  Like they have hairspray or someting sprayed polish on them.

Yeah, the barrel were in the foam piece in a box with the yeast boxes indicating how many of each there were, It wasn't in a smokers house as far as I can tell at least not in a long time. My mom and step dad were smokers, and to this day some things they gave me when they still smoked, when I pull them out, Yech! I think it was near a kitchen and a window, which is what may have caused the tire to crack. I'll have to try my Dremel and some polish on the chrome.