1936 Ford Telephone Truck

[51504bat]

Originally Posted by Flathead Fever

Hey Pete, I wish I had your god like powers to enlarge photos. That garage was built in 1950, in San Bernardino, CA. There were still few flathead tools there when I arrived fresh out of high school in 1980. It started off as Cal Water and Telephone with green trucks, Then General telephone (GTE) with mustard and white painted trucks, then silver trucks ,then all white trucks, then it switched to Verizon and now its Frontier. I will never be able to buy a silver or white vehicle again it would cause PTSD. That Weaver twin post hoist would lift 36,000 lbs. The trucks would sway back and forth when they reach the top. You sign a document every year, drop a truck lose your job. The San Andreas earthquake fault is right there. We used to joke about should we runout of that old brick building or grab the hoist cylinder. The trucks can't fall straight down. You had to have a smog license because we did the state inspections in-house. Another document you signed, let your smog license expire and lose your job in 60-days. I had 17 ASE licenses, Smog License, Class A truck license with a hazmat endorsement. all of that for the whopping sum of $32.00 an hour by the time I retired. That shop had six bays with five hoists. When I arrived, it had around 400 vehicles, a supervisor, five mechanics and four helpers. They kept downsizing until each supervisor had ten garages, the helpers were all let go. My last two years' I ended up in a three-bay garage in Hemet, CA with 157 vehicles working by myself at night. No time to goof off like in the early years. Nobody to prank at night. We had a lot of fun in the early years. Most of us ended up with blown-out shoulders from working overhead so much. I've had three shoulder surgeries and now I get lidocaine injections in the left one every few months. Two back surgeries, they fused my lower vertebrates, the discs were gone, and it was bone on bone. The only thing I will bend over for is if I drop my daily hydrocodone. My fingers are starting to curve like a roller coaster at Six Flags. Working on all that stuff beat the crap out of me. We used to jump off the sides of those bins on those boom trucks rather than walk to the back. Lift that entire booms off with forklifts to replace rotation bearings. It takes everything you have to stand one of those wheels and tires up. My toes are mangled from steel toe boots for 30-years. France just raised the retirement age to 70 and I was thinking, not all jobs are created equal, I was worn-out at 50.

Lots of memories of the old in the ground hoists. The Redlands HS auto shop had one of the double post ones when I took advanced auto shop in '67/68. After I got of the Army I worked as a mechanic for a local dairy. It had a single in ground hoist that we used to service the old Divco milk trucks. The hoist was certainly not OSHA approved. When you started to let the hoist down you had to rock the truck so the hoist would start to go down smoothly. If you didn't the hoist wouldn't start going down and then after a few seconds would drop about a foot and then continue going down. Certainly not a confidence builder.

[Flathead Fever]

There was only one time I ever had a vehicle on the hoist at the phone company that wasn't white or silver. It had a drivetrain powertrain issue, the pedals broke and needed to be welded. Somebody out in the yard brought this i to me to be welded and I thought it would be funny to put it on the hoist.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Flathead Fever

There was only one time I ever had a vehicle on the hoist at the phone company that wasn't white or silver. It had a drivetrain powertrain issue, the pedals broke and needed to be welded. Somebody out in the yard brought this i to me to be welded and I thought it would be funny to put it on the hoist.

[47fordguy]

Used the truck for the first time in years today
Rebuilt original distributor, carburetor, fuel pump from Charlie.
Rebuilt coil from Skip.

[al's28/33]

Beautiful, inside and out. It is cool that you have (he kept) all the service parts and tools for the inside compartments. The whole package is priceless.

[Jeff/Illinois]

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Beautiful '36 PU

Love it thanks for posting the pics!

[mercman from oz]

Some where in the past, someone has substituted a 1935 Ford Front Bumper.
This is the Correct Bumper for 1936 Ford Pick-ups - notice the 45 degree slant on the ends.

[mercman from oz]

This is the Correct Bumper for 1935 Ford Pick-ups - notice that the end is nearly vertical?

[mercman from oz]

Close-up Ends of 1936 (Left) and 1935 (Right) Bumpers.

[Newc]

Rear bumpers? Thought they used the sdn delivery types?? The Bell trailer here in Oregon uses that type of rear bumper. Newc

[mercman from oz]

This 1935 Ford V8 Pick-Up has a 1936 Ford Front Bumper?