Vintage pickup trucks are riding a tidal wave of popularity and have become a mainstay at car shows over the past few years.
MyStarCollectorCar has been covering the vintage vehicle hobby for over 15 years and can easily recall our earliest years when old trucks were a very uncommon sight at shows.
These days vintage pickups occupy a much bigger section of the guest list at every automotive event, so we can pick and choose our stories from the massive increase in old trucks within the hobby.
Jim Sutherland
Most of the stories involve an old truck with a strong connection to one family; a link that can extend over multiple generations in many cases. A story about a grandson or son who owns his grandfather’s or father’s truck is always a solid base for a MyStarCollectorCar article because a multi-generational connection to a vehicle is gold for us.
The humble old pickup truck’s recent runaway popularity in the hobby can be attributed to its rise in value at major auctions, possibly ignited by a bidding war between inebriated alpha males at one of these events. Nevertheless, we at MyStar love the fact that many pickup trucks have been saved over the past few years-whatever the reason.
We love pickup trucks enough to have owned several of them over the years, including one of our picks in our decades list. Light trucks were built for hard work and can still do the job whenever a situation arises, even after they have achieved antique status, because it’s in their workhorse DNA.
Consequently, we picked five famous trucks from five different decades, starting with the 1930s. Our first pick for the 1930s is the Model A truck, even though it was only built from late 1927 until early 1932 and had strong links to Model A cars at the time.
The Model A truck had big shoes to fill because it replaced the Model T truck, but it made a big impact during its short run, particularly in hot rod circles.
Our second pick from the 1940s is any first-generation Dodge Power Wagon built right after World War II. These brutes had a direct link with their military counterparts because the wartime Dodge trucks were built for extremely rough use, and so were the first-gen Power Wagons.
A flat fender Power Wagon built after the war carried the same toughness into the civilian world and is an easy choice for MyStarCollectorCar’s favorite1940s-era truck.
MyStarCollectorCar’s third pick from the 1950s may seem somewhat unusual for our readers: the 1957 International Harvester Travelette because it was the first four-door pickup truck built in North America.
How could we ignore the pioneer crew cab in the four-door domestic truck movement-particularly since most of today’s pickups are more-door trucks?
Our fourth pick from the 1960s is the 1960-61 Chevy Apache pickup truck because it was a radical departure from the 1959 Chevy truck in terms of style.
The result was a front-end design that people either loved or hated-then and now. For the record, we at MyStarCollectorCar love the ‘60 Chevy truck’s front end.
Our fifth and final pick from the 1970s is the famous Dodge Little Red Express pickup truck built in 1978-79. The Little Red Express was a part of the Tin Grille Dodge truck movement (from1972-80) and was a flashy game-changer in the late 1970s.
Fact is, we liked the Little Red well enough to own one back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was a limited-edition truck that has gained a reputation as a muscle truck from a sad era when domestic muscle vehicles were virtually non-existent in the North American market, so the Little Red Express deserves a place on our list.
Maybe even for sentimental reasons in our case
Jim Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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