(continued)

Reprinted from
 Gas Engine Magazine
October, 2000

by

Dave Friday's Strange Pickup Truck - 1954

         I was invited into the home of Beverly Friday (Dave's wife) and spent a couple of hours looking at several picture albums of the Friday family and business.  Our family and the Fridays have been friends for about 50 years.  Mrs. Friday lives in the same house at the farm and plant, and it is well over 100 years old. 
         Dave also loved old cars and, at one point, had seven.  Included in Dave's collection was a strange pickup truck.  He went to a local Ford dealer and bought a 1954 Ford Sedan Delivery and told the body man, John Main, Sr., to make a pickup to ride like a car.  John took the Ford Sedan delivery top off and halfway down both sides.  He told me it took three F100 Ford pickup cabs to build the back of the cab, because the back window was 52" wide. 

        When the truck was complete, Dave took a load of strawberries to the Benton Harbor Fruit Market.  Everyone was so amazed to see the pickup and they wanted to know all about it.  The Ford dealer called the Ford Motor Company and they sent two men down for two days to look it over and to drive it.  They told Dave they would put it in the Ford Times, a Ford Magazine, but they never did.  Dave was also told that Ford would pay for all blueprint expenses, but that never happened, either.  No money ever changed hands. However, 1 1/2 years later, the Ford Ranchero was born, thanks to John Main, Sr.  Also notice, the tailgate was made at Friday Tractor Factory.
    

Information for this web site was gathered from personal interviews, newspaper articles, scrapbooks, personal photo albums, and other documented materials - many available to the public at the Hartford Public Library or Van Buren County Historical Museum.  Please report any typographical errors, updated information, or incorrectly stated information to the webmaster for correction.  Reprinting for personal and instructional purposes is permitted, however, unauthorized commercial reprinting of this information or unauthorized linking to photos-pictures on this site is strictly prohibited without written permission from the webmaster. 

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© 
A Pictorial History of Hartford Michigan
Emma Thornburg Sefcik
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History of Hartford Michigan
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Revised: November 30, 2008