Not what I intended on getting

my66longbed · Post by **my66longbed** » August 25, 2009, 9:53 am

Ever go into a store with the intent on getting something and coming out of the store with something completely different... Well this just happened to me. I went to a friend's yard to take a look at a 50's victoria for my wife. She wants a 52 or 53 victoria with the glass roof. So my friend said he had one, but it turned out to be a 57 without the glass roof anddifferent body style then what we are looking for. So then I saw it... He had a 1950's Mack B model (B42) sitting on the edge of his yard. I know I have seen this truck in the past when I would visit him, but he has recently moved some things around and I got a better view of it.

So I intended getting a car for the wife and came home with a semi... Wife wasn't exactly all that happy with me, but I simply fell in love with this truck...

http://www.van-houten.org/josh_projects/Mack/

Right now it's a gasser, and I want to convert it over to a diesel. I have a Detroit diesel 71 series that would be a good fit... But I would like to find a modern Mack diesel and keep this all Mack... Still lots to research and do with this truck.

I am going to get a workout though. I don't think there is a single part on this truck that weighs less then 25lbs...

Post by **Kid** » August 25, 2009, 10:37 am

COOL find. I want to build a older semi some day keep us updated.......kid

Activated Org 64 · Post by **Activated Org 64** » August 25, 2009, 10:39 am

Glad to see there is another Mack lover on this site. Nice looking truck, lots of work but worth it.

Was in Fort Collins last week and saw this truck, made my hands sweat. lol

beagle · Post by **beagle** » August 25, 2009, 11:27 am

that is so cool! I love the B-models, have done a lot of paintings of them-- here's one ( a '62 B-61) that was parked in Union City NJ. Good thing I don't have a bigger yard, it would be full of old cars and trucks...
Rich

Activated Org 64 · Post by **Activated Org 64** » August 25, 2009, 11:39 am

That is a great painting, do you have a link so we can see more of your work?

Ray

deviant1 · Post by **deviant1** » August 25, 2009, 11:54 am

beagle, I like the your painting...artwork is my other hobby besides wrenching on stuff.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » August 25, 2009, 12:08 pm

Maybe you could put a glass roof on the B model and make her happy

BTW: I didn't think the "glass roof" came out until 1964. Maybe I'm wrong. I was once..."Thought I was wrong, but I was right".

Beagle: I like your artwork also. My dad worked at a Mack dealership in the 60's and I always liked the "B" models best. I thought he had the coolest job as he got to "test drive" the fire trucks when they came in for service.

6166 Junkyard Dog · Post by **6166 Junkyard Dog** » August 25, 2009, 12:22 pm

I learned how to drive on B-Models Macks as well as driving the DM Series, F-Series, and R-Series Du Plex, Tri-Plev and Quad Plex in others words 2 sticks a 5x2,,, 5x3,, or 5x4

36truck · Post by **36truck** » August 25, 2009, 1:34 pm

Here's what a 54 Ford glass top looks like.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1954-For ... 06.c0.m245

beagle · Post by **beagle** » August 25, 2009, 1:43 pm

thanks for the compliments! I discovered a long time ago I was a lot better at drawing and painting cars and trucks than I was at fixing them...so I've been working as a professional illustrator since 1980 and have had a number of vehicles in various states of disrepair and assembly over the years. At the risk of hijacking this thread, here's a link to a gallery I am a member of, shows more work: http://www.lambertvillearts.com/artist. ... Harrington

Rich

dotcentral · Post by **dotcentral** » August 25, 2009, 1:52 pm

36truck wrote:Here's what a 54 Ford glass top looks like.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1954-For ... 06.c0.m245

Didn't do to good a job of photographing the glass roof did they? I think my first photo would have been on a ladder looking down, or inside the car looking up at that roof.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » August 25, 2009, 1:58 pm

dotcentral wrote:
36truck wrote:Here's what a 54 Ford glass top looks like.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1954-For ... 06.c0.m245
Didn't do to good a job of photographing the glass roof did they? I think my first photo would have been on a ladder looking down, or inside the car looking up at that roof.

Yeah, they missed the best selling point of the car. I believe they called the Mercury version the "Skyliner", not sure what the Ford was called, don't remember it being Crestline?

Michelle · Post by **Michelle** » August 25, 2009, 3:42 pm

The glass roof Fords were built for three years. 54, 55 and 56. The Ford versions were called the Skyliner and in 1957 the Skyliner name went to the all new 57 Ford retractable hard top. The Mercury version of the glass top was called the Sun Valley. They were great looking cars but what killed them was the unbearable heat inside the car. Air Conditioning for cars was not yet perfected and was iffy at best. Ford's first year for factory air was 55 and it was really not factory then. It was a dealer installed option. The evaporator was behind the dash and the A/C registers were on top of the dash on each side of the radio speaker. This was called Select Aire by Ford. There was also an under dash unit avalible too.

Michelle · Post by **Michelle** » August 25, 2009, 3:54 pm

So you got bit by the big truck bug? Not a bad thing to happen. If you need good information about your B Mack go to the American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) board and you can get all the info you need there. I belong to that board and visit it on a daily basis. Like here there are many good people with good info and they are willing to help in any way they can. Here is a link to the board.

http://forums.aths.org/InstantForum414/Forum4-1.aspx

Post by **Greg D** » August 25, 2009, 3:56 pm

Very cool.
I wouldn't mind hearing some more about the 57 though too.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » August 25, 2009, 4:04 pm

Michelle wrote:The glass roof Fords were built for three years. 54, 55 and 56. The Ford versions were called the Skyliner and in 1957 the Skyliner name went to the all new 57 Ford retractable hard top. The Mercury version of the glass top was called the Sun Valley. They were great looking cars but what killed them was the unbearable heat inside the car. Air Conditioning for cars was not yet perfected and was iffy at best. Ford's first year for factory air was 55 and it was really not factory then. It was a dealer installed option. The evaporator was behind the dash and the A/C registers were on top of the dash on each side of the radio speaker. This was called Select Aire by Ford. There was also an under dash unit avalible too.

That's right! Had them reversed or just wrong LOL.
My best bud in H.S. was named Winston and had a 59 retractable hardtop. Predictably we called it "Winston's Flip Top Box" (weren't we clever?). Remember the A/C units that were in the trunk? A neighbor had a 57 Ford and it had large clear plastic tubes coming up each side of the rear window. Don't remember what it was like inside.

bluebolt · Post by **bluebolt** » August 25, 2009, 4:13 pm

Gritsngumbo wrote:
dotcentral wrote:
36truck wrote:Here's what a 54 Ford glass top looks like.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1954-For ... 06.c0.m245
Didn't do to good a job of photographing the glass roof did they? I think my first photo would have been on a ladder looking down, or inside the car looking up at that roof.
Yeah, they missed the best selling point of the car. I believe they called the Mercury version the "Skyliner", not sure what the Ford was called, don't remember it being Crestline?

This is what I found
1953 I have found a few 1953 Skyliners listed for sale but supposedly they didn't come out to 1954 so I don't know what to think, probably wrong year listed becasue that's the year is was sold like we see on our trucks sometimes.
1954 Ford Crestline Skyliner (I have seen some references to these being a Victoria Skyliner but I believe the correct terminology is Crestline Skyliner, the Crestline was the top of the line for Ford for 1954, Mainline and Customline were the lower content lines, the Crestline series had in my opinion Crestline Victoria hardtop, Crestline Skyliner glass top and Crestline Sunliner convertible)
Mercury Monterey Sun Valley
1955 Ford Crown Victoria Skyliner
Mercury Monterey Sun Valley (last year)
1956 Ford Crown Victoria Skyliner
1957-159 Ford Skyliner (retractable metal roof, not a see though roof)

And Gritsngumbo did you mean 1954 for the first year of the glass top not 1964?

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » August 25, 2009, 4:23 pm

bluebolt wrote:And Gritsngumbo did you mean 1954 for the first year of the glass top not 1964?

Yes I did mean 1954 (my dad bought a new 54 Mercury Station Wagon and I was sick that he didn't get the Skyliner instead. I think the wagon cost about $4,000 or 5,000, a hell of a lot of money in those days). Can't imagine why I would type 64 rather than 54 ':lol:'

Boy, we've managed to totally hijack this poor guy's post. Sorry.

Michelle · Post by **Michelle** » August 25, 2009, 5:07 pm

Greg D wrote:Very cool.
I wouldn't mind hearing some more about the 57 though too.

The retractable hard top idea was first developed by the Lincoln division for the 56 and 57 Lincoln MK II. In the mid fifties Lincoln was trying hard to recapture their share of the luxury car market they had lost to Cadallic since the late forties. The MK.II was the car they were putting all their money on. The car was an expensive car for its time and even at the prices they were selling for, Lincoln was still loosing money on each car they sold. It was all part of their plan to regain marker shares. All the engineering had been done for the retractable hard top convertible. The decision was made by Lincoln to ax the convertible because of the cost to produce it and the fact that they were already loosing money on the car to begin with. The engineering drawings were given to the Ford division. Ford division ran with the idea and thus the Ford retractable was born. Because of the fact that the Ford division didn't get the drawings until mid 1956 the Ford retractable did not come out until the mid 57 model year.

An interesting side note to this story was that Chrysler was trying to come out with a retractable too. One of the Lincoln engineers working on the retractable project had quit Lincoln and went to work for Chrysler in early 1955. He had mentioned to Chrysler that Lincoln was building this car. Chrysler made the decision to try and come out with one first. The car was hand built at the Ghia works in Italy and was shipped via ship to the US and was set to debut at the Detroit auto show for the 57 model year. The ship the car was shipped on happen to be the Andrea Doria which for those of you that do not remember or was not around at the time was struck by the freighter Stockholm in fog in 1956 and sank.

I have heard another version of this story and the other one was that the car that sank was not the retractable convertible but rather another car and the convertible was not finished in time and was never shown. Regardless if which story is true the story is interesting.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » August 25, 2009, 5:15 pm

Great story. That retractable system was really an engineering marvel (or it seem to be to my 17 year old eyes.) All kinds of electric screws and levers.
In operation it sort of reminded me of the "Remarkable Toy" song by Peter, Paul & Mary.

It went zip when it moved and pop when it stopped,
Whirrr when it stood still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.

Yes, I remember the Stockholm/Dorea disaster. Probably the first such event that was covered by TV news. I remember watching it.

BTW: I think Greg D was referring the the 57 Ford that was in the lot where the OP found his Mack B.

Not what I intended on getting

Not what I intended on getting

Mack

Macks

Skyliner

Re: Skyliner