Photo: BaT User: Rolfweid
Before the Second World War, there wasn't much mechanical difference between a Ford coupe, sedan, drop-top, or even a pickup truck. Back in those days, you could get away with doing such things. Imagine trying to build an F-150 in 2023 with the underpinnings from a late-model Taurus, and that's the kind of situation we're dealing with here. But this particular 1940 Ford Pickup is a bit more special than all its clones.
But before we parade you with the spoils under the hood of this truck, a brief history of Ford pickup trucks during the inter-war years. Before the F-series permanently differentiated itself from the rest of Ford's lineup, practically the entirety of their lineup was derived from the underpinnings of just a single automobile. Indeed, the full-size Ford form factor, of which this truck is a part of the fifth generation, prospered from 1908 with the Ford Model T until 2019, when the Taurus ended its production run.
This truck's 1940 model year means it was built a full eight years before the F-Series began the great schism into its own bespoke vehicle, leaving full-size Fords to deal with coupes and sedans in North America. From the factory, these fifth-gen full-size Fords, known more widely as the 1937 Ford, hit dealerships with one of two variants of the ubiquitous Ford flathead V8 with either a 136-cubic inch (2.2-L) or a 221-cubic inch (3.6-L) engine block. By all metrics, these were some of the finest, most refined automobile engines to come out of an American factory before World War II.
But you probably wouldn't want to live with a flathead V8 on an everyday basis. Flathead V8s might be spartan and simple to work on by the standards of modern engines, but we doubt most people want to spend their Saturdays under the hood of what's at least an 80-year-old engine when something eventually does break. Even good engines have to fail eventually. But that's unless they come out of a Toyota Land Cruiser. Many vintage J60-series Land Cruisers are still chugging along even as the earliest models manufactured are coming up on 45 years old.
We're sure you see where we're going with this. It's the 3.4-liter, indirectly-injected Toyota 3B diesel engine that makes this fully-restored Ford truck so one-of-a-kind. With 90 horsepower to work with, flanked by the manual transmission and dual-range transfer case of an '85 Land Cruiser and Bilstein shocks all around, this Ford truck is exponentially more capable as a work truck in its current state than the day it left a Ford Factory what must've been 83 years ago or more. It's the kind of Bring a Trailer auction we don't mind showcasing just by the sheer cool factor.
This truck's 1940 model year means it was built a full eight years before the F-Series began the great schism into its own bespoke vehicle, leaving full-size Fords to deal with coupes and sedans in North America. From the factory, these fifth-gen full-size Fords, known more widely as the 1937 Ford, hit dealerships with one of two variants of the ubiquitous Ford flathead V8 with either a 136-cubic inch (2.2-L) or a 221-cubic inch (3.6-L) engine block. By all metrics, these were some of the finest, most refined automobile engines to come out of an American factory before World War II.
But you probably wouldn't want to live with a flathead V8 on an everyday basis. Flathead V8s might be spartan and simple to work on by the standards of modern engines, but we doubt most people want to spend their Saturdays under the hood of what's at least an 80-year-old engine when something eventually does break. Even good engines have to fail eventually. But that's unless they come out of a Toyota Land Cruiser. Many vintage J60-series Land Cruisers are still chugging along even as the earliest models manufactured are coming up on 45 years old.
We're sure you see where we're going with this. It's the 3.4-liter, indirectly-injected Toyota 3B diesel engine that makes this fully-restored Ford truck so one-of-a-kind. With 90 horsepower to work with, flanked by the manual transmission and dual-range transfer case of an '85 Land Cruiser and Bilstein shocks all around, this Ford truck is exponentially more capable as a work truck in its current state than the day it left a Ford Factory what must've been 83 years ago or more. It's the kind of Bring a Trailer auction we don't mind showcasing just by the sheer cool factor.
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