The January/February 2025 issue of the magazine is available in our gift shop now and will be available on newsstands soon. Our cover feature is Donald Rogers’ 1935 Ford Panel Delivery. Story by Bob Tomaine • Photos by Al Rogers

At Your Service

This 1935 Ford Panel Delivery was wasting away in a field when Donald Rogers spotted it!

Story by Bob Tomaine • Photos by Al Rogers

The era of car-based trucks could not go on forever, but it had a long run and often resulted in commercial vehicles that went beyond simply advertising their owners’ businesses and looking great while doing so.

In the beginning, the practice was a natural. Passenger cars, in their earliest days, were—when not merely toys for those who could afford them—a curiosity, and delivery work was still handled by horse-drawn wagons. It would not be long, however, before it became obvious that self-propelled vehicles were here to stay. As horseless carriages grew increasingly powerful and at least somewhat more reliable, practical minds realized that they could be made to pay their own way.

The elegant approach to this end was to design a commercial body that could use the same chassis as the passenger car. In 1904, Oldsmobile introduced a commercial version of its Curved Dash model. Three years later, Cadillac offered its Model M in a series of passenger-car configurations as well as with a delivery body, but such creative thinking was not limited to General Motors. Elmore’s 1904 Model 9 was available as a runabout, tonneau, or delivery wagon. Hewitt listed a light delivery derived from its limousine in 1906, and Flanders built car-based deliveries in 1912.

Ford late to the truck party
Ford Motor Co., though, was something of an inconsistent exception. In the pre-Model T years, the company offered a Delivery Car on the 1905 Model C chassis, listed no corresponding body for the Model N that followed, and sold a Model T chassis from 1909 through 1911. A Commercial Roadster and a Delivery followed in 1912, but they soon disappeared; the former was gone after just one year and the latter after two. The chassis-only option remained, which meant that aftermarket suppliers of Ford truck bodies could continue, and the Model T’s overall popularity ensured that a solid demand for their products would exist.

To read more about the Ford Panel Delivery, pick up a copy of the January/February 2025 issue of Vintage Truck magazine!

Articles in this issue include:

FEATURES

Blue Ridge, White Truck
Howard Bowers’ White is a Model 1500 … or maybe a Model GBBE … or is it a Model 15?
Story by Robert Gabrick, Photos by Al Rogers
Mann Power
Cecil and Connie Mann’s 1989 Shelby Dakota is “one very bad pickup!”
Story by Robert Gabrick, Photos by Brad Bowling
At Your Service
This 1935 Ford Panel Delivery was wasting away in a field when Donald Rogers spotted it!
Story by Bob Tomaine, Photos by Al Rogers
All That and a Box from Knox
Keystone’s 1949 International KB-1 Cornbinder was restored more for cool cruising than concours correctness!
Story by B. Mitchell Carlson, Photos by Brad Bowling

DEPARTMENTS

Letter from the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Chevy Talk: 1972 Chevrolet Cheyenne C10
For Ford Fans: 1941 Ford pickup
Books in the Bed: Reviews by Robert Gabrick
Aid for the Anxious Amateur: Instrument cluster refresh
Classifieds
Show Guide
Granny Gear: Welcome Home

If you can't find Vintage Truck on a newsstand near you, call 800-767-5828 or visit our Gift Shop to order current or back issues. To subscribe, call 888-760-8108 or click here.