Look what George A found, a purple fire truck with a sunroof! When you look at this old fire truck listed on eBay, surely one of the first things you notice is that it is purple. It ends Sunday and bidding is just over $9000 at this time. It’s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My memory has faded a bit, but searching through my recollection of fire and rescue vehicles over the decades this is the first purple one that comes to mind. It’s a purple fire truck with a sunroof. Ain’t she a beauty! It’s a one owner and said to have less than 15,000 miles. It comes with all the things that make a fire truck fun including lights, siren and airhorn.
The inside looks well worn for so few miles, but they were busy, slow miles so it’s possible. I can’t imagine wanting to change a thing here.
Accommodations in back don’t look that luxurious, but there’s seating for a crowd. One could add luxury accommodations, tint the windows and have a great party bus.
There’s even a bit of a back deck in the event you want a smoking section or more of the outside than the sunroof provides.
That’s a Ford Y Block engine, Ford’s first overhead valve V8. That’s one huge air compressor under the hood. Perhaps it should be swapped for an A/C compressor. That’s a messy bunch of wires but it shouldn’t take much to sort it out.
Hopefully this old fire truck will find an interesting home just as it is. It would be great for driving folks around a resort somewhere. Bidding is high enough it isn’t likely to be cut up into a truck. It would be interesting to know what eventually happens to this old ford truck.
That is an air brake compressor…….this was listed on the other site…….great looking truck, too bad it is a Ford.
I’m thinking that the air compressor is for air brakes, so you won’t be swapping that out!
13,538 original miles? Since when did Ford equip their trucks with speedometers that have a Mack logo?
I’ll take “Things I never thought existed” for 400, Alex. (There’s probably an “I never saw a purple cow”… Joke in there someplace, but I can’t get the meter to work).
I have seen purple cows, and no drinking was not involved!!
A local farmer would paint big purple circles on his cows during deer season, to prevent them from getting killed by city slickers that thought they were deer. In Missouri purple is what you paint on your property boundaries to mark them as private land no hunting!!!
Mike you are correct about that. We would do that plus the usual no hunting signs. Some hunters always choose to ignore them every year.
Yessir, city folks are a pretty dumb lot in rural settings. Back when I raised hogs I’d use a few of the round 2 ton hog feeder lids as NO HUNTING signs. Across the bottom I wrote “Don’t Even Ask”. Apparently city folks don’t realize where their food comes from and need to treat farmers with the utmost respect. If they trespass on my land I and my quick Irish temper go visit with them. Better off if I just ignore them. Grrrr
I love this purple outfit but NOT as a moronic party bus. I’m not a Ford fan but this grille style was the (very last) most attractive. Pre 1938 and this era were the only attractive Fords. It’s been down hill ever since, IMHO.
What a terrific camper that would make. Trying to figure out how the air cleaner would fit onto that front draft carb. Hope they still have it. On the pass side of the carb there seems to be a governor. Probably would pull that carb off and put on something better. I’m sorry to say that I’d also remove the sirens/big flashing lights/ other Fire Dept hardware, as well. Of course that means filling holes and paint work, but since it is Washington Huskies purple, and this is U of Oregon Fighting Duck country, a partial paint job would be necessary anyhow. Would be cool. :-) Terry J
I don’t recall ever seeing a purple fire truck, but to be more accurate, this was probably more of a “troop carrier” for big jobs, as I don’t see much actual fire fighting equipment. Got a little more than 13g’s on ‘er, folks. Looks like the old gauges were wore out, and went with the old Mack fire engine gauges from out back. Brake pedal too, so it does indeed have air brakes. While it looks a little haggered now, I bet at one time, people from miles around knew about that fancy purple fire truck from North Braddock, PA. and mighty glad to see it in an emergency. The label on the dash is pretty straight forward, On kill switch is on.
The Green Haven VFD painted their trucks green. They did stand out
That would make a nice college football tailgate vehicle for a school with purple as one of it’s color.
LSU, Clemson, TCU, Washington
I thought I’d seen everything when I saw white, green, and yellow. I guess this goes to show that ALL colors were used in fire and emergency vehicles. Looks like something that could spent its retirement as a wild and crazy party car….
I’ve never been so thankful that I have no room left in my garage!
Very nice old rescue rig and I like the unusual color. What I don’t like is their using the smaller “WL” sirens. While the “WL”s were big sellers for Federal back in the day, they’re just too small for regular emergency runs…and the red light on the front tends to muffle them that much more. If they spent as much as I would suspect on a nice truck like that, they could’ve gone a bit further in using a Q or other adequate siren. A local ambulance I used to see as a kid had one of those WLs fender-mounted, and they were forever getting hit. And the owner just couldn’t figure out why. I told him that you just couldn’t hear that little siren. Fortunately, he took my word for it, and it was replaced by a decent B&M!
I would like to keep it just the way it is, use it for parades, make a great shriners truck for the ones who can’t March any more.
What a great beer tapper truck for a brewery! Back in into a space with outside taps!! Only a dream!!
As with any fire truck there is little practical use for it. The same holds true here and I wouldn’t want this for any amount of money I would say take the front clip off to be used on something else. Then I’d cut the rest of it up and scrap it. I’m pretty sure a beast like this gets about 2 gallons to the mile. No thanks. Now I know that there are those that would disagree and to them I say you are welcome to this money Pitt.
My comet is also from North Braddock, I can across the fire truck and couldn’t help but wonder if they had ever cross paths and had just met up one last time.
Wow! Sold for $28,600.00. 80 bids.