What do you do when it is the early 1930s, you need a pickup truck to work, and all you have is an old Studebaker touring car out back? Oh, and they’ve got a Depression going on. In the days before Sawzalls and Bondo, it was common to cut off the rear part of a touring car and convert it into a pickup. That might be what happened to this 1924 Studebaker pickup for sale on Facebook Marketplace in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. This workhorse sports a well-earned patina and a look all its own. Is $18,500 a fair price to pay for a 100-year-old truck that runs and drives just like it did when it helped put food on the table during the Depression? Thanks to T.J. for this interesting find!
The Great Depression was an incredibly transformative event for many people. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer people left who can give you a firsthand account of just how bad things were back then. It is a lesson we all need to understand. While Florida was already in a Depression thanks to the failed land boom of the twenties, the onset of the Great Depression only made things worse for my newly married great-grandparents. My great-grandfather went to Akron, Ohio to work in the tire plants because there was no work to be had in Florida. He wrote back about seeing men jump to their deaths from tall buildings because they had lost everything and couldn’t feed their families. Seeing and experiencing this desperation altered the way he looked at life until the end.
Our behavior is different when times are tough, and survival is a primary concern. The Roaring Twenties and its strong economy helped to sell a whole lot of luxury cars across America. Not everybody drove Model T and Model A Fords as the movies would have you believe. When the bottom dropped out, a lot of these cars hit the market at bargain prices. Many of them were a few years older and considered used cars, and all of the upper-end cars had strong engines and were built to a high standard. While it is sacrilegious today to take a saw to a touring car of the twenties or thirties, you have to respect the fact that people were doing what they could to survive. If cutting up a car was the difference between my family eating or starving, then I would do what is necessary. You would too.
The 1924 Studebaker you see here likely started life out as a stately touring car. Studebaker had a well-earned reputation for quality and choosing one in 1924 would have been a wise move. Just five years later, the economy began crashing down in October of 1929. While we do not have any early history on the car, the ad states that it was converted into a truck to work the blueberry fields during the Depression. What is also interesting is the location of the truck today. Boyertown, Pennsylvania was the home to commercial truck body makers Boyertown Body Works. From 1887 to their bankruptcy in 1990, the company was a large employer in the area. While it is possible someone employed by the company did the conversion on their own, there is no way to be sure. Just an interesting coincidence.
As it sits now, the truck runs and drives. The seller also tells us that it will be sold on a bill of sale as is where is. While they may struggle to get the asking price, it seems that this truck should be available for all to see. Converted vehicles like this are almost extinct today. A truck like this can illustrate just how things were when times got really tough better than any book. People did what they had to survive, and this truck is rolling proof of that.
Do you have any family stories of the Depression? Do you have any thoughts on how things would go today if a similar tragedy befell our nation? If so, please share your stories and thoughts in the comments.
This is a great write up thank you Jeff. This doesnt look like some cobbled up Frankenstein truck conversion. It looks like whoever did this really tried to do a decent quality job of converting this Studebaker into a pickup. Quite frankly, id leave it just as it is, or try to restore it to what they had originally done. Its one thing to read about the great depression or learn about it in school. Quite another to have lived through it. And also a privilege to have a chance to have gotten to know about it through their Grandparents or great grandparents. ( like I did). You have to stop and think about it for a minute. We all knew that the depression was going to end, because it happened and it was history. But living through it however during the time it was happening, no one knew IF or WHEN it was going to end. They were doing all they could to make it through the long hall and hopefully survive it with their families. Anyway, again really nice write up and history lesson.
Okay, a bit of a left turn there, going from Studebakers to the Depression. Let’s back up a bit. 1st, again, it was a Facebook Marketplace ad, that without joining, one cannot see, 2nd, it’s been taken down. As far as the truck itself, I’m by no means an expert, although this wonderful machine makes me seem like one, this truck, I believe from what I ascertained, is what was called a “Big Six” and was indeed a pickup. It was delivered as a chassis with the Studebaker inline 6, about 75 hp and companies like Boyertown added whatever the customer wanted. From a time when Studebaker was a top of the line vehicle, and not to be remembered for its last days as a Lark.
Now, the Depression, which is a bit odd for the site, but the author seemed passionate about it, and I’m sure we all heard the stories. My parents were born in 1926, so they don’t remember much, but my grandparents lived through it. You know, they didn’t really talk about it much. I think they wanted to forget about it. I was told, my grandfather, who would have been in his 20s, had a job as a overall maker in Milwaukee. My dad always had nice pants to wear, taken home by my grandfather in his lunchpail, so the story went. From what I heard, the Depression was caused by a number of factors, probably stemming from the beginnings of our industrial/money age, and I think enough safeguards are in place today to keep that from happening again, HOWEVER, I don’t think I’ll see it, but our society will most certainly go through a ,,readjustment, of sorts, we just can’t go on the way we are, and 5 figure vintage cars and $7 dozen eggs is, to me, a sure sign there’s trouble a brewin’.
In 1976 I moved to Minneapolis to finish college. I moved into half of a double bungalow in an older part of town, along with 3 other boys. In the other half of the bungalow lived Nick, his wife Jane and daughter Kathy. Nick and Jane were in their upper 90s and Kathy was in her 70s. They had moved to Minneapolis in the mid 1930s after losing their hardware store in Iowa during the depression. Nick got a job as a plumber and kept that one job for the rest of his working life. His car was a 56 Chevy 210 4 door that he traded his 27 Chevy coupe for in 1956. The Chevy dealer on Lake Street still had his 27 in their collection. I spent a lot of time with him while I lived there, mowing and shoveling and generally helping out with what Nick could no longer do. He had me sell his 56 when he decided he should no longer drive, not a bad car but one that had lived in Minneapolis for 20 years, rough around the edges. He also gave me his tools. He had made his living and provided for his family with 1 small handheld wooden box with leather hinges and a small handful of pipe wrenches a pliers and 2 screwdrivers.
He had absolutely no bitterness, grateful that he had provided for his family through hardships that would bring most people to their knees. Both Nick and Jane lived to 100+ years old.
Great story Turbo!
My father was born in 1922 ,so he lived through the depression. His parents had no money to begin with, so it was pretty much the same for him before ,during and after the depression . When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he and his buddies joined up, When he came back things started getting better for him
Yeah Turbo, that was a great story. Do you still have his tools? If you do,
there’s irreplaceable history there that
cannot be duplicated. My Grandpa
landed a job with Watlington-anderson in ’33 as a machinist making radiators for cars and trucks.
He and Grandma finally saved up
enough cash to buy a new Hudson
Terraplane (1936 I think) about the same time my Mom was born. That
began his loyalty to the Hudson brand
until it folded in ’57. Mom and Dad
used to tell us lots of stories about
life back then. It was amazing as to
how these folks survived these terrible times. My paternal Grandma
ran a small bakery out of her home
after losing my Grandpa in a scarlet
fever epidemic in 1933–which she
operated until her passing in 1990
at the age of 90. Another case for
Survival was my Uncle Arnum, who
lived in the hills of Kentucky. Uncle A
was one of those self taught guys who could do or fix anything he set his mind to. On my last visit to his
farm outside Morgantown (1971?)
my cousin Tom and I found an old
’20s model Packard touring car that
had the rear seats removed and a portable moonshine still welded to
the frame in their place. Now being a
couple of young motorheads, we didn’t give a damn about the still in
the back, we just wanted to see if we
could get it running. Well, after about
90 minutes worth of tinkering, we did
just that! The tires surprisingly still
held air so all we had to do was clean
the plugs, points, and rotor. We found
some gas in a Jerry can and jumped it off using Unc’s tractor that was parked next to it. In all that tinkering,
we forgot to check the brakes! We
revved the engine and Cousin Tom
pushed in the clutch and found first
gear. When he let the clutch out, off
we went. The car lurched forward,
bustin’ through the barn doors on our way to the yard. That’s when Tom
found the E brake and got the car
stopped. Needless to say, Uncle A
was pretty embarrassed and the rest
of the family was shocked at what they saw. But all was made better
when I wrote my Uncle a check for the damages to the barn and sat in on
the giant jam session that took place
AFTER we also blew up an old outhouse with a bundle of M-80s!
Cool story! There’s definitely truth in “The greatest generation” My Grandfather’s and 1 Grandmother were gone long before I was born, but my Dad had to quit school when he was 13 after his Dad died. My Dad took over his Dad’s job hauling gravel to build a highway using a team of horses and a wagon. He was the only son and had to help provide for his Mom and sisters. People nowadays have a hard time comprehending how tough life was.
I do still have Nick’s tools and toolbox. Their daughter had never married so they had no extended family. When I got married, Nick and Jane gave us some ornate serving dishes.
Another quick story, when I shoveled snow for them, I always had to go have hot chocolate with them. They had the classic wooden kitchen table with a chrome border and linoleum top. The wooden legs all stood in large soup cans about half full of water. I gotta ask Nick, what’s with the soup cans? “Keeps the ants off the table!”
I was tough(lol) and never wore a hat while shoveling. Nick insisted I take his red woolen scarf. I still use it today.
It was both an honor and a pleasure to just hang out with all the older folks I knew as a kid. They taught me
so many life lessons that I cannot begin to tell you all of them. The ones I do recall to this day are learning to make
due with the things you have. And if life knocks you down, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get
back in the game. No one’s gonna
do that for you, YOU have to do that.
They taught me how to be tough and
that only hard work can get you what
you want and nothing else. They also
taught me how to overcome a disability and be the man I am today.
Thanks to them, I’m a double retiree
who’s lived a very full life. Couldn’t
have done it without ’em.
Oh, If only I were old enough to drive… I find these early pickups made from (presumably) a factory chassis and another body was either made out of wood usually by the customer or a coachbuilder quite interesting. This looks to me to be very well done, probably by a coachbuilder or just someone with plenty of talent. This doesn’t really have the cobbled-together look of a depression-era truck-think the Beverly hillbillies’ Oldsmobile. If it were mine, I’d put some taller wheels and tires on it, like from a high-boy sprayer or something reminiscent of the old mail cars we’ve covered on this site, like the high-wheeled Model A. Well…I’ve got a few years to think on it.
Good Night to all
Flint
Cool looking old truck and I’d actually drive it if it were mine . . . but that price is at least 3 – 4 times what I think is reasonable today.
The depression caused the phenomenon called hoarding.
We all benefit from that, otherwise most of these irreplaceable vehicles would have been scraped years ago
Grapes of Wrath.
I live in Montana and have bought and sold several of these home built “FARMERISED” pickups. One Model T had been lengthened and a Ruxtell and over-drive tranny added to make a mobile horse shoeing business out of. I have a 1930 Willys sedan that is crudely cut up and I hope to put it back together into a better looking FARMERISED pickup when I retire. I have 15 old Model T roadsters to play with also, so I’m not sure how many I can get done before it’s too late.
This truck is just so cool. I hope whoever ends up with it preserves it the way it is.
The roof is so well done that I wonder if it came off an old truck.
Any guesses?
That question posed at the end of a great write up could’ve potentially illicited some responses that would’ve had to have been removed, but happy to see that hasn’t been the case thus far. I actually often think about that; how would current society here in the U.S. react to those same conditions. I don’t think well at all. Many seem to lack the ability to sacrifice or show any inginuity or creativity that would be needed to get by. They would just whine and some turn to theft.
I’ll leave it there since I don’t want to be the one making comments that should be removed.
My grandparents grew up during it and it had a lasting effect on them, of course. They worked hard and also learned how to invest on their own. I was always told, “when someone offers you something, take it.” I take that with a grain of salt, as today there’s typically strings attached.
Oh yeah; incredible truck and piece of history. Leave it alone and merely maintain/ preserve.
An interesting thought is that it may have been done at the beginning of WWII. Watching Ian Roussel go through a barn with old cars, he came across an old car that had been converted to a truck. He was told that, apparently, during the war if you had a car you were rationed a certain amount of gasoline, but if you had a truck, you got a higher ration. Many old cars were converted to trucks to get around the rationing rules.
My grandfather was a German immigrant that hand would mansions on the north shore of Long Island during the roaring 20’s built all woodwork and trim he did himself said rails mantels crown after the crash the people he built for couldn’t afford to pay him so they gave him the furniture in payment it was all he could get my happens house in Manhasset was a simple house but lavishly furnished and the mansion were empty
He had to feed his family of 5 kids so he took a job as supervisor of buildings and maintenance for the school district
His tools were put into his basement workshop where he worked on small projects but never used professionally again
When he died an uncle took the tools
I became a contractor myself when my uncle died he left most of the tools to me.even though my uncle had 12 kids none were involved or interested in construction and my uncle felt I should get them since I was the only one of 36 gran kids in construction I have some in shadow boxes and some stored
The stories I heard about converted trucks came more from the war than the depression. You could get more gas bonds if you had a truck so a lot of cars ended up losing their back seat to a pickup bed of some kind. A local farmer in my neighborhood built what came to be known as “The Pet.” He cut off the back of a sedan and added a box off a Chevrolet pickup. Looks like a headlight got switched as well. Anyways, the truck got used through the war and into the 60s before the owner finally got himself a ’63 Chevy. The Pet was so beloved that the son of the builder still drove it around the farm. When he passed my cousin got it and it resides to this day at a tavern in Hungry Horse. I heard it still gets exercised although it has to be snuck around so as not to attract the attention of the sheriff…
Do not have much to add but really enjoyed all these stories.
Hi Geo! Good to see you and Mike
posting on BF again! That old truck
you shared with us really cool too. And
what’s even better, is that it survived to this day. Not many of them did.
After their usefulness was through,
they were scrapped. Purists in the
’60s often shunned them because
the vehicles were hacked up and of
no real use to them.except for what
parts they could pull off them for their
own pristine projects. Here in Florida,
necessity was indeed the mother of
invention– especially after WW2. MY
Uncle John told me stories as a kid
as to just how resourceful the Florida
farmers really were when it came to
adapting war surplus items to the
business of growing fruits and vegetables. I can still recall to this day stories of tanks being turned into
pesticide sprayers and army trucks
turned into field vehicles and tractors
for pulling fruit trailers. My two uncles would land their C-47s in part of a field that had already been cleared where truckloads of produce
were waiting to be loaded onto their
planes for transport back to our
hometown in Illinois during the winter
months so that grocers had fresh
produce to sell. They had contracts
with several stores around town and
made a killing doing it. And that’s how my uncle became a millionaire.
Just try doin’ that today.
My grandfather would take old model t cars and remove the back end, leave the front seats intact . He would build a truck body from scrap wood at the farm, attach it to the back of the model t. Truck was then taken to camp for a week of deer hunting, and brought back meat used all year long. The way it was.