Jim Dworschack owns a piece of history in his 1948 Nash pickup. His prized piece of memorabilia is so uncommon, it was rarely seen — even when new.

“The Nash pickup I have I first saw in the early ’70s, when I made a trip to the Nash Club member’s house… in Oswego, Illinois,” said Jim, a resident of Soldiers Grove, Wis. “I had never seen a Nash pickup before, hence the journey to see it.” 

Actually, what Jim saw was parts of the pickup, because owner Bob Moser had taken it apart to restore it. Although Jim only saw pieces, he said, “It turns out to be the only one I have seen other than the prototype truck.”

The prototype Nash pickup he’s referring to had a 1942 Nash 600 front clip and cabin up to the B pillar. A panel was welded to the car body, behind the B pillar, to form the pickup cab. The fabrication was placed on a 1936 Nash frame. Perfect Steel Body Co. provided a pickup box, and the rear fenders came from a 1941 Ambassador.

The prototype pickup was used by the Nash plant until it was gifted to a retiring engineer in the late 1950s. This engineer traded it in at Walter Rambler, of Madison, Wis. The dealership then used it as a shop truck. Later, one of the dealership’s mechanics bought it for use on his farm. This technician’s son disassembled it, like Jim’s truck, for a long period of time. In 1980, Nash Club member Don Lope bought and reassembled it.

Before buying Bob’s truck, Jim was going to build his own Nash pickup.

“I am aware of two pickups that were made by people using big Nash truck cabs on sedan chassis coupled with a vintage pickup bed from another make, and two just cut-down donor sedans, home jobs.”

Bringing the Nash pickup back to life had become a stalled project for Bob, although Jim didn’t know it at the time he first saw it.

“After not seeing Bob Moser for perhaps 10 years, I bumped into him at the ’86 Nash meet,” Jim said. “I told him about my idea of how to make a Nash pickup. When I got done telling him the details, he just looked at me and said, ‘Why don’t you buy mine?’ So, I did.”

Jim restored the Nash back to its original configuration. 

“Upon going to get the pickup, I found it all just as I remembered seeing it about 14 years previously,” Jim said. “The cab had been restored and the chassis painted. Essentially, I bought a pile of pieces, and within a year, had it restored and on the road in 1987.” The result was a mechanically sound, cosmetically appealing and road worthy truck.

The cab and front clip of Jim’s 1948 Nash pickup is based on the Ambassador model of that year, so it looks similar to the prototype Nash pickup, which had a 1942 Nash 600 front clip. (Like other manufacturers, Nash carried over its 1942 bodies for several years after World War II ended.) Since Nash didn’t go to unibody construction until 1949, Jim’s Nash uses the 1948 Ambassador’s separate frame-and-body construction. 

“These pickups were built on the ’48 convertible chassis, which had some extra reinforcing on the standard ’48 frame,” Jim said. “The entire driveline was the normal Nash Ambassador Six, overdrive transmission, with the sedan’s normal 4.4:1 rear-axle ratio. The sheet metal is the basic Ambassador four-door sedan. The roof was modified, of course, with the creation of sheet metal behind the driver’s seat. With the headliner removed, one can see the welded seam across the roof where the cab rear section stamping was welded to the standard four-door sedan roof. The backlight consists of three windows similar to the Advance-Design Chevrolet. 

“The cab and all stampings had to be made at the Seaman body plant in Milwaukee, as there were no sheet metal stamping facilities at the Kenosha facility at the time,” Jim explained.

Additional parts on the pickup not found on a ’48 Ambassador sedan are heavy-duty springs and shocks, as well as pickup-sized rear leaf springs.

“The bed, I think, was made by Heil for Nash,” Jim said. “Spacers were made in order to be able to use the standard rear fenders.” Since Heil was in Milwaukee, Jim’s theory is logical.

As on earlier versions of pickups built by the Independents, Jim’s 1948 Nash pickup benefitted from passenger car styling cues and comforts. 

“All appointments inside are the same as the Ambassador, including the famous Weather Eye heating system, sedan seat, etc. The door panels and below-the-dash kick panels are Masonite with a leatherette-type grain stamped on them. The headliner cardboard also has leatherette-type grain finish. The floor is covered with the standard passenger car rubber floor mat. Even the wood-grained dash and window surrounds are what the autos would have.”

Jim’s pickup was originally a company truck for Nash’s Milwaukee body plant. According to Nash Club member Bernie Turco, by 1954 this pickup was being used by Jensen Crankshaft of Kenosha. Bob Moser bought it from Jensen in the late ’60s.

It has been said that the Nash pickup would have had a hefty price tag, which is probably why it didn’t catch on with the public.

“I talked with a Nash member who worked at a Nash dealership in ’48, when the dealer received promotional information from the company. He remembers the pickup costing about twice as much as a basic Ambassador. I have never seen production figures for the pickup, but like the big (Nash) trucks, they are thought to have far more sales oversees than domestically, and likely for the same reason — cost.

“Bernie recollected that the 1-1/2-ton Nash trucks were assembled in shops on 30th Avenue at the Kenosha plant (not on an assembly line). We speculated that it was likely the pickups were likewise assembled in these shops. The pickups, while being on the convertible chassis, were different enough that they wouldn’t likely mesh with the standard production line.”

The original exterior color of Jim’s truck was red, which is how he painted it in 1987. 

“All trim was chrome plated, as on the car, except the rear bumper was specific to the pickup and painted,” Jim said. “Over the years, I lettered the doors with the original Nash lettering, as shown in the factory photo.”

As can be surmised from being based on a convertible chassis, the pickup has 1940s sedan road manners, but with the added benefit of a pickup truck’s carrying capabilities.

“The truck drives and steers easily, just like a car, because it essentially is a car!” Jim says. “Being a car chassis, it has a long, low look to it, very un-pickup like for the era.”

Despite being restored, Jim’s pickup continues to occasionally work. In addition to giving Sunday rides, the Nash does double-duty hauling wood, furniture and Nash parts. After all, it is a pickup!

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We’re suckers for three-tone paint schemes. Anything red, white and blue — we’re in. Think AMC Rebel Machine.

We like old pickups, too. And everybody loves old Internationals!! This beauty is the best of all worlds: a ’51 IH L-110 pickup with crazy red-white-and-black paint scheme that is guaranteed to get you noticed on your Saturday cruise night.

According to the listing, the paint scheme is a nod to the International Harvester logo. She uses an inline 220-cid six-cylinder for propulsion and nice little upgrades: “power steering, a 12-volt electronic system, JVC stereo system, SunPro gauges, and Uniroyal Tiger Paw tires mated to Ion Alloy 15-inch rims. The truck also features a Rhino sprayed bed liner, tow hitch and diamond plate roll pan style rear bumper. The truck also has an interesting styling cue with a split rear window and a double hinged piano style opening hood.”

It all looks good to us! She’s for sale at Gateway Classic Cars in Milwaukee, Wis.

Somebody needs her in their life!

CHECK IT OUT

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We can’t remember ever actually seeing a 1941 Plymouth half-ton pickup in the flesh. That fact alone is reason enough for us to want this amazing old hauler from Iowa.

It’s rusty, dented up and wears the definition of “patina.” But this baby has got cool written all over it.

The seller claims it has been in the same family since 1941 and is fresh out of “barn find” storage. It doesn’t run, but hopefully somebody can get the six-cylinder engine turning over again. The seller wants $10,000. That’s a lot of dough for a rusty pickup that needs pretty much everything.

Still… We’d Buy That!

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Joe DiGrazia is a past volunteer EMT captain and president of the Blairstown (New Jersey) Ambulance Corp. When the organization looked to sell its 1960 International Harvester Travelall 46-52 ambulance, DiGrazia was the perfect buyer and bought it.

The Blairstown Ambulance Corp. began in 1952 after a man fell and had to wait two hours for help. The first ambulance the company used was a 1942 Packard funeral car. The squad then bought the 1960 Travelall at a local dealership in Blairstown where it was converted into an ambulance. DiGrazia has been a Blairstown resident for 35 years, so the Travelall has never left the 31-square-mile municipality.

Pastoral Blairstown is in the northwestern section of New Jersey and is nestled in the Great Appalachian Valley. It’s best known outside New Jersey as a filming location for the famous horror movie “Friday the 13th.” The farming area can get a lot of snow and subsequent flooding. Thus, the ambulance is a 4×4 unit that can forge water and cut through snow drifts. Unlike car-based ambulances of the day, the Travelall kept going when the pavement ended. The ambulance has a winch and has even transported a boat when it was necessary to rescue flooded village residents.

International celebrated its golden anniversary with the all-new A-series pickup and Travelall in March 1957. At the time, IH ranked third in truck sales. Under the baton of styling chief Ed Ornan, his crew created modern vehicles at the International styling studio in Fort Wayne, Ind. The Travelall was dramatically styled to look contemporary with automobiles of the day and featured integral front fenders, a flattened hood, elimination of running boards, a wraparound windshield and a slab-sided body.

A facelift in 1959 brought out the “Action Styling” B-series. Quad headlamps were stacked vertically like those on the 1957 Nash and 1957 Lincoln. A new mesh grille resembled the grille of the 1958-’60 Rambler American. The 1959 styling changes were retained for 1960. DiGrazia said that International admirers are amazed that the grille on his ambulance is original and undamaged. Many IH grilles have been dented over the years.

The upright, rectangular styling of DiGrazia’s Travelall ambulance makes for a brawny presence. Because of the longer, lower and wider stance of automobiles in the late 1950s and 1960s, car-based ambulances required a lot of structural changes by coachbuilders. Given its larger truck roots, the overall shape of the Blairstown ambulance did not have to be altered.

Adding to this ambulance’s imposing squared-off body are its custom-made battering-ram front and rear bumpers reminiscent of the “slamboree” 5-mph bumpers of 1970 cars. The front bumper on this IH also serves to shelter its mechanical winch.

The standard engine for the 1960 Travelall was an overhead-valve V-8. This 266-cid engine produced 154 hp. A delete option was the OHV-six, a 240-cid engine that offered 140 hp. The latter engine powers the Blairstown ambulance.

DiGrazia’s Travelall is believed to have been the longest-running ambulance in service in New Jersey at the time it was retired. From 1960 to 2008, it clocked 48 years. When DiGrazia bought the ambulance, it needed some freshening and attention as the vehicle had a tin-worn appearance. As such, DiGrazia did a rolling restoration consisting of a cosmetic refurbishment and drove the truck on and off while he was working on it. For example, the paint had mildew, dullness and chalking, so DiGrazia addressed this wear. Al Johnson, a local artist, did the original gold leaf lettering, and DiGrazia had him redo the lettering. As a testament to this attention, several years ago DiGrazia’s ambulance was invited to the Monmouth County d’Elegance in Holmdel, N.J.

Swing open the Travelall’s door and it’s yesterday once more. You sit up in the vehicle instead of down in it. The living room-size cabin easily fits 21st Century-size people. Over the painted metal dashboard is a football field of a hood that lunges to meet the horizon.

A white pod contains the gauges and fan-style speedometer including the odometer, which reads just 26,400 miles. The box-shape instrument cluster is directly behind the steering wheel and provides driver-friendly easy viewing. The high-styled four-spoke wheel is something you would expect on a 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, not a truck such as a Travelall. Power steering and brakes allow one to steer with a finger and to tip-toe to a stop. However, DiGrazia is reminded his ambulance is a truck by its four-speed manual transmission. The IH’s anvil-like durability is heard with a solid sound when the doors close, and when the crank handles move windows without any slippage.

On the four corners of the roof are emergency lights, and a cherry sits above the windshield. Inside, there are wooden shelves as well as wooden cabinets under the bench where the volunteers sat with medical equipment and supplies. The linoleum pattern on the floor under the stretcher is of the same pattern found in many homes of the day, including this columnist’s first apartment. Up front, a two-way radio can hear messages. An orange stokes bucket stretcher is held on the roof.

Digrazia adds about 270 miles to the odometer each year while attending shows and parades in the Travelall. It’s a well-deserved retirement following a life of service.

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Most “car guys” can relate to the moment. It’s that memory of the first time you saw a particular vehicle that blew your mind. You might have been 3 years old at the time. You might have been 33. But you’ll never forget it.

“Wow! What was that?!”

Bill Stanley’s moment came when he was a teenager in the 1960s and he saw a rare circa-1937 Hudson Terraplane pickup express on the road.

“We were up in Vermont and I thought it was just the coolest thing in the world,” recalls Stanley, a resident of Cheshire, Conn. “They only made them for two years, and the styling … I was just amazed by it.”

Stanley says he never forgot about that truck, and many years later started to entertain the idea of finding one for himself. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, as they are in the “hen’s teeth” category when it comes to scarcity. Eventually, though, he spotted a classified ad for a ’37 pickup in Ohio. “I called the guy up and he was very modest about,” Stanley recalled. “He said he restored it and it was nice … Well, he sent a few more pictures and they kind of looked good, but you couldn’t really tell. But we agreed on a price and I went out there — I wasn’t going to buy a car without looking at it.”

When he arrived in Covington, Ohio, Stanley met up with Dale Bundy, the owner and seller of the truck. Bundy had spent countless hours working on the truck over the previous four years, but he was ready to let somebody else feed and care for it. “He told me they didn’t have a lot of history, but he said the Hudson collector he got it from bought it from a car lot for about 150 bucks back in the 1960s … and he’d been holding it for all that time,” Stanley said.

“My expectation was that it was going to be in pretty good shape, but it was in much better shape than I expected when I got there. He had done virtually a concours-level restoration … He drove it a little here and there, so it was not a perfect No. 1 [condition] car, but it was not far from it. He told me on the phone that he was a body man … Well, some guys you can just tell are being modest. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there. The motor, drive train, transmission — it was all original and gone through back in the ’90s. I’m sure when he was done with it, it was done way better than when it came out of the Terraplane factory.”

In the three years Stanley has owned it, the ’37 pickup has, in fact, been a concours participant, rubbing fenders with cars of the rich and famous, and it even took home First Junior and First Senior Awards from the AACA.

“Sometimes you just get lucky,” admits Stanley. “I think he probably just wanted to sell it to somebody who would appreciate it and take care of it.”

RISE AND FALL OF TERRAPLANE

The Terraplane name began in 1932 as a model of the Hudson Motor Car Co. Wilbur Wright was the first recipient of a new car, and Amelia Earhart reportedly got the second.

Terraplane automobiles gained notoriety for being clocked at 80 mph, which could compete with the new Ford V-8’s performance. Within a year, Essex-Terraplane became known simply as the Terraplane. Hudson decided to try its Terraplane in racing and hill climb events and the cars went on to collect many hill climb and speed records. The industry’s first all-steel turret top was introduced on a Terraplane in 1935 and “Duo-Automatic” hydraulic brakes arrived in 1936.

For all its strong points, however, the Terraplane was seen by some within the company as a threat to its parent nameplate. The following year, in 1938, it was renamed the Hudson-Terraplane, meaning it was basically a model under the Hudson umbrella. The following year, the Terraplane name disappeared altogether.

RARE AND RUGGED SURVIVOR

The Terraplane cab pickup was unique at the time in that the front half of the vehicle closely resembled a passenger car complete with a fancy streamlined grille and sidemount spare integrated into the passenger side front fender. The swoopy, Art Deco design and low profile of the pickup might make it look a little too fragile and sophisticated for real grunt work, but Stanley’s pickup is actually a beefy 3/4-ton brute underneath its pretty skin. The Double-Drop 2-X frame was certainly suitable for heavy lifting, and the 7-foot-long bed — designed with tool boxes on either side — and 212-cid inline six connected to a three-speed manual transmission with an ultra-low “granny” first gear made the Terraplane a more-than-capable work truck.

“It’s pretty funny thatit’s actually a 3/4-ton truck,” Stanley notes. “It’s kind of low and looks kind of chopped … but the springs on the back are unbelievable. It definitely rides like a three-quarter-ton truck. And I’ll tell you, it gets a lot of attention!

“It drives nice, but you get up to about 45 [mph] and it’s not too happy. The truck really has to work. I can cruise pretty nicely at about 35… It’s non-synchro, so shifting is a bit of an issue. First gear is so low I don’t even use it. Getting off the line is no problem in second gear. First gear would be good for pulling stumps on the farm, I’d guess.”

The Terraplane pickups weren’t quite as fancy inside as they were out, but they were probably a little more refined than most of their completion with a nicely arranged instrument panel located at the center of the dash. The center panel included gas and temperature gauges and lights for the generator and oil pressure — basically early versions of “idiot” lights. The push-button starter was accompanied by a key and a choke adjustment knob. A cowl vent lever controlled the fresh air that was funneled into the cab.

One notable technical achievement that Terraplane enjoyed in those days was a vacuum electric shift assist system that was fitted on the steering column and basically overrode the floor shifter. It was a pretty nifty gizmo, but Stanley’s bare-bones pickup is not equipped with it.“Mine was very basic,” he says. “It’s got no heater, no radio, no clock. Just the basics.”

It’s clear when you talk to Stanley that he couldn’t be prouder of his truck, and every day he gets to drive it is a good day. The novelty of having such a rare hauler that is almost guaranteed to be the only one of its kind wherever he goes hasn’t worn off in the three years he owned it, and it’s doubtful it ever will.

“We are having a lot of fun with it,” Stanley says. “I don’t drive it too much. You’re a little afraid to drive it because if somebody runs a stop sign and hits you, now what are you going to do? It’s not like you can go out to a parts store and get a fender or grille for a ’37 Hudson.”

________________________

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One of Joe Kahn’s earliest memories of his late grandfather, Joe March, was riding on Grandpa Joe’s lap while he drove. “I was probably 3 or 4 years old at the time,” recalls Kahn with a chuckle. “He’d let me steer and he’d work the pedals and we’d be driving around the streets of Chicago — that’s where he lived. I can still remember it.”

And it wasn’t just the trips that Kahn remembers fondly. It’s also the vehicle that they were taken in — an International Scout. “I think my grandfather only had it for probably a couple years, then he got rid of it,” Kahn says.

But the truck made a lasting impression on Kahn, a Lindenhurst, Ill., resident. The happy memories led him to venture to a collector car auction three years ago in hopes of landing his own Scout, and he wound up coming home with a glorious baby blue 1973 Scout II Traveltop that fills his garage with nostalgia and happy vibes.

“I’ve loved cars since I could talk or probably before that, and pretty much all the old cars I’ve had go back to some time in my life, probably like most people,” Kahn says. “After [my grandfather] died I decided to start looking for [a Scout] and I looked for a maybe a couple years and all the ones I saw were all rusty or modified or pimped out.

“I was really just looking for one that was stock and clean and really didn’t need anything. Then, oddly enough, one came up at the Mecum auction in Schaumburg right here, about a half hour away from where we live. So after looking all over from coast to coast, I found one right here and I went to the auction and bought it. They had it on their website and I had been trackingit and staring at pictures all day. My wife [Kristine] took the day off — we went together. I decided if it was half as nice as it looked, I’m going to buy it.”

Kahn joked that he was hoping to buy the Scout “on the low-down” and not attract any attention while he was at the auction, in part because he was taking a day off from work, but the sale wound up on Mecum’s cable TV coverage. “Yeah, there we were, you could see me and my wife on TV, and there we are buying the thing … It was anything but secret! But it was all pretty funny.”

It was pretty much love at first sight when Kahn spotted the largely original, numbers-matching Scout II, and that affection hasn’t cooled much in the past three years. He’s had a great time becoming a card-carrying member of the legion of hard-core Scout enthusiasts in the collector car world. He admits he still doesn’t know as much about them as many of the Scout buffs that drive and collect them, but he’s learned plenty. “I really didn’t know anything about them, other than they made them from about 1972-’80,” he says. I was just looking for one that wasn’t all rotten. I’m a Mustang guy and a GTO guy … but I figured it would be cool to get one because they were different. You go somewhere in your Mustang, everybody knows what it is.

“I was at Menards with this one time and a woman says to me, ‘Is that new?’ I said to here [laughs], ‘No, it’s not new!’ … Another time I was at my favorite cigar shop and a guy says to me, ‘Are you showing this, or is that your daily driver?’ Some people do remember them, and they will be surprised to see them and say something like, ‘Holy crap, these used to all rust out!’”

SURVIVING AND EVOLVING

International Harvester helped prove there was a market for rugged little utility vehicles beyond the farm and field with its first-generation Scout. True, the original Scouts saw a lot of duty off-road in the dirt and in the woods, but they also began to prove themselves as a versatile family rig that could adapt to city and suburban life.

For 1971, IH decided the Scout needed to grow up and redesigned the model — which it now called the Scout II — to be larger and perhaps just a touch more refined. The Scout II debuted in spring of 1971 and offered power brakes, power steering, air conditioning, automatic transmission, a bigger clutch, a wider choice of rear axle ratios, more axle capacity, manual or locking front hubs for 4×4 models, and 5 more cubic feet of load space. The rear seat was lowered and increased in width to accommodate three passengers.

The base 152-cid slant four-cylinder was still used, but there were other engine options on the menu, including the top-of-the-line 345-cid V-8, which is what Kahn’s IH carries.

For 1973, the Scout II was again offered as either a pickup or as a removable-top Traveltop SUV. Both used a 100-inch-wheelbase chassis. Buyers could choose between either two- or four-wheel-drive. Two-wheel-drive models started at $2,605 for the pickup and $2,752 for the Traveltop. The prices jumped to $3,394 and $3,549, respectively, for four-wheel propulsion.

The Scout II had a new front end treatment featuringa rectangular front panel with a single round headlamp at each end. Between the headlamps were now two grilles, one on each side of a narrow, body-colored vertical divider. Each grille had a rectangular opening with a chrome surround and six vertical bars finished in body color. An International nameplate ran horizontally across the lower section of the outer four bars on the left-hand grille.

The Scout II rumbled on through 1976 before more major revisions arrived. That year International dropped all of its Metro vans, station wagons and regular pickups and began to focus on its heavy-duty truck offerings. The Scout grew again and used a 118-inch-wheelbase for ’76 and came as either a Terra pickup or a Traveler hatchback station wagon. The 1980 model year turned out to be the final year for both the Scout and IH’s line of light-duty trucks. The company tried unsuccessfully to sell off the Scout part of its business and the Fort Wayne, Ind., plant where the Scouts were built.By then, more than 532,000 Scouts had been built, dating back to 1960, and the Scout name had been indelibly etched in the history books.

THE FAMILY ‘SCHOOL BUS’

As Scouts go, the Kahns’ gorgeous blue example is about as fancy as they come. It won’t be confused with a ’73 Cadillac or S-Class Mercedes, but it was pretty refined for its breed. “It was sold in Montrose, Colo., from Montrose Equipment. They probably sold farm equipment, I don’t really know,” Joe says. “But it’s got about every option. It’s got the 345 (144 hp) V-8, which is the bigger motor. It’s got the luxury interior, which has the Sage seats. It’s got color-keyed dash, the decor trim on the outside with the belt molding and chrome bumper. They had the dual exhaust. It was Glacier Blue and Sage. The stripes somebody added later. Somebody painted it at some point, and that’s really the only thing that has been done to it.

“It’s odd, but it used to be that if you wanted a cheap paint job, you just painted the outside and that was about it. That’s what they did with this one, but the paint job is so good, I really don’t know what they all did… At some point it came to Illinois, I don’t know when. The guy I bought it from was from the Chicago area, in the northwest suburbs.”

Kahn doesn’t sugar coat what it’s like to travel significant distances in his Scout, or even just wrestle it around town on short trips. It’s fun, for sure, but don’t confuse fun with simple and easy.

“Its very bouncy, oh yeah. When I was a kid, I used to ride in International school buses to and from school every day, and that’s what this reminds me of,” he says. “It’s that winding ‘err,’ ‘err,’ and shifting gears. That’s just what this sounds like.

“And it bounces a lot! I took my mother for a ride when I got it and she got nauseous! That’s the way it rides. I think it’s funny, but she got nauseous from it!”

And the gas mileage? Well, Kahn figures it’s got to be under 10 mpg, but he’s not going to figure it out. He’s also not planning any New York-to-LA road trips. “[Laughs] I don’t want to know! If you are worried about that, it’s probably the wrong vehicle for you.”

Kahn says he has a hard time parting with his toys, and figures his Scout II would be especially difficult to say good-bye to. As long as the truck continues conjuring up memories of his rides with Grandpa Joe, the Scout figures to be a part of the family.

“I don’t sell anything. Especially if it’s connected to somebody in my life, I don’t every get rid of it,” he says.“And this is just too cool. I know you look at the values and they have gone up some obnoxious amount, but I couldn’t get rid of it. No way. It’s just too cool.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1973 International Scout II appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story by Brian Earnest

Rick Sprague never had any secret desire to be a postal carrier.

But he has never been able to hide his affinity for the transportation they once used. In Sprague’s case, the machine of his affections is the Westcoaster Mailster, a memorable little three-wheeled glorified golf cart that puttered around U.S. residential areas hauling mail during much of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Sprague got ahold of his first Mailster when he was only 13, and he’s never really let go. He’s now on his fourth one — which is also the nicest he’s had. It’s a retired 1963 model that once delivered mail somewhere in Pennsylvania.

“I was always into min-bikes and lawn mowers and stuff when I was a kid, and I had my hands on small engines for many years,” laughs Sprague, a resident of Racine, Wis. “And I learned over time how to fix a lot of things.

“I had never heard of [a Mailster], but then I got one when I was a kid, probably 13 years old. The Post Office in town was selling some of them for $200 apiece and a kid in my neighborhood bought one, but the kid’s dad didn’t want him to have it. I got it from him. I think I gave him his 200 bucks back for it. My dad didn’t know I had one at first — I kept it away from the house for the first few days. But he let me keep it.”

Sprague never drove that Mailster on the road legally. It was more of a toy than transportation, but it was plenty of fun to tinker around with and gave him an appreciation for the unique three-wheelers that continues to this day.

“I’m not sure exactly what happened to that one. I never had a title for it or anything,” he recalls. “I had it for probably a good 2 years, then it disappeared. It might have been my dad getting rid of it, I just don’t remember. It took a beating. I used to put a couple guys in back of it and tie the doors shut so they wouldn’t fall out and I’d drop the clutch and do wheelies! Luckily, I never tipped it over. You do a lot of things without thinking when you’re a kid!”

Six or seven different companies wound up making the three-wheeled mail cars, and Sprague owned a Cushman version for a time. It was very similar to his first Westcoaster. The biggest difference at the time was that Sprague was old enough to drive it on the street. “It was the same-size frame,” he says. “I was probably in my 30s at that time, and I used to ride this Cushman three-wheeler back and forth to Kenosha to a friend’s house, probably about 10 miles … That took a beating, too! My dad convinced me to get rid of it, and I sold it to a guy for 200 bucks just to get it out of my hair.”

Sprague’s third Mailster was “a basket case” that he bought about 7 years ago. He worked on it for a while and had some fun with it, but “I could never get it running right. I couldn’t figure out the shifting mechanism. I couldn’t get it fixed, so I ended up putting it on the internet and selling it.”

The apple of Sprague’s eye these days arrived on a transport truck about 5 years ago after he found an ad for it online. The Westcoaster was more than 50 years old, but had been restored and repainted and didn’t need any major repairs. It carries cheeky “U.S. Male” lettering on its side, but otherwise could be mistaken for an actual working mail truck — albeit one that is operating in a bit of a time warp.

“I’m taking it easy with this one,” Sprague laughs. “I’m 63 now and I don’t do all that dumb stuff you do when you’re a kid!”

3’S A CHARM

Prior to the 1950s, mail carriers operated much like paper boys, delivering mail on foot or delivery bicycles. In some cases, carriers were driven in groups to areas to start their rounds, and then re-supplied with mail along the way if necessary.

The USPS needed a faster and more efficient way to get mail into people’s hands during the population boom following World War II, however, and in 1950 the city of Miami, Fla., began experimenting with three-wheeled scooters. Some were electric, others were propelled by one- or two-cylinder gas engines. The three-wheeled scooter idea caught on and soon the Post Office Department was testing a bunch of different vehicle prototypes to outfit its carriers in urban areas. More than two dozen designs were apparently tried, including some right-hand-drive setups. The Mailsters turned out to be inexpensive and handy little rigs and soon were being operated in places like Tampa and St. Petersburg. By 1957, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and other locales were also experimenting with three-wheelers. By 1960, more than 5,700 Mailsters were operating nationwide with plans to add many more.

One of the companies involved was the West Coast Machinery Co. of Stockton, Calif. It built golf carts, trash collecting vehicles, resort cars, airport freight haulers, small farm utility trucks and other specialty vehicles. It called its mail delivery truck the Westcoaster. The truck was basically a beefed-up three-wheeled golf car capable of hauling around up to 500 lbs. of mail. It was powered by a 7.5-hp Onan opposed two-cylinder engine that was located under the driver’s bench seat. The Mailster had a safe speed that topped out at about 35 mph, depending on the terrain and nerves of the driver.

The trucks had a three-speed manual transmission that shifted on the column. The turn-key electric starter operated just like a regular automobile, and most seemed to have mechanical chokes that could be used for cold weather starting. There was a gas heater in front, but most heating units probably didn’t get used much in warmer climates. They had fiberglas bodies with metal doors that slid into slots in the body. The Mailsters stood about 74 inches high and stretched 115 inches from nose to tail and weighed in at about 2,600 lbs.

With three tiny wheels and minimal horsepower, the drawbacks to the little three-wheelers were obvious. You had to be very careful going around corners, and you were helpless in snow and ice. At one point, the Post Office Department actually considered forcing their drivers to wear crash helmets. The Mailsters never earned a reputation for great reliability, either. Among their more common maladies were clutch issues, balky fuel pumps and broken front axles.

By 1967, the Mailsters began to give way to delivery Jeeps. The four-wheeled trucks were simply better in almost every way, if not quite as interesting to scooter fans like Sprague. “The Westcoasters were built in California and I can’t believe Wisconsin ever bought any, but they had them here,” Sprague chuckles. “I know Racine, where I live, they only had them for 2 or 3 years because they were useless when it snowed, but they did use them here.”

DELIVERING FOR CHRISTMAS

Ironically, Sprague acquired his snow-challenged vehicle during the heart of the Wisconsin winter five years ago. He knew he’d have to wait a few months to give the ’63 Westcoaster a proper trial run. “It came up on eBay and at that time the guy that had it lived in Pennsylvania,” he says.
I won the bid at Chistmas time. I remember because I was off work for Christmas time… I paid 2,500 bucks for it, and then when the owner got his money I got hooked up with uShip, and had this thing shipped from Pennsylvania to my house for I think $450. I couldn’t go there and pick it up for myself and bring it back for that.”

The engine in the Mailster had been re-done at some point, according to Sprague, and the truck’s body had been patched up, sanded and repainted in its traditional USPS livery – sans the spelling of “Mail.” For the most part, all Sprague has had to do since then is jump in the scooter and have some fun. “It was all restored at one time, I’m not really not playing with any junk,” he says. “They took the body off and put it all back together. I’m mechanically inclined a little bit and I’ve gotten to know more and more things over the years on these things … The hardest thing was the carburetor. I had some trouble with it because of the reformulated gas we have here. I had it fixed once, then I had it fixed twice, then I got lucky and found one new-old-stock in a climate-controlled warehouse in Florida. I got that carburetor home and put that on there and it started right up. One good thing was I joined an online group called Westcoasters USA. These these little things are all over the place and the owners know where to go to [get parts and repairs].”

Sprague will pilot his mail truck in an occasional parade and hit a few car shows now and then. Most of his trips are to his weekly Wednesday cruise-ins at the local McDonald’s during the warm weather months. “At my age, I think I’m looking for attention [laughs],” he says. “I have a Dodge Coronet and I prefer to take my little scooter up to McDonald’s.”

His days of 20-plus mile road trips in a three-wheeler are probably long gone, but Sprague doesn’t let his Mailster sit for long in the summer time. He makes regular grocery runs while staying off the busy streets — or ones that have potholes that haven’t been repaired. “It feels like a golf cart, because it’s got the little wheels,” he says. “You feel every little bump in the road. It’s not a comfortable ride. If I had two guys in the back, I’d be struggling. I’ve got a real steep hill to get to the south side of town, and I try to avoid that hill. I don’t even want to push it.”

“I’ve got an extra set of lights on her. Two are for brakes and two are for directionals, and then I have four-ways on there. I put strobe lights on in case I pul over I can talk to somebody with the strobe lights on.”

He knows no matter where he takes his Westcoaster, he’s going to get some smiles and puzzled looks. A lot of folks aren’t quite sure if he is an on-duty mail man. “I like to take it to the grocery story, and I have no trouble parking right up in front with the motorcycles… Yes, it’s titled as a motorcycle, because it has three wheels,” he says.

“There’s not one person I meet who doesn’t like it. I have one guy who really wants to buy it, and he just says ‘name your price.’ But I can’t sell it. I’m having too much fun with it!”

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The post Car of the Week: 1963 Westcoaster Mailster appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.