March 23, 201213 yr Balthazar inspied me to look for some GMC art... I love the art deco-designed General Motors Truck hood emblem Edited March 23, 201213 yr by GMTruckGuy74
March 23, 201213 yr Nice! My Great Uncle was a lead engineer for GMC from 1927 till around 1960-61. I found in our move an old envolope from the 40's with some old GM press photo's. I will have to see If I can scan them and add them here. They are black and white but look like new. There are thinks like a COE dump and even a plant shot. I also found my blue prints for a C cab truck from the late 20's. It is a Chassie cab. I am not sure if it is from GMC or one of the other companies he worked for like White Motors or Goodyear. It almost looks like it could have been a Goodyear Wingfoor express truck. The drawing is near 6 feel long. I really should frame it. I also have a lot of photo's of the goodyear fleet on old cloth photo's from the 20's of Goodyears fleet. I think they were based on Packards.
March 23, 201213 yr Author hyperV6, as a born-again GMC owner you need to get the lead out of your a$$ and scan those photos!! I'm now dying to see what you have By the way, I thought you were going to say you had an extra one of those fender emblems lying around
March 23, 201213 yr SWEET GMC Truck Hyperv6 I would as I think everyone else Love to see those pictures. We look forward to seeing them. Edited March 23, 201213 yr by GMTruckGuy74
March 23, 201213 yr hyperV6, as a born-again GMC owner you need to get the lead out of your a$$ and scan those photos!! I'm now dying to see what you have By the way, I thought you were going to say you had an extra one of those fender emblems lying around I still have the tail gate emblem from the Sonoma yet. It is on the tool box. Also when I worked at the gas station when I was in High School my boss has a Sierra Grande just like the one on Rockford Files just in a long bed. We even had the bed rails. I used to drive that truck a lot. I even had it out one night and got my first ticket in it. I loved that truck. I will see if I can get these photo's scanned here. They are 8x10 black and white gloss photos. They were even in an envolpe with the old GMC logo on it. I will see if I can post a couple of the Goodyear photo's too. THey are so old they have a cloth backing. I think they are from around 1920-1923. Frank kept a lot of things. I still have almost all the window stickers and forms for almost every car he bought back to a 1927 Chevy. He would buy 1-2 cars a year. He always ordered them in may and they would come in late August and we would have to sneek into the dealer to see them as they had them hid from the public before the showings. He would order them every year sight unseen. He never knew what they changed but just ordered them anyways. I even have the letters from the plant managers letting him know when they would built his cars. I don't know if that was normal back then or because of his rank or who he knew at GM. I know the dealers would just bow at their kness for him on anything he wanted. Those were the days. He would let me inspect each new car since I was just little and find the defects. He would get a kick on how many I would find. I think that is why I get asked judge so many car shows today. LOL!
March 24, 201213 yr Awesome, love to hear details on stuff like that,Thanks in advance Hyperv6 for sharing.
March 24, 201213 yr I am starting to go through some photo's. Here is the first. I think it is a 1942 blackout panel
March 24, 201213 yr 1942 Blackout Pickup 1942 Dump? These photo's were all war time so I assume this one is of that era.
March 24, 201213 yr Author Cool pictures! And a great start to what I hope is more to come. Thanks for taking the time to do this for all of us to enjoy, hyperV6
March 24, 201213 yr GMC plant Pontiac MI around 1942. Note the Military note in the photo. GMC at War
March 24, 201213 yr What most forget is GM and GMC killed the trolly cars in this country and they did it with Buses. GM at one time held most of the market of the Buses in this era. Here are two of the most stylish post Art Deco Designs. I have others but they are pretty drab.
March 24, 201213 yr AWESOME!!! You Rock The pictures are of amazing quality, I which GMC would realize that there are a bunch of people who want high end Professional Grade Trucks and SUV's without all the Bloody Chrome. I love the black out editions. The busses are pretty cool as current busses seem to have all lost any sense of style, plus why do we have to have seatbelt laws when Buses still do not have them? The second bus I really like, it is the same style of what was used in the movie "A walk in the Clouds" It is amazing to see just how big the plant was at military time plus the military type vehicles they produced. Thanks Hyperv6 for taking the time to scan and post these, they really are amazing to see. I would email GMC and ask why we cannot have style and monochrome paint jobs on vehicles like those black out editions.
March 24, 201213 yr Here is a crew with one of the trucks Goodyear built .Now here is some little known history and my Great Uncle was a part of it. In 1917 Goodyear Tire launched pneumatic tires on larger trucks and tried to show they could go cross country with them. Up to this point they were mostly soid rubber often with chain drive. [Mack Bull Dogs] Goodyear designed a tandam Rear Axle that carried heavier loads on smaller tires. Also both axles drove. This was for all intents the start of the first modern truck chassis. I think the guy who came up with the idea was names Tobin. He left Goodyear and went to the 6 Wheel motor company. Their claim to fame was guess what 6 wheel trucks and Buses. One model became well used the Model 57. Goodyear let them use the rights to the tandem rear axle if they used only Goodyear tires. Tobiin left and the company was sold and sorted over the next couple years. They left Phili and went to Detroit. My great Uncle Frank had followed Tobin to the 6 wheel company and then went to MI with them. It later became I think the American Body Corp. They made bodys for Dodge etc. Some how at this point he ended up at GM and GMC around 1926-27. This ius were he became a cheif engineer and worked on mostly large trucks and Buses. I still have a blue print of a Model 57 truck from 1926 that he signed off and approved for the company. Sorry I can't scan it but I may get a photo some time. Frank was an old time Sloan GM guy. He Worked with Ed Cole and many other well known names at GM over the years. They were in the same clubs and hunted together in the UP. He was even invited to the opening of the Henry Ford Museum dinner but passed as it was raining and he had side curtains on his car. He was living in Pontiac then. The dinner only had Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and the President as some of he speakers. To the day he died he said that was one of is few regretts. He was in WWI but the war ended before he left the country. I have a 3 foot photo of the ourfit he was in. It was a Balloon group and he would go up and map the battle field. They trained where Disney Land is today in CA. Frank traveled the world after he retired. He came to care for his sister my Grandmother after my grandfather died. Frank was a Grandfather to me and taught me my love the automobile. I can still remeber hearing him tell of the first car he saw. It was a International Harvester truck in Millersburg Ohio some time in the 07-10 range. Note he was born in 1897 on a country farm. His claim the best thing man ever did in the auto industry was set the SAE standards for parts. He spoke this as a true engineer. I was young but I still rember some of the stories. I wish I had been older now that I know more abut what he spoke of. I have many questions yet today I would love to ask. Here are some of his Goodyear photo's e gave me. Note the 8 wheel bus. Here is the tandem chassis Tobin designed for the Goodyear 6 wheel Wingfoot Express trucks. This was a earlier Wingfoot truck with 4 wheels but it gives you an idea of the conditions they faced as they went cross country back then.
March 24, 201213 yr I would imagine this is one of the first tandem trucks with modern tires ever used. Some of the Goodyear fleet.
March 24, 201213 yr And now for something a little different. How about an 8 wheel bus? Detail on the steering. The bus was one of several used to haul workers to the Akron tire plants from Goodyear Hights housing development. Goodyear finaced and built affordible housing to draw in workers to Akron. Firestone did a similar thing with Firestone Park. Both are still here and many of the old houses are still in pretty good shape.
March 24, 201213 yr Here is a model 57 similar to the one I have in the blue print. I just looked at it is 1923 not 26. Here is a model 57 bus from Six Wheel Corp. They owned the market till GMC took over. Many cities used their buses and many were exported. The 6 Wheel line in Phili PA. I would love to the the UAW guys who complain today about condition work here for a week. If I get time I may scan more but these are some of the more interestng shots. My Great Uncle was not Zora Duntov but he was a key part at GMC and one of the unsung people who help Make GM #1 years ago. If I am of off on dates and some facts sorry but I am work on things I heard as a 10 year old. I am glad my mom had forsight to put many of these photo's in book as I had more and they were damaged in a drawer. I wish I had known how important they would become to me. AWESOME!!! You Rock The pictures are of amazing quality, I which GMC would realize that there are a bunch of people who want high end Professional Grade Trucks and SUV's without all the Bloody Chrome. I love the black out editions. The busses are pretty cool as current busses seem to have all lost any sense of style, plus why do we have to have seatbelt laws when Buses still do not have them? The second bus I really like, it is the same style of what was used in the movie "A walk in the Clouds" It is amazing to see just how big the plant was at military time plus the military type vehicles they produced. Thanks Hyperv6 for taking the time to scan and post these, they really are amazing to see. I would email GMC and ask why we cannot have style and monochrome paint jobs on vehicles like those black out editions. I was amazed at how well they scanned. To be honest some of them look better here than in the real photo. The Digital has brought out some of the details much better.
March 26, 201213 yr Thank you Hyperv6, the historical info and the pictures are truly amazing. Gotta wonder about the 1942 Blackout, I think you might be onto something for the First Syclone!
March 26, 201213 yr Lots of cool old trucks and buses... I always liked the looks of the 'fishbowl' era and early RTS models...always thought the RTS would have made a nice base for an RV..
March 26, 201213 yr Author Again, thanks for taking the time to post the historical GMC photos from your great uncle's collection, hyperV6. That is very kind of you to take on this effort for our enjoyment. I don't think we could call this the first Syclone, but it's pretty darn close to what our modern day sport trucks look like!! Edited March 26, 201213 yr by GMTruckGuy74
March 26, 201213 yr Hey Do not squish my dreams, I will have a Syclone some day. Inspired from the history books.
March 26, 201213 yr Thanks I will try to post some more of the less exciting ones. I need to get some of my Sprint SP on here as I never scanned any on the computer of that car yet. I am going to Go through some of his papers on his cars and see what all I can find. It has been years since I have looked at them. I still have his owners manual from his 56 or 57 Cadillac somewhere. It is like it just came out of the glove box. I also have the Cadillac clip on Vanity Mirror that was on that car.
August 14, 201411 yr friends would be so kind to help me find the manual for this truck? I have some problem with the fuel tank size, need to know the amount in liters that could carry a 1952 GMC 450 truck-D gasoline and diesel
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.