A10| Wednesday, August 21, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Ralph W. Fullerton, 68, a retired home
builder living in Portland, Ore., and Sun
Valley, Idaho, on his 1945 Ford pickup, as
told to A.J. Baime.
My father was an insurance broker, and
in the early 1960s, he bought four 1945
Ford trucks from a plumbing client of his,
for $100 apiece. He gave one to a friend.
Two others he used at a golf course he
owned with some partners. The fourth one
he took to a beach cabin we had on the
Oregon coast.
He taught me to drive in this truck on the
beach. When I was in high school I fixed it
up a bit, and he was so pleased that he gave
it to me for my 18th birthday. By that time,
I was headed off to college, and I put the
truck in storage. It sat for decades. When I
retired in 2012, I trailered it to our home in
Sun Valley and took it to a talented me-
chanic for restoration.
When he took it apart, it struck me how
amazingly simple this truck is. A few bolts
here and there, and the whole thing was in
pieces. The vehicle doesn’t have that many
moving parts. There is no power steering. It
is so fundamental, it is just one step up from
a Model T.
You do not see a lot of 1945 Fords around,
or 1945 vehicles of any kind. Firstly, cars get
old and disintegrate. You can’t find parts to
fix them, and people let them go.
Secondly, in 1945, Detroit car companies
had not made customer cars or pickups for
years because of the war. Ford made huge
numbers of airplanes during World War II,
and in 1945, the company was just getting
started again building customer vehicles.
If you look at pictures of production backthen, it’s a bunch of guys, each doing their
part. There were no robots. It was a differ-
ent world. Interestingly, during the restora-
tion, we found a wrench underneath the
gas tank, which is actually under the seat.
(You’re sitting on the gas tank when you
drive. What could possibly go wrong?)
That wrench must have been left there by
mistake, when the truck was built 74
years ago.
Now the V-8 engine runs like a top, and
the truck can do 55 miles per hour comfort-
ably. Idaho is a great place to keep the
truck, because the air is so dry and the
roads beautiful. The Ford has been in the
family for a long time. When I am gone, my
son will get it, so it will stay in the family
for another generation, which is pretty cool.Contact A.J. Baime at
Facebook.com/ajbaime.Alookintothe
truck’s interior,
left. There are
few gauges on
the instrument
panel. The
truck’s color is
Venetian yellow.MY RIDE| A.J. BAIME
After WWII Ended,
This Truck Was Born
This 1945 Ford has stayed in the same family since the
early 1960s, but sat for decades in storage
Ralph W. Fullerton stands near his home in Sun Valley, Idaho, by the 1945 Ford pickup that has
been in his family since the early 1960s. His father bought it for $100.
TODD MEIER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (5)LIFE & ARTS
When Mr.
Fullerton had
this truck
restored, he was
amazed at how
simple its
construction is. It
has no power
steering and no
cruise control.BMW© 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.SHOWROOM
(800) 366-
[email protected]
!"#$"% &% %
$$
# % '
($ ' $%
))%
% *
+%
,'' ")% --.
! " #$%& $! '
()*+,& "-*.
$/ !
() 0
.
1,2 ,.
*&% $/&4! & / /&55**
LEASEShowroom
ADVERTISEMENTTo advertise: 800-366-3975 or WSJ.com/classifiedsLEASE
!"##
!"
#$
% & '(( )
*+$ +,
-- '.
% & # %
/
0
10
,
--'.
2 3)
2 45
) '! $
60 2 %
5 !
)
%
78 60 1)
!" 2$+
!" !+ 9 + -
!)
) 7 :
2! $
2!
2!'
2$ -
.
'9 10 ,
--
.
% &)) ;
-- '.
.
% )
78 . ) ;
-- '.
):
):
'0
<= +5 >&= + 3
8)= 2.
) ? ##!<
) <@ 7
)8 3 &
@ )
8 ) 74@ &
'
@ # 0