Lovers of anything Ford flocked to the Arthur fairgrounds on the weekend to look at vehicles old and new, buy parts or scout out car-related memorabilia.
The Classic Ford Mercury Truck Show club put on the two-day event under sunny skies on Aug. 17-18.
Scott Nicholson of Kincardine brought his vintage 1948 F68 Ford three-quarter ton dump truck and displayed it along with many other Fords.
“I’ve had it a long time,” he said of the restored truck. “It spent 27 years in storage, in pieces.”
After getting it into shape he finally officially brought it out for his daughter’s wedding in 2010.
“My daughter drove it in her wedding,” the proud Ford owner said.
He made the trip to Arthur just to see other Fords.
“It was nice to able to come here and find everything Ford,” Nicholson said of the show.
The truck was originally a farm truck from Quebec when he bought it for $60. It came as a cab and chassis and he added on the dump box building it out of wood on the 90 horsepower work horse.
“I hauled firewood with it when I first got it.”
A picture he brings to shows reveals the truck body was severely rusted, but it turned out to be only surface rust that hadn’t created holes in the body.
Nicholson shopped out the paint work with a painter who disassembled the truck body to get at each piece.
Today it looks like it just came off the showroom floor with the original running boards cleaned up and still intact.
He said with the exception of metal body parts, original parts are also not difficult to find. Body part reproductions can be found, but are made of fiberglass not metal.
Today his truck has been appraised at about $35,000.
Also attending the show was Grant Holtzhauer who came along with his son Andrew with daughter Cara. Among the classics they were looking at was a 1952 Mercury pickup.
The elder Holtzhauer said he is a devout Ford man and the Arthur show was something he enjoyed.
