Carspotting: Everything You Need, Nothing You Don't

It is the inevitable curse of the automotive connoisseur: Exposure to the elements and time will take their toll on the machines that we thoroughly enjoy. No matter how careful we are, how devoted we are in our care, sooner or later rubber dries out, wiring grows brittle, glass de-laminates, paint fades and dusts away, and oxidation creeps in. How fast or slow those issues affect your machine depends on the environment. This is why “northern vehicle” is slang for a rust-riddled, weather-worn car or truck, while a “desert vehicle” is something where the paint cooked off and the weatherstripping is as brittle as a soup cracker, but otherwise is probably still operable in daily use. Which begs the question: what happened to this Ford? Photographed in the parking lot of a national-chain parts store, the only thing we could see missing that was keeping it from being driven was the lack of a radiator. That, and about 94% of the body. If this truck had been photographed in the South, you could envision it as a fun mud toy or maybe some kind of farm-use implement. In the Sonoran Desert, we were left wondering what the big Ford’s purpose was. Here’s hoping that a body swap brought a roof for the passengers. Air conditioning would be welcomed as well.

Date: July 2011

Location: near Sierra Vista, Arizona

Source: McTaggart’s Archives