International Harvester A180 Pickup (1958)
As mentioned further up, a close examination of 'Mater' from Disney / Pixar 'Cars' leads me to believe that the automotive inspiration of the character is likely to have been the 1958 International Harvester A180, like the one shown here. Apparently there is an older IH from about 1953 on Route 66 which is configured as a tow truck, but the sheetmetal on the front of the vehicles is quite different, with more pronounced separate fenders.
Anyway, International Harvester looked to have a pretty solid business in pickups and related trucks, along with more focused farm machinery such as tractors, until a series of managerial bungles, including trying to freeze out the unions in the early 1980s as a way of improving the books, forced the whole combine into receivership.
The A180 here though, was created during the company's hey day, the 50th anniversary having been celebrated in the prior year.
International Harvester even made trucks and other equipment here in Australia, in Geelong no less. Some of the skilled trades folk I had work in my team in the Prototype department had done their apprenticeships with International Harvester, just around the corner from Ford. The old headquarters is now boarded up, and where the plant once stood is now a woodchipping facility.
I had known that International Harvester did make trucks and farm machinery, but not to the scale that some research had indicated.
To read more about International Harvester on wikipedia, please follow this link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Harvester
What is clear from some of the images on the site, is how glamorous some of these vehicles were - I really like the 'Jungle Yacht', and the tanker truck - some future Lego build for sure.
This A180 Pickup is at the more shiny end of the spectrum too, but shows that at one stage IH occupied part of this market segment in the way that GMC does now - fancy truck for people with money from industry and agriculture.
This Lego miniland-scale International Harvester A180 Pickup Truck of 1958 has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 116th Build Challenge, - "Pickups and Vans", - a challenge to build pickups and vans.
International Harvester A180 Pickup (1958)
As mentioned further up, a close examination of 'Mater' from Disney / Pixar 'Cars' leads me to believe that the automotive inspiration of the character is likely to have been the 1958 International Harvester A180, like the one shown here. Apparently there is an older IH from about 1953 on Route 66 which is configured as a tow truck, but the sheetmetal on the front of the vehicles is quite different, with more pronounced separate fenders.
Anyway, International Harvester looked to have a pretty solid business in pickups and related trucks, along with more focused farm machinery such as tractors, until a series of managerial bungles, including trying to freeze out the unions in the early 1980s as a way of improving the books, forced the whole combine into receivership.
The A180 here though, was created during the company's hey day, the 50th anniversary having been celebrated in the prior year.
International Harvester even made trucks and other equipment here in Australia, in Geelong no less. Some of the skilled trades folk I had work in my team in the Prototype department had done their apprenticeships with International Harvester, just around the corner from Ford. The old headquarters is now boarded up, and where the plant once stood is now a woodchipping facility.
I had known that International Harvester did make trucks and farm machinery, but not to the scale that some research had indicated.
To read more about International Harvester on wikipedia, please follow this link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Harvester
What is clear from some of the images on the site, is how glamorous some of these vehicles were - I really like the 'Jungle Yacht', and the tanker truck - some future Lego build for sure.
This A180 Pickup is at the more shiny end of the spectrum too, but shows that at one stage IH occupied part of this market segment in the way that GMC does now - fancy truck for people with money from industry and agriculture.
This Lego miniland-scale International Harvester A180 Pickup Truck of 1958 has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 116th Build Challenge, - "Pickups and Vans", - a challenge to build pickups and vans.