Amazing what can be done to old paint. I did similar to my 52 some 26 years ago. Unfortunately, even though kept in an enclosed garage and waxed yearly it is once again showing its age and at my age will likely not get that level of detail again. Interesting about west coast mirrors, mine came with similar and believe to be 60's installed. Wonder if there is an article featuring those? Nice truck!
Thanks! There’s really not a whole lot of information about the history behind these style of mirrors on smaller trucks that I can find. But here is some I have found…
"Junior" refers to these smaller versions of the larger west coat mirrors used on Big Rigs & larger trucks. The Junior or smaller versions are usually found on smaller pickup trucks & vans. The only explanation I have found for the name via Google search is as follows.
"Because bigger mirrors were needed to see around corners for the winding highways along the Pacific Ocean on the "West Coast" of America."
I figure this style of mirror was first developed & used on the west coast, thus the name.”
“Back in the 50s west coast trucks (semis) were allowed, by law, to be a lot longer overall length than the east coast trucks. The length laws were much looser out west. So west coast trucks often had very long wheelbases. You see this in a lot of early Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks vs. Mack or Autocar trucks, for example. I presume west coast mirrors were necessary just to be able to see all of the trailer that was so far behind the cab. Amazingly, a lot of old tractor-trailers in the 50s still only had tiny mirrors like the stock ones on a Chevy c10, maybe 6" round. That must've made life interesting!”
