The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Door Art - Show us what you have on your truck

We are looking for DOOR ART that's on your truck. Post a picture or pictures and Include a little background: where it came from, what year, whether the company still exists, etc. -- whatever you have. Original door art or reproduced original is good. Don't forget the story.

We are not interested in trucks you found online! But if you know of a Bolter with good door art, maybe let him know we are on the hunt. (Something good to follow with all this .... stay tuned!)


Thanks,
Kevin

The story behind the door art on my truck.


I bought the truck in 2015 and discovered that it was originally owned by the Alaska Road Commission, the federal agency tasked with road construction in Alaska. With Alaska Statehood in 1959, it morphed into the Alaska Department of Transportation, and their white trucks still sport a stripe of Omaha Orange. I decided that I'd restore it in the same color and with the original markings on the door. The picture on the left was from a story posted on the internet by Bob Leitzell, a bridge engineer who worked for ARC back in the 1950's. I had a friend reproduce the logos in vinyl to put on my truck. The ARC equipment was numbered (I couldn't find the original number of mine) and I contacted Mr Leitzell to ask what the first digit was. He said it was 2631. Since the truck pictured was earlier than mine (no vent windows), and Bob had sent me another picture of him in a 1953 (pushbutton door handles and 53-54 hood badge) numbered 2729, I was going to settle on 2696, just because it looked good, but when i was putting the numbers on, my wife suggested 2651 since it's a '51, and so it came to be.
I have no idea of when the logo started being used. I have pictures of older Alaska Road Commission trucks that just have "ARC" on the door along with an equipment number. Every AD series truck I have pictures of has the bear logo, but I have seen similar year trucks of other makes with just "ARC" on the door.
(Yes, Otto, I missed the logo location slightly).

That's a cool story. The picture of Mr. Leitzell is a great look - worn leather jacket and Fedora hat. The best of times. And I think the logo looks better being a little bit lower, more center on the door.

Kevin, here is mine.
My Grandfather bought his farm in the 1920's. Over the years, my Uncle and now my cousin own the farm.
My Dad grew up there, but my Mom didn't want to be a farmer's wife so he moved away.

When I found this truck at the neighbor's of my Cousin, I knew I would use the Malm signage on it. It's a '38 1 ton. I bought it in 2011. The neighbors Grandfather bought it from the local dealer in Flasher, ND. It broke in 1965 and was parked in the field until I found it. The story is in the Gallery link below.

The brand is what my Grandfather used on his cattle.

The upside down 'A' was for Alex. The 'M' is for Malm obviously. My Uncle was Archie and my cousin is Alan.

So the brand is still significant today.

My 1948 Chevy ½ ton truck was in the service fleet for the Road Department in Mineral County, Nevada (county seat is in Hawthorne) until the mid/late 1960s. I have talked a few times with the local Nevada man who purchased the truck from the Mineral County Road Department; it has had multiple owners since then. The Mineral County seals on the side of the doors were compliments of a recent supervisor for the road department.

As you can read in its Gallery story, our '49 was originally purchased to replace a '46 that was a lemon. The '46 had door ;lettering as shown below, as did Charlie's other truck (a 2-ton). The '49 was originally all black and got the red paint at some point before it came to live with us. Charlie's son didn't remember if the doors were lettered or not. I've thought that it might be cool to strip the red off to see.

But after careful investigation and much thought, and consulting with MandPC, the thought is that *if* the lettering was under the red, we would probably be able to see a slight raised outline of it. So I may recreate the lettering at some point, but we won't be stripping the red off any time soon.

Don't know if it's "Door Art" or not, but the previous owner of my '47 had his name stenciled on the doors. Pic attached is in the Gallery (link below).

Rich - It may be the simplest form of "door art", but it does the job and certainly qualifies!

This gets me thinking about finding a local artist to fix up my doors. Not sure what to put on it though.

Here is our 1950 3100.
My wife named our Ranch and Fainting goat herd.
"Fainthearted Ranch"
My daughter (artist) painted it on both doors.
Todd

P.S. the picture of the goat was our Grand Champion "Bree"...she is in geener pastures now.

Shaffer, I like that you didn't try to fake the age of the stenciling. That always looks fake and lame.

What exactly does the door say? It's hard to tell. Maybe you can get us a better image, please? (Thanks to Dan tho for pulling it out of Rich's signature line. BTW, Rich - not every one can see "link below" ... especially if they are viewing from a cell phone. I had to wait until I was available on the PC. )

My 1957 Chevrolet 10500 Fire engine served 38 years in the Fredericksburg, PA Fire Company and was driven at total of 11,282 miles. The cab and chassis cost about $4000 and the fire body with equipment cost about $9600, so for a little over $13K you could buy a fire truck ready to go!

I brought the truck home in November 2002 and drove it unrestored for 3 years. Then in 2005 it got a cosmetic restoration. Then in 2009 Hallmark Greeting Cards contacted me asking if they could use our truck for their 2011 Christmas ornament...we said YES! Through the years my wife and I drove it all over the eastern half of the US taking it to truck shows. When we sold it in (2019?) we had driven it over 30K additional miles. The truck was sold again and is now in Sweden.

Mike B

Mike, I think your Fire Truck is atop the leader board so far. I love that picture of the original door.

From wrecking yard military truck in Alamagordo NM. Door (without art) now on my 39 truck.

Too rusty to use on my truck....Removed them & made yard out of 'em.

My '37 with the logo my son designed. Had a old timer from Kenosha Wisconsin do the hand painting. I am a hit and miss engine guy so the engine salvage was a good choice. As for the phone number, IL stands for (In Line) and 235 stands for the cubic inchs. The truck was a 2 year frame off restoration with help from questions answered on this forum.

I agree! There are several of these Hallmark ornaments NIB on eBay for those that may want a keepsake!

Bill, that is a great looking door. I love the phone number idea, that's creative..

Thanks. Ya the painting on the door was cheap also. 200$ for both doors. Gave the guy a tip as I was very happy with his work

Fred is a '53 GMC 3/4 ton, long bed, deluxe cab that was originally a local ranch truck not far from me. Fred fell into my lap when I acquired him from the local natural grocery store who used him as a display truck for marketing purposes by my client who owns the natural grocery store. I am the beekeeper that manages the store's beehives, which makes me the 3rd owner. The name of the truck pays homage to the original owner, Fred, who bought the truck new in '53.

I am in the middle of a frame off restomod and hope to be driving him by next summer. I will say this though, sourcing parts for a 3/4 ton is proving to be very challenging! The logo work is only 6 or 7 years old but I think it looks great with the original patina of the truck that is more than 70 years old. I will leave all of that alone.

Thanks for looking!

I was using my ‘50 to deliver high end furniture to local customers, so put my company info on my doors. After my scuba accident, we decided to dial back the custom furniture gig and I am no longer taking customers (unless someone approaches me with a project I can’t walk away from). Now I am more focused on our apiary, and when I re-shoot the truck, I’m going to put some bee related graphics on instead.

This year at the Southern Stovebolt Jamboree!

Don

Edit: Per John's request here is a little history about the truck.
I bought this 46 Chevy 3/4 ton this past spring from a fellow Stovebolter who is a retired, small town Fire Chief in NW Oklahoma.
Kirk had been seeing it outside of town sitting in a field for years. He stopped by and was able to buy it from the old farmer.
He Got the 216 with the 4 speed crash box going, went thru the brakes and rewired it for 12 volts.
As for the door art, I have done this with another truck that had a rough flat black paint job. At the KC Stovebolt Reunion several years ago I bought a box of children's colored sidewalk chalk.
then had everyone walking by to sign the truck. It was a big hit. This year at the Southern Stovebolt Jamboree, that was held at the Smoky Mountain National AD only truck show.
They would not let me park it on the show grounds but gave me a spot just outside the spectator gate. Wrote on each side of the hood "Sign Me" and put our names and town we are closest to.
Went to Stovebolt HQ the rest of the day and this is what it looked like after the show.

I hope to work on the 46 this winter as it still needs a few things done to make it more driver friendly.

Don

You guys posting about door art without pictures.

COME ON, GUYS! Lets get some more door art photos. This could turn into a Stovebolt Calendar some day.



I've done some cleanup of random posts in this thread.

I'll 2nd Kevin's message above! to lots of random comments and no actual pictures/stories.

Please read the first post in this thread for what should be getting posted in here and share your door art and story please and thanks. Comments are appreciated, but let's keep the thread on-topic.

I hope fender art counts? This is a P-40 Warbird tribute i recently painted on my 56 with a brush and paint i had laying around, just the way they did it back during the war. I hope to add a tribute on the driver side this fall for a friend's family who's Father flew in Gotta Haver a B-17 in which he flew many missions late in the war before being shot down by flak over Germany.

I was never much for flame jobs and such , but that Warbird graphic is darned nice.

Not on the door , and not really art , but what the heck —-
This bit of whimsy amuses some folks , and annoys my wife.

Thanks Waveski!!!

Again, please keep your comments on-topic. If you have a question about something in someone's picture (not pertaining to the artwork), please take it to PM.