Ham's '48 -Once upon a Time ...

[LarrBeard]

Back in the early 1970’s when the truck and I had to work for a living; I had to go between several different facilities on a day-to-day basis. Every facility had a different parking arrangement for hourly, salaried and visitor parking and every category had a specific color and design of sticker so the pecking order was observed.

If you arrived in the middle of a work day, visitor parking was usually full, salaried was full and any empty hourly parking was always way out Beyond Furthest Egypt (BFE). As a result I usually parked wherever I could find a slot and didn’t worry about what sticker went where.

As a result of my flagrant disregard for rules, I got a lot of “Parking Violation Notifications (PVN)” from the Security Office. If you drove a 1963 Chevy, the Security Office had to chase down a license plate through the local police and that took a lot of time. But if you drove a 1948 Jeep Truck they knew it was Beardsley (again) and exactly who needed to be notified of the offense. They would send my boss a notice about the PVN and he would scold me. My attitude was that if I had to go to some other facility to take care of a crisis, I wasn’t going to wander all over the lot forever just to find a parking place – I had work to do.

After several rounds of this, my boss called the Security Office and told them to issue me every parking sticker in the book – he was tired of answering PVN citations. The clerk said that couldn’t be done. My boss then called the Director of Plant Security (a gentleman who had spent 19 months as a German POW and who had a really good sense of what mattered and what didn’t) who said “Give him the stickers”. When the truck retired, it had four or five stickers on the windshield and mirror. But – I still got PVN’s if I parked in a Visitor Space!

In the 35-year barn storage, the decals disintegrated but the one plastic sticker survived (the one that is shaped as a green circle). Recently a retired plant guard found a stash of old parking stickers (decals) and he offered them to us old guys. If I remember correctly, the red decal was a Plant 3 Salaried sticker. I will put these two stickers on the upper left passenger windshield – right behind the mirror. This adds just another period correct touch that Fort Wayne natives will recognize.

Now, if I could just find a 1976 Indiana Safety Inspection sticker ….

[5JeepsAz]

The best ever. Your own vintage memorabilia. There is no way to buy that. It's just great. As it is. Of course, it didn't happen unless we see it in situ. Right?

[bmorgil]

This is the stuff you live for! Anything that brings a smile to your face is good medicine,

[TJones]

Back in the early 1970’s when the truck and I had to work for a living; I had to go between several different facilities on a day-to-day basis. Every facility had a different parking arrangement for hourly, salaried and visitor parking and every category had a specific color and design of sticker so the pecking order was observed.

If you arrived in the middle of a work day, visitor parking was usually full, salaried was full and any empty hourly parking was always way out Beyond Furthest Egypt (BFE). As a result I usually parked wherever I could find a slot and didn’t worry about what sticker went where.

As a result of my flagrant disregard for rules, I got a lot of “Parking Violation Notifications (PVN)” from the Security Office. If you drove a 1963 Chevy, the Security Office had to chase down a license plate through the local police and that took a lot of time. But if you drove a 1948 Jeep Truck they knew it was Beardsley (again) and exactly who needed to be notified of the offense. They would send my boss a notice about the PVN and he would scold me. My attitude was that if I had to go to some other facility to take care of a crisis, I wasn’t going to wander all over the lot forever just to find a parking place – I had work to do.

After several rounds of this, my boss called the Security Office and told them to issue me every parking sticker in the book – he was tired of answering PVN citations. The clerk said that couldn’t be done. My boss then called the Director of Plant Security (a gentleman who had spent 19 months as a German POW and who had a really good sense of what mattered and what didn’t) who said “Give him the stickers”. When the truck retired, it had four or five stickers on the windshield and mirror. But – I still got PVN’s if I parked in a Visitor Space!

In the 35-year barn storage, the decals disintegrated but the one plastic sticker survived (the one that is shaped as a green circle). Recently a retired plant guard found a stash of old parking stickers (decals) and he offered them to us old guys. If I remember correctly, the red decal was a Plant 3 Salaried sticker. I will put these two stickers on the upper left passenger windshield – right behind the mirror. This adds just another period correct touch that Fort Wayne natives will recognize.

Now, if I could just find a 1976 Indiana Safety Inspection sticker ….

Kinda like this one Larry?
6180

[LarrBeard]

Kinda like this one Larry?

Yep – it looks a lot like one! Where did you find that one?

(Check out the attachment)

I’ve tried to soak it off, but the glue is really good and all that happens is that I nibble just a little more off the edge every time I try.

The inspection program went away in the late ‘70’s because there was no evidence that it was doing any good and it had become an income stream for less than scrupulous mechanics – and people got fed up with it.

A good example of that was the Shell station at the corner of New Haven Avenue and Bueter Road in Fort Wayne. His specialty was finding bad ball joints. He could convince the factory ladies from Magnavox, Phelps-Dodge and Harvester that the front wheel was going to fall off their car before they got it back home.

Back then we had a well known upholstery shop in town called “Seat Cover Charlie”. The Shell station became “Ball-joint Charlie”. But, one year I let things get close to expiring and I left the truck up there since it was literally a three minute walk from the door at work.

I stopped by about 6:00 after work and there sat the truck with a red rejection sticker on the windshield. If I recall, once rejected you had 10 days to get it cleared – the red sticker was a “fine me” notice.

I could probably have found several things that might have deserved a red sticker and not been surprised – muffler, brakes, wiper blades, one tire or even the horn button that was just a wire sticking out of the center of the steering column. SO, I ask what he found.

I almost had to laugh when he said “Your ball joints are shot. On a truck that old they really are dangerous and need to be replaced” - but I managed to keep a straight face.

“How bad are they?” asks I.

“Really bad, and you never know when they are going to let loose.” says he.

I play dumb – something I do well; “Well what can happen?”

He gave me the standard line that bad ball joints would cause me to swerve out of control into the path of a bus full of Nuns holding orphans in their laps. I looked appropriately shocked and then I asked him; “Is there anything else wrong?”

“Naw. that’s all.”

“OK then, scrape that red sticker off, put an OK sticker on.”

“I can’t do that, the truck is unsafe.” (It might have been – but it wasn’t because of ball joints).

Sez I; “Either scrape off the red sticker – or we’ll just call a cop right now. That truck doesn’t have ball joints – it has bushings and kingpins in the front end”.

The look was priceless – Ball-joint Charlie had been caught at his own game. He scraped off the sticker and put on a new OK sticker (probably a 73 or 74).

I got in the truck to leave and he said “Whoa, you owe me $5.00 for the Inspection.”

I replied to the effect “I don’t owe you zip for the kind of inspection you did.”

His parting remark was, somewhat cleaned up, “Don’t ever set foot on my property again you !@@#*&%%!.” At least we agreed on that.

Oh, the stories you can tell when you’ve driven the same truck for most of your life …..

[TJones]

Here is the website Larry
https://inspectionsticker.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=622 where I found them, they have a bunch of different sticker for everything and anything you could ever imagine.....
OMG that is an incredible story and you are right what do you expect for something you have been driving you're whole life:):)

[gmwillys]

Inspectors key in on what we call their go to items. Mine was S cams on semi air brakes, frames and lights. It doesn't matter if it is a sticker licker, or the government buying tactical weaponry.

I was a firm believer that people generally take good care of their dailies, (with the exception of professional mechanics who typically drive cobbled together junk). That was until I moved down here. There are junk wagons running around all over. Bald tires, bashed windshields, and missing mud flaps.

[TJones]

Inspectors key in on what we call their go to items. Mine was S cams on semi air brakes, frames and lights. It doesn't matter if it is a sticker licker, or the government buying tactical weaponry.

I was a firm believer that people generally take good care of their dailies, (with the exception of professional mechanics who typically drive cobbled together junk). That was until I moved down here. There are junk wagons running around all over. Bald tires, bashed windshields, and missing mud flaps.

That is no lie gm, up here the DOT sits on bridges in Ohio and looks to see how big of a load you have in the dump truck and radio ahead and tells one sitting 2 miles north "a red Western Star Tandem north bound has 25 ton on check him" and sure enough when they drag your A*& to the scale house it's 24.87 ton, then it starts with a creeper and a flashlight S Cams,slack adjusters,brake pads,turn signals,tail lights,tread depth,horn, back up alarm, physical card and on and on and on. Next thing you know its Red Tagged and you have to get a certified State of Ohio Mechanic to fix it and sign off.
That's one of the many things I am tired of, then you add employees on top of it and that's why I drink beer, GOOD BEER:p:p

[gmwillys]

At my last career, I was an inspector for the county that I worked for. I get a call one brisk winter's day that one of our plow trucks turned over. The truck was loaded to the gills with saddle tanks of calcium cloride brine, and a full load of salt. The driver had just left the satellite shop, and had just dropped the plow and wing blade. The wing snagged the edge of the asphalt of a turn lane. As the turn lane expanded from the driving lane, the wing followed the asphalt. The wing continued until the truck started to tilt to the right, bringing the driver's side wheels off the ground. The wing finally cut through the asphalt, but the momentum of the weight shift brought the truck over on the driver's side. Long story short, a representative from the Minnesota State Patrol spend 4 hours going over and under the truck, plus another hour picking through the inspection paperwork trying to find a violation. None were found. That was a several tall whiskey day, with the driver buying.

[okiemark]

It was always fun trying to get all the lights and the horn working on old grain trucks for harvest. Trucks that were used about two weeks out of the year. The guy at the Texaco would try to get everything up to snuff the way it should be, but if you took it down to the COOP station they slapped a sticker on and you went on your way.

[gmwillys]

Farm trucks are a whole different story. My grandfather's cousin had a '39 kb series International corn sheller. The mice eat all of the seat, then the frame rusted away. A five gallon bucket was cut down and a boat seat was mounted. The brakes consisted of the transmission and parking brake. The Orville Redenbacker corporation now owns the truck, but do not know if it was ever restored.

[5JeepsAz]

I had an S-10 the years they had the plastic gear on the clutch pedal. So it chipped and me not repairing it lost more teeth. Thing of it was, it would self repair, I swear it. See, the pedal would grab the one remaining tooth and clutch just fine. Well, yeah. About every third try. The other times seemed inconsequential until later. So I shifted around that way, lurching along or smooth shifting, but getting through the gears. Finally I end up at the trusty mechanic who yells at me for a half hour about the worst worn clutch plate he's ever seen. I mean ever. I know this because my pal gave me a ride to pick it up and I never did hear the end of the colorful quotes aimed at me because everyone thought it was pretty funny as it got retold, and they all had ridden with me while the clutch pedal wasn't working that well, so I couldn't really deny it either.