My wife & I travel a lot during the summer to various car shows and come across gems like these from time to time. This one was spotted at a show in Bloomington, Illinois last month. Its a 1958 Ford "Mister Softee" ice cream truck fitted with a Boyertown Body Works body on a commercial chassis. After sitting outside many years, it now has a running drivetrain and is slowly coming back to life with new glass, trim and electrical work. It still sports the inline six and it virtually untouched with the original artwork still on it. Its rough, but since there's some folks here that are building step vans & even ice cream trucks for the local hot rod shows, I figured I would offer up some shots. Its clearly a work in progress, so I hope its okay, and enjoy! The current owner is currently working on some items and will eventually fit it with a freezer and sell treats at local car shows along old route 66 between Pontiac, Atlanta, and Bloomington, Illinois. Being a geek, I also was curious about the Civil Defense logo on the side of the truck, right near the counter. I wrote up a blog post if anyone wants to be totally bored with more details, but franchise owners used to pledge their Mister Softee trucks for Civil Defense use in an emergency since they had generators, refrigeration and fresh water tanks. I never knew that before seeing this old thing. Anyone out in HAMB-land working on bringing one of these trucks back to life?
You should just knock down some of the rust scale and clear coat. And keep it just the way it looks. old school look/ rat rod.
I grew up in the CD era with that logo with "fallout shelter" on many places in town. The Softee truck on our street was a bit different as the grille was plainer, and no roof overhang above the windshield. I do not recall the CD logo on that truck. As I recall, it was tough to come up with 25 cents for a large cone with the chocolate dip...especailly as I was always saving up for a new AMT 3-in-1 model kit that was $1.49 Around 59-61 as I recall, when we lived on that street. Off topic?, yes, but this beats some of the other OT stuff.
Those graphics are really strange.... Kinda look like fairground art. They freak me out a bit. Art for an ice cream truck would be much less harsh today, more rounded and friendly.
I guess you won't be goin' to see the new "Killer Mr. Softee" horror movie then? "He's coming to get you...smile, icecream-head and all!!!" ...
How funny...just told a co-worker recently about Mr. Softee...he's too young to know, Made some comment about anyone being old enough to remember probably is a mr. softee.????
Ya gotta love old one-shot with lead in it. The rest of the truck is rusty, but the signage is still legible. I love it. Take some really high res photo's of the art work and a competent sign man should be able to reproduce it in paint. To put vinyl on it would be blasphemous at the least. Ed Weird here on the hamb would be my choice. He does some great work. Shoot even I would have a go. Anyway love the truck and some stuff from our youth is always welcome.. Best to everybody VonDad
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