Junkyard Find: Old Truck Door Signs of Colorado
I found a nice assortment of truck door signs of the 1930s through 1960s at this old-school wrecking yard north of Denver last year, and I just had to shoot a few more at this yard south of Denver last week, while picking up my ’41 Plymouth project. The Colorado sun is hard on paint, but I was able to find some legible old signs.
I wonder what the Men In White did. House painting? Moving? Surgery? The seven-digit alphanumeric telephone number suggests that we’re looking at a truck that was retired no later than the mid-1960s.
It appears that this is the door from a Ritz Cab Company taxi, though it’s tough to read the first word. 1947 Chevrolet? 1946 DeSoto?
I can’t find much trace of the Pacific Fruit and Produce Company, though this truck shot in Seattle looks like the same outfit as the one that owned this truck door.
Seeing a reference to an ICC number reminds me of the old Dave Dudley classic.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Those doors scream to be salvaged as decorative art. I would like the men in white sign as a wall hanging feature where I could hide my PC. Just build the components a harness and use a few cables to run it to my desk.
The red & white door is off a 1942-1948 GM product. I believe Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile all used the same door pressings during that period.