This original dealer sales film covers the entire Ford truck and commercial car line for 1941—including some models and engines that are seldom seen today. Get your Ford truck lore here.
This Ford Motor Company film, originally produced for the automaker’s national dealer sales force, details the entire truck line for 1941, and the focus, naturally, is on all the features and changes that year. Both the big trucks and the commercial cars (pickups and sedan deliveries) received very minor facelifts for ’41, including revised belt line and front end trim. Meanwhile, the cabover COE model (above) received all-new sheet metal, bringing its looks into alignment with the restyled conventional trucks introduced the year before.
Engine choices included the 221 CID Ford V8 rated at 85 hp and the 239 CID V8 (a larger version commonly identified as a Mercury V8) with 95 hp. But the big news trumpeted in our little film is the 120 CID inline four. Seldom seen today, the four-banger was a variant of the rugged powerplant used in the Ford 9N tractor. Boasting all of 40 hp, the dinky engine was “particularly recommended for light duty and multiple-stop delivery routes.” But curiously, there’s no mention here film of the new inline six introduced for 1941, for reasons that are, for now at least, beyond our view. The 1941 passenger car film we ran several months back features the same omission.
The film outlines six wheelbase lengths and 42 body and chassis combinations for 1941, including another obscure model today, the 19B transit bus. Powered by a 95 hp Mercury V8 mounted behind the rear wheels, the transit bus was once popular with municipal transportation fleets but is rarely seen today. There’s a ton of intriguing Ford truck lore here—please enjoy.
Please take a moment to click and subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we host a few hundred historic videos and other cool stuff. There’s no cost or obligation, and it helps to keep us open for business—thank you!
Neat film. Funny how the sedan delivery carries 1940 front sheetmetal, not the 3 grill design of the 1941 passenger cars.
Henry Ford hated 6 cyl. motors. I sometimes wonder if it didn’t go back to the Model K from ’07 and thereabouts. When dealers begged him for a more economical engine (more specifically a six), Henry came out with the V8-60 which was more economical and cost almost as much to build as the V8-85. I might add that it wouldn’t pull a limp (noodle) out of a pail of lard. I understand that Ford only brought out the six in ’41 to comply with a military specification that mandated it. In ’41 Henry Sr. was still in charge and therefore wasn’t about to let on that he had even allowed a six cylinder motor to the general public; the buyers pretty much had to find that out on their own…