Arizona Iron and Rascular Density

         Don't like the "patina" word--it's worn out--but this is the real thing. The photographer  Jose Martinez sent me these of a late-Forties Ford F-1 in Flagstaff, Arizona. Like West Texas, Arizona is habitat of the weathered old American truck. Here in downeast Maine, if it's old, it's either rusted, without plates, and attached to a snowplow blade--or meticulously primped.
          And here's a speedier version of the same truck:

Check out the Mercury M-3, a 3/4 ton (Canadian) version of this truck on a post back in July 2011. Found it in Nova Scotia, but it had spent most of its life in high, dry south Saskatchewan.

And a note re. "patina" from our Alberta/South Saskatchewan correspondent, Alex Emond:  
"I hope to photograph some rare and beautiful trucks around Ponteix, Sask.., and I'm going to also look for a better word than "patina" and "funk" isn't quite it. Ernie Roy used to refer to this nebulous quality, always positive, that he called "rascular density" when he totally dug the shit out of something. The greater the density, the higher the praise. "Chronological Sheen" might sunstitute for "patina"...? I'm working on it ... Cheers."  --AE