1951 Ford Custom Deluxe Victoria

Top of the line in Ford coupes for 1951 was the Victoria hardtop, with its distinctive stainless trim panels on the graceful C-pillars.

This was the third model year for the all-new "shoebox" postwar Ford body design, with its modern, integrated fenders.

Riding on a 114" wheelbase and weighing 3,370 pounds, the full-size Ford coupes were about 16½ feet long. On the Victoria, the base (and only) engine was Ford's 249 cubic inch flathead V-8 with a two-barrel carb, rated at 100 SAE gross horsepower. Buyers could opt for a three-speed manual (with an optional automatic fourth, overdrive gear available) or the three-speed Ford-O-Matic gearbox.

Visible on the Alpine Blue coupe in the photo are the stainless steel gravel guards on the front fenders behind the wheel wells, which were dealer-installed options.

This one was photographed in June of 2021 using a Canon EOS 5DS and an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS.

1951 Chevrolet 3100 1/2-Ton Truck

The "Advance Design" series of pickup trucks, launched for the 1947 model year, were the first postwar pickups from Chevrolet and GMC and established Chevy as the number one light truck seller in the US from '47 through '55.

It replaced the prewar AK-series with a larger truck, featuring more modern and streamlined bodywork. It was the first Chevy pickup available with an in-dash radio as a factory option, although the floor of the bed was still made of wooden planks supported by wood blocks on the frame.

This Fathom Green 1951 model was the first year the Chevy trucks featured vent windows. Under the hood you would have found the 216 cubic inch Thriftmaster version of Chevy's prewar "Stovebolt" overhead valve inline six. For '51 it had a 6.6:1 compression ratio and a single 1-bbl Carter cerburetor and was rated at 92 SAE gross horsepower and 176 lb-ft of torque.

This one was photographed with a Nikon D800 and 24-120mm f/4 VR zoom lens in April of 2024.

1951 Dodge Meadowbrook

While the '46-'48 Dodges were mostly prewar Dodge D-22's with a light cosmetic makeover, 1949 saw the first true postwar lineup from Dodge.

You could get your '49 Dodge in one of three flavors. Lowest on the totem pole was the stripped-down Wayfarer, only available as a two-door coupe, business coupe, or roadster, all on a shortened 115" wheelbase. The top of the line model was the Coronet, which came in the whole array of coupe, sedan, convertible, and wagon styles.

In the middle was the Meadowbrook, which only came as a 123.5"-wheelbase pillared sedan. They were fairly popular, moving ~90,000 units and accounting for nearly a third of the marque's sales that year.

For 1951, the Meadowbrook received an entirely new, more modern-looking front end. Due to Detroit's production being focused on vehicles for the Korean War, the '51 and '52 models were pretty much identical.

Under the hood could be found Dodge's "Get-Away" flathead inline six. It displaced 230 cubic inches and, breathing through a single Stromberg carb, was rated at 103 SAE gross horsepower. 

The only transmission choice was Dodge's Gyro-Matic, which was just the Dodge brand name for Chrysler's Fluid-Drive. Not a true automatic, it was a 3-speed manual with a torque converter. The clutch and column mounted shift lever were needed to select among the gears, but you could come to a full stop and start off again without having to use the clutch.

The upper three photos were taken in August of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* 16-70mm f/4 OSS zoom lens, while the one below was snapped with a Nikon 1 V2 and 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 lens.