DEARBORN (WWJ) -- Ford is celebrating America’s 250th birthday, by adding a special vehicle to its Heritage Fleet of cars and trucks important to the company’s history. In this case, they connect Ford’s history with America's history.
“This is a 1976 Denimachine,” says Ford archivist Ted Ryan. “It was a cooperative project done between Ford, Coca-Cola and Levis. We produced twenty-five of them for the American Bicentennial.”
The vehicles were awarded to people who won a contest.
The Denimachine took red, white and blue to a new level. That included shag carpeting with the same red coloring as the Coca-Cola logo, more than 100 pounds of blue denim upholstery, and a base coat of white paint on the exterior.
Ryan says custom vans were very popular in the mid seventies. So, this fit into that trend.
“It was a way of expressing yourself. You put your personality into your van.”
In addition to the unique personality, the van had many attributes that most people will remember from the seventies. That includes a manual transmission, crank windows, an eight-track player and a CB radio.
It’s on temporary loan to Ford and will be displayed throughout the year as part of exhibits related to America’s 250th birthday.
“So, I specifically reached out to the van collector and got the van, knowing it was done for the Bicentennial,” said Ryan. “Thinking if I put it on display as part of the heritage fleet, it’ll be our way to link America 200 to America 250.”
Ryan expects the van to turn a lot of heads, and bring back a lot of memories for aging baby boomers. It made quite an impression back in the 1970’s.
“It was a tremendously successful promotion. All three companies were trying to appeal to the youth market. They did, with Hot Rod magazine receiving two million applicants to try to win the twenty five vans.”