Hi Gregg,Probably most folks don't realize that Ford Designed and once built this truck.
Sterling was created following the 1997 acquisition of the heavy-truck product lines of Ford Motor Company by Freightliner. Introduced as a rebadged version of Ford Louisville/Aeromax product line.
"KTP became more of a regular production assembly plant."
Phil,
That's true, we became just another Vehicle Operations plant. But getting what was then called "Commercial Light Truck" and is now Super Duty was, in the long run very good for KTP. Present plant population is over 9000 employees. The total order bank as of late September was right at 100,000 including Superduty, Expedition and Navigator. Even in these difficult times, mandatory overtime weekend production is on the schedule. They can sell every one they can build.
From the sidelines, I cheer them on.I want my retirement deposits to continue on.
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Exactly. An assembly plant paint shop is a massive operation. Painting is done with a couple of different automated systems. Some is done with robots and some with a bell system, along with some human painters. Color changes, even for the normal colors are very expensive. Paint has to be purged from these systems and that is expensive. Millions are spent on the pollution containment for the purged paint. To minimize this, the paint shop runs "color blocks" in other words paint a batch of white ones then change to a bunch of blue ones and so on. A one off custom color would not be done in the paint facility. It would have to be done somewhere else.
Hi Gregg,Yes I do remember the Truck Newsletter. Unfortunately I didn't keep any of them. I do still have an Aeromax , a Hard Runner and Louisville truck emblems. There were also some great sales posters. I still have the one pictured below Framed.
Another interesting thing. The HN 80 project was an aluminum cab Aeromax that we actually built at KTP just before Ford sold the Heavy Truck product to Freightliner. When ford came out with the Aluminum F150 every one thought it was revolutionary. Some of us old Heavy Truck guys just laughed, we did that 20 years ago.
Can you say who that employer was? There was a special building at KTP called KTech. They added accessories like 5th wheels and such. They also added lettering and specialized graphics for many customers. I probably saw some of your trucks. Almost every Truck was a special order. You could get a Ford truck with certain AC Delco parts. Engines could be from Cummins, Cat or Detroit Diesel. When Penske took over Detroit Diesel the engines had light blue paint jobs that looked good enough to be on the outside of a vehicle.
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I worked for a company called Jordanos. The dealership was Big Ts later called Velocity. We also used Carmenita truck center.Can you say who that employer was? There was a special building at KTP called KTech. They added accessories like 5th wheels and such. They also added lettering and specialized graphics for many customers. I probably saw some of your trucks. Almost every Truck was a special order. You could get a Ford truck with certain AC Delco parts. Engines could be from Cummins, Cat or Detroit Diesel. When Penske took over Detroit Diesel the engines had light blue paint jobs that looked good enough to be on the outside of a vehicle.
I have a mustang in Kona Blue. It's a great color when it's clean, but it's terribly difficult to keep clean. I wouldn't buy it again. I would go ruby red or lightning blue like my ranger. I do like the new velocity blue too though.
Velocity blue looks really good on Mustangs. Dealer had a GT 350 R in the show room. Beautiful car, but 78K plus 5K dealer mark up was not so pretty.
One thing I learned is to make sure you see the color in person. What you see in print media and on monitors is not what it looks like in person. I learned that before I had purchased my 2016 Mustang. A good example in the image above is the Lucid Red Pearl. It's the same color and paint code as my Rapid Red Ranger and it does not look anything like that.Velocity blue looks really good on Mustangs. Dealer had a GT 350 R in the show room. Beautiful car, but 78K plus 5K dealer mark up was not so pretty.
I am thinking about a 2021 Mach1, but I will go with Fighter Jet Grey. I like the orange calipers and accents and the Chuck Yeager tribute theme.
I don't think Kona blue is offered on the 21s, although the Antimatter Blue Metallic looks pretty close.
Agree. Not only in person but in varying light conditions. These metallic paints can look very different in bright sunlight VS low light. A good example is Nitrous blue on the Focus RS. In low light it looks just like Grabber blue from the Mustang, but in the sunlight the metal flake makes it look much different. It is also interesting that Ford gives different names to the same paint code depending on which vehicle. It is all in the marketing I guess.
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Saw a saber ranger on a cloudy day it looked very dark and blah .. Next visit on a sunny day the metallic was unreal and eye popping ; so instead of blue I ordered my saber ranger . Never been sorry . I also agree see the colors in person in sunlight .Agree. Not only in person but in varying light conditions. These metallic paints can look very different in bright sunlight VS low light. A good example is Nitrous blue on the Focus RS. In low light it looks just like Grabber blue from the Mustang, but in the sunlight the metal flake makes it look much different. It is also interesting that Ford gives different names to the same paint code depending on which vehicle. It is all in the marketing I guess.
