In 1938, American LaFrance pioneered the first cab-forward fire apparatus, then revolutionized the concept in 1945 with the classic 700 Series. In the 1950s, legendary names such as Ahrens Fox, Crown Firecoach, Mack, Maxim, Pirsche, and Seagrave began offering their own cab-forward versions. The cab-forward design became the glamour queen of fire apparatus. This volume traces the evolution of cab-forward fire apparatus from its fathering to today's industry giants, with a brilliant selection of black and white and color photographs with historical commentary and technical data.

Sheet Metal Bible is a compendium of sheet metal fabrication projects, everything from simple shaping operations to multi-piece creations like fenders and motorcycle gas tanks. Each of these operations is photographed in detail, including the building of a buck when necessary. Meaty captions help the reader to understand what's really happening as a flat sheet of steel slowly morphs into the convex side of a gas tank. The book is filled with work by legendary fabricators like Ron Covell, Rob Roehl and Bruce Terry. Side bars scattered throughout the book include interviews that help explain how each of these master metal men learned his craft, which tools they prefer, and where to put the seams on a multi-piece fabrication project.

Henry Ford was not the first man to dream about producing an automobile for the mass public - Benz had tried several times, and so had Oldsmobile Curved Dash - but he was the first to be successful, with a combination of drive, ambition, pricing, marketing, shrewd and ruthless dealing, and the setting up of the world's first mass-production assembly line. Even an inveterate optimist and driven man like Ford could have not predicted the far-reaching changes this one car, launched in 1908, would set in motion; his idea of a low-cost, easy maintenance, reliable "universal car" has changed our world and lives for good.
One hundred years later, this illustrated history looks back at the beloved Tin ... more