There’s something appealing about an honest old farm truck, especially when that truck comes with four-wheel-drive and has the name Jeep on it. When it has the early Jeep grille, even better. This 1968 Jeep Gladiator J-3000 4×4 pickup can be found listed here on eBay in Montevideo, Minnesota. The seller has a buy-it-now price of $3,700 or you can make an offer.
The Gladiator pickup name would go away after 1971 in favor of the J-Series name. In the era of this Jeep Gladiator J-3000, the J-designation equated to the wheelbase. This J-3000 was the longer 126-inch wheelbase as opposed to the J-2000 with a 120-inch wheelbase. They came in both two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive and thankfully this is the latter. They came with a Townside box as shown here, but a Thriftside box, or bed, depending on where you’re from, was also available. It was Jeep’s version of the stepside. Although, I read one report that the Thriftside box went away for the 1968 model year.
You can see that this Townside bed needs welding work as does the cab, or just keep it maintained and use it as a farm truck or work truck as the seller has been doing. We don’t see how it looks inside that truck bed, unfortunately.
As you can see, this Jeep hasn’t lived in someone’s garage and been relegated to milk and bread grocery runs. This truck, much like most of us, has worked hard all of its life and it’s showing a few ding and dents because of that hard work. I don’t mind seeing a few honest bumps and bruises on trucks or people, it shows that they’ve done something in their lifetime rather than having just sat around doing nothing.
The interior looks good for a work truck but unfortunately, there are no engine photos. The seller tells us that this J-3000 has a 327 cubic-inch V8. That would have been an AMC V8 and a Buick 350 V8 was also an option beginning in 1968. The seller says that this truck runs and drives and is mainly used for weekend drives. Are there any fans of the small-grille Jeep pickups out there?
Nice truck , great motor, , not rotted away like most, I think those are original tires on that truck.
A little rusty but it’s all there and the 327 would get that truck around pretty good and may get decent fuel economy for a heavy truck!! Needs some help but overall pretty cool project!!
Finally, a pre-AMC Kaiser Jeep. I read, 1970 was the last Kaiser when AMC took over. A breath of fresh air, however, I wouldn’t get too excited, this truck is pretty tired. I’d bet the underside is cashed, cab mounts and such, those tires look like originals,( classic farmer “run ’em ’till they blow”) and farm trucks generally live a tough life. Even a Kaiser can’t escape the ravages of farm use. I can’t read the plate sticker, but I hope they weren’t running this down the road with those tires,,,but they probably did. Probably geared like an army truck, so in many respects, the AMC did excel. I read, the 232 in line 6 could be had, replacing the Tornado OHC motor, both extremely stout units, but the OHC would be the one to have, if you can find one. Just looking at the interior, AMC really “cheapened” them up, I bet you could still drop this out of an airplane. Great find, just don’t expect an AMC ride. This is still kind of an old army truck.
BTW, I read, the Kaiser had a unique IFS setup, but proved troublesome and went back to a regular front axle in ’65. The “Jeep death wobble” would be strong with this one,,,
That dash confuses me with cover and gap to left Driver side. I wish he would of pulled the covers off all including the seat.
I do like a working farm truck 👍
I’ve loved these trucks ever since I had the Matchbox version as a kid. Jeep blew their chance to bring back the styling and macho character of these trucks on their new line of Gladiators. I’ve owned 3 Gladiator Thriftsides, and still own one of them. Its a ’68 with the factory Buick 350 V8 and stick. Bought this one from the original family and it still has its original red paint. My other Glads were older and one had the AMC 327 V8 and the other had the OHC 6. A Thriftside was featured in the movie “Tremors” with Kevin Bacon. Classic Steel: The dash pad on this one is severely warped and popped up on both ends. New repros are not available, so the best solution would be to remove it and just have a steel top dash. The restoration parts availability for these trucks is dismal!
I have a 1969 with the Buick 350. Parts aren’t too hard to find.
sensibly priced. Need a closer look, rather the i6 tho…
(drop in the ford 4.9 efi? o0OP, don’t say that out loud).
The AMC 327 was rated at 250 hp, while the Buick 350 was 230. Supposedly, the Buick had more torque.
I had the Tonka version of this Jeep!
Is this still for sale? I’d love to look at it.