UPDATE – This 1962 Ford F-100 4×4 Flareside is listed for sale again, just a couple of days after the listing disappeared and the truck reappeared. It’s shown outside the barn this time, and is wearing new wheels and tires, and was cleaned up. It’s posted here on eBay in Gazelle, California. There is still an unknown reserve, and the current bid price is $3,000. Will it sell this time or disappear and reappear again looking even more different next time?
FROM 11/21/2025 – A YouTube detail guru could probably make enough doing a thorough detailing job on this 1962 Ford F-100 4×4 Flareside barn find to pay for its nut-and-bolt restoration. Although I have a sad feeling that this truck will never be restored back to stock spec, that’s rarely the way things work these days. This one is found here on eBay in Los Gatos, California, and the current bid price is $4,250, but the reserve hasn’t been met.
The Sandshell Beige paint is well-hidden under decades of dust and/or other barn debris. We don’t know how long this 120-inch wheelbase, 8-foot-long-bed Flareside (there was no 6.5-foot bed 4×4 in 1962) has been sitting here, but man, it’s been a while. If I had gotten Amazon stock in 1999 rather than wondering what the heck this weirdo company was and how it could possibly make money, I’d buy this truck and have it turned into a Pebble Beach-winning bone-stock thing of beauty. Sadly, that never happened. I made $24,500 a year in 1999; there wasn’t much left over for buying stocks.
Ford’s fourth-generation F-Series was made from 1960 for the 1961 model year until 1966, and the flareside bed style doesn’t show up that often. I really like it, but I like all three body styles from this era: Flareside, Styleside, and Integrated Pickup, or Unibody. The Unibody trucks are my favorite because they’re so different, and I’m not hauling 1,500 pounds of concrete blocks in my truck anyway.
This truck looks well-preserved, even given its incredibly dirty appearance. With an average of 330 days of sunshine in Los Gatos every year (damn you, Los Gatos!), this truck appears to be pretty solid, despite the very much non-sealed barn it’s been sitting in since Dick Van Dyke was a lad. Well, not that long, but who knows, decades, I’m guessing. With an average Los Gatos home price of $2.8 million (!), if this truck sells for anything less than $850,000, it’s a steal. Seriously, who cares if you’ve got millions in the bank? I’m kidding, of course ($500,000?) (sorry). No, the interior really does look nice, and I bet this truck would clean up well, although there is some rust, and the wooden bed floor is probably a goner; it looks fairly rough.
Speaking of goner, this engine is “toast,” according to the seller. Ha, I love that. No beating around the bush. This is Ford’s 223-cu.in. OHV inline-six, one of two engines available in this truck in ’62. The other was a 292-cu.in. V8. This one would have had 135 horsepower (114 net) and 200 lb-ft of torque, and it’s sent through an optional Warner T98A 4-speed manual and transfer case to all four wheels as needed. Hagerty is at $7,800 for a #4 fair-condition example, and that’s light years away from this example, and a #2 excellent truck is only “worth” $29,000, so you aren’t going to drop this off at a restoration shop, if you can even find one that works on anything older than 2005 vehicles. How much will this one go for?
I’m a big fan of Flareside pickups, and I also prefer the short wheelbase models. But this one does have its appeal. Those “before” pics are great; one of those situations where the vehicle was parked where there was space around it. Obviously it needs a full restoration. The few “after” pics seem to indicate it is relatively solid. I suspect you are right, it will likely reappear as heavily-modified, but for me something close to stock would be even more appealing.
This truck, if it had been in my neck of the woods back in the day, might have been in oil field service. And would have been beat to a pulp and would have died a long time ago. Maybe that is why I enjoyed seeing it written up— good job Scotty.
Since you brough it up…. Dick Van Dyke would have been 37 years old when this truck was new. He will be 100 next month.
An actual Barn Find on a site called BarnFinds? We’ll see about that,,,dilapidated siding, yep, hay bales, yep, bed a junk bin, yep, general farmers neglected condition, absolutely, so the story checks out. A 223 toast? No way, I bet it will run, but the listing was ended, so I can’t tell much. I read Ford did use Marmon Herrington 4×4 into the early 60s, but I think this has the Ford setup. One thing is clear, this will be a beast to drive. Being redundant, I’d love to see the horror on someones face unfamiliar with these. IT’S A DEATH TRAP,,,perhaps to some, but aside from older trucks, we had nothing to compare it to, this was the best it got.
Relisted on ebay yesterday with new tires and wheels:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/227092521616
Oh no, not huge tires and black wheels?! NOOOOOO! So I was right, this truck will never be restored to bone-stock factory spec. I must be the only living human who likes factory-sized wheels and tires.
Thanks for the updated link, Russell!
You’re not the only one who likes factory wheels and tires, but we are outnumbered, people buy expensive dark colored new cars with black wheels, when they get dirty, they look like a $50 crasher that lost it’s hubcaps. Drives me nuts. Hang in there, some day they’ll realize we’re right.
Me 3. Factory stuff on this rig all day long.
I am with you on factory rims/ tires for this truck. Funny that new ones were installed, but the ad says not included with sale.
This is the comment I was looking for!
I too hate oversized wheels/tires with a passion.
This being the “default” modification to classic trucks is so obnoxious!
Stock setup all the way!
The new ad says the new wheels and tires are not included, yet an extra fee can be negotiated.
As Howard noted, this is the poster child for a Barn Find!! Looks like it was last registered in 1991.
I love it and I’m surprised it had no bids!
There were 2 bids before the auction was cancelled, the highest being $7,300, since its new ad was posted it’s received 1 bid so far.
Steve R
Built about 8 miles away at the Milpitas plant, R-code and since it has been stored indoors for all these years in Los Gatos, it could have been sold new at Paul Swanson Ford of Los Gatos, interesting.
Add says engine is toast and the new tires and wheels DON’T go with unless you want to buy them I think seller should have taken the $4k from the original sale and ran because that’s about what its worth considering you have to replace the engine and most likely the wirering , brake lines and other parts most people don’t think when getting a mouse infested machine back on the road. Good luck to the seller.
It looks like they power washed the body. WHY NOT THE ENGINE BAY?
I’M NOT A FAN OF BLACK WHEELS EITHER. But I do like black/dark center alloy wheels like torque thrust or Panasport/Minilite style wheels. But full black tires and wheels looks just dull to me.
Double rarity out in my part of the world. When this truck was new you could count the number of factory 4x4s on one hand and have fingers left. Yeah, I can count (4) by 1964, (5) by ‘66, and in ‘67 they came into their own. Still for ranchers and hunters though.
Very simple trucks. Divorced transfer case, usually a 2-speed. Drive shaft to the front axle was usually longer than the one to the rear. Always a 4-speed main transmission; no wimpy automatics until my uncle bought his ‘72 Chevy K-20.
I was never a fan of the Ford Round-body. Even less of a fan of the Flareside after 1956. They were simply out of place. My Dad preferred the narrow box but because of the angled top rails he bought the wide version. However, old attitudes change, at least for me.
You could park this at my place. I would give it a full resto, right down to the idiot lights, and use it. I wouldn’t even need a paper sack over my head so no one would recognize me.
A worthy restoration…
our meat’n potatoes month after year. Just prefer the nxt gen. Did ford usher in the ‘up scale truck’ then? Radios in every one, auto transmis, etc?
I like these ol rigs, single panel beds (even the imports then, which I liked too) chain tail gait hangers, step’n tow bumpers…
Favorite looking vehicle – 6th gen ford F250 4WD step side short bed (w/2 18 inch race stripes) aahahahaa Corse 2nd is ANY (justa boud) ‘50s – 70s Italian. (Make sure that truck hasa 300/4.9 million mi motor). We just puda 12v in a fella’s 2nd gen C/K. Y? I’da never done it but that what they pay us 4…
Interesting that the original listing shows the location as
Los Gatos,California,& the second one as Gazelle,California –
BIG difference.
That barn in the original ad isn’t what you’d expect to find in Los Gatos. Something like that could exist on the outskirts or nearby in an unincorporated area, but the price of the land would be exponentially higher that the typical house within the city.
Steve R
It was a true barn find, complete with hay. Speaking of these early 60s Ford pickups, I had a ’63 integrated bed Ford. Nice little truck with a later 400M and C6 transmission. I’d gotten it in a trade for a motorcycle back in the 80s. That thing could rip, but it was front heavy. Who needed to go to a gym when you had that to steer and give you a work out? It was a solid and fun truck though.
The site where the barn was, is not the site where the pictures were taken. Anyone else notice the Ferrari sign on the side of the building? Also what looks like a Ferrari on a lift in the building that has just been painted yellow?
One thing that always bugged me about this generation of Ford pickups is that the front wheels were too far back in the wheel wells, especially on the F350s. The F350s had longer wheel openings, with the opening following the style line and being about 6 inches longer. They did this because the larger wheels were also mounted further back. On my F350 I remounted the axle further forward on the springs to make it look like the front axle hadn’t been knocked back. It drove fine, but had a slightly longer turn radius to one side.
I recently traded this “hillbilly rollback” for a 28 Model A and hauled it 650 miles to the Black Hills of South Dakota. I kind of hated to part with it but have greatly upgraded my hauling vehicles
Auction update: the second time around, all cleaned up, and wearing big wheels and tires (at least for the photos), this ’62 F-100 4×4 only made it to $5,500, and the auction ended with presumably no sale.