Barn Finds reader Paul Arnold has submitted yet another classic truck for your consideration, this time a 1964 Chevy C30 with a stakebed body. These old-school workhorses are still plenty useful in farm environments, but they also look quite good when given the resto-mod treatment. While it appears to have been parked for several years, the body looks relatively solid with laser-straight bumpers, a crack-free windshield, and excellent OEM grill. He’s asking $3,000 for the truck, which comes with an inline-six and four-speed manual.
Inside, the truck appears largely original, with no gaudy aftermarket radios sticking out of the dash or mismatched bucket seats swapped in from a later model. The picture isn’t the best, but from what we can see the dash hasn’t been hacked apart and the long-throw manual shifter hasn’t been cut down. The old-school New York State inspection sticker is a clear reminder of how long this Chevy C30 has been off the road, and mileage is said to be a tick over 96,000.
Paul notes that the truck comes with the aforementioned 292 I6 mill paired to a 4-speed, and also features power brakes and a 12-foot bed with racks. The 292 came from a long-lived line of Chevy inline-sixes and was a big motor, weighing in at 4.8L, and also the last of the pushrod straight sixes. No word on mechanical health but given how many Chevy and GMC trucks utilized this motor or at least some form of it, parts should still be relatively plentiful.
How would you update the bed? Obviously, the stake design will need repair, but I’d be tempted to tear it out and start over with some gorgeous polished wood slats and a bed and cab painted dark green, with the wheels refinished in white. This is a blank canvas for the next owner and the manual transmission makes the prospect of boosting the performance of the truck more appetizing. How would you restore this former workhorse? Thanks to Paul for listing his truck with us, and remember, if you have a vehicle you want to sell, contact Barn Finds for your next Exclusive.
Location: Argyle, NY
Asking Price: $3,000
Mileage: 96,000
Title Status: Clear
My grandfather had a staked C30 on his farm, but the generation that followed this one. Same configuration: six and a 4-speed. As for the « sport », it would not exceed 45 mph on the highway but boy was it strong.
These trucks were made for the working man by the working man. Restored to original it would make a nice parade truck and even a hay ride truck. We still have some farmers who put on fall parties at the farms with music / food and hay rides using trucks and wagons pulled by antique tractors. We even have a antique farm machinery show every summer at our local county fair grounds where they show people how it was like over a 100 years ago to run a farm.
It looks to be complete so keep it original would be my call. Freshen everything up, maybe a few upgrades for safety. A nice looking classic truck. Good asking price, too.
Well, I wouldn’t go nuts with this as far as a restoration with polished wood, engine mods or whatever, it’s a ’64 Chevy C-30 stake bed, and not very pleasant to drive, in any configuration. I do think it could be resurrected into a useful truck again, these did go 55 mph( empty), but were designed to haul a load, and put back in the shed, until it was needed again. I’m sure there’s nice ones in pole barns still around for about the same money. I’d pay maybe $500-$1,000 bucks for this, get it running and driving, and use it for hauling stuff, like it was intended.
There were a lot of these out west, ranging from the late 40s to the mid-60s. Actually the dealership I worked for sold a fair share of 1-ton duallies chassis-cabs. Mostly small farmers picked them up. Then a lot of guys bought them for welding and service trucks. However, they didn’t hold up as well as most people hoped. A lot of cracked a broken frames, especially for the welding trucks. I remember one guy who got so fed up with his frame(s) breaking, went out and bought a Chevy C-40 on a short wheelbase. Just a 350 with 5 spd. Rode a little rough but all he repaired after that was the motor….
I’m guessing that 1st gear is a granny low gear, so putting a much taler (numerically lower) rear end ratio would give you a useful 4 speed with a reasonable cruising rpm. I would do that and find a dually bed that would fit and just drive it