This may be the highest-optioned work truck you will ever find! It features a ton of factory options as well as vintage aftermarket pieces and is going to make a really cool project for someone. It can be found here on eBay with a current bid of $4,550 and the reserve hasn’t been met yet. I’m not sure how much it will take for the seller to depart with it, but it’s really cool. Located in Selma, Oregon, it will take a heavy-duty trailer to haul this one home. Have a look at the interior, you won’t believe how many options it has!
The interior on this truck is full of surprises. As you can see it has a ton of chrome details. There are lots of gauges which include both factory and aftermarket pieces. There is some surface rust, but with some elbow grease, it should clean up pretty well. There is a really cool Stewart-Warner “Survey Speedometer” along with a factory in-dash clock! It also features a ton of other options including the following: spot light, West Coast mirrors, passenger sun visor, day-night rear view mirror, cigarette lighter, AM radio, deluxe heater, driver and passenger arm rests, tachometer and power steering with a shorter column and 3-spoke steering wheel.
The engine is a 316 cubic inch V8. Unfortunately, it was partially disassembled some years ago and there are parts missing. You can see the carburetor is gone along with the thermostat housing. The seller does have a running 389 from a 1959 Pontiac that goes along with the sale. If this was my project, I’d probably put a big V8 or modern diesel in it. How about you?
The back glass has been missing for about twenty years, so there are some issues with the floor and seat. The seller seems to have collected repair parts over the years and has almost everything except the glass itself. Overall, this is a really cool old truck that has endless possibilities. It features a NAPCO 4×4 conversion as well, which makes it even that more desirable. If it was yours, what would you do with it?
You don’t see one of these everyday, especially with an automatic. I didn’t think you could get a Napco conversion with an automatic but I stand corrected. I’m a little curious as to how the engine bay got so rusty. The last time I saw something like that was the aftermath of a battery explosion. Another part that makes me curious is the wheels. I didn’t think the 250 series was available with Budd type wheels and duals. I therefore think that they were installed afterwards. If this truck was to make its way to my place I would be tempted to install a set of singles and maybe even source out a pickup box. I would have to get used to that heavy cast iron doorstop of a transmission though…
Quite a rusty engine compartment, the hood must have been left off of the truck at some time. No rear window? Could have covered it with something over the years, the floorboards and seats must have suffered extensively for the weather exposure.
Frequent visitors to this site, probably already knew, comments 1 and 2 would be from the sites self proclaimed biggest truck buffs. This is indeed an unusual truck. I’m trying to figure out who would have used a truck like this. 4 wheel drive, almost unheard of in the mid 50’s, would indicate some kind of off road service truck. The clock may be original, but the tachometer isn’t, and I’ve never seen a “survey speedo”, I think it was just something someone had laying around, unless accuracy was important, for some reason. It appears to have a disconnected air compressor, and those hyrda-vac brakes gives me the heebie-jeebies. I had some scary rides in trucks with hydra-vac brakes, and a “chargicator”? I think this may have had some kind of auxiliary motor. I’ve never seen a NAPCO with an automatic, a “Truck” Hydramatic, no less. During this time, a GMC was not a Chevy with lockwashers, it was an entirely different truck. I think those front ends were thee most aggressive style ever. Again, even with the automatic, 40 mph will be about it, and a ride, 2nd to none, but it is a really neat unit. Great find.
A Chevy with lockwashers, I gotta remember that one. The truck was obviously ordered by someone with a lot of money and didn’t know what to do with it. Back in the day you just didn’t see a 4×4 with all the chrome options, let alone an automatic. There was a dentist, wanted a fishing truck so he went over to the Ford dealer and ordered his special beast, a ‘68 F250 4×4, loaded with everything possible: Ranger trim, auto, A-C, No-Spin diff, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an ATR in there somewhere. He then went out and bought a new (fancy for ‘68) 8 ft. camper. The boat dealer was in the vicinity so he bought a new boat.
Dad saw him at Duck Lake. Once. The guy didn’t know how to back up a trailer and had to ask for help launching the boat. I don’t think he knew much about fishing either. Anyway, the truck and camper languished on his driveway for years. One day everything was gone…
Boy I could’ve used something like this when I moved to Melbourne with the kids
last month. We could’ve taken everything
in one trip instead of making several of them. We’re settling in now and I just bought a 2010 Dodge Charger to haul us
around, but I digress. If this truck were in
Florida, it would sell for big bucks. Oh
sure, we’ve got 4X4s here, but nothing like
this! What a very unique piece this is. If
it were mine, I’d probably swap in a 502
big block Chevy and go on my merry way.
Then, I’d fix the bed, add some sideboards to it, and cruise it at Oldtown
when I wasn’t putting it to work. Would make a great portrait wouldn’t it?
hey Ken I think this jimmy was like the one Skip and Wes had in rescue 8- Think theirs was a short bed pickup , probably a NAPCO.
Good stuff, this one is a tough, no bs truck!!! Fron the GMC grill to the gauges, it needs a good home!!
Cheers and stay safe
GPC
Rescue 8! yes………….:) Now we just need s mention of Whirlybirds and we all know where we stand.
As for the truck , as usual, what a weird set of options and clearly someone didnt give a hoot about this truck for a very long time……….weird because any vehicular freak knows what a NAPCO 4×4 is and weird that it was left to rot….and with all that ‘bling’……….
I wish I had a use for it. Now if it was a woodie with a NAPCO 4×4, I’d need to call the nurse in.
Whirlybirds for sure, and while we’re at it let’s toss in some episodes of Highway Patrol and Cannonball. That ought to get all the old favorites back together. But there were a few trade-offs we had to endure before we could watch the good stuff. It seems to me that Liberace was on before Whirlybirds. It took half an episode of Whirlybirds to get untraumatized.
Hey guys, this truck is on YouTube! Just
look up elderlyiron and you’ll see it there
on his channel. He also has several more
trucks for sale there. Looks like he’s thinning out the herd a bit. He tells you
in the video that the original engine is toast, and then he tells you about the 389
you get with the truck along with a seat
frame and floor plan that’s complete. Hi
Charles! I thought that too when I saw
this truck. Hold on a minute! I got an idea! We take the ’55 Suburban Dakota
showed us, add a GMC front clip, stir in
some NAPCO bits, and make a Rescue 8
clone out of it! Now that sounds like a
good time to me. And the 502 V-8 would
make it that much better! Sure wish I could do it. No space to work in now. Don’t think the property manager would
like it either. Just thought I’d drop by and
share what I found.
Have followed elderlyiron for a while. He does a thorough and detailed walk around on his youtube page on this truck. It’s amazing to see the amount of extras stuck in this truck including the NAPCO conversion. If you dig he also has a series of videos on the 389 motor that comes with it. He talks initially about coming to the conclusion that he won’t have time to fix everything he’s got and he doesn’t want those left after he’s gone to try and figure out what to do with it. A problem many of us face whether we care to admit it or not.
Smart fella, that one. Wish there were more like him. Far too many times you see either here or on YouTube, where some guy has 10,000 cars and won’t sell
any of them. Our friend here has the presence of mind to know when it’s time
to let ’em go. Too bad I have neither money nor space to buy anything he’s
selling. This truck must’ve been a fully
loaded demonstrator when it was sold as a used vehicle. I was very young when
my uncle had one similar to this on his farm for
use as a grain truck. Lemme tell ya’, Uncle Claude’s truck was not as nice
as this one must’ve been.
Maybe when someone did show up. They would have money and NOT expect a person to give them some thing or to sale it real cheap. I know. I,ve dealt with people like that. I had a bronco for sale. I had about $3,000 in it and two guys try to buy it for $400 .What I paid for it and kept arguing with me. Finally I got mad and told them the best thing they could do was get in their truck and leave now. They left when they saw I meant business.
On my drive home today I saw a Ram, a Ford, & a Chevy all with the blacked-out greilles. If you put all 3 next to each other and removed the badges you’d have a hard time telling the difference. The new chrome/bling fascias look like a section of a New York City skyscraper was grafted on to the front.
This truck is stunning and for the $80-100K you’d pay for a loaded F 350 you could put an LS motor and a pickup bed or nifty wood stake bed on it and have possibly the neatest truck in 6 states (including Oklahoma).
And I’m not a truck guy.
This thing is spectacular and deserves to be saved – in whatever way the new owner sees fit.
I almost forgot – ‘… a Chevy with lockwashers…” should get Howard A into the BarnFinds Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
The thing that shocks me is it’s a 4×4 with chrome and the light blue paint continues inside the cab. It seems like the only trucks like this that came with chrome back then were originally fire trucks.
That 316 engine should be a small-journal Pontiac with a 3.9375″ bore and a 3.25″ stroke. With an automatic transmission and that intake manifold it would have had a 2v carb with 205 hp @ 4600 rpm and 294 lb⋅ft @ 2600 rpm. Pontiac made a dual-quad version with 10.5:1 compression good for 285 hp @ 5100 rpm and 330 lb⋅ft @ 2600 rpm.
Same family as the 389 that the seller is supplying with it, so the swap ought to be pretty straightforward.
This truck would serve no purpose in my life, and I would have no place to store it, but I really want it bad!
I think I would either figure out how to slide a Cummins diesel in there, or maybe a Pontiac 455. I would repair the damaged floor & restore the interior to original. I would build a nice stake bed for it but this is one of the few times I would leave the paint alone. I am normally not a “patina man”, but it just looks so right to me on this one.
The seller has posted a video about the sale of this truck on YouTube. Look up “Elderlyiron”
I remember watching a youtube about how he tracked this old GMC down using some detective tricks, I think he found an old registration card in another truck that he bought. His video’s are very entertaining if you are a scrounger or an old junkyard dog…
The cab is a 250 but the rest of the truck isn’t. A 250 was a 3/4 ton. This is probably a 250/350 graft. And GMC never used the 389 engine in a truck. The bigger GMC trucks used the Olds engines. The cab is a Hodge-podge mess. The SW tach should be in a pod. The clock is where the speedo should be. Watched part of the video, not going to comment on that. Napco didn’t care what kind of transmission you had, or truck brand either for that matter.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/536632111824643861/
Under water or the hood was left open for a long time. My guess is under water That being sed cool old bird. Put a commons in it
This would be s great truck to put a modern diesel in with a standard transmission behind it!! I only say this because the motor is probably so rusted internally that it’s good for nothing but a boat anchor!! With the 4 wheel drive and the duel rear wheels it would make a great tow truck or even a good work truck with a standard box if you can find one for this year with a duel wheel rear fenders!!!
collapsed a show into 13 min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXLBmGxKn3g
Ahhh da good ol daze!