What a fantastic old truck! If you buy this one, please don’t paint it! Not only does it look great, but it’s a bargain listed here on eBay for a buy it now of only $3,500! Although it wears the livery of an oil company in Minster, Ohio, the truck is currently located in Louisville, Kentucky, waiting for me you to buy it.
Sure, there’s a pretty decent dent on this side along with some rust. But you just can’t find many good old trucks anymore, especially for this kind of price. No, you’re not going to go at high speeds down the highway, and you aren’t going to win any shows either. But you sure can have some fun in the meantime!
I couldn’t find any record online of the Minster Oil Company anymore, but I’m sure this truck was used for deliveries daily. I’m surprised there isn’t a bumper with a hitch, but maybe there was at some point in the past.
I wish there were a picture of the seat, but you’ll have to settle for this one of the pedals and shifting gear. Interestingly enough, the mileage is given as 251,313, which has me wondering how they know that first digit. I’m not questioning the mileage, mind you, just wondering if there’s any known history of the truck.
In 1955, Ford called the F350 series “The Money Makers.” I wonder if it was one of these advertisements that sold Minster Oil on the F350 as their truck of choice?
I’ve been saving this part. Yes, it runs, and runs well, despite having what the seller says is the original engine and transmission (but lists it as a V8). The seller also points out that the fuel tank has been replaced, which takes care of one major issue you find with older vehicles. I’ll be honest, I can’t believe this truck is available at this price. Don’t wait too long or I’ll be making that trip to Louisville instead of you!
Why shouldn’t I paint it if I buy it? You think Minster oil had this truck looking this bad when they first bought it? They would have scoffed at your “patina”….they wanted a good looking clean truck!
Exactly! But I would repaint / restore it to the as-new Minster Oil scheme.
I totally agree. If I buy it, it’s mine. And I can do what I want to with it. Just like you stated.
Dan, Erich, and dj — of course it’s yours if you buy it and yes, do anything you want! I was just making the case to leave it as is :-)
Why would you want to leave it looking like no-one has cared about it for the last x-number of years. Restore it to new, yes, repaint it to look like it’s in service with this Shell dealer but for heaven’s sake don’t leave it to rot like it is now and for GOD’S sake don’t clear coat over rust…..that’s the ultimate in laziness.
BG, I promise I don’t clearcoat over rust :-) I’m lucky enough to live in a fairly dry climate with dry storage. I’m sure eventually I’d get tired enough of the damage and rust that I’d restore it, but read Shayne’s comment below–that’s why I’d like to leave it alone, at least for a while. I used to want to restore everything right away, but now that I’m older I’m ok with some wear, at least for a while. I have my show vehicles as well, but I seem to get more fun out of the ones I can park in a regular parking lot without too much fear!
Dudes, relax! Its a great case to make on keeping it original…only a suggestion!
Jamie, I’ve got to go to your corner on this one. Keeping the exterior and preserving it as well, will be tricky but I think would be rewarding. I have considered as one of the stops along the way for one of my old car restorations, was to smooth all the major dents, remove the surface rust and stabilize to new the undercarriage and interior of the doors while keeping the exterior as it was, oily rag. To each his own. If the next owner wants to lower it, paint it metallic maroon imron with flat blue flames and put a gray velour interior and a SBC in it — well, the world will have another one. There’s a car lot up in Hendersonville et up with such creations that get picked up from the local old guy estate sales. To each his own.
Why not half and half? Restore the drivers side and clear coat the “patina” on the passenger side
This. Is. BEAUTIFUL!
Don’t you dare touch the paint! Get it roadworthy and use it!
i agree with wuzjeepnowsaab
Your obsession with leaving old vehicles looking like rolling pieces of crap is strange. I especially found your opinion of leaving the older Bette the other day particularly strange. But this truck, give it a complete makeover, and even reproduce the signage.
Nothing strange about it to me. Go to a car show and see 15 1970 Boss 302s lined up looking the same. Once you see one, you’ve seen them all. Now when i show people my original paint 1970 Boss 302 with a hitch and CB radio antenna… it gets people talking. Anyone can go find one of these on Ebay all pretty up. But wheres the character? There are plenty that NEED restored.
Might get people talking, but what are they saying?
I agree with restoring it then paint it the same color but maybe a satin finish rather than glossy then reapply the signage.
For years, I thought that vintage trucks like this Ford should have nice paint jobs but recently, I started to have second thoughts about that. As I look at them more, the better they look with all that patina. Both seem to go naturally together like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I would just do the basic maintenance work and replace normal wear and tear items such as the tires and brakes and make it a a safe and cool daily driver.
In all honesty, there’s only one type of vehicle that looks ok yellow, and that’s a school bus. Make the old gal look nice again, and not yellow, please. Looks like a very tired 223, inline 6 ( not V6 as they corrected twice) so that tells me they probably don’t know much about it. Even a slight resto-mod would look better than this. Great find.
I can’t say it’s like my vintage Fender bass, where if you’d suggest to repaint it, I’d probably slap you, but there IS a good argument to leave it be…
You can see in the engine compartment that it was originally green, before Minster Oil repainted it yellow.
Minster Oil used to be located on 185 W. Fourth Street in Minster Ohio. They were a fuel service station from 1952 until about 1990.
P.S. Looks like someone bought it (and it wasn’t me!)
This is a great deal no wonder it went especially with the way trucks are priced now.
As for the paint. Everyone has an idea and we should all respect that. Some like the patina some like it looking like new. Personally I like a great paint job but I still appreciate the old look.
Although I’m really not a fan of vehicles with weak paint, I do think certain ones look cool such as the Vette the other day. It’s a time capsule kinda thing. Like Dave, I also play bass, and some of mine are kept in as pristine condition as possible, but still played. Others just have a cool vibe looking a tad beaten on!
If you like the patina look, restore it and then put on the fake patina, but definitely restore it!
Wow, I just saw this truck the other day. I have no idea what part of town I was in. Liked it as is. Every bit of that patina was earned, not scumbled on. What’s cool about this truck is that it’s a unique snap shot of a limited window of time. How this truck would’ve looked working in the 60s or 70s at a neighborhood service station…remember those? You buy it, you do what you want with it. But I think it’d be a shame to turn it into another cookie cutter custom or a quaint, typical resto. This would be a great background vehicle for use in period films.
Opinions are well, just that. Personally I think the look of this truck is amazing just as it is, like a well worn pair of Levi’s or some old Vans kicks with a few holes beaten into them. History is oozing from every pore of this truck, 72 long years of it. The colors and graphics are from a bygone era where things were simpler and we werent being overrun by high technology and bratty, entitled kids. Let history live, polish up the the engine a bit and clean up the interior but leave that gorgeous iconic paint, rust and graphics as they are. Any old car can go through the restoration process and look brand new, but guess what, its not 1955 anymore. Sometimes when vehicles as old as this one go back to “brand new” status they seem out of place to me in 2017. Cars and trucks like this show us our good ol’ American roots just as they are. Let history live, leave her as is!
Well said. The next owner is allowed to do anything they want with it, and If You have made better life choices and have the wherewithal to do a nut-and-bolt, councours level restoration, those are a thing of beauty and I enjoy them thoroughly. A truck this age that truly looks showroom new, no blemishes, not a thing out of place, deep show chrome, is a breathtaking thing of beauty. I seldom see that.
What you and I have seen quite often is that the owner got about about 75% of the body flaws fixed, the rust sandpapered off the chrome bits (after he figured how show chrome was going to take the center pillar out of his retirement fund), and the whole thing got reassembled with a globby paint job. He just got tired of trying to get it right, and now here it sits with glossy new paint over rippled metal. “It’s like it was originally. I put the lettering back” the owner smiles. And, he may have paid someone enough to do a good lettering job and got *this* one instead. I am not, by the way, mean enough to go around ragging on some family schmoe about his restoration choices while he’s sitting there in his lawn chair beside his wife and this thing–there’s no good in going around hurting people’s feelings. This is me carping behind the scenes. By the same token, no, you cannot get me to say that he’s improved things. He’s got a right to do it, just like he’d have a right to put a couple of layers of urethane spray lacquer over the centuries of honest wear on his family’s heirloom Revolutionary War flintlock rifle (and there are always people that will)…because things are just things. (There, I’ve used the word *things* way too much and am too tired to go back and find synonyms before the edit function closes out on me.) Thank you for letting this Old Man yell at a Cloud for a couple of minutes.