Barn Finds has a history of featuring “honest” pickup trucks-good old trucks with a lot of life left. This 1974 Dodge Utiline (think step-side) pickup has been the recent beneficiary of some light refurbishment, and even embellishment (more on that later). It’s located in Reva, Virginia, and is listed for sale here on Craigslist. Thanks to Rocco B. for alerting us to this “honest” find! The seller has just reduced their price from $9,500 to $7,500.
Dodge embraced the older appearance of the 1974 Utiline in the relevant brochure by calling the model “Old faithful”. This particular truck is a one-ton model (100) and features the Custom package; another euphemism on Dodge’s part, as that term meant the plainest model they offered. Even the paint color is pretty plain: “Yellow”.
It is pretty clean though, with that original yellow, and the seller even includes under-truck pictures showing how nice it is underneath. Apparently the truck spent most of its life in a warehouse, and it only shows 68,000 miles (!) The dash isn’t even cracked! The seller has done a lot of maintenance and improvements-and one enhancement. That’s right, despite the “426 Hemi” in the Craigslist ad title, the truck actually features the optional 318 V-8. However, the seller has added “426” emblems to the fenders and a “426” decal to the air cleaner. Personally, I’d remove them, but I’m sure they’d be good for a laugh at the next Mopar show you enter with the truck. You might want to fix the right front fender damage first, and the seller also says the worst paint on the truck is on the hood.
The seller replaced the bed wood with some gorgeous Cherry. Everything under the bed was cleaned and painted.
I’ll bet there aren’t many original 1974 Dodge truck interiors that look better than this! And yes, that *is* air conditioning that you see, although the seller says work will be needed to make it blow cold air. The fact that it’s there, though, is a big plus for those of us in the South. This picture also illustrates the shifter for the third optional feature on this truck: the A727 3-speed automatic transmission. You have to wonder how this truck was ordered: was it a “spec” truck for the dealer, or was it special-ordered with the three options on the basic truck? Two of the original dog-dish center caps come with the truck if you don’t like the current Corvette full wheel covers.
Here’s that “426 Hemi” 318. The seller reports reasonable oil pressure data and 140 psi compression in all cylinders, so it’s ready for more work. Would you use this honest work truck as it was originally intended, or would you save it for sunny days and shows? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Wow. This one takes me down Memory Lane. I once owned a military-spec ’76 D100 (that’s a half-ton, BTW) very similar to this, except it was a slant-six with a three-on-the-tree manual trans. There was nothing on it that didn’t need to be there. It was a tank. Sometimes I wish I’d kept it. If I’d known what the guy I sold it to would do to it in a year’s time, I would have!
TLDR, the ad was so long and didn’t say much, I could finish it. After the first paragraph I was thinking, if it’s such a hit at car shows why didn’t someone make him an offer. It will find a buyer at some point, but hard to see at $7,500.
Steve R