If you remember the barn find liquidation we featured a while back, you might recognize this 1929 Klieber. If you missed that one, you can read about it here. This rare truck has spent its entire life in California and was added to this collection in 1958. The story is that the owner purchased it so that they could use the truck only level of the Bay Bridge. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t really matter, this is one cool truck regardless of the story. It’s possibly one of the only Kleiber trucks left that hasn’t been restored and possibly even one of the only ones still in existence. You can take a closer look at this Kleiber here on eBay in Oakland, California.
Clearly, this truck is in need of a complete restoration, but given what it is I’m sure there is someone out there that would love to take it on. Finding parts will likely be a monumental task, but that’s part of the fun with a project like this. Since Kleiber was a small manufacturer, many of the parts they used were sourced by other manufacturers, so that should make it a bit easier to find parts that can’t be restored. In the case of the wood structure, you won’t find replacement panels, but if you are handy at woodworking you should be able to make replacements yourself.
Thankfully, all the key component seem to be present. Here’s a shot of the original inline 6 that powered this truck up and down the hills of San Fransico. There isn’t a ton of information out there about these, but from what I was able to find this engine was rated between 40 and 60 horsepower. That’s a small amount by today’s standards, but it likely has a decent amount of torque and was enough to get it down the road.
I can’t even begin to imagine what all it will take to restore this truck back to its former glory, but I’m sure it will be a memorable experience for whoever takes it on. I just hope the next owner contacts us and keeps us posted on their progress! So, what do you think of this Kleiber? Would you take it on or would you rather find and restore one of Kleiber’s beautiful automobiles instead?
I’d like to know more about the shoe box Ford and T-Bird in the background.
I believe Disney will be soon signing that truck to a long term contract. Probably get a new name for the character, though.
5000$+ for import to Europe. And thats only shipping US/EU so come inland transport US. And again from Bremerhaven to my adr.
Lets say 8000$+.
But cool projekt
Nice one, Josh. I hope nobody gets a splinter on that dashboard. Kudos on your professionalism too; I couldn’t have written this up without making reference to Elves. I pity anyone who tangles with that front bumper in traffic. It could probably do a can-opener job on a Prius without losing a flake of surface rust. Very interesting “find” — I’d like to see it live again!
What are those two “bollards” between the front bumper and radiator? Ballast? Oil filled dampers? James Bond ramming devices? Anybody know?
I’m gonna guess that they are some sort of vibration damper device.
They are very early VERY heavy duty shock absorbers.
The Kleiber Family continues the story by hosting a webpage with a .pdf write-up of the company history.
http://www.kleibermotors.com
http://www.kleibermotors.com/images/The%20Kleiber%20Story.pdf
Looks rode hard and put away wet ))) Cool though
Like Todd, I’d love to see the truck restored to its former glory, and most importantly, driven.
Hey Beatnik, do you know or remember anything about the Moreland Truck? I think they were built in Burbank down on maybe Alameda at San Fernando Road. I believe in the 60s and 70s the building housed Stephen Boyd’s Burbank Sports Car Center.
From what I saw, looks like every wood panel is a flat panel so it shouldn’t be too hard to make replacements. Just a comment.
Since most people that knew what a Kleiber truck was, are sadly gone. I’d have to think, it’s a safe bet this won’t be turned into a resto-mod, or worse, a rat rod. From what I read, Kleiber was a high class, hand made truck. It’s biggest downfall, was it cost 4 times as much as a Ford, and the only thing that saved the trucks through the depression, was they were made in California, where cost is is, and always was, no object. I think there’s still some old timer, that will save this, we’re not all dead yet, but rest assured, younger generations will have no interest in this, and that’s a shame.
One more thing, wonder where the term dash”board” or floor”boards” came from? Here it is.
Looks like the oyster truck from 007 Live and Let Die.
Nice change to what we’ve been reading about lately. I’ve heard of these but this is the first time I saw one, even in a picture. Looks like it was made to put in an honest day’s work. I sure hope this one goes to someone who will give it a quality restoration and loves to show it off. You sure won’t find many of these at the ATHS convention.
Check out jay Leno’s garage YouTube page. He posted a video yesterday that has a Kleiber in it. Talked about how large the brakes were and how it was made specifically for San fransisco’s hills.
Saw that episode yesterday, too. First I had ever heard of the Kleiber line, and now I have seen two in about 24 hours. Cool story of how they were built in San Francisco, specifically tailored for the hilly terrain. Really cool.
That 1950 Ford Sedan has one of the most beautiful grills ever manufactured, the airplane flying out of the front of it is amazing! It is especially visual with the bumperettes still installed, which complete the landing gear of the plane. I’d buy the front end of that car just to hand the bumper pieces on my wall! It is so reminiscent of Howard Hughes H1 Raceplane, or perhaps the racer Rare Bear with the big radial engine, flying out of the engine compartment.
That’s a 49 Ford, Jay, but I appreciate your comments about it depicting a plane with landing gear. Never thought of it that way, but now that I look at it I can see it! Many enterprising folks have done just what you want to do and taken a plasma cutter to the front of an otherwise scrapped shoebox Ford and hung it in their man cave. I’ve seen bullet-nose Studebakers done the same way.
I remember seeing trucks like this along the Embarcadero in San Fransisco in the late ’40’s, some still using chain drive. This one has the Timken worm drive differential which was the equivalent of a double reduction spiral bevel differential. This particular one is using the forward axle of a bogie.
I hope the new owner does a good restoration.
This would be an easy restoration, mostly wood, all the metal is very heavy and would be easy to sandblast ,give it valve and ring and on the road again
Thats right. No leather cabin, crome or wery expensive two stage paint job. A bit like restore a old tractor.
I have one of these trucks. My great grandfather bought it new in San Francisco. It’s still fully operational and about 90 miles east of where it was built. I’ve never seen another in person and never seen one as clean and in “one piece” as mine.