I have a thing for old American pickup trucks, especially those that look like they have been worked hard but have plenty of hard work left in them. On a recent successful salvage expedition for some parts for a racing car, I came across this junkyard find that looked way too good to be in the yard. I have a friend that is resto-modding a truck that’s the same year and even the same color scheme as this one, so it really caught my eye. A closer look at the truck showed that it was on the road as late as 2001 based on the inspection sticker in the cracked windshield. It has either a 240 or 300 cubic inch inline 6 under the hood. My son-in-law that was helping me that day would have taken it home if he had a place to put it (until we move, I won’t have a place to help him, otherwise I would have). I was surprised when I inquired with Ricky, the salvage yard owner, what it would take to purchase the truck: only $600, and a title was available for additional money.
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- What a great dash!
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- Original trim ok for this truck
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- Needs a seat
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- Last on the road in 2001
Honestly, this one looks to be in better initial condition that either of the trucks my friend is combining to make one, despite having a fiberglassed floor. If it’s still there once our house and shop are finished, I may be helping out with storage for my son-in-law. Personally, other than stabilizing the rust, and there wasn’t that much of it visible, I’d just enjoy having a true working truck that could have things tossed in the bed without worrying about it. Since my son-in-law and his wife are buying a house right now, he gave me the OK to write this neat truck up, so if you want to beat him to it, you can contact Ricky at West Salvage in Bethel, North Carolina at 252-825-1248.
My brother inlaw has one but red and has the 352 v8 in it I think. It sitting behind his garage for a couple years needing brakes.
$600.00 is a great price, my daily driver is a ’65 SWB F100,
previous owner stuck a 351w in it.
if the frame is good this might make a great work truck. hard to go wrong at $600 unless the title runs the price up to much. nice find.
Had a 65 SWB back in 75 blew clutch was same cost to put 289 auto in as to change clutch so I did. loved that truck but kids cost money so it went away.
I have a ’66 F100 as my daily driver with the granny gear four on the floor and a 240 inline six. The worst spots for rust are the cab mounts under the front floors, but they make replacements and floors are easy to fabricate or put new ones in. This truck looks great. A seat will probably be the hardest thing to find, but I think you can grab one from any F100 up to about 1973. The patterns might be different, but they should bolt in. Also, this is a Custom Cab truck with the fancy horn ring and nicer gauge panel, door inserts, and two tone dash, along with the chrome trim on the windshield seal. It probably had a glue on padded dash at one time, but I prefer leaving it off. Cool truck, hope someone saves it.
Great old truck. I hope someone falls in love with it. Our church owns one that was a bequest from an estate. I cleaned it, rebuilt its head, and put a clutch in it. It’s perfect at around 300K miles. It has always lived indoors so there’s little rust, and it’s garages have never has resident rodents. It spent 30 years hauling poster paper for a graphic artist, and now it hauls Christmas poinsettias, mulch and yard plants. There is a standard requirement that it never be put away dirty or empty of fuel. It’s a wonderfully honest vehicle. It rides, sounds, and looks like a truck. It will never win a race or have anyone complement its handling. It just hauls stuff whenever asked. And it’s loved.
That one’s in good shape. Lots of parts available. I hope someone who really loves this era of Ford takes this before it’s gone. It’s worth a restoration.
First year for the twin I-Beam front suspension, I believe.
You are correct. The use of the twin I-Beam opens up a whole world of upgrade possibilities as any front end parts up to 1978 can be retrofitted (I had a ’66 with power steering and power front disk brakes borrowed from a 1974). Many of the later model drive trains will also bolt in. This looks to be a very solid truck and could be modded to any level or made to run and used “as-is”. These are starting to get some collector recognition — when I built mine 14 years ago I had parts of 3 different trucks in it and had less than $1000 in all three put together. Assembled with junk yard parts and painted in the garage it was a cheap and reliable vehicle that went anywhere I wanted it to go and carried/towed anything I needed to move (5.0L FI motor, AOD, etc).