By Jim Brennan
Yes, this is another of the Hooniverse Truck Thursday, only this time I decided that we needed a truck showdown. I was doing some research on eBay and came across these three pickups trucks that predate 1970. This was from a time in which the Pickup Truck was utilitarian, with no A/C, no leather interiors, no power conveniences, no extended cabs, nothing but honest work trucks. In no particular order, I want to show you a 1962 Chevrolet C-10, a 1967 International 1100B, and a 1970 Ford F-100.
This 1967 Chevy C-10 Step Side Pickup has been restored to look original, but is really a resto-mod with a modern engine and transmission. Other important modern items include front disc brakes, cooling system, and much more. According to the listing:
1962 Chevrolet C10 Pickup. TOTALLY RESTORED (with ALL receipts). This truck has the look of an original but is updated to drive like a new truck. Over $25,000 of receipts for this truck. Has won several shows. This truck does have a few blemishes, but is overall a very nice truck. If you are looking for an ORIGINAL LOOKING CHEVY Truck that will turn heads, this one won’t disappoint. This truck was restored to DRIVE. IT DRIVES GREAT.
Current bid is at $4,000, and by the time you read this posting, the auction will be over. What do you think this truck should sell for, and ask yourself this: If you are going to buy a resto-mod, is A/C the first thing you would install? See the listing here.
Our next truck has also been restored, only this time with modifications like a new set of gauges in the dash, a color matched spray-in bed liner, and more. this is an unusual 1967 International 1100B Pickup Truck with a flush bed option. According to the listing:
The interior is blue-collar basic, but that’s OK because it’s part of the charm of owning an old truck. The red vinyl bench seat is still firm and comfortable for three across seating, and the metal dash is stylish. A recent set of Moon gauges have replaced the originals, but the look is still 1960s correct, not modern, and they probably work better than the factory equipment anyway. There’s a newer leather-wrapped steering wheel with contrasting red stitching, and surprisingly, it looks right at home in the truck’s cab. Thanks to big windows and a commanding seating position, visibility is excellent all around, making this big truck easy to drive and park anywhere.
Power comes from International’s own 266 cubic inch V8, which has a healthy rumble and decent torque to move the truck easily. Decked out in bright orange engine paint, it shows up vividly against the satin black engine bay and runs well. An open-element air cleaner and a new carburetor ensure plenty of fuel and air, while a new alternator makes plenty of juice. Power steering and a recent power brake upgrade with a new master cylinder make it safe on the highway, and there are signs everywhere of excellent care and maintenance: new belts and hoses, solid inner fenders, and a new battery. Underneath, it’s extremely clean for a 44-year-old truck. The frame is solid and appears to have been painted with a preservative primer at some point, and there’s no indication that it has ever been rusty or damaged. A recent dual exhaust system features glasspack mufflers that give the V8 under the hood a few extra horses and it sounds very aggressive. The brakes have been rebuilt, and it rolls on a set of brand new steel wheels, baby moon hubcaps and trim rings from Wheel Vintiques, and some flashy BFGoodrich Silvertown wide whitewall radials.
The Buy-it-now price is $15,900. Is this a good price for such a rare and unusual pickup? And again, if you are modifying the interior, shouldn’t A/C be included? See the listing here.
Our last truck is a 1970 Ford F-100 short bed that has receive a lot of work to make it look like it does in the pictures. And wonder of wonders, an under-dash A/C unit has been installed. According to the listing:
THIS TRUCK WAS PREVIOUSLY BOUGHT ON EBAY AND RESTORED WITH ORIGINAL PARTS AND ORIGINAL PAINT THAT IT CAME OUT WITH FROM FACTORY. IT HAS BRAN NEW PAINT, NEW SEATS, NEW CARPETING, NEW AFTERMARKET ORIGINAL STEREO, NEW STEERING WHEEL, ALL NEW NOBS, NEW MOLDINGS ALL AROUND, HAS HAD AN UNDER DASH AIRCONDITIONG INSTALED WITH 3 SPEEDS COOLS GREAT, POWER LOCKS AND POWER WINDOWS, WITH AN ALARM SYSTEM, ALL NEW WEATHER STRIPING BESIDES THE WINDSHIELD, NEW ARM RESTS, NEW SEAT BELTS TO MATCH THE INTERIOR, NEW VISORS, NEW DASH EXCEPT FOR THE SPEEDOMETER ORIGINAL STILL IN, NEW GRILL AND GRILL INSERTS, NEW REAR BUMPER, NEW GAS BREAK AND CLUTH PEDALS.STARDED 3 SPEED ON THE COLUMN RUNS GREAT LOOKS GREAT.CONVERTED INTO POWER STEERING!!!
Yes there is a great deal of spelling errors, but at least the truck looks great. The buy-it-now price is $16,000, but it could go for a lot less. See the listing here.
[poll id=”81″]
Jeff Glucker
I like the IH, a lot, but I had to vote for the Chevy. My dad had a '62 or '63, non-stepside when I was but a wee lad..
I bleed Ford blue but that Stepside is absolutely gorgeous. And it's a driver.
International all the way. I love the paint, its unique, and yellow shift-knob. Yeah, I sure am superficial.
So, what would the hoons rather have, a classic truck, or a classic car for cruising purposes?
A classic wagon is a good compromise of the two, I think. So that's my answer.
But it needs to be a truck based Station Wagon like the Travelall.
A classic car. My ideal truck is a clean late model (like my '02) that isn't too nice to worry about the inevitable scrapes and dings that accompany proper use but with enough power to pull the occasional Bobcat, small backhoe or auto transporter.
I've already got two old trucks. I'd like a nice old Detroit boat, too.
A car. I've driven trucks for work too much to ever really want to own one. Plus, I live in South Florida where it rains abundantly and unpredictably.
The Ford is the truckiest truck of the three – proper 8' box and three on the tree, just like God intended. Interior could use moar vinyl but at least there's no evidence of tinworm, unlike the Chevy.
Sorry, but the Ford is a short bed, probably about 6-1/2' Easier to park, but not as useful.
The truck I really lust over would be a mid `60s GMC with GMC's own home-grown V6 engine. In the end though, I chose all three.
My grandfather had a Ford very similar to that one, even the same color. Except I never saw his look as nice as this and it might have been an automatic and a long bed.
I'm a Ford guy, but I'm a sucker for side mounted spare tires. Plus I could always get an orangutan and take up street fighting for extra bonus points (yes, I know, it's a GMC).
<img src="http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9281/00006gz9.jpg">
While I'd cast longing looks at the International, I really prefer the square-shouldered post-1968 IHC style. So out of these three it's the Ford for me.
<img src="http://image.dieselpowermag.com/f/15607853/0904dp_02_z%2B1974_international_harvester_200%2Bleft_front_angle.jpg" width=400>
Just the way it should be sitting in a corn field! I too prefer the "Square bodies" as some of "us" call them. Preferably a 72-3 that wears the gap tooth version of the grille shown in your picture which is a 74-5. I need a Wagonmaster to complete my collection which currently includes a 1010 Travelall, 1210 Pickup, 1210 Travelette (crew cab) flat bed, and a 1510 with a dump body,
When pickups were trucks, you could beat on them, use them for actual heavy duty, and get some dings and scratches and surface rust on them as a point of honor. Trucks that have had all this restored out of them are not trucks anymore in my book, they're just parking lot queens. My preference is to spend under $8000 on a classic truck, maybe even under $2000, and then treat it like a truck and not a retired veteran.
Hey, that Chevy Stepside is a '62, not a '67. The year 1967 was the first of the '67-'72 models.
I would love to take an old F-100 tear all the running gear out and swap it for the running gear out of a Lightning , that would an awesome pavement pounder in my books .
The Ford has the wrong hub cars on it, and the velour is pimpalicious.
I like all three of these trucks. I wouldn't hesitate to take any of them deep into the desert and go camping for a week. These are good honest trucks, easy to work on and a pleasure to drive. Right up my alley. I've been driving trucks like these for the past ten or eleven years, absolutely love them.
To start off my opinion is a bit skewed due to this:
<img src="http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q53/Froggmann/Misc/Previous%20Cars/002-1.jpg" width=600 /img>
But I'd whole heartedly take that '70 Ford. With just the upgrade to front disc brakes (72 and up) and a brake booster I'd be an awesome DD. Plus I'm a sucker for 3 on the tree.
more power to you, friend! I've got a '67 Ford that came three on the tree, but after a few years of getting stuck in neutral at inopportune times, I had to change it up a bit. Floor shifters may take up a bit of legroom, but it's given me no more problems since I switched that up. To the best of my knowledge, that was an exceedingly common problem with Ford's column shifters…
I have a big soft spot for Internationals, and I own a '69 F-100, but that Chevy is EXACTLY how I would build one, so it gets my vote.
Speaking of Cornbinders, somebody else PLEASE buy this before I do: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/24411292…
Go ahead and buy it!! But beware they are adictive.
I have a soft-spot in my head for Internationals (needs the stock school-bus steering wheel re-installed) , and the Chevy Stepside would allow you to say "Stepside" on a regular basis, which is a word that REALLY needs to be brought back, but in the end the Ford Ranger is just right. I'm sure that extra 1 in front of the 6 is just a typo.
So of course I vote for all three.
Every pick-up looks better with a gun rack and a happy dog.
Something about the Ford seems funny. How do you have "Original paint that it came with from the factory" and "New paint" at the same time? Is he talking about different parts of the truck? Did he find some NOS paint cans? If so, is that good? Doesn't the stuff go bad after a while? Or did the seller just go bad?
My dad had a blue 1210 with the 345. You're right to choose that one, it's a sweet truck if you can find one that's held together by more than baling twine and iron oxide.
I would be happy to own any of them so that is how I voted. However, I would probably be more likely to buy a Toyota Stout or Datsun 521 than any domestic truck were I in the market for a vintage pickup.
Modern trucks are superior in every single measurable way, with the exception of subjective styling and swagger.
There, I said it.
Bite me.
<img src= "http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2063/183/105/669203578/n669203578_1395718_4553.jpg" >
I agree 100% with you my DD is an F-350 and there is no way in hell I'd trade it for an older classic truck, I'd end up pulling the guts outta something like that .
The only place I'd disagree is with size. Park a new Ford F-150 next to a 1980 model and see how much the new truck has bulked up.
Length and width has barely changed since the 60s between similar configurations. Cabs have gotten longer (thankfully), but other than that they're not much different. They've just gotten taller over the years, and look beefier.
Hard to get over the odd mix of old and new in the IH's interior. The Ford while nice is just too common in that vintage here. The Chevrolet looks really done well so it would be my pick.
Tonyola and Texan_Idiot25 sum up the problem with new trucks: "subjective styling and swagger" has made for unneeded bulk… and I would add, bs. Seems like the main thing most owners use them for now is tailgating people on city freeways.
I remember when pickups were more truckish… and for even $$ I'll take the newer kind of pickup. My pickup is the exact opposite of the "no A/C, no leather interiors, no power conveniences, no extended cabs" list, and I wouldn't want it to be any different. It's my daily driver for the non-daylight-savings-time part of the year, so it might as well be comfortable; and what the extended cab takes away in box space that I'd rarely need to fully utilize, it gives cab space that I often use for things (luggage, groceries) and sometimes for people. And it's not like having a nice cab means you can't haul greasy car bits in the back… I just put a towel on my seat if I'm going to be dirty, and I can always get a heavy-duty rubber floormat if I'm worried about the carpet.
I know which one I don't want, the International. First, it's a little TOO nice and shiny, making it look more like a die cast model(the static backgrounds probably account for some of this). Second, monochrome bumpers. Third, that steering wheel. I'm operating a piece of vintage farm machinery, not at the arcade playing bloody Super Sprint.
That international looks awesome. I also remember my dad telling us that my grandfather would bring him and my aunts and uncles to school using a truck. It was a people carrier back then, but now they are usually converted the first instance someone gets them into a sport truck
There are a few fishy things about the International, That's not a 266, it's either a 345 or 392, that's the tall deck version of the SV and there is no 4bbl manifold for the 266/304 except for the spendy aftermarket aluminum one. The vacuum advance isn't connected and the dip stick and dipstick tube is missing. Maybe they used a engine that had last been in a Scout II and didn't know enough to knock out the plug for the front dipstick location when they changed the oil pan and oil pump to the pickup version. It needs a new carburetor as the SV doesn't like Edelboils they prefer the good old Holley. They went to the trouble of under coating lots of the undercarriage but didn't cover all the yellow paint.
While the gauges are aftermarket the panel is stock so it would be easy to put the OE Stewart Warner units back in. The only problem is the stupid looking TS indicators they added. When you put the Holley back on you could put the stock choke cable back on with the big "C" on it instead of the crappy aftermarket one and get rid of the stupid ugly P-Touch labels. On the plus side it still has the original ignition sw and period correct key even if they added another stupid label.
None the less I picked it over the others even though I prefer the square bodies over the round bodies.
I agree with the hatin on the IH steering wheel. A big part of the charm of these old trucks is the distinctive stock steering wheels!
My daily driver is a Ford F150 built in 1993. Oh, wait, I'm driving the 94 this wk. Yeah, I've got a 93 and a 94 and I can't decide which one I like best. The International is cool, but I like the Fords. That 1970 F-100 short bed is sweet.