Vintage Trucks

[JCM 9,130]

Two of my 1 ton dually chevy work trucks were both hand painted lettering by the same person, 1 in 1988 and one in 2000. This gentleman also did pinstriping on many hot rods until a stroke ended that. He is still with us and a very very talented individual. Built his own sawmill in his back yard and a machine shop in his basement. As a matter of fact he owns a 1967 WH but can't remember what model. I usually see him at the Eliot tractor show in Maine yearly, great guy.

[tom2p 2,394]

On 9/30/2020 at 7:21 PM, c-series don said:

I remember those days Eric, and I’m happy to say I’m glad I grew up in the time before cell phones and the internet.We had metal Tonka, Nylint, and Buddy L trucks and toy equipment that made you use your imagination. We rode our bikes for fun, built jumps, rode with no helmets and got hurt! I’m also glad that I missed the generation that had to walk uphill to school both ways, in the snow!!!

we attempted to duplicate some of the old days for our kids 

 

had a lot of fun as a kid playing with tonka trucks and tractors etc in the dirt - so I had a small dump truck load of top soil dumped in a spot in our back yard and then began to accumulate the older metal trucks and tractors and dozers etc for the kids to play with 

 

still have many of those vehicles - including the big dozer pictured below (hot wheels truck included to show scale / size ) 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by tom2p

[tom2p 2,394]

1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

They are up here too. 

It's very likely my next vehicle will be a 92 to 95 F150/250. I occasionally peruse the CL and others. 

Startling to see what they're selling for now. 

 

found this pic of my dad's F250

 

really liked this truck 

 

 

and just this past weekend we found this pic of my dad with an old truck 
 

Edited January 3, 2021 by tom2p

[slim67 2,735]

31 minutes ago, tom2p said:

we attempted to duplicate some of the old days for our kids 

 

had a lot of fun as a kid playing with tonka trucks and tractors etc in the dirt - so I had a small dump truck load of top soil dumped in a spot in our back yard and then began to accumulate the older metal trucks and tractors and dozers etc for the kids to play with 

 

still have many of those vehicles - including the big dozer pictured below (hot wheels truck included to show scale / size ) 

 

I remember when I owned a sandbox excavating company. Most of my equipment was Tonka but I had some Nylint and Buddy L mixed in there.I worked all day for free and was my own employee. Then one day I got too old 

[ebinmaine 67,432]

48 minutes ago, slim67 said:

I remember when I owned a sandbox excavating company. Most of my equipment was Tonka but I had some Nylint and Buddy L mixed in there.I worked all day for free and was my own employee. Then one day I got too old 

Those were the days. 

I had a fair sized pile of sand with the same mix of trucks. 

 

I "got too old" for a couple decades too. Then I figured out what life was supposed to be...

I like being 5. 

[c-series don 8,689]

I’m lucky enough to have pretty much all the Tonka trucks and equipment from when I was a kid. I have the same T-9 dozer except mine is slightly tweaked because my sister backed over it with her Plymouth horizon. Imagine doing that with any toy made nowadays? I remember digging a hole in the back yard with that equipment, finding a half sheet of plywood, getting the tubes from the paper towel roll. I loaded the hole with paper and sticks and lit it!! Covered with the plywood and had smoke coming out of the tubes. It wasn’t long before my dad saw this and asked me what I the heck I was doing. I told him I built an incinerator plant. ( the only reason I knew this term as a kid was my dad had designed a few incinerator plants before I was born and he used to talk about them! ) He just smiled and walked away!! I believe it’s because of those toys that I became a heavy equipment operator at a young age and have been doing it for 30+ years!! 

[JCM 9,130]

I guess it's ok to put this picture in here. This would be 52 years old and should qualify for a vintage truck. This is how I learned the basics on how to back up a trailer with the remote control Johnny Express.

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

49 minutes ago, JCM said:

I guess it's ok to put this picture in here. This would be 52 years old and should qualify for a vintage truck. This is how I learned the basics on how to back up a trailer with the remote control Johnny Express.

I remember those !... We had great toys as kids ! Now everything is hi- tech/ video...we had hands on...that's why we fix stuff ourselves, only paying someone else to do it when absolutely necessary...

[tom2p 2,394]

On 1/3/2021 at 8:57 PM, JCM said:

I guess it's ok to put this picture in here. This would be 52 years old and should qualify for a vintage truck. This is how I learned the basics on how to back up a trailer with the remote control Johnny Express.

I don't recall those ... cool !

 

[tom2p 2,394]

friend's F250 back in late 70's

 

he got this truck from New Mexico ... was really clean - original body panels and paint 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by tom2p

[ebinmaine 67,432]

4 hours ago, tom2p said:

friend's F250 back in late 70's

 

he got this truck from New Mexico ... was really clean - original body panels and paint 

 

 

Beautiful truck. 

 

 

Boss I had many moons ago had a '79 F250. He used to bust his best friend's chops all the time because the 70s Fords could take 36" tires with no lift. Rubbed a hair on sharp turns but they fit fine. 

GMs of the day not so much and his friend was a Chevy guy through and through. 

 

[slim67 2,735]

1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

Beautiful truck. 

 

 

Boss I had many moons ago had a '79 F250. He used to bust his best friend's chops all the time because the 70s Fords could take 36" tires with no lift. Rubbed a hair on sharp turns but they fit fine. 

GMs of the day not so much and his friend was a Chevy guy through and through. 

 

Thats true. My dad had a 77 highboy with a 78 grille shell that ran 35 inch monster mudders and I had a 71 Frankenstein truck with 33s . No added lift needed.

[tom2p 2,394]

1 hour ago, slim67 said:

Thats true. My dad had a 77 highboy with a 78 grille shell that ran 35 inch monster mudders and I had a 71 Frankenstein truck with 33s . No added lift needed.

yes - I recall they sat way up from the factory 

 

we had one back in the day - all stock with original wheels / skinny tires - but it sat way up 

 

with the truck sitting high - and high mounted gas tank opening - you could really do some great gas siphoning ... you could get some spray !  lol

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by tom2p

[tom2p 2,394]

still trying to find pic of another friend's F250 

 

he shortened his F250 - cut frame (and driveshaft etc) and installed a 6 ft bed ... really neat truck 

 

 

this was also in late 70's when the 4wd truck craze really began to hit our area 

 

in addition to the neat trucks - car bodies on the 4wd truck frames also became popular ...  

 

one friend had a 4wd Gremlin ... can't recall the chassis ... I believe it was on a Bronco chassis but not sure ... would be great if I could find a pic ...

 

another guy I know had an early Camaro body (67 or 68) on a 4wd chassis ... really neat but he went a few steps further - including rear wheel steering ... he had a front end installed on the rear ... he could steer tighter - or go down the road 'sideways' (when front and rear were steered in same direction) 

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by tom2p

[ebinmaine 67,432]

9 minutes ago, tom2p said:

shortened his F250

That reminds me of one of my customer's trucks from back in the mid-90s.

 

He lived in a tiny little town of Massachusetts where there was a Buford T Justice type cop that actually happened to be a good friend of his.

Well he was a little bit of a rabble rouser on occasion so they butt heads every once in awhile but overall they got along fantastic.

 

Back in the '80s and into the '90s the way the law read in Massachusetts was that the height limit went to the bottom of the doors as the measurement.

He had a Ford of some sort that was WELL over that height limit and his cop friend eventually talked him into selling it to somebody in another state  where it didn't matter...

 

 

So he goes and buys another Ford. It was a late '70s F-350 four-wheel drive single rear wheel. I don't know if it was factory but it had a SHORT bed.

He found an 80s vintage stepside bed and built the truck jacking it up about 38 stories high.

If I remember right it had 44-in monster mudders on it just about even with the rocker panels. They were the biggest in our area that I heard of.

 

So of course his buddy pulls him over and they had to have a little talk about this truck but the cop friend had to let him go.

 

The guy I knew had found a loophole in the law whereas an F-350 was restricted if it was registered 9,999 lbs or below. 

 

So he put a hydraulic tilt nose and a hydraulic tilt bed and was able to legally register it with commercial plates as a 10,000 plus pound DUMP TRUCK.

[slim67 2,735]

15 minutes ago, tom2p said:

still trying to find pic of another friend's F250 

 

he shortened his F250 - cut frame (and driveshaft etc) and installed a 6 ft bed ... really neat truck 

 

 

this was also in late 70's when the 4wd truck craze really began to hit our area 

 

in addition to the neat trucks - car bodies on the 4wd truck frames also became popular ...  

 

one friend had a 4wd Gremlin ... can't recall the chassis ... I believe it was on a Bronco chassis but not sure ... would be great if I could find a pic ...

 

another guy I know had an early Camaro body (67 or 68) on a 4wd chassis ... really neat but he went a few steps further - including rear wheel steering ... he had a front end installed on the rear ... he could steer tighter - or go down the road 'sideways' (when front and rear were steered in same direction) 

 

Those were the days. 40s and 44s on everything, chrome roll bars, a bunch of KC lights and shocks, 20 inches of lift but never saw a mud pit.

[slim67 2,735]

1 minute ago, ebinmaine said:

That reminds me of one of my customer's trucks from back in the mid-90s.

 

He lived in a tiny little town of Massachusetts where there was a Buford T Justice type cop that actually happened to be a good friend of his.

Well he was a little bit of a rabble rouser on occasion so they butt heads every once in awhile but overall they got along fantastic.

 

Back in the '80s and into the '90s the way the law read in Massachusetts was that the height limit went to the bottom of the doors as the measurement.

He had a Ford of some sort that was WELL over that height limit and his cop friend eventually talked him into selling it to somebody in another state  where it didn't matter...

 

 

So he goes and buys another Ford. It was a late '70s F-350 four-wheel drive single rear wheel. I don't know if it was factory but it had a SHORT bed.

He found an 80s vintage stepside bed and built the truck jacking it up about 38 stories high.

If I remember right it had 44-in monster mudders on it just about even with the rocker panels. They were the biggest in our area that I heard of.

 

So of course his buddy pulls him over and they had to have a little talk about this truck but the cop friend had to let him go.

 

The guy I knew had found a loophole in the law whereas an F-350 was restricted if it was registered 9,999 lbs or below. 

 

So he put a hydraulic tilt nose and a hydraulic tilt bed and was able to legally register it with commercial plates as a 10,000 plus pound DUMP TRUCK.

Haha pays to do your homework 

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

In the good ole state of WV if you wanted a SWB 3/4 -1ton you simply took a 1/2 ton and swapped the the smaller "10 bolt" axles (lets say squarebody GM here) to a Dana 44 or 60 front and then GM 14 bolt floater in the rear. Then title to 10K GVWR. My FIL has a factory GMC K35 with the Dana 60 front and 14 bolt rear single rear wheel LWB, with 65K original miles on it.

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

FIL's K35 350SBC with 4spd (Green) and wife's cousins K20 396BBC "puller"...

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

21 hours ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

FIL's K35 350SBC with 4spd (Green) and wife's cousins K20 396BBC "puller"...

You could give me either one...

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

4 minutes ago, Horse Newbie said:

You could give me either one...

Unfortunately I won't get my hands on either, stepson has been promised the green 1, and the Maroon and white one will probably go to (the owner) his daughter.

Edited January 17, 2021 by WVHillbilly520H

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

2 hours ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

Unfortunately I won't get my hands on either, stepson has been promised the green 1, and the Maroon and white one will probably go to (the owner) his daughter.

I would take those over a new one...I tell you what...

[19richie66 17,500]

So we were clearing some brush behind my house and found a crunched truck cab. ‘47/‘54 GMC. I love these trucks. Still have more to dig out but good for nothing but scrap. Keeping the emblems and whatever else I can keep for shop art when I get a shop  No telling what else is out there. I dontthink anyone around here ever threw anything away...... just pushed it out back.

[WHNJ701 4,165]

I can't tell you how many times we would be chopping line with machetes through something like that and hit metal, either a car truck tractor, found/saw a lot of cool stuff over the years

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

4 hours ago, 19richie66 said:

So we were clearing some brush behind my house and found a crunched truck cab. ‘47/‘54 GMC. I love these trucks. Still have more to dig out but good for nothing but scrap. Keeping the emblems and whatever else I can keep for shop art when I get a shop  No telling what else is out there. I dontthink anyone around here ever threw anything away...... just pushed it out back.

At least you are able to get things done this time off year instead of summer where stingers and fangs are hiding ready to strike. Cool find, was looking at used lathes on eBay and found this...