Ok,,, saw this,,,and my soft spot is for the slicks,,,and a platform bed to boot,,,
my question is the 19.5 rims, 6 on 7.25 bolt pattern,,, these ARE NOT split rims correct?!

61 ford military

 

Tubeless one piece 19.5" wheels indeed. Rare to find, and desirable imho. If you buy it and need a spare wheel I have a friend with one. Stu

 

Ok,, so they are tubeless on piece rims! Thanks, I was pretty sure they were, but initially I was also thinking it was 8 lug,,, but I started looking closer and saw the 6 lugs,,,then talked to him and he said they were 19.5's, he said they are in ok shape, they hold air, so for now they work. Replacements look pricey!

 

You won't find replacements through normal sources. That's why I mentioned that I know of one that is available. Sti

 

"1961" F350 has 1962 grille, 1962/64 upper grille panel.

1961 grille has F O R D in center, upper grille panel is plain. 1962 grille has star in center, 1962/64 upper grille panel has F O R D letters.

 

Could it be late 61?

 

Price seems fair. atleast where I'm at you can't touch one in that condition for under 2k. Anything less here and it's pretty much a rusty pile that Is good enough for acouple parts. Has wide opening fenders which is another good thing with the one piece wheels. Having a ex navy, military, logging service, government ect. Truck is always kool in my book.

 

Let me propose a theory. If the truck was military it would not have been titled with a state DMV until it left military inventory. Can you tell from the data plate, maybe with Bill's help, what the build date is? A state DMV could have titled it based on build date.

Now I'll tell a story about those 19.5s. Civilian trucks used a 19.5" x 5.25" that was a Budd Company product. Budd part number 70740. They were used by Ford on SRW F-350s through 1966, by Dodge through 1968, by IHC through 1968, and by Studebaker through end of production in 63/64. No other vehicle is shown to have used that bolt pattern after 1968. Wheel references go silent about them in 1974. Until April, 1984. The National Wheel And Rim Association (NWRA) catalogs suddenly began listing a 19.5" x 6" wide SRW having this obsolete bolt pattern that no vehicle was still using. Why? I theorize that the military lifted its exclusive access to these previously unknown about wheels as they were surplusing the Vietnam era vehicles. This is the wheel my friend Mark has that I mentioned above, and may be what are on your pictured truck. Stu

 

In the 6th pic of the ad, the VIN is stamped on the ID plate. The pic is fuzzy, but it appears to be: F35JR290811.

F35 = F350.

J = 223 1V I-6.

R = San Jose CA Assembly Plant.

290810 = 1962, assembled May 1962.

I question if this is a really a 'military' truck based on the exterior color.

"BY ORDER OF THE COMMANDER" stamped on the plate in the 7th pic seemly points to the USMC or USN, but...

The truck is painted the wrong color for it to be a USMC/USN vehicle.

It's a US Gov't vehicle, but what agency used it?

 

Bill looks to be a previous owners paint job after it got sold off from being a government vehicle? If you look at the engine bay picture. it looks like a blue color originally on the firewall. Aren't the navy issued ones usually blue or grey? Seem to recall the ones I seen before always in that color.

 

A an old military maintenance guy the one Nomenclature plate has a federal NSN National Stock Number : the first four numbers 2320 indicates wheeled vehicle) which WOULD indicate it was previously a military vehicle. I'm just not able to verify the NSN.

 

The firewall does look like Sea Gray, but why is there a white stenciled number on the side of the brown hood?

That's a military ID number, but why would someone stencil it on a repainted brown hood?

 

Wish I could tell you that. but being as the firewall is a different color then the rest of the truck makes it likely that's the trucks original color? Since most quick paint jobs all leave the under hood and door jambs factory color. And the outside including the numbers were stuck on after it left the governments hands. Possibly to someone's personal business that had a fleet of trucks so they were all numbered? Just a guess I could be completely wrong on my theory.

Just curious for my future knowledge how can you tell it's a military ID number? And did the government only number one side of there vehicles or did they do both sides? This only has it on drivers side.

 

Have a look at this: White Paper for NSN 2320-00-892-5402

Just a FYI the Federal Government never reassigns NSNs even when retired. EVERYTHING has an NSN. As you can imagine they eventually ran out of numbers so they added 00 or 01 after the first 4 numbers so they now have plenty more NSNs. If it's an old 11 digit number they added 00.
Just some military supply trivia

 

Different services Mark their equipment differently. Army marks both sides and assigns a LIN (Line Item Number) & serial number Not a VIN to each piece of equipment. Several NSNS will be under one LIN & MANY serial numbers will be under a given LIN. Keep in mind they still have NSNs as well. SIMPLY NSN=1 1/2 truck; LIN = Ford 1 1/2Ton Flat Bed, PickUp and Wrecker & Serial Number roughly = VIN
Tank & Automotive Command TACOM can tell by serial number what service and unit owns/owned the particular piece of equipment.
OBTW If your local VFW, American Legion, City Park etc has a piece of Military wheeled or tracked equipment (they normally are loaned not own the equipment) they are suppose to report to TACOM they still have it or that they want to get rid of it. I spent a fair amount of time looking for Military equipment both in the States and in Iraq, Germany, Italy & Korea. I know, it's more information than you ever wanted to know