I have a chance to pick up a crew cab (4-door) former railroad truck. It's pretty rough - someone pushed it over an embankment, and to make a path past it the guy cut it in two behind the cab. The cab itself is not terrible, it needs corners but has rockers and all the doors on it. The nose looks to be pretty well shot, though. I think it's a 3/4 ton 4x4 (hard to tell but has leaf springs in front and six lug wheels), with a six cylinder engine.

Probably should add it didn't roll over or anything, just slid down the edge of a place that got leveled out with fill, maybe the intent was to bury it as part of the fill but other than some dirt in the cab it never got buried or mangled. I don't think it comes with a bed, though.

And of course it was always a New York truck so it saw salt. I think what you'd be looking at is a donor cab someone could combine with a nicer regular cab to have a finished truck.

I guess these could be had factory or aftermarket. This cab has a thick B-post and the front part of the rear doors is almost vertical, maybe so it can use the same glass as a front door without the vent.

Any idea what something like that is worth? I'm not really into these, but I hate to see it scrapped, if I can flip it and make a little money to put into one of my other vehicles and let someone who appreciates it get it, I'd like to try.

 

If it is a 64 it will be a crown or other aftermarket conversion. Lots of one off parts in the B pillar and rear doors and rear floor section. Are the hinges internal or external for the Rear doors?

It all depends on the rear doors for glass. My 66 Crown had standard glass in front with different passenger and drivers glass in the rear. They sanded the glass to fit the opening made by the crown factory after modifying two standard cut down doors. And the doors are one off units made to fit the truck. They do not interchange. Been there done that and threw them down the driveway.

The conversion was in no way gentile, just hack off the roof, cut across the floor and spread it out plop a new full roof panel on and fill in the spaces.

I completely rebuilt the lower 12 inches and 2 new rear doors of the one i had with about 400 man hours invested in it. $26,000 in my labor and $400 for just the cab.

Its Value depends on the shape and what needs to be repaired. Sounds like a 100/200 buck parts rig for the NY/southern tier metro area.

Garbz

 

For that little bit of money it's not even worth me buying. I mean scrap is down but it's still $100 a ton, I can get at least the $200 from them. Chances are that's what it will cost me to buy, the guy's doing me a favor having not taken it to the shredder already.

Hinges are hidden from what I can see. Truck has no grille and I don't have any numbers off it so it could be any year they made these.

 

If you're planning on rescuing it to make money, you're probably wasting your time and energy. This rescue would have to be a "labor of love" and it appears there will be a lot of work involved in both the rescue and the refurbishment. Do all of us a favor, and let a member who's interested in Slicks and/or crew cabs know where it is.

 

Well I certainly wouldn't drop any money on restoring it. It's a case of I bring it in and flip it or it goes to the shredder, pretty much. And if it's only worth scrap money, to the shredder it goes, and maybe the next one will be worth $750 or $1000 instead. If I pay scrap money for it, and no one else is even willing to pay scrap money on it, where am I going? Nowhere. People forget a guy's time is worth money, too, they want to be able to buy stuff cheap like it's still 1985 and scrap is $5 a ton.


I researched these trucks a couple years ago for a guy with a solid long bed regular cab to sell and determined then that it was barely worth the time to sell because you could find decent drivers for less than $1000. So I know they're not exactly valuable. I just thought maybe this one would be a different story, because crew cabs are rare and old railroad trucks in general are nearly non-existant.

 

Your are apparently just in this for the money. As I said before, let someone know who has an appreciation of the vehicle know where it is. I'm sure there are lots of vehicles out there that you can buy cheap and then shred and make a few bucks. The sites you are posting on are made up of thousands of "enthusiasts" who appreciate these old trucks for what they were, are and can become. Not sure what you thought this truck was worth, but most owners buy, build, restore, etc. these trucks because they like them, their history, etc. NOT to make money. These sites are a "community" of mostly "like minded" individuals, who will probably never even be able to get what they have spent on their trucks out of them. But that's OK!

 

here in southern minnesota car body scrap iron is thirty dollars a ton, and i would rather break even to save a rare truck than see it melted down and sent to china, i suppose thats why i have 12 of these old slicks in my yard just my two cents