You should have cut off the bulls b*lls and told the farmer, "Oops, I cut them off this morning. Sorry."

 

Put a SBC in it! lol.

 

Let me know what size tires it has, I have some 825's and a couple of 700's

 

Cool truck DOC !!!

 

That is much better looking than a cow!

Ben in Austin

 

Yeah no kidding! But, unfortunately, I had already done that. I was not too happy about it.

That is EXACTLY what the seller told me this morning he planned on doing with it. Everything is right there waiting on another flathead. Despite this truck having HUGE body issues, it was completely original under the hood. He pulled the flatty out and sold it to somebody for one of those crap....oh I mean ....."ratrods".

Thanks Joe. The truck has 7.50 x 20's on the front (one of which is low and doesn't even have a valve stem--in other words, death ready to happen). The rears are 8.00 x 20's. So I may very well be interested in whatever you have.


I spent a long time today methodically going over this truck. Running boards are toast. One of the running board supports on the driver's side was destroyed as well by some sort of collision. The front fenders are swiss cheese. 2 or 3 rust through holes on the top edge of the rear frame rails. The weirdest thing is the rear cab mounts have been (how do I describe this) unhooked. They literally took a hammer and opened up the part attached to the frame rails, and the rear cab attachments are literally just hanging there. For what reason, I have no clue. The tranny, drive shaft, and differential all appear functional. All of the electrical, throttle, etc. attachments for the engine are just hanging there. The PO literally just unhooked the flatty, pulled it, and left everything hanging. Believe it or not, I honestly think the truck was still somewhat functional before they took the engine. The inside of the cab is actually pretty good considering the outside of the truck. Door ***** and window cranks work. Even though the doors are beat to death on the outside, they're in very good shape along the bottoms (an advantage of being on a big truck).

 

I have a set of decent running boards and lower patch panels for the front fenders, if you're interested.

 

Thanks. I am afraid I will start down yet another slippery slope when I'm already flying down the hill in a big snow ball with my 50 F1. Those running boards are interestingly not rusted through. But just simply mangled. I'd doubt a BFH and a lot of metal working tools could make them look decent. I will definitely need at least one running board brace if I start another snowball. As far as the fenders, they are way beyond patch panels.

 

Congrats again...

 

Bet that steer wishes he had been less bothersome now! LOL

 

Hey Doc, glad you got the truck!

BTW - That is one MEAN looking steer. Just curious, of the many names you tried, did you ever consider naming him "Hamburger" to establish who was boss???

 

Trust me, I used all of those names, including a lot that I can't repeat here. He was too stupid to be mean. The new owner told me yesterday that his kids are getting attached to him. I told him my kids were happy that he was gonna be eaten (the last thing he did before he took a ride was eat a big chunk out of their jack-o-lantern hay bale).

 

Doc... maybe I missed it but did you ever establish if the truck was used by a John Deere dealership or just painted to look that way?

Great find and cool story about acquiring the truck. Maybe not so cool for Mr. Hamburger though!

Rob

 

I'm not sure just yet. But my impression is YES it was some sort of dealership truck. The reason I say that is I found a ton of those oil change/reminder stickers on the drivers side door post from an old gas station in Carlisle, KY. I'm going to very GENTLY peel one off and see if I can get any information. My thinking is that would be consistent with it being owned by a dealership, etc. and they took it for routine maintenance. If it had belonged to an individual truck enthusiast (i.e. somebody who just restored it and put that paint job on it), I would think they would have done most of the maintenance themselves. Again, that's just a hunch. But I've got a lead. Just as soon as I get a chance to breath here at work, I'm gonna do a little investigating. But as far as the paint job itself, I'm not sure the truck has EVER been painted more than the original time. I'm gonna take an SOS pad and very gently clean the rust up some around that door art and then clear coat the whole thing for protection.

 

Keep us posted on your detective work. Not sure what's involved in your state in doing a title search. Maybe that would reveal if the truck was owned by a JD dealership. My truck supposedly came from CA. Two of the PO's live in my area so I'm hoping to get some info from them. I heard that maybe my truck was used in a plumbing business in CA. It's a factory flatbed so could be. Would love to find some old pics of the truck from back in the day.

Rob