I saw this pickup sitting and rusting in the apple orchard belonging to a friend of mine. He and I car pool to and from work once in a while. I offered to rescue it but he turned me down. He said it was his retirement project. It was about a year later he offered me the truck in trade for tires on another pickup that he has. I took his rims and put new tires on them. I hadn't got a good look at the pickup until I helped load it on the trailer. He thought it was a 1 ton; it a 3600. I am pleased with it all the same. It has a small v8 instead of its original 235. It has some rust issues. Some one added a few extra pounds of plate steel on her, but it's a solid truck. He decided to trade me the pickup because he found out he has cancer. He doesn't recon he'll be around long enough to finish all of his projects.
(That is an interesting interpretation of a rear bumper. Are the tails welded into the rear fenders??)
The bumper bolts to the fenders. The big square steel boxes were bolted to the bed behind the fenders; they were welded to the bumper as well. I cut them off and took the rear bumper off so I could work on the rear fenders. they were made with 1/4" steel. The bed has steel plates covering the wood bed as well. I have already cut 300 lbs of steel off of the pickup and I'm not done yet.
When I got it home and started take it apart. I found out that this pickup had been worked hard for years. I welded a dozen or more patch panels in place and I still have a couple more to go. During my vacation I looked her over and decided I liked the rugged over worked look so I pounded out the big dents and filled in the extra holes. I sanded and primed and painted her I still have to work on the bed but she's running and driving just fine. I have to pump the gas peddle 20 time and then she'll start right up. It will be a few more months before I put plates on her but for now, driving around the farm is fun enough.
