I went right past her the first night. Remember telling my wife – hey, just like this one, but not this one. Paint color looked like old rotten dusty spray paint. She was droopy on her springs. She had a long backside and a short nose. She was too much money. Old but not vintage. No way that this girl could be a bad axe jeep truck. She was a hauler not a brawler. No sizzle. No pizazz. No oomph. So, of course, I bookmarked her immediately. Rare bird! These things are scarce!
Internet searches of vehicles are one thing – magazine articles on builds another – and then there is what’s in your mind’s eye, your heart. Having reviewed all available J-series trucks pictured on what seemed like the entire internet; reviewed every vintage advertisement to be found in surprisingly diverse languages, cultures, countries around the world; I studied many interviews with the people who designed, built, marketed and drove the jeep truck back when. The stuff you learn!
The articles out there describe all the ways you can build: build up an old car from parts or chassis or an engine or a gear shift knob (not kidding); restore an old, whole car, replacing missing parts, return its former glory; bring one back to as originally built; find a prize jewel, get it in your claws, and keep it mint condition. The possibilities are endless. But there’s only one path you will take on this build, meander though you might.
Guess I was going for a certain look. It took me about a week or a month to figure out the model year or years I wanted. Problem was I was scouring ten webpages a night where old Jeeps are for sale right along with researching each one. That sweet new one would pop up and all my plans went out the window because I wanted that particular one right now. Then, a curious thing happened. Clarity. I knew what I wanted.
Cindy was going to be a 62-67 Rhino Chaser Grille long bed. I just liked the grille is what it was. Wanted the jeep truck stance from the early truck set up. It came from factory with a bench seat and 4X4. The end date was iffy, 1967 ish. Some folks say things changed starting in 69 or 72 – our rule comes to mind, “what’s on the jeep is on the jeep”.
Man are those years variable as to package. Worse yet, nobody knows or remembers. So what we find for sale on ebay today often has a 79 tailgate slapped together with a 69 bumper between 73 taillights – awful. I’ve even seen vintage 60’s door handles over homemade carpeted door cards. The horror!
I wanted the one before the rhino grille disappeared, before the cool 50’s Elvis lip overhang on the front windshield disappeared, before the manly chains on the tailgate latch disappeared, and as importantly before modern overdone unnecessary things like reverse light appeared (see future post on don’t fence me in), before custom cab package chrome appeared standard.
I really wanted that cool small jeep window as reference to the old Willy’s Trucks, but it turns out the larger window was an extra special – so it would have been added first on preferred packages or as a single upgrade to a base model. Said the bigger window gave you added visibility. Wrong. All it did was ignore history. It’s about as bad as the day they made the last 8 track, the day they carefully placed the final one of the series: the last old willy’s window, it was put in the luckiest new j-series jeep truck ever.
Finding her? I could find Cindy in a hundred pieces and do a humpty dumpty resto on her – get all those pieces back together again. I could find a museum quality jeep truck and be broke and never drive anywhere. Or something in between.
So old jeeps fall into categories such as: parts of a vehicle, donor vehicle, truck for modernization only (no longer original), and truck for historically accurate restoration (oldie but goodie but not a beauty), barn find in original condition (not minty yet, could become minty fresh), and original condition (garage queen to keep as a prized possession). Good to know your starting and ending point – gotta have a plan, man… I went for survivor. These are the cars that survived in original condition to current day, but they will need work, they aren’t necessarily perfect, so you can be expected to modernize somewhat. A driver vehicle more than a mint restoration, was my understanding. And I had that bookmarked one, which fit the bill.
I’m looking for a couple of years model of vehicle, a whole vehicle running and driving but not perfect. I found her. What’s my problem? Well, I was just then awaiting the price drop on the new jeep gladiator. Being a vintage resto man by now, when the price dropped and it was a dollop of what I won’t pay ever that much for a truck – decision was made. I emailed the guy immediately. What happened then was a series of funny errors. I did not have the cash on hand. I was planning to divert some income to this project, but with no car to buy, I kept doing the sensible thing like paying upkeep on my life. I’m the type who spends cash, not credit. Learned it the hard way. But it’s the good and right way. So I would pile up 5 grand, but the seller wanted ten so it didn’t fit timeframe. That’s the thing about this deal – it’s people. It is all about people.
I should mention “J” at this point, may he rest in peace. As said, I would need a team to help with this build. First off, I need a person who knows the car business, and who knows me. I found this guy, probably been in some bar fights, maybe even more trouble, but a man of faith, cared about his daughter, and then this happened. I watched him broker a deal with a mom who had a baby on her hip – the husband standing there needed the car to get back and forth to work. “J” took it all in.
They owed more on the repair than they had. They could not pay him for his repairs without the car to earn money, which meant getting back and forth to work for the man in this traditional family. So young, that family. So beautiful, the family. He looked into the baby’s eyes, then the mothers. I saw this. He made it work. I swear I watched the Father at work in that moment. When “J” gave the man of the house his respect, restored his dignity, gave him the keys to the wheels, understood he would maybe get paid in full on earth but he was paying his way for the next life by his good work with that family. It was more important to “J” to respect people, than business. We discussed it in exactly these terms after.
If he could restore sanity to that madness, he could help me restore my truck. Everyone who knows me knows I can be troublesome. Well, me and “J” had that sameness, an understanding. Troublesome, but good for the go. Funny, the last thing he ever did was save me 3 grand on a paint job, just because he could. Why? I have no idea. He just up and told me how to save 3 grand. Then he laughed and that’s about the last I saw him. He’s in a better place now. Just know he was there before the truck, during the truck build, and he has a permanent ride along. Damn opiods. Tellin you. Just like my own brother on the cocaine in the 80’s. Make that two riders, both hell raisers, with me in Cindy, my daily driver, as we cruise around looking for some situations to rectify, or just have us some plain old fun.
Anyway – the money will be in the budget post – but you need cash right now if you are a have not, unless you are a have, then you do wire transfers – either way any hang up in the money busts a deal. So I did not have the cash to buy Cindy. I only needed 6 grand, actually $5,800.00. I didn’t haggle – it was an honest price for a survivor. I had 5. But that extra 800 was 30 days away. So I emailed back and forth with the owner.
What I heard amazed me. He’d hold it for me – wanted to sell it to someone who would do with it what I planned. That’s the truth of these deals. One guy didn’t want his truck in my hands – turned down thousands extra. Another guy sells it to me for list when he has better offers, cause he only wants it done the way I will do it.
But me being me – here I am with an 18 hour trip to go get this truck, 8+ there, 8+ back, loading and stops. I don’t even know the address and I’m an hour out in a UHAUL with a car hauler that is costing me a grand. I tell the guy on the way there and he says, oh, thought I gave you my address last month! I know. Foolhardy. But I wanted that truck and asking his address wasn’t the thing to do, until he was sure I was in range. It worked. Anyway – he parted with the truck, counting his money three times real slow, telling me this and that. He drove it up on the car hauler. She actually looks like a jeep in person, down the block. A real jeep truck. A vintage jeep truck!!! I had jeeps clearing lanes of LA traffic when I needed to get from the 15 to the ten interchange, I had em stop and pump fists, one jeep followed me for miles just loving my Cindy.
I got back to town middle of the night and when I lit her up any car guy in three city blocks heard her 60’s throaty roar. My god, that sound. Like a movie. She just woke up the whole neighborhood and made herself known. She backed up off that hauler like a tarantula. Damn that felt good. I had never driven a vehicle like this. Too tired to go round the block even once, I eased her in. That sound though. That feeling like your fingers on the wheel are the wheels touching the ground. This Jeep truck, my Cindy, is home.
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