Big Red: Photo Dump of Want; 1957 Ford C600

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
05/01/2019 at 15:10 • Filed to: None

Location: Angwin, Napa County, California. Wine country. I stumbled onto it and Dude is motivated to sell. He’s made it clear he’d come off his $2,800 asking price, though I don’t know how far. He bought it a month ago in Lake County and drove it to where it now sits, around 55 miles, he tells me. Starts, runs, drives, but seems to have a charging issue.

I’d go and get it on Saturday and bring it back to the Bay Area, but for as splendid a specimen it is, it’s got a dump bed, and that’s really not what I want. I don’t have any facilities to fabricate a car carrier arrangement. What I really want is a medium truck with a stake bed at most ten feet long that could haul the occasional pallet of block or sack concrete, or unit of plywood, but mostly, be a medium truck runabout. Modernish V8, automatic trans, etc. This one is too long (could be readily shortened), and has all the extra dump bed components such as PTO, et cetera. Probably what, 1000 pounds of extra weight? Maybe more?

What y’all think? If he tossed out a number like $1,200, I’d be convulsing in want.

DISCUSSION (31)

diplodicus forgot his password > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 15:17

Can’t you still do all the things you want with a dump bed? Imagine how awesome having a dump truck would be.

lone_liberal > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 15:20

If you have the room and facilities to either swap or otherwise modernize the (292?) engine then sure, but I’d be afraid that if I bought something like, as cool as it is, that it would just sit and decompose.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 15:21

That is awesome...

Buy wrecked flat-deck car hauler, buy old Ford, swap flat deck arrangement to Ford....profit?

fintail > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 15:28

That’s really early for one of these, pretty rare rig. Rust looks superficial. Go for it. Per the ID tag ( “Warrenty” , love it) this appears to be a 272. Offer $1500 and see what happens.

PyramidHat > diplodicus forgot his password
05/01/2019 at 15:46

You could dump things on your enemy’s lawn!

PyramidHat > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 15:47

For completely irrational reasons I want this.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > diplodicus forgot his password
05/01/2019 at 15:49

It’s just a good deal more truck than I wanna deal with.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > lone_liberal
05/01/2019 at 15:49

Yes. That’s the risk.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
05/01/2019 at 15:50

Profit, I doubt seriously. Big shop? Necessary. No have.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > fintail
05/01/2019 at 15:52

First year of production for that cab. I’d let him offer a number first, but I think I’m going to pass. More likely, I’ll find a farm truck with no engine and go from there. Early 70s International Harvester is how I’m leaning.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > PyramidHat
05/01/2019 at 15:54

I’m going to wind up passing on it, but it’s cleared my head about what I do want.

kgman > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 15:56

I used to live there! I sold a car in that lot about 10 years ago.

I hope the brakes really are good or you’re going to have a bad time getting down Howell Mountain

66P1800inpieces > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 16:26

Looks neat as a add on to the collection, or to bring a car to a short distance to an event (with ramps,etc. To use it more than a couple times a year would probably require a spine transplant due to what I assume is a horrible ride.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 16:28

I’ve heard these are horribly uncomfortable to drive.

And you said it yourself... it isn’t really what you want or need.

But if it can do the job for you, only get it if your hauling needs involve short distance hauling AND you don’t mind having this truck as a little mini-project on the side.

Because I predict keeping this truck drive able WILL be at least be a mini-project.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 16:42

I mean, it’s really cool, and I want it too, but that’s way too much truck. Fixing that bed is going to be a lot of work. Six new heavy duty truck tires are going to cost you more than the truck. Now le ts talk about the wiring ... whoa boy! The brake lights are a Harbor Frei ght trailer light setup, and I’m reaaaaaaaly curious what the household romex is running.

LimitedTimeOnly @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 17:15

Too much work to make it something worth having, especially with your points about the dump bed accessories. Consider how much effort this guy has put in, and he still has a long way to go:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1967-international-coe-small-adventure/129916/page1/

(After the first post you need to jump to page 8 to see him take delivery and start breaking it down.)

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 17:30

Looks like it needs more than the asking price invested in it just to pass an annual DOT inspection.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > kgman
05/01/2019 at 17:36

If I bought it, I’d trailer it home. But I won’t be buying it.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 66P1800inpieces
05/01/2019 at 17:37

You are probably correct, but I will never know.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
05/01/2019 at 17:38

Maxi-project, more likely. But I’m going to pass on it.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
05/01/2019 at 17:43

Yeah. I’m going to let this one go.

This is more my speed:

Kinja'd!!!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > LimitedTimeOnly @ opposite-lock.com
05/01/2019 at 17:47

I’m going to let it go. Guy said I could have it for $1500 if I wanted it. Here is my current project, more my size and speed, though I need to update the pictures because I’ve freshened it up a bit:

www.tinyurl.com/vandurapics

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
05/01/2019 at 17:48

Yeah. I’m going to let it go, but Dude said I could have it for $1,500 if I wanted it.

gmctavish needs more space > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 18:07

For whatever an anecdote is worth, a local shop used to have a Loadstar like that as a shop truck. It was sitting outside a mechanic I know for about a month, while they waited for the only water pump they could find in North America to be shipped from Mississippi. I don’t know if it had a particularly uncommon engine, but parts scarcity may well be a thing. Very pretty trucks though, I’ve been tempted by one that was for sale, then remembered that water pump....

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/01/2019 at 19:02

That's still some serious overkill!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > gmctavish needs more space
05/02/2019 at 07:10

All of this is for me a pipe dream that I’d do well to wake up from. Maybe one of these days...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
05/02/2019 at 07:11

That’s the same amount of truck as the Ford that started this all, pretty sure.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/02/2019 at 07:16

It is, which is why it's still serious overkill. Look, you're talking to a guy who desperately wants to buy a skid steer loader for .... Reasons. I get it. They're super cool trucks, and I'd love to have one too.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
05/02/2019 at 08:34

Reasons. I was licensed to drive, and I drove, a school bus at 17 years of age* in Virginia . Parked the thing a few blocks from my house in a church parking lot. I lived across town from the bus yard, and that bus was my personal transportation and I drove it everywhere. It was a 1971 Ford B600, Superior coach, with a 361 V8 and a non-synchronized 5sp with granny low, and air-over-hydraulic brakes. So medium truck, I started young. From driving that old Ford bus, I went to work driving for the outfit that provided bus transportation for the local schools and drove kids from the high school that I’d graduated from the year before. 1976 International with a Wayne coach, some kind of funky hydraulic brakes and the standard small block International V8 (345 CID, I think), but they tracked my mileage down to the 1/10ths and I didn’t get to wring that bus out as I’d’ve liked to. I worked for a season at a scrap yard and drove their early 60s Ford (I wanna say F700) dump truck. That was fun, too, but the job SUCKED.

Medium truck. Might gotta haz me one some day.

* I don’t recommend having 17-year-olds driving buses because their judgment ain’t always the greatest. When I think of some of the chances I took with that marginal equipment it makes me shudder and cringe.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/02/2019 at 11:07

I wouldn’t blame you for wanting one anyways, I know I want all kinds of stuff I don’t need, but it makes even more sense now :)

I learned within the last year or two that it used to be common practice for older school kids to drive school bus es ... it kind of bl ew my mind. I was much more responsible than your average 17 year old, but I still did plenty of dumb stuff that I was lucky to get away with.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher
05/02/2019 at 12:48

I think I was a pretty decent driver, too. But driving runs in the blood of my family, rural Pennsylvania. I have coal miners and cousins who drive truck .