We recently took a spin in my imaginary time machine to go back to a Packard dealer of 1958. Today we do not need the time machine because this almost new-condition Dodge truck was in the real live present. At least the real live present of when I took these pictures some years back. But what did I have besides pictures of a cool old truck that brought more questions than answers?
From 1960 to 1970 there was a great leap in the American pickup truck. 1950 to 1960 had seen big changes too, but most of those changes had to do with styling. OK, except at Studebaker where that hadn’t changed either. But the next decade would be one of refinement. What had formerly been a rough old thing with I beam front axles and very little in the way of creature comforts became almost as comfortable as a car. Almost.
Chevrolet (and GMC) trucks were becoming quite civilized, with one brand new design in 1960 and another in 1967, when things like carpeted floors and even air conditioning were beginning to be seen. Ford had three generations in that span with new designs in 1961 and 1966-67 where they too revamped their suspensions and frames and greatly improved their high-end cabs so that they were more car-like than ever.
And then there was Dodge. The 1960 Dodge truck was a hard riding old thing with an I beam axle up front. The 1970 Dodge truck? Still a hard-riding old thing with an I beam axle up front. There was one gigantic leap in 1961, which was among the last products from the short, muddled styling era that was part Virgil Exner and part Bill Schmidt. What may have been the most attractive thing to come out of Chrysler Corporation in 1961, this truck was looking a little offbeat five years later. No matter how artful the brochure photography might have been.
But the brand new 1967 Dodge pickup introduced in a classic era for styling and quality at Chrysler was a game-changer. No wait, that was what Mopar fans only wished had happened. Dodge would have to wait until 1972 for their new truck, and would have to squeeze that 1961 design for every drop of life that could be coaxed from it.
Burton Bouwkamp, who spent the 1960’s in engineering and product planning at Chrysler Corporation, once recalled that by the mid 1960’s the guys over in the Dodge truck division really needed a fresh pickup. The problem was that there never seemed to be enough money to get it done. Which is not surprising given that the car lines were completely revamped for 1965 (C body) 1966 (B body) and 1967 (A body) in addition to major 1964 introductions of a heavily revised Imperial and a new A series of compact Dodge pickups and vans.
There were some much-needed updates to the pickup line, though. The original 1961 front end and cargo box were replaced in the middle of the 1965 model year with the design seen here. The unique single “pie plate” headlights up front were the most noticeable change, but the most important functional update was the double-walled pickup bed with a central tailgate latch. Up through 1966 power came from either the slant six or the A block 318 V8, an engine that finished its long run that year.
Besides engines, there were other old parts that remained on the 65-66 pickup such as the “refrigerator style” door handles. Modern pushbutton door handles and a big block V8 would not show up on these trucks until 1967 and a more socially acceptable grille by 1968.
Dodge trucks were never very common in my part of the Midwest. The only time I saw them with any frequency was on television screens. Chrysler was very active in the 1960’s providing vehicles for use on shows from The Beverly Hillbillies to Mannix – and whenever the script called for a truck one of these Dodges would get the spotlight. Such as this screenshot from an episode of Mayberry RFD. But as in so many ways, television was completely unlike real life. In Fort Wayne, Indiana I probably saw International trucks as frequently as I saw Dodges. I knew one Studebaker Champ owner, which was exactly one more than the number of Dodge pickup owners of my acquaintance.
I took these pictures in my earliest months contributing to CC. It was a mystery. What, I wondered, was this truck’s story. It had to be a great one. I was driving into Lebanon, Indiana for my day job and saw it sitting outside of a small body shop. Was it for sale? Was it some kind of prop? Was it just an old truck that someone owned and kept there? It looked virtually new. Well, in new condition, at least. New Old Stock is a term that describes old parts that have never been out of the box or off of a warehouse shelf since they were manufactured, and this truck looked mighty close to falling in that definition.
The threshold challenge was to figure out what year this thing might have been – which turned out to be quite a task even for this longtime Mopar-head. Maybe this was the reason I never wrote up this truck. This exact image is used in the Dodge truck brochure for 1965, 1966 and 1967. Only a careful eye will note the new door handles airbrushed onto the ’67 picture.
Another reason was that I always kind of thought I might see this D100 again and learn more of its story. Then as time went on I became more and more critical of my early pictures. We have seen Shaky Hand Jim’s early work in which he developed his skills at capturing 80% of a car in the frame. Perhaps this makes me Blurry JPC who took so many early pictures with a cell phone camera lens that looked like it had been dropped in a bucket of fried chicken.
This one clearly had the standard interior with the plain seats and no armrests. And the standard exterior that lacked chrome bumpers and a bright metal grille. It did, however, come with the optional “Sweptline Side Moulding” that was available on all Sweptline models. Sweptline, by the way, was DodgeSpeak for the full-width bed. The old style bed remained available on the Utiline model.
I had once traveled to southern Indiana to look at some old cars owned by the estate of a guy who had years earlier been a car dealer in a small community. He had kept two cars that had been brand new and never put them into service. One was a red ’59 DeSoto convertible, which he kept because he knew it was the last year for a soft top model from DeSoto. The car registered about 3,000 miles on the odo (and might be the very car pictured above – at least after it got a full restoration a few years later.) The other was a yellow ’69 Plymouth Fury III 2 door hardtop which he kept because it was the last car he had in inventory when he closed. It registered about 400 miles on the odometer when I saw it in the mid 1990’s.
I could not read the odo on this Dodge so have no idea of the mileage, but this truck gave every indication of having a somewhat similar story. The red paint turning a little pink due to lack of polishing, the lack of any rust, dents or stone chips, the perfect interior – this looked like a brand new truck, aside from the natural effects of weather. And while this one had seen some weather, it had not seen a whole lot of it.
In 1978 my best friend’s father bought a used 1974 Dodge Charger. It was unlike any Charger I had ever seen, a completely stripped 6 cylinder car with a three-on-the-tree, rubber floors and no radio. The story was that the first owner had bought it during the first Energy Crisis – it was evidently a Buick owner’s idea of an economy car. In four years the guy put 10,000 miles on it. And had never washed it. Its red paint looked almost exactly like the paint on this truck.
After too much time spent peering at old brochures for interior details in an effort to pin down this truck’s year of manufacture I resorted to the hack of just googling Dodge D 100 Indiana. And there it was, showing up in a for sale ad. [Note to self – try this first next time, it’s a lot quicker, And the pictures are better, like the one above]. The ad said “1966 Dodge D100 Pickup 318 V8 3 speed transmission. Runs good , drives good. Interior in great shape. Older frame off restoration. $9950.”
Which brings up a “whole nuther” set of questions. Like who would have spent the money to do the kind of full restoration on this truck that would make it indistinguishable from new? And then let it sit outside long enough for the red paint to oxidize? And how much money got lost along the way if this truck could now be purchased for (slightly) under ten large?
So I guess I ended where I started – with some iffy pictures of a great truck that came with more questions than answers. But isn’t that enough?
V8 and 3-speed is an odd combination. Most working trucks in the ’50s and ’60s, owned by farmers or businesses, had grannylow.
I’ve noticed that collector-owned trucks seen in pictures usually have the column shift, like this one. It always catches my attention because the shifter is unfamiliar.
Possible correlation: People who bought a pickup with a 3-speed didn’t use it heavily, so those trucks have ended up as NOS.
Light local deliveries and light duty workmen (plumbers, etc) didn’t use granny low four speeds. There were plenty of uses for basically a car disguised as a truck, with truck ground clearance, toughness, and cargo space. A classic true half ton doesn’t need that kind of pulling power with a six-foot box. Even late in the sixties, short bed C10s outsold all C20s and C30s combined; those manual C10s usually were three on the tree. Longbed C10s were about half of Chevy’s light truck business, and a lot of those with manual were three-speed column shifts.
Very different to the Dodges we got, six cylinder four speeds and a four headlight front panel, most likely Australian models rather than north American, vast numbers were built as ambulances so they were a common sight.
If you got yours from us, they used the International cab. We skipped this generation.
I find it strange then Australian models used the International cab while in South Africa, they could get the Sweptline design in RHD from what I saw on this screenshot from the movie “Target of an Assassin” on IMCDB.
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_287685-Dodge-D-Series-1962.html
The Australian government then was very strong on protecting local industry. Imports were discouraged by whopping great tariffs, duties and other financial disincentives. Importing the Sweptline parts would not have been feasible. Chrysler had quite a history of going their own way with local product rather than following what the US did, probably because they couldn’t afford to tool up for the latest and greatest very frequently given the limited size of our market. During the fifties our Dodge (and Fargo) trucks often differed substantially from what the rest of the world got. Cab-sharing with Inter was just the latest episode.
Seeing this Dodge pickup is quite refreshing.
A red 1965 Dodge half-ton (a later ’65 as it had only two headlights) much like this one was the last vehicle purchased by my paternal grandfather before he died in 1966. It, too, was red with a 318 and a three-speed. My grandmother told me that the timing was such only a few payments had been made prior to my grandfather’s death and an insurance policy that was part of the loan paid the pickup off. She kept it as her sole vehicle as it was the newest of the bunch at that time.
To counter Polistra, this pickup was worked hard and was still worked hard after my grandmother sold it in 1971. I seem to remember her saying the new owner either hauled trash or hauled scrap food from restaurants to feed his hogs (back when a person could do such things), along with other sundry other jobs. Every pickup I’ve ever seen with a three-speed was worked like a rented pack mule.
Incidentally, the four-speeds in these were optional and were close ratio as per oldcarbrochures.com.
The brochure indicates that the 4 speed was a New Process 435, a transmission that was used in many trucks starting in 1962 and extensively by both Dodge and Ford. A website I found that goes into these shows that there was a fairly wide variety of 1st gear ratios, ranging from a 4:56 (for the NP 435A used in some Dodge and GM applications) to a 6:68 (for the NP 435E & 435L used in Dodge, Ford and GM trucks). Some International trucks used it as well, I believe.
New Process Gear had been a Chrysler division going back to the 30s. It became New Venture Gear in a tie-up with some GM transmission operations and was eventually divested by Daimler.
These transmission suppliers, along with the overlap among makes, is fascinating. I suppose it still continues today with Allison, Aisin, etc.
Recently, I stumbled upon a different line of products from another transmission supplier, Borg Warner. Looking around my parents new to them house, built in 1963, the powder blue toilet in the upstairs was produced by Borg Warner.
Allison transmission, I remember the sound of their automatic transmission used for school bus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlFCu8KEMQs
Yes, New Process was merged with GM’s Muncie division, forming New Venture Gear. New Venture was jointly owned by GM and DaimlerChrysler until being sold to Magna some years ago.
Pig farmers still come by to pick up food here in New Jersey
Don’t know if they can still do it these days, but we used ‘pig food’ to eke out our household budget when the kids were young. My wife came from a fruit-growing area and grew up on cannery rejects. Every now and then we’d get a call, and I’d go and collect day-old bread and pastries by the trunkload (“I’ll be down the back paddock so I know nothing about it”) and take it to those we knew who’d appreciate it. 🙂
Marvelous truck, look at the simplicity of the firewall.
I for one really like the pie plate headlight treatment. When I view “older restoration” vehicles for sale sometimes it’s because a previous owner had it restored, then their heirs do not share the same level of enthusiasm.
I am warming to the pie plates. That $9900 price strikes me as high. But then again, what other kind of used pickup will that kind of money buy you these days? Certainly nothing as functional and good looking as this. I kind of want this now.
Painted yellow, this would look real nice in the Niedermeyer driveway.
Either that or maybe Jim Klein will let me put this on the company credit card. We need a new official CC truck, don’t we? 🙂
+1
(But don’t forget to budget for the obligatory conversion to overdrive!) 😉
+ 2
(And a cool video posted here on how neat it is to drive with one!)
You’ve already spent all the available funds on fried chicken, it appears, so no. I’m glad my shaky pix finally inspired you to unveil this set after you found a wet nap. See, everyone is accepting here, no judging. Nobody mentioned anything to Roger either…:-)
Saying that the Dodge truck was the “most attractive thing to come out of Chrysler Corporation in 1961” is hilarious. It could have been much, much worse. I wonder if a redesign would have actually looked better if it had come out a year or two earlier.
This is such a strange design that it really couldn’t be fixed. Yet Dodge’s light truck sales would rise above those of International in 1964 and top 125,000 by 1969, according to Patrick Foster. I assume that’s mainly because of a relatively strong dealer network.
125000 units was not really very strong. To put this in perspective, it is only about double what Studebaker was selling 20 years earlier. A much bigger company with way more dealers in a much larger market should have done way, way better than this. Ford built about as many F-250s in 1969 (and over 500k including F-100 through F-350 lines). If Dodge could have sold even half of what Ford did, they would have built more than double what they actually produced.
That’s true. I suppose it comes down to expectations. In 1960 — the last year of the previous-generation Dodge truck — U.S. production was under 45,000. Thus, the Exner redesign did lead to a meaningful increase in output by the end of the decade. During that time period Dodge had edged past GMC, International and Jeep.
But then, as you note, Ford was hitting a half a million in 1969. I’m reminded of Paul’s epic post on the 1962 Plymouth, where he raised the question: “Was Chrysler really one of the ‘Big Three’ or just a big ‘independent’?”
“Was Chrysler really one of the ‘Big Three’ or just a big ‘independent’?”
An excellent question. It is as though every bit of momentum from the company came while Walter Chrysler was running it. From the time he had his stroke and went inactive, they began to coast. There was not a real, lasting infusion of new energy until Lee Iacocca.
I guess the one thing Dodge did right in its truck line was in the way they invested in the A and B series vans. The A van was all new in 1964 and was probably the best on the market then. The 1971 B series van likewise led the market. Dodge got some real sales numbers out of those vans. A new pickup in maybe 1967 or so would have probably been a really good one. Perhaps Lynn Townsend did not see much market growth in trucks and thought the segment was too crowded between Chevy/GMC/Ford and International.
Walter Chrysler may have been an excellent auto executive, but he was also very lucky. Ford’s problems in the 1930s and early-40s left more room for a third high-volume automaker to emerge. Meanwhile, the Great Depression served to level the playing field between the larger and smaller automakers (at least when it came to sales).
After World War II both of those advantages disappeared. Even if Chrysler had maintained consistently top-notch management, it would still have had a harder time keeping pace with the tremendous growth General Motors and Ford experienced in the 1950s and 1960s.
I wonder if Townsend didn’t put money into matching GM and Ford’s truck redesign cycle in the late-60s because the fancy consultants he apparently listened to suggested other shiny things, like expanding the automaker’s foreign holdings.
Ironically, in 1971 – the last year Exner’s pride and joy was in production – total Dodge truck output matched that of Chrysler brand cars (albeit partly due to the introduction of the second-generation vans). The next year truck production would soar well above Walter’s namesake brand. This would prove to be an important shift for the automaker.
A great find. I admittedly preferred the early quad headlight versions. The pie plate bezels always looked odd to me.
These weren’t that common in Central Canada either, but they were maybe the most visible pickup truck on Canadian TV in the 60s and early 70s, as a Department of Lands and Forests Fargo was the primary vehicle portrayed in the popular early 60s children’s series The Forest Rangers. The series originally ran from ’63 to ’65. But remained very popular in reruns into the late 70s on CBC. Long after most Fargos left the road. In fact, I probably remember seeing more medium duty Fargos growing up than the pickup version. Including collecting the Matchbox BP tow truck.
I remember that towtruck. It always looked weird to me, as this was what passed for a sixties Dodge pickup in my country. Local front on an International cab.
CC effect strikes again! I saw one in traffic this arvo – this same colour and also a flatbed, complete with farmer’s dog leaning out the window and barking at pedestrians!
It’s funny how Dodge added straight trim to the Sweptline pick ups that doesn’t follow the creases that are stamped into the body. It’s kind of an angular restyle by deception, meant to fool the eye. The pie plates remind me of the Chrysler Turbine Car. As far as I know there is no sheet metal reproduced for these, so this is a very nice find.
“It’s funny how Dodge added straight trim to the Sweptline pick ups that doesn’t follow the creases that are stamped into the body.”
Yes, I noticed that. It looks like Elwood Engel was trying to squarify some of the flourishes of the Exner-era design. Another oddity here is that with all of the re-working of the pickup bed (double-wall box and new central tailgate latch mechanism) they didn’t just change those panels. This is an almost Studebaker-like level of making do with what they had.
The other weird thing I picked up on these was that for 1969-71 the moulding once again began to follow the crease in the panel, thus returning to the original design.
‘squarify’ – my new word for the day. 🙂
That’s exactly what the side molding reminded me of, the 1964 Stude sedans with the wide molding at door handle height that hides the old downward-swooping crease in the fender. This trick has been used many times over the years; the last Buick Skylarks had new plastic cladding that straightened out the unusual upward-sweeping contour in the sheetmetal ahead of the rear wheels.
Another carryover from the earlier, quad-headlight trucks is the hood. If you look carefully, you can see that the leading edge of the hood does not match properly with the new, dual, pie-plate headlights.
Chrysler really wasn’t interested in competing with GM or Ford pickups until it was nearly too late. But when they did get around to it in 1972 (then, again, in 1994 with Bob Lutz’ ‘Kenworth’ styling), they did put up a (mostly) decent product.
I had a 64 shortbed stepside. 225/column 3. Traded the 3.91 (?) rear to a hotrodder for a nice 3.23 posi, it would go anywhere, including across the US to explore New Mexico without a single issue.
Over the years I passed many 4WD pickups in ditches after blizzards, made it to a career-changing class at the other end of the state on the PA Turnpike with it being closed behind me during a blizzard, and made it through flood waters just below the door sill getting back to my house.
One downside to the column shift came fortunately on a back road at low speed; a cotter pin broke and the shifter mechanism fell onto the steering column, locking it in place. I glided off the road to a stop, reassembled it, dropped a nail in that hole, stopped by the local tractor dealer for a cotter assortment, and replaced every pin in that thing. The cotter assortment joined the spare ballast resistor in the glovebox.
Damn good trucks, and I’ll take the early 60’s face over the pie plates.
I’d have it today if the rust hadn’t gotten beyond my capabilities. All manual, no power anything, simple as a rock.
Dodge was still trying hard to sell those trucks in 1971:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JRP-5zpOGI
Wow..
Wow, again.
Was there a truck in that somewhere?
I didn’t notice.
It’s not a bad looking truck, per so, but one wonders how it would look if they were able to find/use headlights that were a full 15″ or whatever the pie plates measure across. It would be the Don Knotts of pickup trucks.
It’s a good find, and the price doesn’t seem out of line for a truck in excellent condition without rust and decent (if a bit faded now) paint.
It is the Don Knotts of pickup trucks.
I tried to post a picture of Don Knotts advertising the Dodge Dude pickup, but it didn’t load. Sorry.
It’s nice to see a truck restored in plain, simple, stock form. I’ve seen too many “restored” trucks gushied up to include all the bells & whistles, factory options and trim.
I’ve always like the Dodge pickups of that era with that accent flair on the Sweptline bed.
I remembered my father was seriously thinking about buying a pickup back in 1966-68 and was leaning toward the Dodges and collected brochures.
I have the brochure featured in this CC and remembered it as 1966 model year, not 1967. I also have what I am certain is a 1967 Dodge brochure that featured the redesigned two row four-slots grille and vertical rectangular front turn signals. Am certain it was 1967 model year because the trucks featured in the brochure didn’t have the identifying side markers mandated for 1968.
The Dodge trucks didn’t change significantly between 1961 to 1971 except for trim and headlight/grille design. Underneath it still featured the old-style I-beam suspension. Interesting to see sales training videos as late as 1970 touting the I-beam suspension as a positive selling point, i.e., “more rugged and desirable”, than the independent coil suspensions used on the GM and Ford pickups. Well, that’s marketing and sales for you.
When my father finally bought a pickup truck in 1968, he picked the GMC because GMC rode softer than the Dodge. He remarked the Dodge ride was a “kidney killer” and could feel every bump on the road.
Another light change Dodge did for the 1969 model year was a redesigned dash and the windshield wipers was now parralel with no more “pick-a-boo” in the middle.
Wow – I had never noticed that windshield wiper change for 1969!!!!! In truth, before I started digging into this piece I had only the vaguest idea of the changes in this truck’s long run. This truck joins the small Weird Windshield Wiper club. The 63 Studebaker switched to parallel wipers, and the Olds 88 of the early 60s used parallel wipers on one series and opposed wipers on another in the same year.
I think your memory is off by a year. The 1967 brochure has a different cover from the 66 but uses several of the same pictures inside.
The new grille with the inboard parking lights was on the 68 model. I see several pictures online of 68 Dodge trucks that lack side marker lights, and I wonder if that requirement was either later on trucks, of if Dodge held off until units built after 1/1/68. Advertising pictures lack them also, so I am guessing a running change.
It’s interesting that the question of “was Chrysler really just a big independent?” comes up, because if you think of it, Exner’s sort of ideas and the creative freedom (for several years at least) kind of were unparalleled at that time. There were some pretty radical designs in the jet/ aircraft inspired late 50’s era, but Exner’s were definitely the wildest. Studebaker and AMC had that rogue spirit to do something different, to separate themselves from the pack. Chrysler kind of seems like they had an independent spirit, but with major unlimited money (at least until Exner’s designs became more dated than the other companies and he had to tone things down).
I’ve never really been a fan of the pie plate headlights (that one seems like it’s pure Exner). Gotta love that it was something different, though. The waning sales of the trucks may have been due to many Exner involved designs–at first, it was different (kind of maybe like the Pacer’s popularity in the first year), but in the end, it was too different and polarizing of a design.
That pie plate headlight design is a puzzler when it comes to origin. Exner was gone from the company by early 1962 and 1963 models seem to be the last ones totally under his control. Elwood Engel clearly took control for the 64 Imperial and managed to calm down the details of several other 64 models. Could it be that there just wasn’t enough time and money to make changes to Exner designs on the trucks? The 1964 A series trucks used the pie plates and the pickups got them for 65. Maybe the attitude was to just let the truck designs play out. Because those pie plate headlights do not say Elwood Engel at all.
Also assembled in Argentina til year 1982 . These pickups are proven the best heavy workers’ vehicles , Dodge D100 and D 200 are better qualified than Fords or Chevrolets . Many of the local built Dodge/Fargo pickups of late ’60s and full ’70s are still great survivors and they run in decent conditions .
In 1966 my dad bought a new one EXACTLY like the red one featured here except in light blue with a 3.90 rear end and positraction of some kind. That thing would scream to 80 mph, at which point that 318 A engine would run out of steam due to the low rear end.
They made a pretty solid truck for that series. I currently have two, a 62 3/4 ton with the 318 and new in the truck line automatic transmission. Cast Iron Torqueflight with no park position on the pushbutton quadrant. Do not ever forget the parking brake. The other one is a 71 3/4 ton 4 door with most of the options. 383, auto, ps, pb, limited slip rear, and air. Archaic suspension maybe but it is a really nice driving truck. It isn’t a kidney pounder and it steers beautifully. I added a Gear Vendors overdrive to compensate for the short tires and 4.10 rear ratio. It has delivered an honest 12 mpg. Not as good mpg wise as my 1/2 ton Champ V8 but not bad for what it is.
Dodge was really struggling trying to convince its salespeople how its truck was superior to Ford and Chevy in this 1970 slideshow.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DE0x6otSW7BI&ved=2ahUKEwif387m3LjkAhW7CTQIHb5tD-MQjjgwCnoECAEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2QD5DlnJkGQRJnUR8b_VZn
A 1966 with a red and white paint job with white wall tires…….truck I used for work in the late 1980s and looked virtually the exact same as this one. Amazing find, JP. Genuinely amazing.
Mine had the big, big engine, the 461 which I believe was taken out of a slightly newer model and swapped in. I could be wrong, however. Paired with a 3 on the tree it was an interesting ride.