(Update: Thanks to CC reader Leon, it’s been identified, as a Model 88 Custom Diesel Dispatcher made by Total Automotive, presumably on a Jeep Dispatcher chassis)
(When this first ran three years ago, no one could explain this vehicle’s provenance. Let’s try again). Now that doesn’t quite look like one of the millions of Jeep Mail Deliver Trucks that once plied our streets. It has the look of a cheap Chinese knock-off. It’s been converted to a one-piece fiberglass flip-up front end, just like a big truck. Easier maintenance, no doubt. Did the USPS have some of these made as part of their fleet? And there’s more mystery inside the cab: Â Â
A very hot-roddy looking B&M shifter for the automatic. Hmmm. Is there some wild engine lurking under that flip up hood?
As if you needed it, here’s the real thing. But I didn’t check the shifter…
It’s one of M Martin’s projects, isn’t it?
Actually you may have found a long lost “Hot Rod Magazine” tech letter writer. When I was a teen (late 80s – early 90s) I picked up a copy of my Dad’s “Hot Rod Magazine” and in the tech section was a letter from a guy who had purchased an old Postal Jeep at auction and wanted info about which engines would be fairly easy to swap in to make his high performance postal truck.
It could have been an export only thing. Jeep had a few crazy rigs that we didn’t get stateside. Like the CJ-10. Which is what that front end kinda reminds me of.
One thing is for certain.. The tools on the floor and spare gas can are telltale signs of a true Jeep!
We don’t get to find out what’s under the hood? My money is on a slant-6 backed by a 727. 🙂
I think that the right-hand drive and the mirrors on the front corners mark it as something built for use in Japan. I’m guessing that it may have come to Eugene via Canada. Looking at that shifter, one really does wonder what’s under that flip-up hood.
The Mail Jeeps all have RHD, so the mail person can easily reach the mailboxes. Except in Japan, of course 🙂
Which asks the question? Are mail vehicles in RHD countries LHD?
Not here. The rural mail delivery vehicles in my district include Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus wagons and Mitsubishi L300 vans. The mail people only go one way up rural roads (ie not up one side and down the other) so LHD would have no advantage (or disadvantage) over our RHD vehicles.
Mitsubishi built knock off Jeeps could it be one.
I have found one of these in SW Virginia. Has a 2.3L under the hood and c4 auto. 2wd and rhd. I am going to fix it up for my wife. It was used to deliver the mail.
FWIW: The shifter in those things, the stock Postals, was exactly the same shifter used in automatic Jeepster Commandos in the Kaiser era. The same, except for the pretty console plastic cladding…it was just the white knob with a button in the center; you push it down and with the Postal, you could SEE the locking mechanism. And, for that matter, the cable hookup. And the wiring for the starter interlock and backup lights…a clever adaptation of the switch used in AMC column-shift automatics.
Whitney and 4WD Hardware used to sell tip-up one-piece Jeep fiberglass hoods…they weren’t really big sellers; partly because there’d be a problem with a front winch; partly because a user had to create a radiator mount. On the stock Jeeps, including Wranglers, the radiator bolted right up to the grille.
I went to a NTEA work truck show in Washington,DC in the early 90’s, there was a company that was taking used mail jeeps, stripping them down to the chassis and rebuilding them with Perkins 4 cyl. diesels and their own fiberglass bodies. I believe they were down south( GA or SC), tried to find them on net, but since the Jeeps were discontinued so long ago, they’re probably no longer in business.
Is the whole truck plastic or just the tilt nose?
Some of the postal Jeeps had floor shifts and some had column shift from what I recall, depends on the driveline combo.
I don’t see the “LOOK BEFORE BACKING” sticker that every postal jeep seemed to have on the dash, so maybe it was painted over.
It almost looks like an abandoned updated of the postal jeep that was never put into production, maybe AM General made a few of these to try to keep the USPS business before they abandoned them for the Grumman LLV?
I’m quite sure the whole thing is fiberglass. And Leon figured it out; see his coment below.
Interesting….the Diesel Dispatcher, so it was a Cummins engined knock off of the AM General postal jeep. Strange.
I remember seeing a Kia Asia Rocsta on the roads here. These two pics are the result of a quick image search, the version on the left showing its Suzuki origins. I’m not sure Paul’s find is one, but I don’t know enough about the Rocsta.
Nah, that just looks like a ex-mail jeep that somebody did some modding on. The one piece fiberglass front ends were a popular mod to jeeps back in the day. In fact they still sell these front ends.
http://www.shellvalley.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category_id=140/mode=cat/cat140.htm
http://www.jeep4x4center.com/kentrol-fiberglass-front-end-w-cowl-hood-30613.html
There was also a company that redid these jeeps with fiberglass and added diesel engines called total automotive MFG inc. out of Parker Ford PA.
It was called the Model 88.
The featured Jeep looks like one made by them.
See pic below
Here is a pic of the brochure
Winner! That would be it, right down to the all-fiberglass body, which is what this has, on looking at these pictures again.
Memories are a terrible thing to waste but I think I remember my security postal jeep having the wheel on the left side. That was 1978, in Guam.
The way it handled I would be terrified to put anything very hot up front. I was really pleased to trade it in for a dodge pickup.
The wheels are of Suzuki origin, so possibly a SJ/LJ model, custom “Jeep” body? My guess is the latter based off an LJ:
Those white spoked wheels are an American “invention”; they became madly popular in the mid-late seventies as aftermarket wheels for trucks and Jeeps, and were everywhere. Some of the Japanese companies adopted the design for their trucks and the Suzuki jeeplets. One still sees them on occasion. My ’66 F100 had them when I bought it; first thing I did was go to the junkyard and get some Ford steel wheels.
Thanks for that bit! You lean something new every day 🙂
Yes, the good old Jackman wheels. They came in a bunch of styles beyond the spoked ones, but those were the most popular. First thing my neighbor did when he got his CJ-7 in 1976 was to go out and get a set of Jackmans for it. They really looked good on the Jeep.
Check out the cover on this Jackman catalog from the late 70’s – early 80’s…
I love the Citation in the drawing, there is a date next to the signature, 1980.
Its Italian colleague ?
Ma che!
It’s a Fiat Nuova Campagnola, introduced in 1974.
I got the photo from this website about the history of the Campagnola. It’s in Italian, but I see that’s no problem…. 🙂
http://campagnola.org/website/
i know that jeep does it have a turbo 350 with a diesel 4 cylinder
I actually own one of these with the fiberglass body. Mine is a 1976 DJ-5D. It has a 2.3 L Ford engine in it. Currently looking for a replacement engine for it though. That’s what brought me here.
Any one have any more info on this jeep I just got one
I have one as well. Mine is a 77 with the 2.3.
following
I have a 74 fiberglass mail jeep for sale if interested it has a small block Chevy in it with a 871 blower
its october of 2022 and i just bought one of these “imposter’s” is there anyone out there who has info on them, like year of build, price when new, any other useful info, please post it here or in the Jeep DJ postal jeep FB group please