Now here’s a face one doesn’t see in traffic too often anymore. It’s from a time when faces were a bit more distinctive. And unforgettable. And it even reminded me of somebody.
Maybe it’s just because we’ve been watching Boardwalk Empire, but that’s who came to mind when I opened the image of this Dodge truck. On with the show…
That would be this old Dodge D100 from somewhere between 1962 and 1964. Dodge did something unusual, stating publicly that they would not be making any changes to their trucks for the sake of changes, but only when they were actually meaningful. Which makes it hard to tell what year they are, but who cared, really?
It’s being used like I use my old Ford all too often: moving an appliance. I can’t quite tell, but that might be a member of my favorite rental-unit dryer: a Whirlpool. Actually, now I’m thinking it’s not; the door looks different. Speaking of, Whirlpool’s direct drive top-loading washer, which was made for decades until a few years ago, is the washer of choice for rental use. They have two weaknesses; the drive coupling and water pump, but both are super-easy to fix, and the parts dirt cheap. I’ll keep mine going forever…like my old truck. Until I can’t anymore.
This one is sporting a mighty long and well-bent shift lever, which no doubt stirs the gears in a four speed gear box, the kind with the super-low first gear that only gets used for pulling stumps. it does make me wonder though, since this was during the era of Chrysler’s push-button automatics, when some of their passenger cars had columns that didn’t have provisions for a shifter, and the three-speed manual was floor-shifted. Was that the case with these Dodge trucks too?
Power was a standard 225 inch slant six, rated at 140 gross hp, and a 200 hp 318 V8 was optional. Rugged power plants, in either case.
Yes, the styling of these was a bit eccentric. But what do you expect for a truck designed during the last years of the Virgil Exner era at Chrysler?
Which probably helps explain why they picked Don Knotts to be the spokesman for “The Dude” sport trim package, which was available a few years later.
But Dodge did something afew years earlier, in 1964, that was utterly unparalleled. The Custom Sports Special was a serious performance machine, with bucket seats and a 365 hp version of the 426 wedge V8 under the hood. Nobody had tried anything like this before. And wouldn’t again either, for a few more years, as it didn’t quite take off. A bit ahead of its time.
Meanwhile, this old workhorse is still at it, hauling the goods. My kind of truck.
A terrific old pickup that is a lot like your Whirlpool washing machines. If it breaks, parts aren’t impossible to find.
It’s one year outside the ’62 to ’64 range, but my grandfather purchased a new ’65 Dodge half-ton about a year before he died. The pickup stuck around until 1971. Powered by a 318, it did have a three-speed on the column. Did the cars transition away from the push button automatic for 1965?
Actually, Dodge went with an odd dash-mounted shifter, at least in this ’67 I shot. Which makes me wonder if they actually used push buttons. But it makes me wonder if your memory is correct. I’ll do a bit more looking…
Update: There’s very little info out there. The previous generation pickups did have push button controls for the automatic, so I’m going to assume the 1961 – 1964 pickups did too. And then in 1965, when the cars went to column mounted shifters, the trucks went to this dash-mounter shifter.
And I did find some reference to a three-speed manual on the column, so apparently that’s where it went. Why Dodge went with this dash sifter instead of a column shifter for the automatic is beyond me, except possibly it could also be used with the HD trucks which had a different (more vertical) steering shaft. That actually makes some sense.
Very correct on scarce information. I scoured oldcarbrochures for each year of 1962 to 1964 and there was reference to a three-speed but nothing about location.
Superficially it looks like a T-bar floor shift setup mounted vertically on the dash and given a round knob.
IIRC Austin did something like that with the 1800 automatic.
Yes, automatic Landcrabs, st least the early ones, used a dash mounted selector, to the right of the RHD steering column
They did use a column shifter for the three speed. I had a ’64 D100 with a slant six and 3 on the tree. As for the dash shifter I also am not sure. I do know that the pushbutton shifters were cable operated, as were the ’65 column shifters. I presume the dash shifters are also cable operated. In ’66 the cars went to mechanical linkage, but the trucks did not change until ’69, and the vans until the ’71 restyle. As has been mentioned, it probably had to do with the standardization of the shifter for use from the heavy duty lines down to the A100.
I well remember this dash mounted shifter in the family’s ’71 Winnebago Brave with 318 auto Dodge drive train.
The Custom Sports Special in the brochure seems to have a push-button automatic.
Good catch. Looks like the same unit they used in the previous 1960 truck, which makes sense.
That looks like the same dash shifter used in the A-100 vans/pickups. Im guessing they were just getting more mileage out of an existing part?
It also states the availability of a column shifted 3-speed manual.
’61 to ’71 Dodges were possibly the ugliest pickup trucks ever made, both in a historical and modern context. But there’s nothing wrong with them.
The 1972 ones were certainly more “conservative”. The only problem was that by 1993 they must have looked like a rolling joke. I own a 1986 D250 that I deliver straw with. A few people have tried to guess the year, but nobody has said anything newer than 1978.
It’s hard to compete with Ford and GM who have introduced completely new trucks by saying “We have a new chromed grille!”
I liked these early 60s trucks. There’s one out here (A 1962 I think) that just keeps soldering on. You can see hints of the late 60s Dodges being applied to the 70s trucks, and some of those going into the 1980s Dodges.
I think that was the problem- these trucks look nice to me for the era, but 30 years later, the styling should have been left 25 years ago.
By 1993, pretty much the only people buying Dodges were buying them for the Cummins.
Uglier than this?
Nope! You should really put an NSFW tag on that thing- there are children here! 😉
If that’s a Dodge, it looks like it could very well have been the inspiration for the Dodge Ram ‘Rebel’. I wondered where that grille came from…
It’s a ’55 GMC, but yes, the resemblance to the Ram Rebel (note that “Dodge” hasn’t been used for pickups since 2009) is stunning.
I hadn’t though of that…I need to make a post on this. Thanks.
Those Jimmys sure were ugly, but in an endearing way, because it’s obviously aping the current styling trends of higher-end cars–and failing, yes, but it still gets a prize for trying its best. The Dodges (esp. ’61-’65) were ugly in an Eastern bloc fashion, IMO. Like the stylists started with a blank box and thought, “how can we make this uglier with the least amount of effort possible?”
The idea that Chrysler might have hired Eastern bloc defectors as Dodge truck stylists is an amusing one. I’m more partial to the notion that they were all Exner disciples who were banished from the car divisions when Exner’s styling fell out of favor for cars.
I’m trying to imagine a ’60 Valiant-styled truck…..
If you squint, the front of the ’61-’65 quad-headlight versions actually shows some resemblance.
On the ’60 Valiant as a pickup …. Try a Studie ‘Champ’. It ended up looking more like a Valiant than a Lark, because the ‘eyebrowline’ on the pickup ended at the front door as it did on the Valiant.
It’s hard to argue with the sentiment that the Champ is the ‘champ’ of ugly pickups. It’s not so much the cab styling, but that horribly mis-matched pickup bed (a Dodge pickup bed, no less) they slapped on the chassis and hanging out the sides. I mean, it looks like a makeshift used pickup even when brand-new. The two questions I always wonder when I see a Champ is: who the hell approved this bastardization for production, and who is going to buy these things?
The 1964 Dodge was toned down from its 1961 first year styling as seen in the attached pic. With the clear/white turn signals used until 1963, the front end almost looks like it has six headlights in a dual triangle pattern.
If you look at the headlights on the 55 GMC you can see some resemblance to the Cadillacs of the day. As for the featured Dodge I think it’s downright sexy compared to the current Toyota Tundra, which I think is uglier than a bulls nuts.
This is ugly? Maybe not as nice as a 67 F-100 but I sure wouldn’t turn down owning one of these.
All Dodge truck plant employees were required to bring their used foil pie tins to work to hand in at the trim department………
As a kid, we called these “Pie-tin headlight Dodges”.
I agree, why change a truck for the sake of change? Pickups are mules, workhorses, not fashion statements. My ’83 Ford Ranger 4X4 is now 32 years old. Not exactly stock with the 302/C4 swap. It is my daily driver,and I get more complements on it now from 20 something hipsters, usually gas station jockeys, than ever before. And it is nice owning a truck that has catalogs of restoration parts available for it.
That these were completely foreign to me as a kid and were the only pickups (including Studebaker, Jeep and International) that I had zero interaction with back then shows what pitiful market share Dodge had back then. The way Chrysler chose to completely ignore these for so long (and during one of its most prosperous eras) is one of the great mysteries of autodom.
However, I’m not sure they were completely asleep at the wheel. Their 1963 brochure shows their very first crew-cab pickup. However, the blue color makes me think it was intended to fulfill an Air Force contract.
Dodge pretty much cornered the market with the Air Force when it came to crew cabs. IH was the first in ’57, but Dodge had 4 doors (although so did IH by ’61) and rode a lot nicer than the old Cornbinders. And they were (presumably) a little cheaper because they weren’t insanely overbuilt like IH.
What’s always bothered me is why Dodge never saw a reason to develop the Town Panel/Town Wagon into a Suburban/Travelall fighter. It made some sense that Ford dropped their panel van after 1960, because it had no passenger version at any point. But Dodge could’ve made a new wagon on the ’61 D-100 chassis just like IH and GM.
Dodge had government contracts as one of their primary goals well into the 1980s. The 1980s Dodge trucks are pretty much all ex-government trucks.
I can’t verify it, but I thought that I read somewhere that when Chrysler bought out American Motors, they had a tough decision on whether to keep Jeep or Dodge trucks. They chose Dodge only because they were already working on what would become the 1994 Rams.
And then canned the Raider after only 2 years and eventually the Ramcharger to make room for Jeep SUVs.
I like them all, especially the bigger D400 and D700 trucks. They mean business, and even have Überholprestige ! We’re talking trucks here, not soccer mom SUVs. The uglier, the better.
Maybe not so mysterious. Up until the seventies when emissions regulations began strangling car engine performance, doesn’t seem like there was a lot of profit to be found in the truck market unless you were a volume seller all the way up to heavy trucks (like GM and Ford). Without fail, all trucks were purchased as work vehicles with virtually none of the high-profit options which made the car market so lucrative. The investment in updating trucks just wasn’t possible for the smaller car companies.
But then the seventies hit and, suddenly, trucks (which were virtually ignored for emissions regulations) began becoming popular as regular, daily transportation. By then, Studebaker was long gone, International was soon to follow, and Jeep was known primarily as 4WD.
As for Dodge, they actually got into the truck-as-a-car market sooner than Ford or GM with the first, ground-breaking extended cab (known back then as the Club Cab) in 1974. Too bad it was offered on a still craptacular, poor quality (except for the drivetrain) Chrysler product.
Ironically, Dodge suspended production of the Club Cab after 1982 because the trucks-as-passenger-vehicles market juuust wasn’t quite there yet. They brought it back for 1990 on both the Ram and Dakota.
Back in the early to mid-60’s the U. S. Forest Service used lots of these. My father’s friend bought several, mainly on the recommendations of Rangers he met while fishing.
My best buddy’s family had a (probably) 64 crew cab D200 with a humongus camper on it, with 318 and TorqueFlite. I recall it worked pretty well even on hills in the Arizona Rim country.
This truck is still in service in Wyoming. Its more than 50 years old. That puts the toughness of these trucks in perspective
Chief Ranger George Keeley drove the Canadian Fargo version in the iconic 60s CBC children’s show, ‘The Forest Rangers’. As seen in the opening credits…
That show is a new one on me. It must have been shown in Canada only. I know I would have liked it as a kid. There are several interesting CC’s throughout the show. I especially liked the ’64 Falcon Squire. It has the standard hub caps, appears to be a six cylinder (no V8 fender emblem), but has bucket seats. I do not recall ever seeing a Falcon wagon with buckets.
The Falcon is a V8, the emblem is down low ahead of the door, the wood trim precluded it being placed in the normal spot.
My truck is pretty-
http://oldcarandtruckpictures.com/PickupTrucks/1952FordF1-ja4a.jpg
I like this generation of Dodges. Sure, the styling is pretty eccentric, but it grows on you. And when something is love it or hate it, I tend to love it.
For a 2wd truck, this guy sure is riding up high! Wonder if it has lift springs on it? The patina is just perfect for an honest workhorse yet that body appears pretty straight and rust free. Being a shorty stepside, Id expect this to get the hotrod treatment if the owner ever lets go. Nice find!
Yes ;
These were *very* sturdy workhorses .
The cabs suffered rust out of the front body to frame mounts often else there would be many more elderly ones still out there working .
The four sped box in these was the world famous Muncie 420 , still sought after by die hard old school Jeepers .
-Nate
That Dodge’s styling is no worse than the Chevy truck of the period.
Ahhh: no change for the sake of change except for when they were meaningful. A concept that is still valid. And a selling point in the 60s and 70s for VW and it’s customers. It still makes sense.
Trucks are supposed to look tough, not sexy and these are nowhere near ugly trucks. Besides, the 65-71 Dodges look similar to the 60-67 Chevys that are so revered by collectors. Good luck trying to restore one though, repro parts are virtually non-existent.
While so many are trashing Dodge truck styling, no one has mentioned how Dodge literally changed the truck market when the 1994 Ram T300 came out.
I love these trucks, as much for the quirkiness of their styling – really the only truck Virgil Exner got to do from scratch at Chrysler. My family ran a public golf course, as well as a C-P dealership and we always had a couple of these out at the course, along with a ’66 D-500 dump truck, well into the seventies.
The number of changes these trucks went through in their 11 year lifetime was pretty amazing. You had four grille changes. a revised bed and tailgate, and a new hood. Only the core cowl elements – the windshield, the doors with their funky stepdown and the roof/rear panel remained untouched.
The whole Town Wagon, Town Panel saga is worthy of a write up. They must have had some regular government/business contracts to keep those in production, as with the military-style Power Wagon. Probably the 4×4 option helped.
Those ’60’s Dodge trucks were gnarly old beasts. I like ’em.
I have had 4 Dodge PU’s over a 35 year period, the first 2 were of this trucks generation ’67 & ’70 and a ’72 & ’80 all 3\4 ton trucks, 2 of them were Camper Specials.
The first one was the ’67, a 3\4 ton Camper Special with 318 V8, 4 speed with PB but no PS. It was a brute not only in hauling ability but in it’s ride. Front straight axle with 12’x 2 1\2 drums all around it would stop better than anything I had driven before or since then. When people borrowed my truck I warned them the brakes would stop you on the the proverbial “dime” and to watch it if they did not want to thrown through the windshield. Some of them would borrow my truck even though they had their own van or truck. The reason given was their truck or van was either “too nice or did not have the load carrying capacity of mine. This got it’s start when I loaned the truck to a friend to haul sheetrock for his brother who was building a new house. They put 40 sheets on the truck and did not make any difference in the distance between the bottom of the rear wheel well and the top of the tire so they loaded on 40 more sheets which was a little less than 4100 lbs and probably around 41-2” in height. I had built stake sides the went about 10-12′ above the cab height. At 1 point I had installed a 383 auto in the truck out of a ’65 Chrysler Newport. The hood which opened to 90 degrees meant you id have to remove the hood to do this This got 1-2 more mpg than the 318 4spd hauling a 10′ cabover camper and a 17′ boat. I also pulled juniper & laurel root balls(4-5′)diameter with it. I still wish I had it.
Next came the 1980 which was the biggest POS I have ever owned. It was a 3\4 ton that had 318, auto with lockup torque converter, PS and PB that had front disk brakes. It looked good on paper but it was under powered, did not stop as good as the ’67(even though it had front disks)and got worse gas mileage than the 67’s 393.
I bought the 1970 after a couple of frustrating years with the ’80. It was a 3\4 ton and had a 383, auto, PS & PB. It was decent enough but needed more TLC than I had the energy or time to devote to it.
The 1972 was the last one I owned. It was a Camper 9000, 400 V9, auto, AC,PS, PDB which were way better than the 1980. The power was there but it got the gas mileage of the 1980 which I was willing to accept, at least it had power to haul a load.
The one I really wanted was a 1971 which was the last year of the ’61-’71 body style of which this article is about. It had independent front suspension instead of a straight axle. I never found one unfortunately. I used all my trucks for work & recreation, more on the work side as I had built a 10′ cabover unit to haul my construction tools. I could do anything from foundation to finish work and got many compliments and looks of awe from other people in the construction industry.
I love the Dodge trucks from this era.
Hate to be pedantic but the ’71 still had a solid front axle. Why would they make an expensive change to a 10 year old design for just one year?
Your 67 reminds me of the one I talked about in the comments to this post: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/truckstop-classic-1967-dodge-d-200-camper-special-were-number-three-so-we-try-harder-dude/
Such a beast. Loved that truck so much. And the featured one in this article is gorgeous!
Agh, no. Stop torturing me Paul. I was hoping you wouldn’t come up with an article for the four-eye D100. I absolutely love these trucks. The stories I heard about these during my childhood made them heroes to me. While they weren’t exactly everywhere, the fact that they weathered abuse much harsher than anyone expected just makes me love them. I had the chance to buy a ’64 (one year off from the one I want) with a 360 swapped into it and with the short sweptside bed, but by the time I got the bank loan someone from Texas had bought the truck out from under me. When I was willing to pay more.
One of my favourite stories about these is the one I heard as a little kid about a bug-eye D100 that saved someone’s life. One of my friends was driving in the mountains in his Pinto in the early 1970s, and he saw an early ’60s Ford F-100 go barreling past him downhill, followed by a green D100. The D100 manages to get in front of the F-100 and slam on the brakes, destroying parts of both trucks but saving the F-100 driver before he went around the bend. Apparently the F-100’s brakes had went out, and the D-100 driver saw what was happening and intervened to save the other guy’s life.
Not sure of the year, but this is one of the oldest Dodge Pickups around Portland, OR
Here.
I can’t tell because I can’t see the interior, but it looks to be either a ’70 or a ’71. They’re both identical because they weren’t changed after the ’68 grille redesign, but the indicators are horizontal and low in the grille instead of vertical and directly beside the headlights like the ’68s and ’69s. The only way to tell is to look inside and see what the interior cloth is made out of, because certain ’71s had specific materials for that year only before the redesigned the truck for ’72.
Nice ~
IIRC that’s right about a 1971 , we had these in our Fleet , D-sometings with 413 V8’s and 3 yard dump beds .
.
-Nate
That’s a Kenmore in the back of that D100, I could tell by the signature woodgrain on black control panel. My grandparents have an identical set, still going strong. They’ve had it since I was born. My grandfather actually bought my grandmother a a brand-new Kenmore cherry red front loader pair a couple of years ago, it failed after two and a half years (computer board went on the washer, a potential $600 repair). Luckily, the old trusty Kenmores were tucked away in his shop, ready to continue its trouble-free duty.
Nowadays, Speed Queen is the only good set to have and they’ve had unwavering quality since day one. Because of that, I bought it when I bought my house two years ago. Everything else, including the new Whirlpools and Kenmores, are pure junk. They don’t wash worth a darn because of the new government water use standards.
My father’s company had a ‘64 D-200 with a stake bed, slant six and 3-speed. Yes, the 3-speed was a column shift, but like the Chevys of similar vintage the cab mounts would dissolve in the rust belt and then the shifter would become nearly impossible to use reliably. A floor-shift conversion added a year or two to the very end of that trucks life. Word was that its 5-digit odometer had rolled over three times by then.