Would anyone buy a truck of any sort with just 60 horsepower today? Nissan was proud of that power level back in 1965! This truck is remarkably complete and includes some no-doubt-impossible-to-find bits, such as a nice steering wheel and all the dash switches. Let's hope some vintage Datsun lover grabs these parts before the Crusher gobbles them up!

I think this is one of the coolest emblems ever made. In fact, I like it so much that I took it home!

Check out the laughably cramped passenger compartment in the '77 Datsun King Cab. Why, that microscopic truck would be dwarfed by the '10 Versa! How was it possible that our forefathers accepted such hardships? Truly, they were a stoic and uncomplaining breed.

I didn't think we'd design a truck as part of the Eco Initiative project. After talking to environmentally concerned and fuel-price-shocked truck owners, we had to.

This project is a real challenge. The people I spoke with used their trucks for EVERYTHING!

We talked to truck owners who were taking personal responsibility for the environment. They were cleaning up city parks, converting their homes to solar power, taking on real projects to do their part. These projects demanded a truck. Their current trucks got less than 20 mpg. They wanted a better way to get the job done without burning so much fuel.

The Bare Necessity Idea that we tossed at these folks (the concept that people would be willing to make some sacrifices to live more efficiently) hit the mark! The people we spoke with said they needed more efficiency, but they weren't going to give up their truck altogether.

Bare Necessity Truck was born.

People do everything with their trucks. They haul big items, dirty stuff, tow trailers and sometimes have four or five people to carry.

Our engineers recommended a couple of different hybrid engines and some great weight-saving materials. The designers had to do our part to make this truck perform efficiently AND look efficient (it is kind of embarrassing driving around a large truck when there is empty space behind you).

How could we do it all with less? It meant designing the truck with fewer parts, eliminating un-necessary features, and scaling down the size of the vehicle. It also meant using more environmentally -friendly materials AND more durable long-lasting materials that don't need to be replaced for a long time. Having two doors instead of four reduces vehicle weight and parts. Having a single piece bed simplifies the truck too.

It also meant shrinking the truck without giving up capability. Quite the challenge. Sharing space between the cab and the bed seemed like a logical place to start since there is often unused space in either the cab or the bed of a pickup. The bulkhead of a current truck is the back wall that separates the cab from the bed. To share the space between the cab and the pickup bed, the bulkhead has to move.

Our Chevy Avalanche does a nice job of opening the bed into the cab for occasional use while keeping the vehicle length down. I wanted to see if we could build on this idea. The idea was to devise a bulkhead that always keeps the cab separate from the bed and effectively moves the partition forward or backwards.

After a considerable amount of sketching, cutting and pasting, I came up with one crazy idea that I thought might work, the reversible bulkhead.

Yes, the bulkhead flips 180 degrees and reverses itself. The cool thing is it swaps about two feet of space between the cab and the bed. This means we could remove up to two feet of length from the truck, quite an amount of length and weight. Now a truck that's the length of a short cab pickup can do the job of a crewcab truck. One person can transform the truck from two rows of seats with a very short bed to one row of seats with a medium length bed in under 1 minute. We came up with several other approaches to this problem, but this one will generate the most discussion.

Bare Necessity Truck is just a rough idea right now. It's a good time to weigh in if you'd like to provide constructive feedback.

The big questions are what does do it all with less mean to you? What do you need in a truck?

We had a tailgate party last weekend, prior to watching the hapless Oakland A's get shellacked by some team from behind the Orange Curtain. In attendance were the usual suspects: Belvedere Adrian's wagon, my '97 P71 Crown Vic, and the most reliable vehicle I've ever known.

Naturally, while we brought a dozen different types of gourmet sausages to put on the grille, we sorta spaced on an opener for the elitist non-twist-off beer we prefer for such occasions. No problem, though- the late-80s Toyota pickup's door latch makes an excellent bottle opener. I know that our readers will have many useful vehicular-bottle-opening tips for us, so let's have 'em!

But first, what's that vehicle driven by our tailgate neighbors?

Why, it's a veteran mid-60s Transporter pickup! Good tailgating vehicle choice, we say.

Since this is Oakland, I didn't have to go far to find a donk. How about a mid-70s Malibu with the crypto-donk treatment?

The Maserati-powered Model T definitely made an impression at the last Billetproof Nor-Cal, which is totally understandable. After all, the [flawless Model A, B, or T] + [Chevy or Ford OHV V8] formula has been done so often and so well that you need a body machined from pure plutonium to really stand out these days, while the [rusty-ass ancient non-Ford] + [weird yet hypnotically cool engine] formula still offers plenty of fun for each pint of blood you spill in the Hell Garage. Tonight, we're going to look at a total of nine possible vehicle+engine combos, any one of which would draw vast crowds of Bettie Page lookalikes at the next Billetproof. Hear the rusty iron doors of the Hell Garage swinging open for you? Once closed, they'll be welded shut until you're done... or insane!

Every time I see the amazing DOTS '47 Plymouth rumbling through my neighborhood, I realize anew that old suicide-door Plymouth sedans let you roll in the purest Hell Garage style. Affordable examples are quite easy to find in diamond-in-the-rough condition, too. Say f'r'example, this 1937 Plymouth sedan, which has a no-doubt-negotiable $1,000 price tag. The patina is already perfect, and the "toast" interior should be viewed as an opportunity to commission a special burlap-and-studded-pleather extravaganza!

It's tough to argue with the appeal of a 62-year-old sedan, but an elderly pickup made by a farm equipment manufacturer might make you forget all about that Plymouth. This '38 IHC pickup, which has been sitting in an Iowa field since Syngman Rhee was in office, has the perfect paint finish for Billetproof stardom, though we're not sure that "no bullet holes" is really a selling point. No matter, though- you can always make your own bullet holes!

Sedans? Trucks? Don't forget station wagons! Sure, you'd like a two-door wagon, and a Ford Ranch Wagon would be an excellent choice... but even that might veer uncomfortably close to the overchromed aesthetic behind those hyper-sanitary Chevy Nomads we see at mainstream car shows. Don't worry, because LeMons Rabbit racer Casadelshawn has tipped us off about this Opel Olympia Caravan, which is priced right in LeMons territory... which isn't relevant, because you know that mini-Euro-Nomad will be just the car to receive the engine of your deepest fears dreams! And, speaking of engines...

Now that you've picked out your chassis, what would you say to a 317-horse, DOHC/4-valve aluminum V8 that should be making good power until the Sun goes supernova? You can get this Nissan VK56DE out of a Nissan Titan pickup for well under two grand, though you'll need to spend many a few more bucks setting it up with an octet of Weber carbs and some sort of transmission.

A Nissan 5.6 liter V8 would be fun, but imagine all the wild Teutonic Maltese-cross decor you could put on your Opel, Plymouth, or IHC if you were to drop a Mercedes-Benz 5.6 liter V8 into the engine compartment? An M117, freshly torn from the still-twitching corpse of a big ol' Cocaine Dealer Grade 560SEL, would be just the ticket, and here's a 69,000-mile specimen for a mere 710 bucks! You'll need to ditch that irritatingly modern fuel-injection system and replace it with some carburetors, of course, and we recommend a homemade pipe-organ-style intake manifold made from galvanized plumbing fittings and sucking fuel from as many updraft Cessna carburetors as you can obtain. Then you'll start your junkyard quest for a functional junkyard transmission. How hard could it be?

Is there some rule that states you've got to have a V8? No? Well, how about one of GM's coolest engines ever, a high-performance inline six that struggled to get attention while in the shadow of big-inch monster V8s during the Muscle Car Golden Age? Yes, we mean the Pontiac OHC six-cylinder, which was a Chevrolet 230 or 250 six equipped with a futuristic (for 1960s Detroit) belt-driven overhead-cam cylinder head. The high-performance Sprint version, installed in regrettably few Firebirds and Tempests, could hold its own against V8s with vastly more displacement... but real Sprints are hard to find. No problem, though, because you can build your own Sprint from this Pontiac OHC 250, which is sitting with a top bid of just 150 bucks.

Ready to decide? Let's vote!

I'm a city boy, so damn if I can pin down the year of this truck with any accuracy; in fact, I'm not even sure whether this thing is properly referred to a Willys, a Willys Jeep, or just a Jeep. I think it's of late-50s vintage, but no matter; one of our huntin'/fishin' readers will be able to recite chapter and verse of Willys lore just from a single glance at these photos.
The great thing here is that this truck still goes to work after five or so decades; the sign on the door shows that it belongs to the Accessible Home Lift Company.

The music selection could have been a bit more creative, and the editing is on the hyperkinetic side, but those are just quibbles; this film follows Team First Blood from initial purchase, through the entire build, onto the race track… and then right to the People's Curse. Yes, this is the only team in 24 Hours Of LeMons History to win the People's Curse and the People's Choice!



Remember, the next LeMons race is just two weeks from today. See you there!

A diesel I-Mark and a pair of diesel Mazda pickups, and they all seem to be parked at the same spark-ignition-phobic residence.

In Tomsk's words:

F250: The Ford F-Series has ruled the pickup roost for decades now, but how did it get there? This early- to mid-'70s F250 regular cab might offer some clues, including the most obvious of which is the fact it's still operational. The owner has added some wheels from a later F-Series, it appears everything else it wore back in the day, from the novelty mud flaps to the "Camper Special" badges are still in tact. And best of all? No cupholders in sight!

Suburban: This leviathan holds a special place in my heart, as my parents owned an '84 C20 'Burb for 15 years.While ours had a carbureted 454, the 1987 model year (which is what this is judging by the grille and the badge on the tailgate) marked the introduction of EFI. Regardless of what's under the hood, I feel this generation of Suburbans has a certain romance about it, as it was the last of the line that wasn't found in 70% of suburban (See what I did there?) driveways and driven by spraytanned MILFs who wanted something that would keep their 2.5 brats safe in a collision with anything smaller than a Peterbilt and let them (literally) look down upon the other moms in Tauruses, Caravans and 5 Series Bimmers.

El Camino: Considering where tha Jalop's allegiances lie, I had to include at least one Elky, right? Well, here she is, the year conveniently identified by the license plate frames. With the IROC Camaro wheels, it's guaran-bleeping-teed to make your haircut at least 50% more business-like in the front and at least 75% more party-like in the back. How can you lose?

Ford F Series: Before Dearborn's medium-duty pickups were offered with such niceties as voice-activated infotainment systems, heated leather seats, integrated trailer brake controls and diesel engines with enough torque to puree diamonds, they looked a little something like this, because back in the days of Camelot and the Great Society, pickup buyers didn't know they needed such things.

Uh, they do need 'em, right?

Thanks to Myke Toman, Nick Pon, Zerin Dube and Speed:Sport:Life, Anna C of Bikini Racer, the Norwegian Slaabs, Saabs Gone Wild, Prison Break Racing, Team Beermer, LeMons Supreme Court Justice Lieberman, Jackson Williams, and others for their fine photographs.

Well, if you're the kind of guy who has about 47 crazy car projects going on at any given moment, you drop the Amazon's engine and transmission into the Ford, then scrounge up everything else you need from random boxes of parts. The result: Volord!


I met Anthony, the Volord's creator, when I went to his place to buy my personal Hell Project. He was selling the Sprite to clear some space for more cars; you can see why in the photo above, which shows a tiny fraction of his collection: a daily-driver Scout, a genuine wrecked-in-the-TV-show General Lee Charger, and a Buick GS convertible. Yes, Volvo fans, that is a bit of P1800 you're seeing on the right side of the image; there's an original 500-mile Amazon wagon in the shed as well.


The good ol' Volvo B18 does a fine job of moving this truck. We'll be looking for it at the next Billetproof Nor-Car.


These connecting-rod taillights really go well with the Pabst-can coil cover and floorless interior. This is the kind of rat rod we like best: built cheaply from stuff on hand, yet not overboard on hipster irony. This thing would look good parked next to the Granada Rod!


Naturally, anyone who would build the Volord would be a vintage Model T racer. No roll cage, no brakes (just transmission bands, or whatever the hell those things are called), helmets optional. 75 in this thing probably feels like 190 in a Beetle!

The General doesn't change his truck styling very often- at least, he didn't during the 1960s and 1970s- so this one presents a challenge when it comes to identifying the year. The California smog-check history site says it's a '74, but the black license plates were replaced with blue ones in 1969 and the bulk of body parts appear to be of late 1960s vintage. The way junkyard drivetrains, cabs, and beds get swapped around on million-mile work trucks, there's just no telling, so I'm going to say it's a 1968.


We've seen a few other GMC pickups of this era in the series, including this '66, and this '68, this '71. In fact, this is one of the rare DOTS vehicles that lives right next to another DOTS vehicle; in this case, it's the 1965 Chevy Suburban.

Today I am going to honor this little truck (which I've been borrowing to haul engines and sheets of plywood since the early '90s; it's always wise to encourage your sister to marry a Toyota truck owner) by posing it at the former Alameda Naval Air Station and giving it the DOTS treatment. This is the truck mentioned in the Orange Mix Tape post.


My brother-in-law (let's call him BIL for short) bought this truck new in Los Angeles in 1987, and ordered it in the most stripped-down, un-optioned form possible. No bumpers. No radio. No A/C. 4-speed transmission. You don't need frills when you've got the Warlord Grade 22R engine under the hood!


Unlike your typical Toyota-driving warlord, however, BIL has maintained his truck with obsessive care. Oh, sure, the body and interior are beat to crap (which is to be expected when a vehicle spends most of its life living in L.A., San Francisco,and Oakland), but every single mechanical maintenance item has been carried out on the dot. You're looking at the single major failed component of this truck's 240,000-mile lifetime in the photo above: the master cylinder went bad about 5 years back. Other than that, only normal wear items such as brake pads, catalytic converter, etc., have been replaced. The original clutch is still working fine. Even by Toyota standards, we're talking absurd reliability here.


Which isn't to say it hasn't needed some electrical work over the years, because it has been stolen once, had its ignition punched four times during attempted thefts, and had the dash torn open by stereo thieves more times than there are AK-47s in an Afghani Hilux. Ah, street parking in the big city.


The current sound system is a Pick Your Part Half Price Sale special setup, with a mid-80s Subaru radio mounted in a crude plywood faceplate that seems to be pretty good at convincing thieves that they should move on the the single-disc CD player in the Mitsubishi Cordia parked down the street.

Back in '72, the Cheyenne option package on Chevy's half-ton pickups got you a nice plush bench seat in La-Z-Boy-grade vinyl, extra trim, sound insulation, gleaming chrome exterior trim, and all manner of snazzy comfort and styling upgrades… which, of course, still resulted in a fairly spartan truck by today's luxo-truck standards. A frame-off-restored short-box Cheyenne with four-wheel-drive, four-on-the-floor manual transmission, and hounds-tooth upholstery? We'll take it! Oh, wait- is the seller really asking $48,500 for this truck? What the heck, maybe it really is that rare and valuable… or maybe we need to visit Booth Number Two for some reality-enhancement assistance here. What do you say?
[Craigslist Kansas City, go here if the ad disappears. Thanks to Tanshanomi for the tip!]

The incident allegedly began when the two nearly collided exiting Interstate 25 near Colorado Springs. The Prius then followed the pickup before pulling alongside and sideswiping the truck three times. When the 61-year-old pickup driver pulled over, the 30-year-old Prius driver shoved him. The pickup driver now complains of back pain. The assault was upgraded to a felony because, in Colorado, anyone over 60 is defined as an “at risk adult.”

The result of the scuffle? Damage to the Prius’s side where it impacted the undamaged truck’s wheels and unspecified jail time for the vehicle’s owner. [via The Colorado Springs Gazette]

The Ford Ranchero is no stranger to Alameda; so far we've seen this '64, this '65, this '68, this '79, and this '79 in this series. Today we've got a Ranchero work truck with a nice flame job (flames always run the risk of looking clichéd, but I think they almost always look good on a Falcon-based Ranchero).


In 1965, the Ranchero was still called a "Falcon Ranchero," and you paid $2,095 for one. That got you the uninspiring-but-reliable 170-cube six with a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. The base '65 El Camino- which was a bigger vehicle- sold for $2,272, but the tough choice for Ford truck shoppers might have been the F-100-versus-Ranchero decision: just $1,981 for a Styleside F-100 pickup. Of course, the Ranchero was the better choice if driving comfort was more important than load capacity.

We've got an '85 4WD Toyota pickup with just 25,000 miles on the clock, no rust, and a freshly rebuilt 22R (which must be a record for the fewest number of miles prior to a rebuild on any Toyota R engine in history). We can't manage to slog all the way through the CAPS LOCK-enhanced, red-and-blue-text description (which features such brain-scramblers as "HE HAVES OVER $8,000 WIYH THE MECHANICAL WORK"), but you can tell this truck is pretty damn nice from the photographs. It failed to sell with a $6,000 Buy It Now; in fact, nobody even tried to meet the $1,000 starting bid price. Nice Price? Crack Pipe? You decide!
[eBay Motors, thanks to Parrish for the tip]

I've selected 1953 as the model year for this truck, but it could be a '52, or a '51 with later "push-button" doors (this truck has apparently had a door transplant), or a '48 frame with a '51 cab, or… well, you get the idea. To add to the fun, you couldn't get a Chevy pickup with a chrome grille during the Korean War- chromium being a strategic war material- so the grille on this thing isn't original. Old pickups are so useful that they serve as rolling repositories for generation after generation of junkyard parts, and trying to nail down an exact year on one would probably require a look at the pink slip.


The doors are especially interesting, so much so that I hope the owner never repaints them. Back in the early 1950s, there was a military base somewhere with an early-50s Chevy truck hauling provisions to the Commissioned Officers' Mess. It probably wasn't the (now-closed) Alameda Naval Air Station, which favored Dodge trucks.


This truck is still earning its keep; it parks on the street and goes to work every day (unlike its nearby sibling, the '53 GMC, which doesn't seem to move much these days.