Many of their utilitarian designs have certainly aged well, but styling was often at best an afterthought for many of the original hard working pickup trucks. Style is however something this rare 1937 Studebaker J5 truck that is currently listed on Ebay has no shortage of.
Sure there were some beautiful early pickup trucks, but we have a hard time coming up with any other vintage pickup trucks as stylish as this one (GMC, Chevy and Dodge truck offerings for 55-59 come to mind). The J5 was one of the first attempts to make the pickup truck not just an everyday workhorse, but a more refined and upscale vehicle.
Although the idea of a fancy pickup truck certainly has caught on three quarters of a century later, at the time the idea wasn't exactly popular. Less than 4000 Studebaker J5s were made in 1937—the first year of production—and far fewer have survived the 75 years since then. For this reason we were amazed to stumble across this example last week.
After a restoration over 20 years ago, this truck spent two decades in storage. Despite this lengthy hibernation, as you can see there were few cosmetic issues when the truck was unearthed this past January. The truck isn't currently running and driving but the engine turns free and we'd guess with some minor mechanical attention this old truck would run and drive again.
The seller advertises this truck as an ideal candidate for a high quality restoration, but we hope this truck makes a return to the road in its current very nice and mostly rust free condition. Someone has already placed a $35,000 opening bid on this No Reserve auction, which means when the auction ends on Monday night this very cool and seldom seen old truck will have a lucky new owner.
[Ebay]