Spotted a gem today

[bad68bowtie]

Thought I'd share this- I was out cruising around today and passed by a random repair shop and noticed this '69 longbed (that is a '69 grille and not a '70, right?) sitting on a flatbed out front. The shop was closed for the day, but I went back and grabbed my camera to take a few pictures. This truck definitely looks like some kind of a barn find because it was absolutely immaculate, I only found one spot of serious rust on the whole thing and some surface rust on the tailgate. As you'll see in the pictures the tires were flat and it would seem that it has been sitting for a while as it was covered in cobwebs on the underside. I really can't emphasize enough how clean this thing was, from what I could tell it was completely original and unmolested, though I didn't get any look at the engine bay.

Anyway, enough babbling, here are the pictures-









Only serious rust that I saw-


And what seemed to just be surface rust on the tailgate-




It didn't have any plates on it, but the last inspection sticker on it was from '96 and it had a student parking sticker from Winthrop University that expired in 1986. Being that the shop was closed when I was up there I wasn't able to get any kind of story on the thing, I assume someone had it towed up there to be put back in running order.

I have a couple more pictures of it, if anyone has any interest I'd be willing to go back up there and see if I can get some info on it. If I had any money at all I'd be trying to make an offer to buy it, but I'd love to try and help someone else out.

[mclairmo]

Nice, you should buy it.

[bad68bowtie]

Believe me, if I had a spendable dime to my name right now I'd be making an effort to.

[tcb-1]

that certainly is a nice rig. when you stop back in, get a few pics of the engine bay and the interior.

the grille insert is a '69, since I do not see any vertical stripe pattern.

[jorgensensc]

Nice Find!
Where are the mirrors?
Shawn

[bad68bowtie]

Originally Posted by jorgensensc

Where are the mirrors?

I thought the same thing once I got back and loaded up the pictures.

In this picture you can kind of see some kind of tab at the top left corner of the door above the window that looks like it may have been some kind of mounting point for a mirror-


I'm gonna try to get back up there Friday to see if I can get some pictures of the motor and interior and a little information on the thing.

[dcarson]

Is this on Atl hwy out past the mall?

[72BlckButy]

Man that is one clean original truck...

(I need that grille.... )

[OrangeCrush1970]

Go dawgs

[Luvlegs]

Oh my.....! Those first two pics make me want to go out and start something on my truck... They almost look like renderings of a project as opposed to real pictures.

[bad68bowtie]

Well, just got back from the shop where it's at, but didn't get anymore pictures. I talked to one of the employees there and he told me the owner of the shop just bought it for himself last week and they've kept it on the rollback for the time being. The guy didn't say where it came from but he thought it was all original. He was telling me that at least one person a day has been coming in to ask about it all week. I decided not to ask if he knew what the owner paid for it, but I kind of got the feeling he got a pretty decent deal on it.

I told the employee to tell his boss to come over here and check out the site, who knows if the message will actually get passed along or not.

dcarson- it's actually on highway 129 a couple miles outside Athens heading towards Jefferson. I think the name of the shop where it's at is Hopewell Tire & Auto.

OrangeCrush- Hell yeah! I'm so ready for this football season to start (I can wait on class though ).