Posted by MikeC on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 22:05:31 :
In Reply to: Re: What do you want to know about it? posted by Glenn Reid in CA on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 10:03:23 :
The truck is originally from eastern Washington. It was a dually from the factory and was originally light blue. To my knowledge it was originally a cab/chassis combo, the flatbed was added by the dealer or first owner. It appears to be the same vintage as the truck, or very close to it. But I don't think it's an original "Dodge" flatbed.
The second owner purchased it in the mid-1970's and did some work to it. Repainted, cleaned it up, etc. The body was rough when he purchased it.
He used it to haul wood and as a weekend work truck. His daughter named it "Old Blue" and the name stuck while I had it. I still refer to it as "Old Blue" and when my wife saw the pictures you posted the first words out of her mouth were "It's Old Blue!".
I purchased it from the 2nd owner and brought it here to Iowa in about 1998 or 1999. It needed a lot of cosmetic work and while I had it I repainted it. Mechanically it was great-it had the original Poly 315 (which the previous owner had rebuilt in the late 1980's) and it was overall a very original truck. The 315 would get up and move and it also sounded great with the dual exhausts.
I also had a 58 Power Giant that I scavenged for parts for your 59. I replaced all the wood on the bed, replaced the wood bed floor with diamond tread and coated it with tuff-coat, and did a lot of little things to it. It looks like it still has the tires I bought for it as well.
At one point I nearly removed the duals/flatbed and put the standard Power Giant bed on it. While I had the flatbed off rebuilding it I had the bed from the truck at the link below on it (it was the parts truck I scavenged parts from). My wife told me that "Old Blue" should remain a flatbed-so it's because of her it still has a flatbed and duals.
I always meant to get it down to the rally in Fairfield, but never found the time. Funny part about it-I'm about 2 hours from there. I spent several days in Fairfield earlier this year setting up new financial software in the courthouse. Fairfield is the county seat for Jefferson County Iowa and a client of mine.
I sold it in the summer of 2003. I was working on my Masters degree and didn't have time to give it the attention it needed. I sold it to the person you bought it from, and he had it shipped to California.
If you email me your mailing address I have a lot of before/after photos of the truck-it would be my pleasure to put them on a CD and mail it to you.
Good luck-you've got a great truck.