888

Yes, that's what I was thinking, not sure when I'll find another one someplace close enough to see in person. It seems really solid, I can't find bondo anywhere with a magnet and it looks really straight sheet metal wise. The only significant rust I found was underneath on this brace, not sure how big of a deal this is. It's really packed in there so it's hard to get to it but the more I look at the photos, the better I like it. I did learn that a guy came up from North Carolina while I was on vacation and said he wants both so I may have to move quickly. I guess the ice storm that is supposed to hit today made him wait. The seller couldn't find the key and had to leave to look at another property so we really didn't get a chance to finish talking. I am supposed to hear from him tonight on whether or not they found the key, I may just offer to bring a deposit to them tomorrow to hold it till they can find the key.

Forgot these two:

last bunch

More

Thanks for the responses. I was able to see the truck this morning and it's all metal, no bondo I could find. One on a lower fender that is starting to blister and lose some paint. They could not find the key and thought it was back in Dayton at the owner's house so they are going to lay hands on that and let me know when they find it. Rather than type much more, I'll just load photos and see what you guys think.

Yes, I would expect people on here to favor the truck over a Chevy, for sure. I'm usually more of a truck guy and a Mopar guy but a buddy at work had a 54 we went to lunch in occasionally and I liked it pretty well, which is why I thought about this one. Good to know you've had success finding what you need over the years. Hopefully the truck checks out well and part supply isn't something I have to worry about soon. Still waiting on confirmation there will be someone there today as promised so I can have a look. As mentioned, I'mgoing back to work monday, asked to come out of retirement and help on some projects that aren't going well. I'm walking into a buzzsaw there so if I can't get this done this week, it probably won't happen for a few years till these projects are complete. Not a reason to make a rash decision but it sure is nice being able to see vehicles in person versus trying to blow up photos so I'm trying to take advantage of it while I can. Thanks for the response!

I am sensing a trend here, haha. The big reason I would not buy the truck is because it seems like finding parts for an early C is a bit of a scavenger hunt. There are things like leaf spring bushings for a D series still available on Rock Auto but not much for a C. I believe the sheet metal will need to be perfect with no filler or bubbling anywhere because it seems I won't be able to find anything to replace whatever may need attention. Fair concerns or not?

I couldn't get in to see the truck before I left on vacation and first opportunity since I've been back is supposed to be today at 11. I'm bringing a magnet, flashlight, etc and we'll see what that tells me. Hopefully I will post some photos of the truck later today. There is also a nice 54 Chevy Belair two door in there that caught my eye so I'm going to check that out as well. I did get detailed photos of the 64 D100 in Tennessee and that thing was a bondo bucket so it is out and the decision will be between the Belair and the truck. I go back to work monday and I will have no free time to look at anything after that so I'm going to have to make a decision tomorrow and have AAA bring one of them home if they check out. More to follow soon.

Well, I made sure that these guys were going to be there at noon today before leaving for the 1.5 hour drive up there but when I was almost there around 11:40 I was informed that they wouldn't be there until "around 1 pm". I was not going to kill an hour and 15 minutes waiting until "around 1pm" rolled around so I told them I was going back home. This is starting to become a pattern....I was first told I could come anytime between 10 and 4 weekdays but when I got there at 11 the first time they didn't show till 11:30. I asked for more photos and was told they would be sent, and they were not. The problem is that I'm not dealing with the owner, I'm dealing with two guys who aren't the sharpest tools in the shed who must be writing the ads and fielding the responses for the owner. I'm headed out of town tomorrow for 10 days and told them I would get back with them when I got back. I go back to work on 2/17 and after that, I won't be able to get up there. At this point, I'm almost out of patience with burning 3 hours at a time going back and forth for no reason but I may give it one more shot before writing them off. I will update if I can get more photos between 2/10 and 2/17.

Thanks for the insight on trim levels etc. I don't recall anything but a Job Rated badge on the sides anywhere. I saw that book online but it was not available to be ordered, leave it to Bezos to have them. I also remember the fancy dogleg A pillar being a weak point in case of a rollover crash when they were all the rage on passenger cars in that era. They would cave in and the roof ended up on top of the seats. I was actually glad that this was a C-1 and had the raked windshield and straight A pillars versus the later design. Not that I intend to end up on the roof but I've seen some amazingly bad drivers recently. I'd hate to think someone drilled holes in that center panel between the hoods to mount the wrong ornament but that is what may have happened. I believe the seats and door panels are a greyish woven material so those are not factory either, the seats have blue cloth inserts in the seating areas to match the paint. Someone may have made the truck what they wanted it to be versus what it originally was from the factory. I plan to go back to the school tomorrow and take as many pictures as I can given the limited space around the truck and post them up for comment. I've got to go to Columbus and look at a new daily which is 1.5 hours the wrong direction so it will be a long day, and I hope to do it all. I'm also packing a magnet to check for filler. It looks completely straight, almost too straight for the age but everything looked good and passed the knock test. It's best to be sure and use a magnet, though.

I see on the web that Dodge had four trim levels on the 1954 Dodge trucks....Standard, Custom, Custom Regal and DeLuxe. However, I have not been able to find anything yet that tells me what was included with each of the trim levels (and I did check out the Rare Options link in JBNeal's signature). The one I am looking at has a hood ornament and there aren't a lot of photos of 54's showing a hood ornament. Thanks

Yes, it was kind of sad in many ways. My boys are both grown and gone and busy with their careers so I don't see them very often and I know a bit how he feels. His kids are both very successful (one works for Goldman Sachs and the other sells properties in Key West) so they have no interest in the vehicles or anything else he is divesting even though he told them there are millions of dollars involved here. He seems like the type that is going to make his money on anything he has up for sale because that is what he has always done...the classic buy low and hold till you can sell high. If not, they will probably stay there till the kids have to deal with them but there are empty spaces so some things have moved. No photos have arrived so I may go back today with a magnet to check the body, take some more photos, and see if it fires up. It really is pretty nice and I'd rather have this one than something that has been restored or has fresh paint on it. Still waiting on photos of the 64 as well. It is in primer and may need body work or may not, can't tell exactly what it is till my contact in the area checks it out for me. If it's rough, it may mean I go with the 54 by default.

Good points for sure and thanks for the opinion. More photos will do a better job of describing the positive aspects of it, I was amazed at how nice it was. Even the tailgate appeared to be mint. I'm told it ran when parked and will want to hear it run and drive it before considering it. I honestly wasn't looking at it as too much of a project....I was going to leave the cosmetics alone, maybe install a set of tires and drive it as is.

Okay, time to settle down with a cup of coffee or whatever you drink. I went to see the 54 in the ad today and it was solid enough to work with, but not $7,500 worth or even close to it so I had some questions about it. The guys who were handling the selling and placing the FB ads clearly were not the owner so they went to get "the boss" to answer my questions, who was a stately older gentleman. He mentioned that he had another 54 in the basement that wasn't advertised. I should mention at this point that I'm in a closed down old elementary school in a small farm town in central Ohio...windows are mostly all boarded up and it has been painted battleship grey on the outside. There are cars and stuff everywhere inside, not a lot of lights and its hard to see. There are Rolls Royces, a nice 53 Chevy two door, some old Camaros, some nice older round fender late 30's cars, an original untouched Model A, and many more scattered around the first two floors of this school building. One of the guys took me through this maze to a lower level and there nosed into against a wall behind a Rolls Royce and next to some sort of torn down street rod was a really nice 54 Dodge truck. Same color blue but completely straight and near mint except for some paint coming off of the bed and being faded on top. It was really packed in there but I could get the doors and hood open and it looks like the door panels and seat have been recovered and it has been changed over to 12 volt, but there were no dents, no scrapes, no bondo I could find. The more I looked, the better it got. Looks like it had a hood ornament on it? My feet were going numb (no heat in this place, it was 15 last night) so I snapped a photo of the data plate in the engine compartment and checked what I could see of the engine serial number and saw it started with a T and climbed back out of there. The photo is hard to read but the Vehicle number on the dataplate is T3342724, model is a C1B, looks like the weight rating is 4,900 lbs. 87 net HP @ 3,200 RPM and 105 gross HP @ 3,600 RPM. In my mind, I was thinking if he wanted $7,500 for the one upstairs, he'll want $15k for this one so I didn't bother with more photos and I went upstairs to talk to "the boss". He told me he wanted $9,500 for it, it came from Colorado and had never been in salt. He bought it from a friend 10 years ago and promptly stuck it in the school. We started talking more and I learned he is a multimillionaire from the Dayton area who has close to 150 cars tucked away in various places around the area, this school is kind of like his boneyard, the nice stuff is elsewhere. His kids are grown and gone and he is in failing health so he is selling everything off. He mentioned living in the old money area of Dayton and told me he owned one of the Patterson houses (John Patterson, founder of National Cash Register/NCR) so I did a little digging on the auditor's web site as to who owned the school and crosschecked Dayton and yep, he owns one of the grandest old houses in the grandest area so it all checks out. Back to the truck, I think it's a 5 window but I was so shocked by what all was packed in that building that I don't even know for sure. I have contact info for the guy who placed the ad and I've asked him to take some more photos of whatever he could see and text them to me. He said he would do that but they haven't arrived yet. So..the 54 in the ad is definitely out but I am interested in the one in the basement if they can get it out of the hole it's in and it runs and drives well. It's a lot of money but it looks completely straight and very nice. I'll post more photos if/when I get them. I am also looking at a 64 D100 down in Tennessee and awaiting information on that one. One or the other will hopefully come home soon. PS - I do see the alligator clip on there

As an update - I am going to make the trip to see this 54 on monday, just to see what it actually is. The sheet metal looks too good to not drive an hour to check it out and hopefully it having been for sale for 10 weeks has motivated the seller. I've printed all of the info from JBNeal's signature regarding engine serial numbers and VIN's etc to take with me as a reference. I am also looking (remotely) at a 64 D100 Utiline short bed in Tennessee with a slant 6 and factory 4 speed. I'm waiting on more photos to verify sheet metal condition which seem to be difficult to provide for some reason. Hopefully, one of them work out, I'll update whenever I have something new to report.

Thanks for the responses. You guys have provided exactly what I needed to know. To be clear, I don't know if there are title issues or not. If I somehow suggested that there are title issues, that's on me. This is an older vehicle than I usually deal with and in the VW world I usually live in, providing the VIN is the only way to really know what year the car is and what engine serial number was in there from the factory. Same goes with the newer ones; VIN tells whether it was German or Mexico/Brazil build so that's what is exchanged first and I didn't think asking for it was that big of a deal. It looks like the seller seems to have somehow bought or inherited a number of older vehicles that were in storage and has them for sale on FB. As JBNeal said (and I agree) I think they've gone through and did the minimum required to get them started so they could sell them as running vehicles. I'm still interested because it appears to be pretty straight and not rusty but not at anything close to the current $7,500 firm pricing. I'll just wait it out and see what happens. Thanks again.

Thanks again for the detailed response. I asked the guy to send the VIN so I could at least do some basic checking and the response was "No, sorry we don't send pictures off the VIN". Between your comments and that response, I'll give it a pass and keep looking.

Thanks very much for the detailed response. I read that the C wasn't around long compared to the B but didn't know all of the changes made. So it sounds like the front sheet metal on this one needs to be perfect and I can't wreck it because I'm not going to find replacements easily. Sounds like I'll need disc brakes Are you thinking that the spare wheel currently mounted is incorrect or the presence of a spare wheel at all on this truck in that location is incorrect? I've read a few places that the early 1954 model run had a different (100 hp) 6 cylinder engine than the remainder (110 hp) as well? Are parts harder to come by for the earlier engine? I've seen someone on here has a cross reference between VIN and engine number so if I can get the VIN, the engine can be determined? The engine is s a flat head from the photos. I've had a number of 89 to 93 Cummins trucks (currently have a 92 standard cab manual transmission dually) and have always wanted to find an earlier Dodge shortbed manual transmission truck. They are really hard to find in my area of Ohio in decent condition and my track record with sight unseen/shipped vehicles has been really bad so when something shows up around here, I have to check it out. He wants $7,500 for it which seems like a lot but it might run like a top and be completely rust free which makes it worth considering. It doesn't appear to be beat up sheet metal wise. I didn't add a lot more photos because my internet is spotty but there are two different photos of the engine posted in the ad....one does not show a radiator cap and the heater core hoses to the firewall are cut off. Looks like there are heater hoses in another photo, so that needs to be sorted out. Any idea about the color? Many years ago, I was into mid 60's Chevy trucks and the interior sheet metal on all of them was painted a cinnamon brown regardless of the exterior color. Not sure if Dodge painted all interiors white or this one was white (Panama Sand?) before blue (Sonora Blue?). Thanks again. I don't know a lot about these so I appreciate your responses.

I joined back in 2019 when I was looking at a 53 B-1 truck project and I passed on that one. I've cleared the barn and will have some money towards the middle of December and started looking for another project truck. Here in SW Ohio there aren't many left but I found one that seems to have some possibilities. It's a 54 C-1 with the high side bed, 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree, and single rear window that is supposedly original. Still has the Job Rated trim, grille is all there and not bent, it is said to be "good running", has all of the glass intact, and doesn't appear to be rusty. Interior looks like it might have been white but the body was painted light blue at some point. Looks like Dodge had Panama Sand and Sonora Blue in 54 so who knows. Original doesn't extend to the wheels, there are some kind of 5 spoke mag style wheels on there now. EDIT - is the bolt pattern on these fairly "modern"? As in 15" steel wheels and Mopar dog dish hubcaps being possible? I'd love to have a set of original hub caps but I imagine those are scarce. Pictures make it appear like it's been stored inside a concrete floored warehouse or large garage for some years. Of course, you never know what something is till you go see it in person, which I may do in the next week or so if it's still for sale. Looking up info on the C-1, it appears that they aren't as popular with collectors as the B and D? The guy wants a lot for it (to me anyway) and the price is said to be firm, but it's been for sale for quite a while. My intent is not to restore it, but make an reliable good weather daily out of it, but even that will probably take some investment. I sorted through a few pages of posts and the post below provides a lot of information about things I would have questions on, but I have a few more: Looks like it is straight axle/drum brakes up front. I usually work on older aircooled VW's that have kingpin/drums up front and they can be a handful unless you get rid of bias ply tires and stopping takes some advance planning. How is the steering and braking on these? About what you would expect from a 1954 but manageable? I found a link to a kit to discs but it only is guaranteed to work through 1952. Were there some changes after 1952? Thanks!

I would try a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid in the cylinders to try to free up the piston rings. I once dragged home a Ford 8N that had been sitting in a barn for years with the plugs out. I tried Kroil. Silikroil, PB, Liquid Wrench etc etc and nothing worked. 24 hours after using the acetone/ATF, the engine was freed up. You have to continually shake the container to keep it separated while spraying, I'd use a clear plastic spray bottle so you can see the mixture. A guy I met through the Dodge Cummins forum told me about this and he learned it from a shop that worked on turbochargers. Hope it works for you, it's always worked for me.

That's a good reference, thanks. Gotta be more options down your way than up here in the rust belt.

Thanks, I'd rather have a conventional standard, appreciate the opinion! Just don't see them around Ohio any more so I thought it was worth looking at.

Thanks for the opinion on the price. I rarely see one of them come up for sale but I did see a nice running older restoration for $7,200 that was on CL for a really long time so that told me this was high. It was much worse in person than in the ad, I thought maybe $3k tops after I saw it. I would like to keep the patina so the fender repair would create a problem there. Here's the ad with more photos. https://limaohio.craigslist.org/cto/d/kettlersville-1953-dodge-pickup/6914671704.html

I appreciate the information and responses. There is some significant rust in the front fenders at the brace mounts and in front of the cab doors and it appears like the front end is one piece? I'd like to leave it all original but the fenders need attention so I'd probably have to paint it if I replaced that metal. As mentioned, there are some other concerns about rust in the cab floors and the areas by the running boards/steps etc. It's an Ohio truck and it was on the road for 20 years before being parked in a barn for the last 45 years so it's got rust from driving and sitting.It needs glass in a few areas as well, I'm not sure how much is available aftermarket for these trucks, I know I couldn't find front fenders on the web. I had to make a decision so I told the guy I was going to pass. He wanted $5,500 for it, he asked me to make an offer and I really didn't know if I wanted it regardless of price so I declined to make an offer. He's relisted it and dropped it to $4,700 which is still a lot more than I am comfortable with considering the farmer parked it for something terminal and too expensive for him to fix which would be probably engine or drive train. Thanks again for the info.

Thanks!