Orchard Find: 1962 Dodge D-100 Sweptline
We have seen vehicles that were found in all sorts of places here at Barn Finds. There have been a lot of field finds and garage finds and storage unit finds, and even airplane hangar finds. I don’t know if I remember an orchard find? Well, here you go, this 1962 Dodge D-100 was found in an orchard and now it’s for sale here on craigslist. It’s located in the Cathlamet, Washington area and the seller is asking $2,500, unless you don’t want the tailgate and then they’ll take $2,000 for this truck. No, really. Let’s check out this good looking Dodge.
I love this design, the beautiful and graceful (a rugged pickup that’s beautiful and graceful?!) Sweptline bed is one of the best designs of all time for a pickup, in my opinion. We all know the Chevrolet and GMC Cameo with the styled bed, but the sides of this Dodge D-100 Sweptline are all steel, not fiberglass as on the Cameo. An interesting note, however, is that Dodge made a pickup called the Sweptside from 1957 to 1959 which featured the rear fenders from a Dodge station wagon that were grafted onto the sides of a box and then used a modified bumper and tailgate.
Speaking of the tailgate, here is the one that the seller wants to make sure to either keep or get a good price for. I had no idea that they were in such high demand. This is a first-generation D-series pickup and they were really the first modern pickup for Dodge, with big changes in the design compared to the evolution of earlier generations.
This is the only interior photo, and in fact, these are the only five photos in the seller’s listing. But, they touch on the high points that we usually like to show here: a general overview of the exterior – although, we’d like to see the passenger side – the interior from the driver’s side, and an engine photo. You can see what looks like heavy surface rust on the floor of this pickup and either a high clutch pedal or a low brake pedal, or a combination of both. This truck has a three-on-the-tree manual transmission. The accelerator pedal appears to be missing but that shouldn’t be the biggest problem with getting this truck back on the road again.
This may be the biggest problem as far as getting this truck on the road again. It usually comes down to the engine, doesn’t it? In this case, the slant-six doesn’t run and that’s all we get out of the seller. There’s no word if it turns over or anything else, just that it doesn’t run. It doesn’t look that bad in the engine compartment and I’m taking a wild guess that this engine will run again with some tinkering, but who knows. Hagerty is at around $3,800 for a #4 fair condition Dodge D-100 Sweptline pickup, is this one worth a gamble at $2,500?
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Comments
Even though it isn’t a D-200, this truck is a good reminder not to forget to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation for the holidays!
Merry Christmas all!
These were great trucks, but not very popular. We probably saw one Dodge for every 50 Ford and GM’s. Not sure why, certainly had the dealer network. Farms seemed to cater to the smaller guys, like IH and Dodge. This is a neat rig, looks like a spare “slanty” in the back, great motors, dime a dozen for years, and I bet some junkyards still have some they took out of Dusters and such, Rebuilds are costly today, or go the full tilt lowered resto-mod with some 900 hp motor, which, if anything, is probably what will happen. Also, anyone familiar with Studebaker Champ pickups, they bought the tooling from Dodge, and put these boxes on their pickups. It’s why they looked so odd. Nice truck, me? I’d get the old gal runnin’ and get ‘er to stop, new king pins ( yep, still used the old straight axle) and use it as is.
That’s an interesting note, Howard, that Studebaker bought the Dodge tooling. Desperate times can inspire desperate solutions, I suppose.
Is the rumor true that Wikipedia keeps you on retainer for questions regarding cars and trucks from bygone eras? If not they should!
Looks like the brake pedal is clear to the floor, so like Howard said-new brakes, new motor (late model Hemi with a 6 speed!), new king pins-and probably a seat cover/rubber floor mats (since the CFO would drive it as much as I would) then get going.
Studebaker used the old Dodge truck box stamps but I think the tooling that was used was for the boxes made from ’58 to ’60. The box itself was probably the same inside but the outer sheet metal didn’t have that sweep…
Absolutely worth it! Hard to find a solid Dodge truck from any year.
Great start on a cool truck. Even a small v8 if the leaning tower of power is shot. Or leave the six , rebuild, put a pertronix module i so you dont have to struggle with the points. 3 on the tree makes it more inviting. Good luck to the new owner.
Cheers
GPC
There were a bunch of these floating around out west back in the day. Some very aggressive Chrysler dealerships around the country saw to that. Good trucks overall. For some reason very few of them in our region had sixes; the 318 dominated the country. Never was a big fan of this style myself although I liked the early Pilothouse models and those before. However, I sure wouldn’t kick this one out of my shop. Full restoration including that ‘Leaning Tower of Power’ under the hood. It would be a real novelty to have one of these for a hauler and to show off.
Would buy it in a heartbeat if I lived in the states – also my favorite design of all time for a pickup – fix the mechanics and drive it as is.
This was on Craigslist in Yakima for $1500 about 4-5 months ago. I was sorely tempted to grab it, then, but my next sweptline needs to be a short-wide box…. Regardless, this is definitely worth saving. I’d keep the Slant 6 though!
Does the Haggerty #4 price include the tailgate? Next time I sell a car, I’m charging extra for the doors.🤨
Had one in mid 70’s. Paid $50.
For $10. more, got it runnin.
No one would bother it when chasing parts.
Then, in Huntington Beach, a guy had to have it.
He traded a very nice, 69 Charger 500 Hemi car for my truck. No rust or wrecked. Faded paint, wrong color interior.
One of my best ever trades.
I like to have it-if it was closer.,but if the tailgate did not stay on for $2,000. I,d pass it up. I spotted one near Summersville and hopeful check on it this summer. I have a 71 Sweepline.. Gave $110 for it in 1975. . The body rusted out quick on those years.