Story and photos by Dan Laity, Fremont, OH
Edited by Mark J. Smith - Editor JeepTruck.com
Dan first contacted us by email and included a picture of his ‘59 FC-150 crossing a stream. We
took one look and immediately knew we had to share this amazing truck with our readers. Dan’s
story of how he found his truck and restored it follows. His story is an inspiration to all Jeep Truck
owners and what can be done with these American classics.
Dan writes; my FC is a 1959
wide track FC-150. It must
have been 2007 when I
bought it from Lester
Bolander after I found it in a
field next to his barn in
Rocky Ridge, Ohio. He was
into restoring tractors and
was 80+ years old and
decided he was never going
to get to it. I paid $150 plus
another $75 to rent a trailer
to haul it home.
This is what I brought home in 2007
I started perusing eBay for parts and ran across a guy in Dayton who was parting out his FC-170,
I bought his cab for $250 which had been sandblasted and primered. I had no idea the cabs
were different for 150's and 170's and I had planned to fix my old doors and use them. There
were some differences in doors from year to year but ultimately I was able to use them both; I got
lucky on several levels.
I started working in
earnest on the truck
in 2008 or so and
thank God for digital
cameras and the
internet. I would
photograph
everything as I was
taking it apart or
before I took it apart.
That ultimately
helped me to figure
out what went where
when it came time to
put it back together.
The web was great,
there is a published
link with instructions
and photos for just
about everything I
needed to do from
rebuilding the
transfer case to
installing brakes.
This is an FC-170 cab I purchased on E-bay from a guy in Dayton
OH. I was able to make it work on my 150 so I think that technically
I have an FC-160.
Here is the FC - somewhat stripped down, this was taken in 2009
Here is the chassis, engine and drivetrain mostly complete,
about 2011 or so....
Next, the engine turned; again I
was lucky and I actually got it to
fire over before I removed it. It is
running the 75 horse F-head
engine. I did most everything
myself. The only things I did not
do were the engine, I had that
professionally rebuilt and the
differentials; I only opened them
up and cleaned them out and
refilled them. Pretty much
everything else came off, got
cleaned, primed, painted,
tagged, and set aside ready for
reassembly. I run my own
printing shop so I had a 55 gallon
drum of suitable solvent and
boxes of plastic disposable gloves
and I went through a lot of both
degreasing the old jeep.
I put in new springs, of course a new master cylinder, new wheel cylinders, new shoes and I had
the drums turned. Also new shocks, got a steering wheel at a military vehicle show it is not from
an FC but it fit perfectly, got lucky again. Rewired the entire thing (had to learn a lot in the
process) and I now run a fuse block with multiple bus fuses instead of a few circuit breakers that
it originally had. It had a 12 volt generator but I swapped it out for a 12 volt single wire
alternator. I also swapped in an electric wiper motor.
I learned how to do basic welding, fixed body parts myself, I primed and painted it
myself and it shows. It is one of those cars that looks better the farther away you are!
It is actually pretty fun to drive, I drive a full size van so I am used to and like sitting up
high. Although being in front of the wheels takes some getting used to. It is slow, 45 mph is
a comfortable speed but I just got a fully rebuilt Warn overdrive and hope to figure out how
to install that this winter.
The trailer is actually a
"loan" from my cousin,
but I am working hard to
weasel him out of it.
Near as I can tell from
the serial number it is a
1947 vintage. The deal is
that I would get it on a
long term "Loan" and I
agreed to clean and
paint it. It was actually in
pretty good shape; a
barn find.
This shot was taken this summer after the all Ohio Vintage Truck
Jamboree
The yellow caution light is my "Don't hit me I am driving as fast
as I can!" light.
1950's kiddie carnival
ride I found and
dragged home - I
hope to put it on a
chassis and drive it
around when I show
my FC-150. I call the
carnival ride an
FC-37.5 as it is quarter
scale
Editor’s note:
Dan we certainly got lucky when you shared your story with all of us, job well done.