Minneapolis Street Sighting: Jeep J-10 4 Wheel Drive

In my quest to find odd and interesting vehicles, I sometimes let trucks into the mix too. My opinion on trucks is this; it takes quite a bit to get me to snap them. Usual Fords, Chevrolets, and Dodges don't get me excited unless they're either absolutely immaculate, or they're an interesting bodystyle. On the whole, I prefer Jeeps, Studebakers, Internationals, and other funky, long-dead brands.
Since the start of the brand, Jeeps have always had a certain "toughness" about them. Long-lasting durability, combined with unique styling should've been a hit among truck buyer-- but it wasn't. Jeep's four-wheel-drives outsold their pickup-trucks by huge numbers. So much in fact, that with the demise of the XJ-Cherokee-based Comanche, the Jeep truck business was dead.
In the 1970s, Jeep was still finding its niche, decided whether it wanted to do pickup-trucks or what we would call sport utlities. Choices were wide at your local AMC-Jeep dealer, and the J-Series pickups could be had in a wide variety of optionss and trim packages. This brown longbed is an example of J-10 with the optional "sports wheels" which ironically look fairly cheap. I quite like how this looks, even with that godawful camper shell.








It's not often that a pickup escapes the wear and tear of everyday life, but somehow this J-10 has escaped that fate. Finished in a glossy brown, this truck is the epitome of clean; not a scratch or dent hampers its clean pure-1970s lines, the chrome still glistens, and even the oft-rusty white wheels have escaped the "brown" treatment. Working truck, this is not. It's more superior that that; its a very well preserved piece of history that seems to go forgotten by the masses. This is probably the first clean J-Series I've seen--ever. And it could very well be the last one I see.