I am certainly a fan of old campers and this is a fine one! Yes, it would be right at home on the salt.
Bad *** truck, all business for sure! The fact that McQueen owned it is just icing. Kinda reminds me of my cousins '57 napco I posted in the Napco thread. Him and his boys go hunting and camping a lot in the mountains in New Mexico, I love that truck I wouldn't change a thing except maybe the color.
I know, I just saw the auction is 5 miles from my house... but $20 to get in! Was gonna go check it out, but never mind. lol
It looks a little like a chopped and sectioned Airstream, I know it's not but that's what it reminds me of. I remember when Steve McQueen came up from L.A. to a vintage motorcycle show at my hometown community college. This was back in '71 or '72. There where a few sleds, chopped 50 mercs and a lot of one lunger ag engines on display but mostly vintage bikes and lots of them. He didn't want to be treated like a celebrity or want to be pestered with signing autographs. He was there to look at bikes and talk bikes. Which he did all day before retiring to the local bar. Wish I had his old Crocker.
OT, but now we're talking. http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.co...erican-super-bike-that-clipped-harleys-wings/
He probably had it built to haul his motorcycles around. He did a lot of dirt track racing. Much of which was hare and hounds racing in the desert.
Gotta love a cool old truck with history. The only thing cooler would be an old truck like that which somebody still used for camping and hauling. You wouldn't even have to be famous to impress me.
holy **** Ryan... been sitting here thinking second coolest guy ever... then you hit me with Mel. Yep, everyone else is fighting for second. That truck definatly has some motorsport history.
If Steve McQueen was so cool...how come he wasn't driving the piss yellow 32 coupe in ...oh..ahhhh ...whats that movie called again??
oh yeah...I forgot about Bullit.Very cool. I remember buying a 70's pommie street machine mag that had a small floppy vinyl record type thing that went on a turntable and played the sound of the Mustang . As a boy I thought that was waaay cool.
Cool truck. Pretty neat to read that the camper was built by a Northern California guy from good ol' Yreka!
I would say it was used to pull a few dirtbikes in its day. Maybe some overnight trips to the desert. I just want to sleep in it one time.
Cool truck, great history. The hardware looks to me to be semi-trailer stuff, esp. the steps, siding and vents. And that would make sense for a bucks-up camper shell build. McQueen as #2?? Sure, as Ryan could be #1 just for this site (shameless bribery). Cosmo
X2 I read the auction site blurb, too. My folks knew the guy who built the camper. I grew up in Yreka, many years ago.
A 3800-series Chevy truck, 8-lug wheels, and floating rear axle indicates a 3/4-ton pickup, NOT a 1/2-ton.
I'm really glad Ryan posted this, but I would love to see more pictures of the camper in particular....I want to build one very similar to that for my '41 Dodge ( after one more Model A build). I hope with it going to auction that more pictures will surface and they will be added to this thread. That one is the best inspiration I've found so far.
Steve McQueen has always been one of my favorites. Whether it be road racing sports cars, pounding off road on a bike or in the movies he was indeed one of the cool ones. That truck is him, that is if you stop to think what a guy like that might use the truck for. I can see it loaded with a bike or two beating it out to some remote place for a wekend of fun. Or towing a race car to a track someplace to have an equal amount of fun. Or maybe just heading out into the desert to spend time out of the lime light. Yep, I would love to own that truck, not because I like it all that much (except for the shell on the back) but because it belonged to the cool one --- Steve McQueen.
I think one of his trucks was offered up by a motorcycle auction company at Pebble Beach last year. This truck looks to be restored? Somewhere I hve the Las Vegas estate sale catalog.
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