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I am William N. Osborne, Jr. (aka "Dub") and I live in Kingsport, Tennessee. The attached pictures are of a 79 J-10 Long Wheelbase 360 V-8 with automatic transmission and quadratrac with low range. It has 159,000 miles on it. I acquired the truck a year ago in very bad shape. I have spent the last year getting it road worthy and presentable to the public. My objective was to have a reliable truck, which looked good, at an economical price. The only new parts on the truck are belts, fuel hoses, radiator hoses, etc, fuel pump, and starter, all easily acquired from Advance Auto or Autozone. Everything else was fabricated or retrieved from donors. The color is the original Morrocco Buff and Bronze Metallic. Tires and wheels came with the truck and the wheels were merely painted and the tires are 10.50 x 31 x 15 retreads. The interior was reconditioned with bucket seats and a jump seat/armrest from a 80 something Wagoneer. Door panels were made from plywood and vinyl with the old panels as templates. The grill is from a wagoneer and the roll bar, brush guard, and front bumper are from a junked Golden Eagle. Note: Front Bumpers from Wagoneers will not fit the J-10 truck. They are about 2 inches too short. Presently, the truck is a local runabout with two teenage boys driving it to school. It's a backup vehicle for the family.
The reason I am interested in the J-10's is I bought a new J-10 in 1975 to use on a farm in Virginia and drive on the job as a parole officer. I lived in an isolated rural area that required four wheel drive to get in and out as well as traverse mountainous roads in the winter for work. It was unbelievable what I could do with the truck...I later traded it for a 73 J-4000 and then that for a 2 wheel drive Ford half ton. That's when I realized all half tons are not created equally. I was pulling a loaded 2 horse trailer when the trailer started jackknifing from one side of the road to the other going on 2 wheels to the left and then 2 wheels to the right. I had never had that problem with the half ton jeeps. Later, I sold my farm, horses, trucks, etc. and started raising children instead.
My brother bought this truck in 1999 to get the tailgate, as he has a 78 J-10 in need of one. The truck had been used to haul firewood and as a hunting vehicle. The owner did not fix things as they broke and it had lots of breakages. The truck ran so good that I fell in love with it and decided that I wanted to recondition it. So for $500 and the promise of a replacement tailgate, I took possession of the truck. I have less than $2000 in the truck without counting my labor which was considerable. I found my brother a tailgate on the same truck I got the bumper, brush guard, and roll bar from and we are all squared away. He plans a full restoration of his truck in a couple of years.