New 1969 J3000 Owner

[cosworth]

Ive had my eye on this gladiator for several years now problem was it was located in Kansas. I got word that the owner was selling off his trove to a scrap dealer for less than scrap prices. Drug this truck from Kansas to Houston Texas. The truck is a 1969 J3000 "camper special" (so im told) It has tie-down plates in all four corners on the outside of the bed

I do not have the tailgate the property owner had taken it to put on a FC-150 which I will be picking up this summer. Needs a fuel tank lenses and the engine swapped out before it will be driveable. It actually drives now but the engine bypasses so much oil you can literally catch it in a can out the exhaust. And the brakes dont work...

My plans are to leave the paint etc as is but polish it up a bit "patina" Its a original 350 truck but the original engine blew up so the P.O. put a Oldsmobile 350 in the truck. I have a 4.8 vortec Im going to put in the truck and convert it over to fuel injection.

[mud89]

Welcome and good luck for your project !
Could be a camper special or "camper truck",since it was introduced around march 1969.
Almost all the heavy duty options were standard for the Camper.

Do you have the VIN ? The VIN should begin by "3407Z" if it's a camper special
If the rig is later than july 69, you also should have a sticker with the production date

[cosworth]

Much appreciated, I do have the VIN and will check it out later. Not sure that it really matters. The truck has led a pretty rough life on the farm. Im just going to make it a good driver and have some fun with it.

When working underneath the truck I noticed it has what looks like 1/4" steel plates frame width from front to back on top and bottom welded to the frame as reinforcement. Is this typical for the trucks?

[mud89]

Jeep docs say that the frame top and bottom flange are reinforced compared to lower GVW j-trucks. I don't know more about the frame, a few forum members have a camper and could give you more infos
Rk :I am trying to estimate the production figures of the camper and some other rare FSJs, that's why i asked if you have the VIN

[KaiserMan]

The reinforcing straps are factory. Jeep started using them only on the J3800 Camper Trucks when they started production. I think they used them on all 132" wheel base trucks once the J4000 came out.

Super clean looking J3800, nice score!

[mud89]

I remember now your Camper/J3800, Kaiserman
I didn't find a mention of the straps for the J4000s but it could be an omission.

[cosworth]

8 lug Brake parts????

One of my first chores on the truck is to get the brakes working again. The truck is 8 lug and im having a lot of trouble finding parts. Are they just not available? And if not can anyone help with known options?

Ive worked on several cars that were hard to find parts for but this ones been fairly interesting so far...

[cosworth]

Made some progress. Got the new engine lined up, converted the new poly fuel tank to EFI and started buffing out the paint. The engine is a 2008 4.8L and I'm going to mate it to the OE th400

[44BZ]

What axles are under it? Shouldn't a 69 still be 5 lug?

Nice progress regardless

[cosworth]

to the best of my knowledge the axles are original to the truck. It is a J3000 "Camper special" as the vin matches the description above so maybe that has something to do with the 8 lug axles.

[airman]

I looked in my 67-71 service manual
The axle on a Camper special 3407Z is a model 60 full floating with 8 lugs.
4.10 gears
The parts book has all of the brake part #s.

Andrew
with a 69 J3500 350. t15, d20 44 both ends

[mud89]

Wondering how you fasten these poly tank under the bed, it seems that there is some differences in form and dimensions with the original tank. Do you use the original straps ?

[KaiserMan]

Wondering how you fasten these poly tank under the bed, it seems that there is some differences in form and dimensions with the original tank. Do you use the original straps ?

They fit with the original straps, but I've had to shim all of mine with about 1/2" thick rubber between the tank and strap to make them fit snugly.

[cosworth]

Making progress!
Removed the Oldsmobile 350, removed the previous owners retrofitted mustang radiator (hence the 2x4 wood adapters) and cut out the adapted stock engine mount frame horns. These actually almost perfectly match the LSX stock position.

[Heavy_Metal_Thunder_81]

Am I missing something? I thought the Buick/Olds/Pontiac (BOP) and Cadillac TH400's used a different bolt pattern than the Chevy Gen III engines? Are you using an adapter?