Jim Alexander of Liberty, Indiana, bought this 1972 Autocar S64F from its original owner in 1979. The truck was being used to haul produce at the time, and Jim spotted it in a watermelon field down in Florida. Until five years ago, he ran the Autocar full time, mostly hauling produce from Florida to the Midwest. Jim said, “It’s been remodeled several times, but not really restored.” The truck is powered by a Big Cam Cummins 400 with a 13-speed Roadranger transmission and has SQHD Rockwell rears. It came equipped with factory air conditioning and air-ride suspension. The original powertrain was a Small Cam Cummins with a 4X4 transmission. The S64F models were only made from 1969 to 1974, and the tilt-hood design was a little ahead of its time (not many of those were built until the 1980s). Jim has repainted the Autocar several times and stretched the frame from 210 inches to 260 inches so he could replace the original “coffin” sleeper with a larger 60-inch version. He also installed power steering, but the interior is still original and sports the Autocar logo on the doors. After 52 years of truck driving, Jim retired five years ago. When he bought this truck it had 560,000 miles on it, but now it has about 4,000,000. Jim figures the Autocar has earned its retirement, too, so now, like Jim, it just goes to truck shows.
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John & Shirley Sponholtz
John & Shirley Sponholtz have been involved with old trucks for over 20 years. Shirley was editor at Wheels of Time for 12 years before going out on her own and starting Old Time Trucks magazine in 2004. John is an avid photographer who enjoys taking pictures of odd and/or rare trucks (he provides most of the pictures for this article and their magazine). John & Shirley, who are from Richmond, Indiana, have been regular contributors to 10-4 Magazine since 2006.
