Man Spent Years Looking for This Rare Jeep, Finds It in a Junkyard

It's been two months since then, and Silas from YouTube's "Adventures Made From Scratch" visited the same yard to buy a few vehicles, including a rare rig he had been looking for many years.

The property hosted a big auction that saw nearly every inch of old American metal go under the hammer. He took three vehicles home, including a 1950 Buick and a 1950 Chevrolet. Both sedans are nice conversation starters (despite their poor condition), but it's the third rig that determined Silas to attend the auction. It's a rather unusual (and mostly forgotten) Jeep.

The vehicle appears at the 52-minute mark. It looks unlike any Jeep from the 1960s, but it's a fully-fledged Kaiser-Jeep creation. This boxy contraption goes by the name Fleetvan, but it's also known as the FJ series. It's a tiny van developed specifically for fleet operators, and it's mostly known for its long career as a US Postal Service hauler.

The Fleetvan was based on the more iconic Dispatcher (DJ), which was also used by the USPS. But unlike the latter, the FJ was created for rural mail delivery. It was very similar to the short-lived Studebaker Zip Van produced in 1963.

The Fleetvan debuted in 1961 and remained in production all the way until 1975. Jeep introduced numerous updates, but all iterations were powered by the iconic 134-cubic-inch (2.2-liter) four-cylinder Hurricane engine. Transmission choices included both manual and automatic gearboxes.

It's far from desirable compared to other Jeeps from the era, but Silas had a good reason for spending years looking for one. His dad has one in the yard and wants to get it back on the road. But he needs plenty of parts for it, and apparently, these Fleetvans are hard to find.

Luckily, these Jeeps are also affordable. Silas took this one home for $475, which is, according to him, far below the value of an FJ in this condition. The van is missing the drivetrain, but it's still in one piece, which is a rare feat.

These haulers are so scarce that you can barely find restored examples for sale. 2023 was the last time I saw an early FJ-3 cross the block at a high-profile auction event. The restored but highly original van changed hands for only $13,000. That same year, a modified FJ-6 fetched $19,750 on Bring a Trailer.

Although these vehicles are less desirable than Malaise-era Ford Pintos, I'm glad someone is still rescuing and restoring a Fleetvan. You can see a full walkaround of the vehicle in the final minutes of the video below.