Double Dingo's 1965 3/4 Ton "Crusty Biscuit"

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crazy4offroad

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"Wild Thing" by The Troggs was released in '65. Wild Thing sounds pretty cool but not sure if it fits that truck. Winston Churchill died in '65, "Winston" may be a more fitting name, depending how you go with the build I guess.
 

DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
Thanks for the motivation to name this thing. We never did go anywhere over the holiday weekend, mom wasn't feeling well and didn't want company, so we stayed around the house and I didn't get any photos, and then we got a light rain and the cleaning of the truck I did the day before got muddied up. So much crap in the air that light rains make everything so dirty. And we breathe that crap!!!

I did come up with a name for it. But first a little back story.... like I said previously, Mean Green, the 3/4 ton '65 truck I got from grandma after grandpa passed away in '87 was my first truck and I daily drove it from '87 to '05 when I rolled it trying to avoid an accident. It had a 283 in it with the sm420 and 4.57 gears. 4,000 rpms were normal to keep up with traffic on the highway. It didn't have a center hump, just a piece of plywood with no sides, so you could see the u-joint and transmission. It was brutally hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. I finally found a center hump, but the heater wasn't great so it still froze you in the cold months. In '91 I swapped in the 350 from my '56 210 Sedan and hunted down a better geared rear end and the 3.54 gears really allowed the truck to fly down the road, I mean 80 mph was its happy speed. In '98 I installed a stock Goodwrench engine in it, because I wanted to drive the '56 again, but had to sell the car to take my ex to court. Man I miss that car, and the engine for that car was a really good one!

When I rolled Mean Green in 2005 I had already begun fixing it up and had bought some upgrades, like disc brakes, new wiring, sound deadening, etc. After rolling it I acquired another '65 3/4 ton fleetside, but its frame was in really bad shape and required a body swap to Mean Green's frame and I don't have the facilities to do so especially with code enforcement watching. But I bought lots of parts, such as vortec heads, new cam, and some items that won't be seen such as heater control stuff and the like to make it more quiet and comfortable with the intention of doing the body swap in spite of code enforcement. Fast forward a few years to 2008, the economy tanked and there was more homeless foot traffic in the neighborhood, and I decided not to do the body swap in my front yard for two reasons, the code enforcement thing and the chance of parts walking off while I was doing the work. Moreso the parts walking off. So in 2015 I researched, found, and bought this current truck, another '65 3/4 ton that was running and pretty decent shape except for some body cancer. I added some of the upgrades that were already purchased.

Mean Green got it's name because it was a badass truck and not many vehicles out ran it at the time. I was always setting land speed records in that thing. One was 8 minutes from my house to the work parking lot in 17 miles. Luckily there weren't any highway patrols or sheriffs out that morning.

This truck needed a name, and "The '65" just wasn't cutting it. I asked for your guys' help and you guys' said you needed photos. @bucket @Honky Kong jr @crazy4offroad I liked "Wild Thing", but this truck won't be too wild. Winston didn't ring a bell. But thank you very much for the ideas. I built off the direction you were going and came up with "Crusty Biscuit". Since this truck will get the upgrades alotted for Mean Green, I used that theme for this truck. Synonym for Mean didn't yield anything good, but Ornery is similar to mean and Crusty was the best choice from the list. This truck is beige/tan in color so the list of synonyms for beige had Biscuit. So Crusty Biscuit it is.

Can I please have the title of this thread renamed to Double Dingo's 3/4 Ton "Crusty Biscuit"?
 

DoubleDingo

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1981, 1965
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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
There are some upgrades planned during this winter season, so stay tuned. :popcorn:
 

DoubleDingo

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Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
That was quick. Thanks to whichever moderator "clipboard" changed the title.
 

bucket

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That was quick. Thanks to whichever moderator "clipboard" changed the title.

Eh, just the right place at the right time. I like the new name too.
 

DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
A photo from a camping trip in June 2016 with the camper shell on, and one without the shell at a car show in August 2016
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The Power Wagon I was parked next to won the event. It was a beauty! Completely restored with period correct options offered at the time the truck was manufactured.
 

Honky Kong jr

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A photo from a camping trip in June 2016 with the camper shell on, and one without the shell at a car show in August 2016
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The Power Wagon I was parked next to won the event. It was a beauty! Completely restored with period correct options offered at the time the truck was manufactured.
So that consisted of a shovel and an ax? They need to bring the ax back as optional equitment........
 

DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
So that consisted of a shovel and an ax? They need to bring the ax back as optional equitment........

It had a PTO for a winch on the front and some farming attachments off the back. And of course the shovel and ax...lol... :anitoof: He said he painted it in his front driveway in a make-shift paint booth made of tarps and 2x4 framing.
 

DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
Over the weekend I changed the heater blower motor. The original motor had become semi-froze and the couldn't rotate under power and wouldn't blow any air. Now air blows in freely.

Also changed the thermostat to a 180 so some heat will build in the cab.

Had some items that needed to go to storage that I loaded up a few weeks ago, and when I did I smelled mildew, so I assumed it was the carpet on the bed floor under the platform. While at the storage unit, I noticed the carpet on the platform was damp. Stopped by Lowe's for some mold-killing supplies. Removed the platform carpet pieces to discover the plywood was saturated. The carpet wasn't too bad, somehow. Deconstructed the platform and the wood is going to the dump or may get cut-up for firewood. Undecided as of yet about that. Pulled the bed floor carpet and commenced to killing mold on all carpet pieces. They were salageable and are laying out to dry and will get a few more bleach applications before getting vacuumed with the shop vac and put in storage.

Wondering why things got so wet inside there I investigated the problem. The bed being wider than the type of truck the camper was designed for (an 80's series truck), the stake pockets are exposed and let water in, and the window seals/felt are shot. The platform I built for the dogs to ride on has plywood that extends under the lip of the inside of the camper shell. Water infiltrated the compromised window seals, then traveled along the top edge inside the camper and dropped onto carpet-topped plywood of the platform, then wicked its way in. Since the truck has a rake to it, the majority of the mold/mildew was at the front of the bed and platfrom.

The previous owner replaced the bed wood 2-3 years before I bought the truck but failed to seal the underside of the wood, so a few boards have cupped upwards. I need to replace the bed wood now for multiple reasons.
 

HotRodPC

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Amazing how **** don't last when people take shortcuts and don't do it right the first time huh???
 

DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
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Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
No doubt. Looking at the end grain they got good boards, they just missed a vital step in the process. Somewhere in my paperwork pile I have a printout of the dimensions to make the boards from planks instead of buying a kit. The strips are in good shape. When I replace it, I have a side tank that mounts on the driver's side. I have the cross supports with the threaded rods welded on. Sourced those from Mean Green.
 

DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
Took Crusty Biscuit for a drive on the 14th and 15th to stretch its legs. Logged roughly 400 miles and it did very well. Here some photos of the trip. I tried to get a squirrel in there but I think the hawks and coyotes ate them...lol... Got some utility poles though! And of course Pepper, my photobombing dog had to get in there.
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Replacing the thermostat was a good thing too, because it was in the 20'-40's so having heat was great.
 

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