1965 3/4 Ton Blank Canvas

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DoubleDingo

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Truck Year
1981, 1965
Truck Model
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
[URL="https://www.gmsquarebody.com/posts/465957/"]1980 El Camino[/URL]

@Snoots Here you go. In 2005 I was driving to church for the Wednesday Bible Study. It was mom's birthday too, and all was well. I daily drove Mean Green at the time. Mean Green was my grandpa's truck when I was a young teen. He passed in '87 and grandma let me pick which truck I got, so I picked the '65 Chevy. My brother got the '71 Ford f100. Both fine trucks, but the Ford was in better shape for the most part. I eventually got the Ford about 7 years later.

Back to the story. About a mile from the church on the freeway I tried to miss an accident and became the accident. My rear wheels locked up, I slid and the left front tire blew, and I went tumbling down from the freeway onto the on ramp. Thankful for angels riding with me protecting me from some heavy items rolling around in the cab with me, and good old American iron not crumpling under the strain of the rolling truck, I landed on my top and was able to get out alive.

Fast forward a month and I found another '65 3/4 ton in the next town over and bought it for $1,500. It turned out to be around $2,000 after paying for the DMV fees that the PO left me with. Anyhow, it wouldn't start. I couldn't get it to run. I had purchased a front disc brake conversion, and decided to pull off the front clip to install the brakes. Well, that's where things went south. The frame as you can see, is bent up pretty badly. Even after the frame shop repaired it, I doubt it would ever receive an alignment or track straight. This truck had definitely been thrashed and the frame shows it in various places. They literally tugged on the frame in places you shouldn't to extract the truck from wherever it was stuck. But the body was straight, and the cab and bed are both solid. The bed needs new wood but what old wood bed doesn't after being out in the elements for 50+ years.

I looked at the frame from Mean Green and saw it is straight compared to the frame on the yellow truck. FRAME OFF - BODY SWAP! That was the decision and I stripped the cab of the yellow truck and cleaned and painted some of Mean Green's frame. Code Enforcement saw my project and balked at me doing it, so I cleaned up what I needed to, and then created a visual barrier to hide the bare frame and covered the yellow truck. In 2008 the foot traffic and homeless population increased dramatically in the area and I had some items walk off the night Obama got elected. I guess they were celebrating him coming in to office by stealing my stuff.

The project came to a halt. Here's some pics.


Mean Green Crunched....Sad.... I intend to use this dash for Crusty Biscuit though.

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What was left of Mean Green's Cab after code enforcement threatened to haul off all of my stuff. The yellow 65 is under the truck cover. I wish I had kept every piece of that cab, but lesson learned.
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At one point I was going to just get it running to be able drive it, so I installed the disc brake conversion kit and painted the frame. If you look closely the radiator supports are bent, the passenger side core support is bent, it's also split but it could straightened and welded. The cross member under the core support has been tugged, deformed and split. The suspension cross member is all jacked up from a collision of some sort. On the passenger side you can see that it doesn't sit flush against the outside of the frame. The frame under and behind the cab is also in less than desirable condition. I'd replaced the bolts to the cross member but I just never felt 100% comfortable moving forward.
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Inside of the cab...
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Mean Green's frame and body parts before code enforcement got called in.
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So that's my blank canvas of a 1965 3/4 ton Chevy. I have ideas for it, and parts too. Just need a shop or a tall fence with concertina wire...lol...
 

DoubleDingo

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1981, 1965
Truck Model
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
@Old77 @bucket @HotRodPC any moderator for that matter. Can I have you change the title to show 1965 instead of 1956 for the year of the truck? I inadvertently transposed the 5 and 6 when I created the thread. Thanks.
 

Snoots

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1973
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Code enforcement can be a real PITA. Good luck with it all and I'm glad you came out of the accident relatively unscathed. Darn shame about the truck tho. Sounds like you need a wall around your project, or a hungry dog.
 

Old77

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@Old77 @bucket @HotRodPC any moderator for that matter. Can I have you change the title to show 1965 instead of 1956 for the year of the truck? I inadvertently transposed the 5 and 6 when I created the thread. Thanks.
done. Don't let it happen again, bub :crazy:
 

DoubleDingo

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1981, 1965
Truck Model
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

DoubleDingo

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Truck Year
1981, 1965
Truck Model
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
Code enforcement can be a real PITA. Good luck with it all and I'm glad you came out of the accident relatively unscathed. Darn shame about the truck tho. Sounds like you need a wall around your project, or a hungry dog.

They have left me alone since then, but with a bunch of turn over in the department who knows if I'll get hit again. Hopefully not. When I grow up I plan on getting a garage or shop to park my project in. :D
 

Snoots

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done. Don't let it happen again, bub :crazy:

Don't pay any attention to Old77. He's a disgruntled card shark on one of the Missouri River riverboats.
 

Crispy

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Tell those fuckers that thr truck identifies as a ficus and to respect your plant decor choices.
 

Old77

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Don't pay any attention to Old77. He's a disgruntled card shark on one of the Missouri River riverboats.
Was is the pine tree “cologne” that gave it away or ??? :think:
 

Snoots

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They have left me alone since then, but with a bunch of turn over in the department who knows if I'll get hit again. Hopefully not. When I grow up I plan on getting a garage or shop to park my project in. :D

2 bedroom, 3 bath house w/7 car garage w/20 foot ceilings should do nicely.
 

HotRodPC

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I see Cob has it fixed already. But now I'm subscribed. I wanna see how this turns out.
 

DoubleDingo

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Bagoomba
Truck Year
1981, 1965
Truck Model
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
2 bedroom, 3 bath house w/7 car garage w/20 foot ceilings should do nicely.

I like it! Oddly enough I got a solicitation through the mail on Saturday from someone offering to buy my house As-Is, cash. I'm skeptical about being approached like that. Maybe I should give them a firm move-out price so I can pay-off my existing mortgage and have a decent down payment to get into a place with a garage.
 

DoubleDingo

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Location
Right where I am
First Name
Bagoomba
Truck Year
1981, 1965
Truck Model
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
I see Cob has it fixed already. But now I'm subscribed. I wanna see how this turns out.

It will be a long time before this comes to fruition. My wife likes the idea though so that's a plus. :)
 

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