DoubleDingo
Full Access Member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2012
- Posts
- 11,223
- Reaction score
- 17,063
- Location
- Right where I am
- First Name
- Bagoomba
- Truck Year
- 1981
- Truck Model
- 81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s
- Engine Size
- Carb'ed Vortec 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.
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.
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.
Inside of the cab...
Mean Green's frame and body parts before code enforcement got called in.
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...
@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.
You must be registered for see images attach
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.
You must be registered for see images attach
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.
You must be registered for see images attach
Inside of the cab...
You must be registered for see images attach
Mean Green's frame and body parts before code enforcement got called in.
You must be registered for see images attach
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...
