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

[DoubleDingo]

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and words of encouragement. I have to admit it has been mixed emotions on whether it will be rebuilt or discarded along with the three-trucks-worth of parts. Yesterday I was able to get the hood open, it appears to only be body damage. You can see where the corner of the bumper pushed in the grille, and the rest of the corner of the truck pushed in the hood. Inside the engine compartment it's not all bad. The driver's side is pristine. The frame needs to be checked, and that will decide its fate. Basically from the front of the cab to the back of the bed, it is all fine. Except where their trailer fender got the front of the bed between the wheel well and door.

A-hole-e-o's truck

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Damage from the trailer's fender

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Battery Wedged

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Battery Out, had to use a recovery rope to tug out the core support a little to wiggle out the battery

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Straight Bumper and frame seems to be fine, too

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I need to pull off body parts to get down to where the frame shop can examine it.

 

[78C10BigTen]

I hate to like the post due to the wreckage but i want to like it as it appears to be fixable body damage. The bumper still looks immaculate so fingers crossed the frame is unharmed and crusty will live to cruise another day!

 

[78C10BigTen]

Also did he cut you off or try to left turn into you??

 

[DoubleDingo]

The way it happened, we were returning from a weeklong camping trip. Truck was running great, had to replace the clutch before we could go, which turned into a three-day battle. But, we made it out just a late start. Throwout bearing took a dump in the first five hours of driving but survived for us to drive around while camping, just made a ton of noise. On Friday, it was smooth sailing, no complaints except for the idiot drivers on the road. Knowing the freeway necked down to one lane, and not wanting to deal with stop-and-go and the mess that creates with idiot drivers, I opted to go the backroads home to miss the traffic and have a casual drive for the last half-hour. The road has some twisties, and rides a little lower in a valley, and at the west end of the valley the road climbs up a gradual grade before a right hand curve and then it levels off and straightens out. About a mile from the end of that curve is a turn off to the dump, it heavily traveled. I have driven there many times, driven by it many times, but this time, as we approached, I saw a truck and trailer approach the stop, and then as we got closer, they pulled onto the road. There was another truck and trailer heading to the dump, so if we went left it was a head-on collision, if we went right it was hitting the trailer, and going straight, well, you see what happened. Really there was no time to maneuver right of left, as it was about 130 feet between us, with us doing highway speeds with the right of way, and them pulling out in front of us. So it was basically slam the brakes and brace for impact, which is what we did. Since our roadside assistance was of zero assistance, we had to tow it home ourselves. 5 hours after the accident we finally made it home, but if we hadn't towed it ourselves, the truck and all its belongings would have most likely disappeared during the night.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Also did he cut you off or try to left turn into you??

Pulled out in front, no where to go, no time to react with anything but braking. Even if we could react, there was no good place to go, left being the worst of them all.

 

[Shorty81]

I REALLY hope she lives again.

 

[Camar068]

Pulled out in front, no where to go, no time to react with anything but braking. Even if we could react, there was no good place to go, left being the worst of them all.

hopefully you can use documentation/pics here for a reasonable claim.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I REALLY hope she lives again.

The more I look at it, the more I think it's going to roll again. The only thing in the way is a bad frame prognosis, as I don't possess the fabrication skills to build something suitable. As it sits, I have fenders, a core support, grille surround, inner fenders, hood, radiator (4 core), and other odds and ends to rebuild. One thing for sure, it will be a resto-mod if it's able to happen. I have a lot of goodies I've been sitting on while I enjoyed the stock three-on-the-tree setup with manual steering. As soon as insurance gives the go ahead to take it in for frame inspection, I'm all over it. I have a shop I have used in the past, and trust their work, so they'll get my business again.

 

[DoubleDingo]

hopefully you can use documentation/pics here for a reasonable claim.

Me too, I printed out 53 photos, 45 of them are of Crusty. We'll soon see how this plays out

 

[idahovette]

@DoubleDingo , I sure hope everything pans out for you, I really like that truck. Good luck with the insurance co. Did you at least get to call the "wrecker" a dumb sob ???!!!

 

[DoubleDingo]

Got the go ahead from insurance to take it to a shop. I need to visit said shop to see if they want the drivetrain in or out for them to check the frame. My preference is, out, as it needs to come out anyhow. They will probably want it out, so any repairs will be easier to access.

In other news, I found a factory door, and a source for other factory items for the old beast. Picked it up yesterday and it is now residing in the backyard. It has a coat of bondo on it, I could tell when I ran my hand across it, but it is what it is. I would rather have factory parts than remakes. He did sell it as a shell, but I have parts for the innards. He did leave the hinges on when I asked for him to do so. Figured it would be easier to line things up if those weren't removed from the door.

The seller drove up in a '80s series square. I am not well-versed on these trucks, but it has the four square headlights like my 81 does, is a C20 with cab lights, no bumper blinkers, and has a 454. I forgot to tell him about this website, and when I was about to leave after getting gas, I saw him parked on the opposite side of the pump I was on. So I then mentioned the pex door trick and the website. Hopefully he'll join up, but it sounds like he is already a member over on 67-72.

 

[82sbshortbed]

Man just saw this. That sucks! Glad everyone is OK. Hope crusty can be put back together again.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Man just saw this. That sucks! Glad everyone is OK. Hope crusty can be put back together again.

It does suck, yet this has been a humbling experience. Thus far it appears that Crusty will roll again as it is mainly body damage. I know the frame needs attention because when I took it to that frame shop to get an alignment, remember the Big Brand Tire fire hydrant fiasco back in August 2019, yeah that same day I took it for an alignment at the shop I plan to use, and they said the frame needs to be adjusted to be able to adjust the camber. As it is there is zero adjustability of the camber. They will definitely correct that. I am sure that was a result of the previous owner's son jumping the truck. And, since it will be a nearly complete makeover to the truck, it will end up being renamed to Mean Green when the truck gets repainted.

 

[DoubleDingo]

@DoubleDingo , I sure hope everything pans out for you, I really like that truck. Good luck with the insurance co. Did you at least get to call the "wrecker" a dumb sob ???!!!

@idahovette Perry, I just saw your post. The insurance-side of things went fairly smoothly once we provided the details. It took about a week longer for a resolution. I wasn't expecting that. There was no mention of "total" or "salvage" so that is a good thing. Funny you mention the "wrecker". Since we had to tow-strap-tow the truck home, we got stopped by a couple red lights. While sitting there waiting for the green at one of the intersections, a tow truck pulled up in the left turn lane and was right next to me with the passenger window down. So I said to the driver, "Where the hell were you about 5 hours ago!?" He gave me weird look and took off when the left turn arrow turned green for them to go.

We still can't figure out why they couldn't get a tow company dispatched. It's not like we were out in the middle of the Mojave Desert with no coordinates and no street names, only rock formations and sage brush to describe our location. We were literally AT an actual intersection and they knew where it was, and is only 15 miles from home. We did let them know how displeased we are with their roadside un-assistance. Ironically my wife was out the next day with her friend and her friend's truck's battery took a dump. She has the same insurance company, AAA, and the guy was there within a half an hour to replace the battery. Of course that is a different type of roadside assistance, and they were near the middle of town, it still doesn't sit well with us. If we had waited for a tow it probably would have midnight or later. If we would have left Crusty there overnight it would have been looted of all our camping gear, or the entire truck would have been stolen.

When it was becoming apparent there wasn't going to be a tow truck arriving any time soon, I called my brother and asked him if he could come out to take my wife and the dogs home so she could get a tow strap, grab the jeep, and leave the dogs home. While I was waiting for them to come back so we could tow it home, I saw A-HOLE-E-O drive up to the intersection, turn around and when he and his passengers saw me standing at the back of the truck they hightailed it out of there. What the heck were they coming back for? To loot my truck, take pictures of the scene, etc? When I noticed it was him driving that little car I was pissed and he didn't even look my way, he just hit the hammer and got out of there.

 

[idahovette]

I like this only for the 1st couple of sentences....the rest is BS!! Glad things are looking up??