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

[DoubleDingo]

A friend of mine has a nice '72 that his dad got back in '74. It was a dealer parts runner. This emergency brake setup is what I'll have to do when I add the Dana 60 and SM420. That will happen much later, but I at least know how to get the E-brakes to work with that rear end. You can say the original front cab mounts were shot. The lowers were okay, just dried out. Look at that big jumping spider. I've seen them as big as the tip of my thumb. Those things are cool. It's amazing how much ground one of those suckers can cover in 5 minutes. I've seen them in one spot in the yard and then on the other side a short while later. Don't see many of them so I leave them be.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Continuing in chronologic order...

After seeing how the small harness was off the back of the instrument cluster, and how I had to unplug it from a bulkhead on the side of pedal assembly, instead of using my confusing instrument cluster/dash light setup from years ago, I dug out the books, ordered some original style connectors, and used that bulkhead connector from the original harness. Some photos of the seatbelts, sound deadening material and the rubber mat back in place. These side marker lights are now obsolete. I can find them but the hole required to use them is 1-1/8" if I recall correctly. So I'll use these until I can find a suitable replacement that uses about the same size hole and has similar mounting holes.

I noticed before in my update post that I wrote out "soundening" instead of sound deadening, and I saw that I also did it here in the photo filename. Being at work and in a rush to get this stuff posted...

 

[DoubleDingo]

I have a new glove box but I find this one very interesting and will reinstall it. I think it's the original glove box but someone got creative. Enjoy some old comics.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Got some new pedal pads from Steele Rubber, look, Made in the USA! NICE! This is what the metal of the turning signal/parking light housing looked like on the inside. Well, maybe not quite that bad but dang close. And then with the mirror finish spray paint applied. And the wiring bird's nest at the back of the bed. I did not inspect the and clean the rear marker lights like I did the front ones. I will do that at a later date since time is getting short for needing the truck.

 

[DoubleDingo]

The new harness installed, and a new horn. Last night I found a new horn in a box that I must have got years ago. Will see how this one works, and I have a backup horn just in case. The truck lifted . And the body lines. The rear of the cab was being supported by blocks of wood there, but it is only about 1/4 to 1/2 inch higher than the new mounts. No more saggy cab.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Rear wiring and under hood wiring corrected. Those red wires on the back are supplemental grounds for the lights. Since the bulbs ground to the housing, and the housing grounds to the body, I added ring connectors to each side and ran them to a grounding point one of the previous owner's added on the frame. I left them out of the loom because noone will see them, and since they're grounds, I know nothing will happen. They are zip-tied to the split loom though. The gauge wire is too big but that was all I had so I went with it. I think it's 14 gauge.

 

[DoubleDingo]

And the last post for now...The inside of the rear brake light housings were as dirty as the outside shown there. Cleaned up nicely with the mirror finish. Got it installed and realized I forgot the bezel......no pic of that, was time to clean up and eat dinner. It was late. Then got the instrument cluster installed, looking like an operational truck again. Took off yesterday and finished up the cab mounts and painted the frame to just behind the mounts.

No pics of this part but I also started the water pump replacement yesterday evening. Was making good progress and then BAM, more snags/hurdles. This morning I ordered more parts and since I came in early, I am leaving early so hopefully I can finish the water pump swap. After that I can ground the wiring, and test all the circuits on low voltage. Exciting stuff!!! Since I won't have time to get the truck in for the exhaust fix, I will be running the old system for a week or two.

 

[HotRodPC]

Big Improvement !!!

 

[DoubleDingo]

Thanks. I can't wait to drive it again.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Water pump was installed on Tuesday night. Another blessing in disguise, not only is this crank pulley very heavy, maybe 5-6 pounds, the bolts holding it on to the harmonic balancer and the harmonic balancer bolt itself were not tight. Then the harmonic balancer bolt was too long with this stamped crank pulley. Luckily I had a shorter one in the bolt bin. I think I'll gain 5 horsepower just by the lighter crank pulley being on there. I had found the old water pump from Mean Green and robbed stuff from it, including the fan/pulley bolts. Couldn't figure out why they were so long. So I got shorter ones since this long water pump mounted the fan in the same spot the short did with a spacer. Then while re-learning how the setup was supposed to be, if the fan and pulley mounted directly to the water pump, the fan will hit the alternator. So off to locate the spacer. Found it in a crate outside and it was corroded, but with some fine grit sandpaper it cleaned up well, and the fan clears by about 3/4 inch. Unfortunately the shroud to fan clearance isn't centered like it was. It's a tad close on the upper passenger side quadrant, but not as close as it was in the old photos on here where it was maybe 1/4 inch from hitting the shroud. I believe it is off center because the core support is rusted on the passenger side. As long as the core support doesn't give way everything will be good. Guess I better stay off washboard roads and avoid big potholes until I can get the core support fixed.

 

[foamypirate]

Very nice work, sir! Still one of my favorite trucks here.

 

[Qwk]

Those comics were a cool touch! Could you see the year they were printed?

 

[DoubleDingo]

@foamypirate Thanks. It gets lots of looks when I drive it around.

@Qwk I'll admit when I first opened the glove box and saw them I thought it was corny. I was intent on tossing it out. But the other night as I was consolodating the remaining items into boxes for easy grabbing while working on the truck, I studied that thing and thought what you did, a nice touch to a normally mundane item. I will look closer to see if I can locate date on any of them.

 

[Eighty5C10]

Awesome work and a damn nice truck!

 

[DoubleDingo]

@Eighty5C10 Thanks.

@Qwk The only date I could find on the comics was 1991. That tells me that either the original owner did it, or the second owner (the one I bought it from) did it with some old comics he had laying around. I forget how long the 2nd owner was eyeing it. He said he kept seeing it parked out front the guy's house. After a while he approached him about buying it. Then it got moved to the back. When he passed away, the son approached him and offered him the chance to buy it because he knew he wanted it. I bought it in 2015, the 2nd owner said he'd had it for 11 years, so anytime between 1991 and 2015 it was done.

Last night I tackled more wiring and under dash stuff. Someone had added an old school type flasher unit and push-switch so when the e-brake handle is pulled out, the switch is activated and a red light flashes indicating the e-brake is applied. It's not something that is really needed, but it was there so I kept it. When I was getting the speedometer cable hooked up on Monday, I somehow broke one of the leads to that flasher unit. At that point I didn't know what it was, just that the wire was broke. So I had the parts store bring me a two-pin flasher and I wired that in last night. I ran out of blue male connectors so I couldn't wire up the volt meter. When I redid the under dash bulkhead, I decided to change how the wiring was for the ammeter. I read that a higher amp one-wire alternator will fry those old ammeters, and also that it would be just fine, or that I can sent it in to be recalibrated/re-shunted for the one-wire alternator. To make things easier, I ran switched power to the power side of the ammeter plug through the bulkhead, and the ground coming out the other part of the bulkhead. Now to run the wires from the the ammeter plug to the voltmeter. The ammeter will just sit there in the dash, but not be operational. I didn't want to cut any of the instrument cluster wiring, which is why I opted to wire the volt meter this way. So I can gauge how my engine is doing and help with better mileage down the road I installed a vacuum gauge. I had one in my '56 Sedan in high school, and I recall if I kept it as close to 20 as possible, I got great mileage. Next to the vacuum gauge you'll see I also installed a dual-socket power source. Wanted a single-socket unit, but that only the dual. It's rated at 15A maximum, so I wired in a blade fuse holder and it is secured under the stereo. The power to the ports is ran from the horn relay since it recieves power from the battery, and then it's grounded at a common grounding point for the other grounds under the dash. Got the stereo back in. I searched for an old school tape deck but they are not available anymore. I could buy a used one from ebay but those are mostly in as-is condition which means they probably don't work. Saw a refurbished Kenwood and fell asleep before I could bid on it. Considered a Retro-Sound unit, but for a $200 radio? No thanks, the radio worked in this existing unit, so I got new speakers instead. Still need to install those. This afternoon will be finish up the wiring and get those low hanging wires tucked up out of sight, replace the lower radiator hose since I accidentally cut it too short. And if time allows, install the exhaust sytem. Then to find someone to help with the seat. Always seem to find flakes for that...yeah I can help, sorry I can't help...or they just don't show up.