Doubledingo's other 65 C20, Mean Green(Frame), and other parts from various trucks

[DoubleDingo]

Here's the pics.

Starting a new thread since this is going on a different truck.

The backing plates should be able to be straightened. If not, I'll order some new ones.

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Good stuff, even with the minimal damage to the backing plates.

 

[legopnuematic]

Nice get! I'd try to find a socket or a rod or something about equal to the gap in-between the rotor and backing plate and stick it and roll the rotor, maybe tap on the outside of the backing plate, kind of like a hammer and dolly to get it back into shape.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Nice get! I'd try to find a socket or a rod or something about equal to the gap in-between the rotor and backing plate and stick it and roll the rotor, maybe tap on the outside of the backing plate, kind of like a hammer and dolly to get it back into shape.

I don't have the means to stick it to the rotor, but I like your idea.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I think I shared this in the Crusty Biscuit thread, but before Mean Green got its name it was just a regular 1965 C20 with a 283 and sm420 with 4.57 gears. It didn't have a center hump, so it had to come with the 3 on the tree. Grandpa got it for me when I was maybe 14 or 15, I don't know, I eventually found out about it when I saw it parked on the north side of the station. Even then I didn't poke around looking at it. Maybe because I figured my brother would end up with it because he always got everything.

Grandpa passed away in 1987, and grandma gave me the choice of trucks, grandpa's 1971 F100, a really fine truck that I had driven many times making deliveries for grandpa's side business. Or the 1965 C20. Knowing the 65 was meant to be mine I chose the C20.

First drive was fun, a new experience. The truck was goosey, had plenty of snap because of the 4.57 gears and that 283 with the 4g carb, but I didn't know anything about these trucks, and didn't know about them until many years later. I mentioned it didn't have a center hump, there was a piece plywood with a hole cut in it to let it slip over the shift tower of the sm420. You could see the u-joint, yoke and driveshaft spinning. I never knew how dangerous it could be, but drove it with the engine turning 4k rpms on a regular basis.

Summer driving was hot as heck because of the big hole, but also the engine ran hot. Winter driving was miserable because of the big hole allowing freezing cold air inside the cab.

I searched for years to find a better geared rear end and stumbled upon one. Before I found the axle I swapped in the 1976 K10 350 from my 1956 210 Sedan. I didn't think about gas mileage getting worse with the 350, but it did.

A center hump was eventually located, albeit without the flange that goes between the hump and the firewall. So, no more spinning driveshaft next to your ankles, but still allowed hot air and cold air in depending on the seasons. I did my best to seal it up but only a flange would correct it, and the flange I found was the wrong one, but it was all I had.

Back to rear end, after searching off and on for years, I was at the 76 station down the street from our apartment when I saw a rear portion of a frame that had trailing arm suspension. I asked if I could count the revolutions and it was about 3.5 to one tire revolution, way better than the 4.5 of mine and all of the others I'd seen. In all of my rear end checks, not one had 4 turns, they all had 4.5. I didn't know until 20 years later that these trucks came with 4.57 stock, and 4.10 as an option, and 4.10 is a rare one to find.

I bought the axle for $50, but had to hack saw the u-bolts to get the axle free, as I didn't have the tools to break the nuts free, and the guy that owned the tools at the station was gone. Dull hacksaw blades and hours of cutting and I finally succeeded. After swapping in the rear end the truck was a blast to drive! Completely different animal. It was a few years after that rear end swap that the truck got named Mean Green. It was fast for 1965 3/4 ton truck!

I eventually swapped in power steering and a front sway bar, and that made it handle so good! Even more fun to drive!

I daily drove this truck for almost 20 years. It got rolled in 2005. Had big plans to redo it, but it eventually sat because it needs a body swap from a different truck. I'll stop there, the story continues with the purchase of the replacement truck and the issues that ultimately stalled the project.

 

[DoubleDingo]

The replacement of Mean Green...

This was 2005, back when Penny Saver was still being printed. I was tearing Mean Green apart to salvage any usable pieces, which was quite a bit more than I expected. During the tear apart process I almost bought a '69 C20, but I was a bad inquirer and didn't follow-up after I called.

About a week later I saw an ad in Penny Saver about a '65 C20. It was in a bad neighborhood, but I went and checked it out. I was still naive about buying used cars, so I checked what I knew to check, and the body was straight except for the passenger fender, engine compartment looked okay, so I bought it.

Paid 1500, but the PO failed to tell me that he owed back registration. That cost me 498! Back then registration for these '65s was 38 dollars, so that was 13 years of back registration! But it was mine, had a 283 in it, 3 speed and a floor shifter.

It wouldn't start, it didn't shift very good even just sitting, and I basically deemed it a trashed truck. Well, not the whole thing, just the drive train. But I had a perfectly good drive train sitting in the backyard, so I wasn't worried. Upon closer inspection I saw the frame had a booboo on the passenger side so I towed it to the frame shop and they did their magic, welded some reinforcing steel to the frame, and I brought it back home thinking all was well.

By this point I had learned about swapping in a complete 73-87 C20 cross member assembly, and the frame shop had a complete square body sitting there that somebody flaked on paying for the work done to it. They were willing to sell it to me for 400. I already had more truck parts than I had room for and didn't need this truck on my hands after I took the front suspension off of it, so I passed.

Since Mean Green was soon to get fixed up really nice for a daily driver, I already had some good upgrades for it, and front disc brakes was the next upgrade. I already bought the booster and master cylinder from REZ Engineering. I found a disc brake conversion kit on the classic performance products website for a C20, and drove down to their store in Placentia and grabbed it.

I didn't ditch Mean Green's frame, as it looked to be in too good condition to take to the crusher. Glad I kept it, too.

To make installing the front disc brakes easier, I chose to remove the front fenders and hood from the replacement truck, and as soon as I looked at the frame rails straight on, I saw how jacked up that frame was. Having Mean Green's frame right there, I did a comparison and sure enough, it was in better condition. So I started cleaning it, primering and painting it to do a body swap. Except I didn't have the means to do a body swap. Plenty of ideas, but no money, and then code enforcement started keeping a closer eye on my property.

By 2008 I had made some progress, but it was slow going. The night obummer got elected my engine hoist and floor jack got stolen. Not able to afford another engine hoist and floor jack at this point, the project came to a screeching halt.

Between 2005 and 2012 I went without a truck. In 2012 I bought the '81, and then I really didn't need the '65. Except I didn't realize how badly I missed the old '65. In 2015 I found my 3rd '65 C20, a running, driving truck, and then I really didn't need to build this frankenstein truck. But the intent was to always build the frankenstein truck.

Here we are, now 20 years down the road, my how time flies, and now i have a renewed passion for building the frankenstein truck. Crusty Biscuit will get done first, then anything that needs done to the '81 will get done. Then I can figure out a hoist system to lift and transfer cab and bed from one frame to the other. I can salvage anything salvageable from the junk frame and then haul it to scrap.

What a ride this is going to be, but the end product will be a good functioning work truck. No fancy trailer princess.

I need to dig in the old photo archives to find the rolls of film that were developed and came with a cd of the pics. Once I find that I can post up some old photos of Mean Green and the replacement truck.

 

[Catbox]

Cool history of your ownership.
It will be fun to see it unfold...