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.
