New guy with TWO 65's!

[t_shirtsnjeans]

Just found this AWESOME forum and am so glad I did! I am Ron and I have had a passion with the Chevy Pickup since I was a baby and my daddy had his 55 Apache with the big ol' V-6 that he used for his plumbing business back in the early 60's and he eventually moved up to the 65 Chevy with the honkin' 283, granny 4, and huge toolboxes on the back. As his business grew so did his collection of work trucks but he kept driving the 65 until he blew the engine. At that time he was into circle track racing and had a 327 bored .030 over w/solids and dual carters up top. Without much thought he pulled the old tired 283 out of his truck and slapped the fresh 327 into the truck WITH THE DUAL CARBS STILL ON IT!!! His uncle was driving the truck to the supply house to pick up a cast iron bathtub for a job we were doing when dad got a call from a friend who ran a corner filling station, 'Paul, I saw Tater (nick name, long story) at the stop light, WHAT THE HELL YOU GOT IN THAT TRUCK?', and dad told him a new 327, 'Why?' he asked. His friend said, 'When that light turned green I saw that right front wheel come off the ground and that truck was GONE!!!'
That night the dual quads came off and the old 4bbl carb and intake was put back on.
From that point on I asked my dad if I could have that truck when I started driving. He traded it for a horse after the engine finally wore out. I was sad and disappointed at the same time. But I did get to have his '69 long stepside truck after he couldn't push in the clutch due to back problems! I was on cloud NINE!!!!
From that point on I had bought my first truck, a 56 Chevy shortwide with an older Ford bed (yeah, I know, but it was $150 w/blown 6 and FAT meats on the back!) and that was my first project truck but not my last.
At the time I had traded for a 66 Olds 88 w/400 and turbo 400tranny that was shot, but the motor was strong, so I pulled the engine, tranny, AND crossmember from the Olds. No, not the tranny crossmember, the WHOLE FRONT crossmember from the Oldsmobile! My bro-in-law had an old tired Firebird that had just gotten a fresh turbo 400 tranny installed before the motor went on that, and I got the tranny for a cool $50.00 to match up behind the Olds engine.
With the help of some friends who had welders AND knew somewhat how to weld I had that engine sitting in the engine bay along with the fresh tranny and all hooked up to the stock 56 driveshaft and radiator with a half inch to spare! This truck had NO planning whatsoever but it worked out great. The one bad thing I didn't do but wish I did was take pics of the truck and the processes in building it.
It took me 6 months to figure out the wiring so the truck would start (mind you I had NO mechanical abilities at all when I started with this truck and being in my early 20's didn't help, BUT my father-in-law at the time used to be a mechanic in the 40's) I had to figure out how to make the keyswitch work the starter since the old 56 used a floorboard mounted footswitch for the starter. But now that I got the truck started I couldn't get it to die! I had wired the truck to bypass the old voltage regulator since the alternator had the builtin reg so that helped, but I couldn't get the truck to die, even pulling the battery cable, tried to smother the engine through the carb, finally pulled the coil wire and shocked the liver right outta me! I really don't know what or how I did it but I finally got the truck to start and die, and then it was up to figuring out the rest of the truck's wiring so I could drive it legally.
The truck had some strange options compared to the 60's and 70's era trucks I was used to. It had a cable for the windshield wipers that operated from the dash or a pushbutton on the floorboard next to the dimmer switch, plus it had a rubber bladder under the footswitch to pump washer fluid to the windshield and with the added weight of the huge Olds engine and NO power steering I would plant my foot to help steer and the wipers would come on briefly. I had a lot of fun with my friends when I would have both hands on the wheel and the wipers would come on! What came next was a dumb mistake on my part, I had a metal banded watch on when I was trying to work on the heater of the truck under the dash, and the watchband came in contact with a hot lead and the cable for the wiper welding the cable solid! So I couldn't use the wiper cable on the dash, I had to push the button on the floorboard to use the wipers but it got to be second nature.
Well, before I was able to drive it I had to sit in it, and to sit in it I had to have seats. My bro-in-law (with the firebird) gave me the buckets out of the bird so I had those, but sitting them on the floor I was staring through the steering wheel and barely over the dash, looked like an old man driving. So I needed something to build up the seats. The old bench was of course trash, so I took it apart down to the bottom frame and cut out a piece of 3/4" plywood to fit, bolted that base in the truck and mounted the buckets on top of that, which gave me a great stance in the truck where I was looking out just even with the top edge of the driver's side door and that's the way I liked it, plus I had a platform for my stereo speakers and other items as well without having to slide stuff under the seat.
Next was the shifter. I had an old Hurst 3-speed shifter with the t-handle that I was dying to put in something, and this truck needed a shifter but I could use the old column shifter since it no longer had a bellhousing and I had no idea how to work that problem out except going on the floor. Well, to make it all work out I had to cut a hole in the floor, mount the shifter so the lever would actually work, and heavily modified all the brackets for the shifter to the point it hooked up under the seat platform and pointed straight forward with the bend up and the t-handle ready for me to grab. I had a choice though of having park in the up position or down position and I figured I'd put it in the up position so I could race it without accidentally slamming down into reverse or park while driving. I did have to use the emergency brake all the time though because the shifter would get banged by others throwing the truck out of park. But this was MY truck and I WANTED it this way!
Some major drawbacks to the truck combination, steering, the straight axle had issues with the added weight and it caused the truck to want to sniff ditches, and the second was the one-use-brakes! I could use the brakes ONCE and after that they got hot and wouldn't slow down or even hold the truck in drive! But I used neutral for that little problem so it wasn't much of an issue except in heavy traffic.
Since it had the Chevy cab, Ford bed, Olds engine, and Pontiac tranny, I called the old 56 my 'Quarter Horse'. I won a lot of races with that old truck, and at one point I had outrun a neighborhood kid's Burt Reynolds edition TransAm, and after that he pulled me aside reaching in his wallet asking how much I wanted for the truck. 'Any price, I want that truck!' he said seriously, but I NEEDED a truck, not so much a hot rod, but a truck to haul my bikes and other things as well, and if I sold my truck I'd have to get another.
I kept that old truck for about 3 years until I traded it to a friend for an El Camino. Eventually I got the truck back, had a new paint job, new rubbers, new carb, and it just wasn't the same. I finally traded it to another friend for his 66 Chevy short stepside and the move was on trading up and up and up.

Currently I have two 65's in my 'stable'. Both are motorless, both have no running gear, both longbeds, and one is a GMC (titled) and the other a Chevy (parts truck and no title) so you can guess where I'm going with this. What I'm wanting to build is an extended cab, shortboxed 4x4 with running gear out of an 86 Suburban. I'm also wanting to do a 3"chop on the top and possibly doing a coupe with the parts truck just as a beater-rat-rod and possibly shortening the bed to 4' kinda like the old t-buckets. Both trucks have the Chevy hoods, small back windows (which I'd like to modify to the big back window).
I'm not looking to make showtrucks out of either, I want them functional, the 4x4 will sit tall but not too tall, just functional with a healthy stance, and the other 'rat' will sit low with tubs, fat pipes out back, and possibly a soft top for those cruises in the harsh sun.
I'll post some pics with the current situation and ask for help with ideas on the whole buildup on both trucks.

I'm glad I found this site, you guys rock with your builds and trucks!

Party on!!!!