1965 Custom Camper

[Flathead Smith]

I have always liked the looks of 1960-66 trucks and prefer the 60-61 models. Of those I like the ¾ tons the best.

Several years ago I saw this 1965 Custom Camper for sale and I have always liked these because they are usually heavily optioned. I took it for a test drive got the man’s number and then kind of forgot about it because even though it was somewhat clean it had a huge hole in the middle of the dash, and there was a noise in the rear-end. By the time I figured out that the huge hole was actually the remnants of the original a/c, the truck was gone. I called the number the man had given me anyway and he said he still had the truck and it was still for sale it just wasn’t in his yard anymore. I made him an offer and he accepted.

The options are:
Ram Assist Power Steering
Power brakes
It had a/c, but most of the components were removed with the exception of some wiring and the dash control.
Front sway bar
Powerglide transmission
The Custom Cab option and whatever that entails
Two Tone 555 Paint code (which has been changed to orange)
The little ash tray way over on the right side of the dash
½ leaf helper springs for the rear coil suspension.

The original engine is gone and I found some paper work in the dash saying that it was replaced with a new (whatever that means) engine in 1986 and that the odometer read 26,000 at the time. I am assuming that it was actually 126,000 back then and that the mileage of today which is around 38,000 is actually 138,000. I don’t know what the current engine is, but my guess is that it is a 350. It runs perfect and may even be cammed up a little.

I’m putting this in the build section and as I do things to it, I’ll put in a few updates from time to time.