1965 C20 Rebuild

[1964c20_jlm]

This is a '65 C20 that I picked up about 3-1/2 years ago. It had been sitting in a barn since 1976, so there wasn't a lot of rust on it, but it makes up for that by being dented and beat up all over.

As is customary while bringing a new project home, I have to pay off the kids with some Whataburger. They earned it this time since it took about two and a half hours to come-along this thing onto the trailer.

[1964c20_jlm]

After spending 40 years in a barn, it picked up a lot of trash and debris. I cleaned what felt like 200 pounds of seeds, chicken feathers, and mouse and rat poop out of the thing.

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Here are some more pictures of the condition of the body.

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Here's a pic of the engine compartment and interior.

The radiator was missing from it. The guy I bought it from was the grandson of the original owner. He said that his granddad had pulled the radiator and taken it to the shop to get repaired. His graddad died before picking up the part and getting it running again, then it sat for several decades.

[66x3]

Wow ! Looks like there's not one panel that's not creashed, bashed or crashed on it ! Too bad cause it looks really solid. What are your plans for it? Hopefully leave it a C 20?

[1964c20_jlm]

I found a cheap parts truck that had a radiator and decent looking bed on it. The truck ended up having a radiator out of a C60 in it, which is probably an overkill for a 230 engine, but it had tags on it and the heater core showing that they had both been rebuilt in the recent past, so both went into the C20.

After cleaning all of the trash out of the engine compartment, changing the oil, doing a tune-up, installing the radiator, and rebuilding the carb, I turned the engine over a few times and it fired right up.

[1964c20_jlm]

Originally Posted by 66x3

Wow ! Looks like there's not one panel that's not creashed, bashed or crashed on it ! Too bad cause it looks really solid. What are your plans for it? Hopefully leave it a C 20?

It stays a C20 and eventually gets better. I'll continue to post over the next couple of evenings to get caught up to its current state.

[Katrina/10]

Good luck with your project! I'll be following along.

[1964c20_jlm]

Here's a few pic of the rear frame cleanup and the front end being taken off for some work.

[1964c20_jlm]

And finally, some pictures of it improving a little. I bought a set of newer wheels with decent tires on them. The front grill support and grill from the parts truck got installed since it wasn't mangled like the original.

The brakes were also done by now, including adding a dual master cylinder. I like to keep them as original as possible, but always upgrade the master cylinder after having a wheel cylinder fail on one when I was driving in traffic years ago.

It's drivable at this point, so I took it for a couple of laps around the yard before taking the last two pictures.

[1964c20_jlm]

Started the bodywork at this point. I used a dent puller on the doors since I couldn't reach the crease from the inside and also plan on replacing the skins on the next pass of working on the truck a few years down the road.

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Finishing up the doors.

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The floor pan on the driver's side had broken loose at the spot welds, so I claped it, drilled the spot welds and re-welded it.

[1964c20_jlm]

Taking care of the giant dent in the hood. I can't reach the back of it, so I welded in a piece from the parts truck's hood.

Even though it came way later in the process, I've included the pics of the replacement panel added to it.

The brace that the hood hinges was badly bent on one side, so I replaced it at the same time as the replacement panel.

[1964c20_jlm]

Here's a picture of the progress at this point. The hood work came way later, so it doesn't show here.

[1964c20_jlm]

The parts truck bed looked good, except where they had cut it on each side for a gas tank. I cut some pieces to fill the holes, but found a bunch of bad bodywork and bondo, so I cut out the bad spot and replaced it with a piece from the original bed.

[1964c20_jlm]

Those rear cab mounts were shot, so the cab had banged against the bed and crushed things in fairly badly on the passengers side. That corner on the parts truck was in nice shape, so it got transplanted.

[1964c20_jlm]

Then the cab mounts got replaced with something a little more solid so that the new cab corner work wouldn't get crushed in again.

Also a shot of the finished corner.

[1964c20_jlm]

Here's the work on the area around the dash.

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Here's a picture right after the interior was done. I'm driving it frequently by this point.

[1964c20_jlm]

I found an original engine out of a 64 C10 that was in much better shape than the original engine, so I got it and cleaned it up. I also took care of the engine compartment and firewall at the same time.

You can't tell from the picture, but the firewall is gold and the cowl part tan.

[1964c20_jlm]

Here's the engine compartment just about ready to go.

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Work on the front fender that was too badly damaged to straighten out properly.

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And here's where we're at with it today. I gets put to work frequently and I'm about to be finished with the hood.

I'll put pics up when it's finished and will be starting another thread up on the truck I picked up last weekend.

[1964c20_jlm]

Just about to give up looking for a 292 for this truck. All three of six cylinders I've picked up in the past couple of years have been cracked and welded somewhere on the block.

I picked this 283 up today and it will be my backup plan if I can't find a good rebuildable big-6 in the near future.