A 13 year olds rusty fleetside 4x4 65 chevrolet frame help

[preston65]

My dad spent 19 years trying get this 65 Chevy. He finally got it about two and a half years ago. I always had a liking for the truck. To my surprise he gave me the keys, title and a brand new fender on my 13th birthday. I'm looking to get it driveable by the time I turn 16. the frame is one of the first things I want and need to replace. we want a later model frame so that we'll have power steering and so we can keep the newer brakes. It is currently sitting on a 63 burb frame. It is 4-wheel drive and I would like to hear from you all on what frame setup will work best for my truck thank you.

['63GENIII]

Welcome to the forum! Nice birthday present too.

If the truck sits on the Burb frame securely (Im not really familiar with the differences between the Burb and K series frames), I would just keep it on that frame and add a disc front axle from say a '73 up truck. You could probably install one of Captain Fab's power steering adapter brackets to get the PS set up. If you're really intent on getting another frame, I would try to stay within the '63 - '66 K series frames since you'll be able to bolt your cab and bed down to it fairly easily using factory or even reproduced parts.

Getting power disc brakes and steering is a fairly simple affair. Lots of threads here on this subject.

My '62 was sitting on a '72 Burb frame when I got it. It was a pretty sketchy conversion. I really didn't want to spend the time and effort to make that truck right. Ended up selling it.

Im sure others will chime in here and offer good advice. Good luck with your build! You have a fair amount of time. Read up and plan it well and you'll have a sweet ride for your 16th!

['63GENIII]

Oh yeah.. ya gotta get lotsa pictures up for us!

[Twin Turbo Skylark]

Welcome Preston, it is so awesome to see a young guy getting into fixing up trucks and it sounds like it will be a father/son project.

To start with congratulations on the truck, you are lucky man!

Please take some more pics, as you sure the frame needs to be replaced take some pics of each of the frame mounts to the body and we can see how it looks.

Also let us know if you have tools such as a welder? That makes a big difference in what options you have.

I think if it were me I would find a good running 73-87 4x4 truck to use as a donor and put your body on that chassis. The reason I suggest that is because there are just so many aftermarket parts for them and the later ones have an overdrive trans and EFI which is nice if you plan to drive the truck a lot... The only down side to that option is that you will have to modify some body mounts but I bet it would not be too hard.

I am guessing it may not be easy to find another 65 frame for low $.

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum Preston

Congratulations on the new truck project. About 90% of the time I recommend keeping the frame that is original to the truck or at least the same style of frame. For one there are possible legal issues with a frame swap. With the '73-'87 frame, you will have to fabricate all of the body to frame mounts and you will end up with about a 3" body lift. It is really not something for a beginner fabricator. The only way around that is to do some channeling of the cab and bed floor.

[Twin Turbo Skylark]

Good catch i did not know he would have to make serious mods to fit a later frame under there... Post up pics of the frame are you sure it needs to be replaced? Tap it with a hammer and you will be able to tell if it's rotted out or solid.

['63GENIII]

Just pokin around on CL tonight I found a couple of cabs, less motor and trans 2wd for 50 to 400$. Having the mounts line up and less fab work is worth every penny IMO.

[preston65]

Originally Posted by Twin Turbo Skylark

Good catch i did not know he would have to make serious mods to fit a later frame under there... Post up pics of the frame are you sure it needs to be replaced? Tap it with a hammer and you will be able to tell if it's rotted out or solid.

The truck was sitting on a hill for about 20 years. From about 3/4 of the cab back its about rotted in 2. I really appreciate yalls help. We were looking into 73 and up. We had wondered about a k5 blazer? Would that work?

[62stepside longbox]

Hey Preston, congratulations on the truck, sounds like you have a great dad since he did something as cool as giving you this truck. Good to some more young people on here, I'm 16 and I bought my 62 about a year and a half ago and didn't really make much of a plan and it just keeps on snowballing and the project just keeps getting bigger. So First things first before you do anything on the truck I would make up a detailed plan of what you want to do, use this forum as a source of info, look into other people's build threads to get ideas and if you have any questions don't be at all afraid to ask us! Here's Some ideas you might want to look into,
Disk brakes ( you can use parts from a 73-87 to achieve this)
Power steering ( use a box from a 73-87, you will need an adaptor plate made by captainfab on the forum)
Power brakes with dual master( again captainfab makes a great plate for this)

And as far as the frame goes, I say that if it's in useable shape then work with it.

[preston65]

Here's a picture underneath the front right side

[preston65]

Here are some more for you guys. The frame ESPECIALLY around the rear end is just bad.