1965 Barnfind

[Robert Haas]

I have known about this truck over 30 years. My FIL drove it as his daily driver when I met my wife 33 years ago. He gave it to his brother who then painted it and re-powered it with a factory crate motor and then parked it in the barn out on the ranch when his health began to fail. He passed away and his little brother took over custody of the ranch and all of its' vehicles including the 65. It sat there ever since.

72,000 and change on the chassis

[Robert Haas]

So we made an offer and bought the truck. (My best friend and partner in our hot rod shop is partnered with me on this one)So we Went out to the ranch and with a new battery, a can of carb cleaner, 3 gallons of fresh gas and a can of starting fluid. We went out and attempted to bring it back to life. The plan was simple enough. We would air up the tires, fire up the motor and back it out into the bright lights of the San Joaquin valley. Tires (They are brand new 12 year old tires) held air, motor fired up and ran on most of its cylinders and with a couple bumps the pressure plate let go of the clutch disc and the the brakes eventually let go of the drums they had welded them selves to. With enough coaxing the engine made enough power to back the truck out of the barn.

We drove it a mile down the road, and filled the tank with fresh fuel and drove across the street to a coin car wash and washed the decades of dust off it.











The more I drove it the healthier it got. By the time we left the car wash it was hitting on 8, and idling like a sewing machine, no smoke, nothing. I planned to flat bed tow the truck back to our shop but the more I drove it the better it ran and I decided to just drive it back to Salinas. It made the trip flawlessly and acted like it had never been parked. Never got more then middle of the guage in regards to temperature and the aftermarket oil pressure guage said it held 60 PSI on the highway.

[raggedjim]

Great find! Please don't change this truck, it's perfect the way it sits!

Rg

[Robert Haas]

So it now sits in the shop waiting on its new owners to decide what the heck to do with it. I did load the original 283 up and brought it back previously so a numbers matching build is possible if that is the direction we go.

[jayoldschool]

Welcome back!

[plmadding]

Very cool truck!!! Great look.

[TopFuel1966]

Ya lucky devil!!

[roll_the_dice]

Beautiful truck and great story! I would want to rebuild the original engine and put it back in and do a true factory restoration. Hope you do a build thread on it when you decide what to do!

[jhrusk]

That is awesome. Glad you were able to get it.

[forestb]

Wow. I don't know you but now I hate you

[jjzepplin]

That is one beautiful truck. Someone is very lucky thanks to you and the original owner stowing that away. I likes to drive them but I have to thank these owners for storing them.

[joesscamaro]

That’s a cool truck...congrats on the purchase.

[DPowers]

Very nice

[65 GMC]

Wow, that truck is sharp.

[Short 3/4]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Great find! Please don't change this truck, it's perfect the way it sits!

Rg

I'll 2nd that! (ok maybe swap out those mirrors) I wish mine had been so nice when I woke it up from it's barn hibernation. All the fluids had turned to Jello and it took months to get rid of the mouse smell. You really lucked out.
Have fun with your new toy

[60-66]

That's a LIKE from me ! Very cool truck. Was it originally a black truck ?

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by 60-66

That's a LIKE from me ! Very cool truck. Was it originally a black truck ?

It was white.

[Short 3/4]

Just curious, That looks like a 66. Either way that's one nice truck.

[Killer Bee]

^ agree, look like 66 emblems on my 10 yo tablet..

nice truck either way, hope it remains stock as possible, fewer and fewer in that shape left..

good luck with it!

[KevinK7]

Awsome story, great truck. Darn thing looks incredible after just a wash

[Greenlee]

Wow. That is nice! Only thing I would do is maybe change the mirrors to something more original looking and drive it. Sweet truck!!!

[Robert Haas]

So a couple updates.

We do have the stock chrome rear bumper that we will be re-installing.

We have the stock mirror (Just one on the drivers side it seems) it is a shame the holes will be in the doors from the current mirrors but that can be dealt with at the next re-paint.

I am torn about cleaning it up. It is only original once but I want to pull the front clip off and pull the engine, clean up and repaint the engine compartment and motor. Then apply the reproduction factory stickers and put it back together.

Here is a Video from the day after we got it to our shop walk around of the barn find c 10



We have received several offers to buy it and I feel that is the fate of this great truck. It deserves to go to a owner wanting to have an unblemished original truck in outstanding condition as a starting point for their build.

Can I have your thoughts on how to go forward?

[DPowers]

My thoughts is that it doesn't seem that you want to make it your own so to speak- so why not move it along to someone that does want to that?

[ElReeso]

Personally, I would Keep it.
It sounds like you could live with selling it so why not? I´d check for a good new owner and then probably let it go..

[Robert Haas]

Well cleaning it up is just labor, I can afford that.

So we will swap the bumper, paint the motor, install the correct mirror, and polish all of the bright work including the paint.

We'll toss this site some money and go ahead and put in the classifieds.

I honestly could not dream of starting a build or even entering the hobby with a better candidate. Factory V8, short bed, big back window, and all the pieces still there on a running truck is the stuff dreams are made of. At least mine were.