Background: If you look at my car list, you'll see I've had numerous rattletrap trucks throughout the years. Once you own a pickup, you'll never want to be without one. My favorite and most-used truck was a very worn out '65 Ford that I bought for $200 around 1985. Ugly can't begin to describe this poor thing, but it ran good with an allegedly rebuilt engine. The truck was believed to have had about 200,000+ miles on it when I rescued it from the crusher. I rebuilt the leaky carb, installed a set of plugs and drove it for the next year or so. It provided comfortable, powerful transport and I liked it far better than the '66 Chevy C-20 farm truck it replaced.
The Ford was a long bed Custom Cab model with the optional bed mounted tool box in the side, 352 V8, three speed on the column shifter. The front of the bed was rotted, so the sides were beginning to sink down around the bed floor. The cab mounts were suspect. The floors were still good, inner fenders decent and the radiator support apparently not rotted much. The outside was white and brown primer, it had very rusty west coast mirrors and worn out wiper linkage that went ka-THWAP ka-THWAP against the lower windshield molding. I got rid of it when I sold my dune buggy and didn't need a tow vehicle any more, so I sold it to a gullible friend for $350. He later painted it with a roller a beige color and improved it's appearance tremendously. He then sold it (when it needed brake work) to some bikers for $600.
Fast forward to 2002, when I was trying to decide which path to take in my amateur racing 'career'. Wether it be road racing, hill climbing or autocross, any purpose-built racer would need to be towed, and I was lacking a key element other than a trailer--something to tow it with. Modern trucks were too expensive, and I didn't really want another ugly beater truck like I'd had in the past. But, if I was going to spend used truck money, why not get a 'cool' truck that could double as a cruise-night vehicle also? Another factor was licensing...truck tags in PA are rather expensive. A truck that would qualify for antique tag and insurance would cost far less to have around than a modern truck. With fond memories of the '65 dancing in my head, I did a little research on the web. I really liked the 'slick 60s' Ford pickup styling, which ran from 1961-1966. While the basic shape remained the same, they are easily distinguished from year to year by the grilles. While most of the underpinnings were just a continuation of 1950s trucks, the 1965 model year introduced the infamous 'Twin-I Beam' front suspension which greatly improved ride and handling. An added bonus to the new suspension was it's subsequent use up to the late 70's virtually unchanged, which meant swapping in disc brakes to a '60s truck was a bolt-on upgrade (and necessary for safe towing). This allowed me the '65-66 model years to choose from. I liked the '66 grille better, but a '65 truck would be the same age as I, which had an added 'coolness' factor, so that was a wash. I wanted a Custom Cab, as I liked the dash better, and I definately wanted the 'FE' big block V8 over a 6 cylinder. Manual was better for me than an automatic, and a short bed would fit in the garage much better than a long bed (6 vs. 8 feet), plus they looked neater. So, I began to search.
The first problem I encountered was that a lot had changed in 15 or so years. Living in Central PA as I do, it wasn't that I couldn't find the right truck; it was more I couldn't find any truck. The road salt had claimed most of them years ago, and the few remaining trucks were either complete basket cases or very expensive show trucks. Not the 'working classic' I sought. The internet was my most-used tool for finding trucks. Collector Car Trader online and Ebay proved valuable to see what was out there and what the prices were like. I didn't want a project needing a total restoration, and I didn't want a restored show truck I'd be afraid to use. I needed something in between. I bid on a lot of trucks on Ebay, but not being able to see them first was a scary proposition, so I bid on the conservative side and won nothing. Nearly a year passed and I realized I would either have to lower my list of 'wants' or my expectations of quality, or both. I decided that I would bend on a few things around the time someone responded to my 'wanted' ad.
The SC truck: I received an email from a fellow from way-south South Carolina about a truck he had for sale. It was a '66 short bed, non-Custom Cab with reportedly zero rust on it. The original 352 was gone, replaced by a 460/C6 automatic swap from a Lincoln. He agreed to send pictures, and was asking a very reasonable $3500.
I anxiously awaited the photos, and received a huge stack including detail shots I had asked for on certain rust-prone areas. The truck did, indeed, appear to be totally rot-free. It was painted white, had decent aluminum wheels and looked like a nice driver. According to the seller, it needed some carb work as it was running rich and a few other things fixed. He had bought it from a friend for a 'distress sale' price, decided he wasn't interested in it, and now it was for sale. About a month of emails and phone calls went by until I could get the time to drive down with Tina and hopefully buy it. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I fell in love with it in a way through the pictures and looked forward to having an old truck to tinker with.
The seller, it must be stated, did not mislead me much. He tried very hard to describe the truck, but his idea of 'decent shape' and mine wound up being worlds apart. The suspension bushings were so bad the right front tire had cords showing, the windshield needed replaced (not visible in pics), the interior was a mess, it ran like a 6 cylinder, the brakes needed pumped to function and several body panels showed evidence of poor repair (dents) that weren't visible in the photos because of the white paint. As I was driving this thing 12 hours to get it home, I was gravely concerned. The more I looked at it, the more my gut told me it was wrong. Not that it was a bad truck, just that it wasn't the truck for me. In a great display of southern hospitality, the seller told me no hard feelings and I drove home dejected. Tina was incredibly understanding, and agreed that if it didn't feel right, it wasn't.
The Pittsburgh truck: a rather intriguing '64 came up for auction on Ebay, and though it didn't sell, I contacted the owner and asked if I could come see it, since I was going to a track event near there. He agreed to have his son show me the truck, which was a halfway finished custom with Mopar front suspension, newer 302/aod combo on a base model short bed. The suspension and drivetrain changes took care of the problems I would have had with the pre-'65 trucks, so it was a truck I could consider. It was, however, a rather sad truck. Though the upgrades appeared to have been done well, the body still needed thousands of dollars of help to be nice. The truck looked like it had been used hard in it's life, and while not very rusty, was pretty beat. I passed.
NC truck #1: this was an aggravating experience, and I never even saw it in person. I received an email from a seller in northwest NC who had exactly what I was looking for: '65 Custom Cab, short box, V8/3 spd, totally orignal. He sent photos (no detail shots) that illustrated a white truck (original paint) with some rare options (spot light, backup lamps, original jack still under the hood) in a good but needing restored condition. The problem was, he thought the truck was worth about $1000 too much (and that was being kind). Hard as I tried, I couldn't justify paying his price. In spite of not being able to sell it for his asking price for two months, he simply wouldn't negotiate, so I stopped talking to him.
PA trucks: outside of Harrisburg there is a town called Dornsife. Outside of this town is a place called Troy's, which is a used truck lot. Troy basically took a hillside field, graded it, and parked about a million used trucks on it. This is, apparently, where used-up trucks in my state go after their uncaring owners trade them in for new ones. Troy had two '65's there, both of which were total pieces of junk and would be hard pressed to be useful as parts donors. To be fair, Troy didn't want big money for them, but they were so badly rotten there wasn't much left to work with. Scratch off Troy's from the list.
NC truck #2: Despondent, I clicked yet again through the ads on Collector Car Trader. CCT is notorious for leaving ads up seemingly forever, long after the vehicles have been sold. One truck in Virginia I called about had been sold over 3 months previous, and yet the ad had just been placed again. I stopped clicking on a rather puzzling photo: a '65 with a boat lying against it's left side. It appeared the boat had fallen from a stand against the roof and bedside of the truck. Sure enough, the ad stated "recent roof damage". It was a V8/3spd Custom Cab long bed with 90,000 original miles, for $2600. I looked at the (rather poor) photo again. How bad could the roof be? I called the number, left a message. Got a call back from a very nice seller who told me that yes, the boat had fallen on the truck. Yes, it was in nice shape before that happened, though not show quality. After more discussion, he offered to send me a video tape of the truck for me to consider. I waited, and waited some more. Finally, I received a video, and skeptically put it in the VCR. Staring back at me was a damn good looking truck. I resisted the urge to get excited. The video was a bit short and lacking some detail shots I wanted, so another few weeks went by and a longer tape was received. I couldn't believe no one had bought this truck yet. The second video was more informative, and if everything on it was true, I had finally found a truck.
Tina, with little skepticism, and I headed to northern NC one very rainy weekend to see if, at last, I could get a Slick 60s pickup.
It rained the entire trip down and back, and also while I looked at the truck itself. The first thing I noticed upon opening the door was the smell; that unique '60s Ford blend of vinyl, cardboard, rubber and lubricants. It instantly took me back to the pathetic truck I once owned. The roof and bedside were dented, one piece of trim along the bed crushed, the seat was torn, all of which I expected. All the lights and wipers seemed to work, the engine was quiet and a brief test drive reminded me that four wheel drum brakes suck. But it drove pretty much the way I remembered mine, and didn't seem to have any issues that would prevent it from being driven the 10 hours home.
The seller, of course, thought I was nuts driving this 93,000 mile, 36 year old truck all that distance (in the rain). As was typical, though, the seller and his wife were the most polite people in the world (I just adore the southern states), and with their concerns duly noted and payment made, Tina and I began the long drive back home, stopping for the night in Virginia.
Aside from the pull-your-hair-out ka-THWACK of the worn wiper linkage (ahh, nostalgia!) the old thing performed flawlessly. It did not, in fact, use any negligible oil on the entire trip. It did need some work (don't they always?) which is outlined on the next page, but ultimately it was found to be a mostly rust-free, nicely maintained truck with most of it's original documentation. I doubt the truck had ever been out of NC until I purchased it. Now it's in Pennsylvania, poor thing.
