Crossing over, the 65 rebuild.

[NEWFISHER]

I'm going to try and stick with a build thread for the first time in my interwebs life. Cudos to those who have the time to post all of your builds, tech info and general help. Without peeps like you, this forum andothers just wouldn't exist and us non techy, don't own a camera, hate photopail click and post from our dumb phone type guys would watch a heck of a lot more tv. Thank you

Back to our regularly scheduled thread.

This is my first post on the 60-66 forum ( go easy ) I'm crossing over from the 47-54 lifestyle. A little background and then ill spring my plan on you to get some much needed feedback from you square bodied guru's.

I know how we all love pics, so I will try to take them, load them, drop them in the bucket and paste them here. I have been a car guy al of my life, no $h!* right we all are. Been a slave to a GM dealer or Harley dealership for 26 years. I have owned mostly chevys, restored chevys been cut by chevys and occaisionally even sleep in a chevy. My current daily driver is this 50 burb that I trailered home and overhauled in a year. Runs a built 250 inliner, 700r4 , 12 bolt 373 combo and gets 19 mpg on my 75 mile commute every day.
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My wife had always wanted a Dart Swinger. Her besty in high school drove one and was taken by cancer before she graduated. We searched over a year, driving the dually/camper/car trailer combo through 4 states on the weekends loking for the right car. A clean one owner 40,000mile survivor that I immediately converted to disc, huge sway bars, suspension, elctronic ignition and some other light duty upgrades.
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She hasn't driven it in the last 2 years and I'm just not a Dodge guy, so its taking up real esate in the garage. I've been lurking over here and watching the builds, purchases etc and have been bitten by the 60-66 bug. I like the 65s for some reason and with a really convincing discussion with my wife about how cute she would look driving an older truck, she can haul the dogs to the park in the bed, they get the same fuel mileage and cost the same to insure etc. I had her warming up to selling the Dart and me looking for a truck. Well, after what seemed like months I found a truck. As I get older I remeber the primered $1000 deals that turned into me getting a night job to pay to restore them and taking several years to finish. I respect those who still do this, but I've taken a different approach this time. Buy a nice one and tear it down to make it how I want without the grease, the rust and the broken bolts.
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I leave on a 10 hour adventure to pick it up sight unseen other than a brief description, these pics and a deposit. I will document the journey and the teardown/resurection here as it unfolds.

My first plan is to assess its driveability , repair what's needed for a 10 hour drive home and jump online at fuel and meal breaks to order things as I think of them. Its a 6 lug truck with 5 spoke torque thrusts and I'm thinking 17 or 18 steelies, small caps, thin whites ,bag it , custom cab trim with side mouldings an off white insert and two tone upper cab. Do an instrument cluster overhaul with the air gauge tach combo, a tilt column(I'm 6'4" 250) and a redo of the interior. He says it clean and nice, but I'm imagining 80s 90s cloth, carpet and something funky, but again I have only seen these 3 pics.

Thanks for following along and please help me with some feedback on this truck. I could walk you through a straight axle drop, 700 swap and the right combo to make a 250 inliner run like a scalded dog, but am starting to get confused with crossmember mods/choices, air systems and who to go with etc. So far I'm fortunate to start of with a clean rust free slate that has a nice 350/700r4 combo in it and other than a body off chassis clean and scalpel, its mostly cosmetic cool stuff to throw pay checks and residual Dart money at. The trip to get it with limited knowledge , a few pics and a one way ride should be intersting...stay tuned
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[Jmorales3181]

Welcome to our side!! Very nice daily! And I have to say great choice to sell the dodge and buy a chevy truck sounds like a good plan can't wait to see how it comes out. Good luck with your journey.
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[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by Jmorales3181

Welcome to our side!! Very nice daily! And I have to say great choice to sell the dodge and buy a chevy truck sounds like a good plan can't wait to see how it comes out. Good luck with your journey.
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The Burb is Beautiful and the 65 is Sweet!!!

[NEWFISHER]

Originally Posted by Jmorales3181

Welcome to our side!! Very nice daily! And I have to say great choice to sell the dodge and buy a chevy truck sounds like a good plan can't wait to see how it comes out. Good luck with your journey.
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I will be Dodge free soon and it feels good


The Burb is Beautiful and the 65 is Sweet!!!

Thanks!

[NEWFISHER]

Made it down to Sonoma tonight. One last pic of the Dart for my wife. Making the trade and some cash my way in the morning. He neglected to tell me it doesn't have a tailgate. Anyone in. The NW have a clean one ? I guess my parts hunt starts a little sooner than I expected!

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[Low Elco]

Whose crew cab? Dat's nice! I like the new old truck!

[66farmer]

Welcome to the 60's
The truck looks great I'm sure you can make it better.
What part of Oregon are you from.

[NEWFISHER]

Loaded up and headed back to Eugene before Monday. No route no plans, just going to wander north. Yes, the crew cab is cool. It was my dailey before the Burb went under the wrench. The double duece is a great road hound and with the roof top tent makes a killer camp rig..hahaha
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[TommyDuncan]

Nice truck! ...glad the interior isn't a bunch of tweed and billet. That's a lotta orange!

I like your plans. I'm not a big fan of orange but orange/white or orange/cream looks great!
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[bigblock79]

nice truck

[LT1 Burb]

Let me know when your close, I saw your burb in graffitti, nice!

[NEWFISHER]

Thanks big block. Tommy, I agree. Too much orange. I don't know if I will go creme or off white or white, anybody offer suggestions?
Lt1 nice pic!
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[McMurphy]

and to the site !!!

Yep, your burb is a beauty !!

One of my first cars was a 1964 Crysler 300, push button automatic rocking a 454 under the hood.
There were many nit-picky things I did not like about that car, but the day it took me 2 hours to change out the thermostat, I knew MOPARS were not for me. I mean, who in their right mind mounts a AC pump right over the theromostat housing so that you cannot get the bolt out without dismounting the entire AC configuration??

Nonetheless, it is a shame about the Dart, they were pretty formidible little cars and worthy of a look or two at car shows!

Your 65 is going to be a process of search and discover I am thinking. I can see a few shortcuts that were taken just in the photos you posted so far.
I hope it really turns out to be as straight as it looks though!!
If having to find a tail gate is the worst of your issues with this rig then you are blessed indeed. At the end of the day, if all else fails, there are re-pop ones available out there.

I would like to see more of your engine bay, if you could.
I am guessing that is a late 70s-early 80s small block 350 in there?
With a high rise intake manifold?
I have the same air cleaner but I am having clearance issues with it and the heater box on the passenger side of the bay.

Anyways, cannot wait to see more on this as you get going on it !!

Good Luck and enjoy the ride !!

[NEWFISHER]

Thanks McMurphy I will post as I go and get a few shots tomorrow as I just got home and put everything away.

Thanks to Chiefroka for responding about a tailgate. I was too far north and didn't want to keep heading south through crazy Cali traffic. I would have needed double what he wanted in blood pressure Meds to survive the trip.

A BIG THANKS to lt1 for letting me shop through his collection for not only a tailgate but power steering gear, B pillar custom trim, bumper gaurds, wheels, sunvisors and he was on my way home! I'm going to pull it outside in the morning, give it a bath and start making a list. I have decided to bag it, raise the bed for a taller notch, roll on stock steels with C10 caps and thin whites, do the trim on the sides and the disc conversion with a interior remodel and overall cleanup.

Who sells a C10 60-66 all inclusive bag kit with a arm plates, notch, bags, lines, valves, tank etc for these trucks that you who have done would recommend? Thanks!

[CDNchevydude]

I would say porterbuilt is a popular choice around here... Just read a few tread and you'll see their stuff is awesome and they are everywhere
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[NEWFISHER]

I drove the truck back and forth to work this week, discovered a few more problems and fixed a few known ones. Ordered a ton of stuff earley in the week and plan on tearing it down next week for mechanical upgrades. Tonight I stayed late and masked up and prepped the cab for two tone along with the front end. I have to wait for the side moldings to arrive before laying out the white between them. Ill start doing some panel repairs with the orange in a few weeks. Jake, a painter at work, was able to match the orange and we shot the glove box and cleaned up some iterior stuff. Tomorrow I'm headed in at o-dark-thirty to shoot the white.

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Interior is comming together. Its a lot nicer without the primered glovebox door. Plans are to find a tach-air pressure gauge cluster and rebuild restore it and then two tone the glove to match

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[Captainfab]

That's a nice looking truck and it'll be even better with your planned upgrades. Let me know if you want to upgrade to power brakes also.

[NEWFISHER]

Thanks for the powersteering hook up! I didn't know you did powerbrake stuff, but I have already ordered it from Borris here on the forum. I will be documenting your power steering kit for those who want to upgrade.
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[chad64chevy]

truck looks great, nice starting point! too much orange for me need to break it up a lil!! whats the bed look like? i'm in for this one, watching to see what you do to it!!

[lolife99]

Love this truck!

[72BlckButy]

You're not wasting any time. Great project and I love the burb!
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[NEWFISHER]

Thanks guys!

Question: White two tone.....pearl orange tri-stage or clean white? The tri stage would be only noticed in direct sunlight highlighting the edges and still a clean white on an overcast day. I was going to flake the roof, but wife is against it

[Ta2Don]

Not wasting any time!

I vote for the Pearl Orange Tri-Tone!

[Bomp]

Joining in on the watching team.

[NEWFISHER]

Pearl it is! It's pouring rain outside here and can't catch a good pic , but its kooool

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I should be getting some Custom Cab w/shield trim from LT1 and just picked up a slotted gasket from the local Hot Rod shop. Having all the glass Urathaned in to prevent the NW liquid sunshine from rusting it out.