by Guest Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:29 pmMy dad has always wanted a econoline pickup and when this 65 came up he had to go and look at it. We went to look at it (in the dark lol) he had to have it. It was painted rustoleum brown primer by HAND lol but it looked like a decent truck for the price and ran great so we had it towed home by AAA the same night.
The next day we set about looking in detail at the truck to find out what it needs. It was originally from South Carolina and sometime in its life someone had put a wooden bed in over the steel which has gotten wet overtime and pushed its way through the side of the bed. No problem we thought until we removed the wood and found it was worse than we thought. there was a hole on the drivers side of the bed near the cab and it was starting to rust through in the area where the trans fastens up under the bed. It also has rust on the lower part of the tailgate where the bar goes through and rust on the rear roll pan and at the lower hinge on the driver side door.
He decided to weld in a new bed over the existing steel which we have done and now the truck is so much more solid than before. Onto the tailgate, we found out these are hard to find and expensive when they do come up for sale. He was thinking of welding the tailgate shut but instead got some 1" box section steel cut the rusted part of the tailgate out and welded the box section in. He also then moved the two hinges the tailgate moves on 2-3" higher up on the body. Result is we now have a working tailgate. The pictures may explain this better.
Onto the engine. The PO's add mentioned the pickup had SOME new oil which we thought was strange until we looked at the engine. There was oil everywhere and it was obvious it had not bee looked after the decision was made and we pulled the engine out. The insulation from the dog house had been falling off and mixing with the oil that was leaking from the engine resulting in about 3/4" of crap stuck to the engine block and trans.
We cleaned it all off and broke the engine down, we found the timing chain was ready to jump off the sprockets so a new one was installed along with a new head gasket and a new clutch set for the trans and various other seals. The only things that were not changed are the rod bearings, rear main seal (we didn't know how to change it), cam and a couple of other things.
Re-installed the engine and trans together wired everything up it starts and runs great. But we have another leak we didn't notice coming from the freeze plugs behind the flywheel so the trans has to come back out. A minor problem.
He is still debating what color to paint it, were not sure whether to go with a deep red or paint it back a shade of orange similar to what it was when it left the factory.
There are other things we have done but this is long enough for the moment if you made it to the end thats great if you skipped to the pictures I understand lol.
The next day we set about looking in detail at the truck to find out what it needs. It was originally from South Carolina and sometime in its life someone had put a wooden bed in over the steel which has gotten wet overtime and pushed its way through the side of the bed. No problem we thought until we removed the wood and found it was worse than we thought. there was a hole on the drivers side of the bed near the cab and it was starting to rust through in the area where the trans fastens up under the bed. It also has rust on the lower part of the tailgate where the bar goes through and rust on the rear roll pan and at the lower hinge on the driver side door.
He decided to weld in a new bed over the existing steel which we have done and now the truck is so much more solid than before. Onto the tailgate, we found out these are hard to find and expensive when they do come up for sale. He was thinking of welding the tailgate shut but instead got some 1" box section steel cut the rusted part of the tailgate out and welded the box section in. He also then moved the two hinges the tailgate moves on 2-3" higher up on the body. Result is we now have a working tailgate. The pictures may explain this better.
Onto the engine. The PO's add mentioned the pickup had SOME new oil which we thought was strange until we looked at the engine. There was oil everywhere and it was obvious it had not bee looked after the decision was made and we pulled the engine out. The insulation from the dog house had been falling off and mixing with the oil that was leaking from the engine resulting in about 3/4" of crap stuck to the engine block and trans.
We cleaned it all off and broke the engine down, we found the timing chain was ready to jump off the sprockets so a new one was installed along with a new head gasket and a new clutch set for the trans and various other seals. The only things that were not changed are the rod bearings, rear main seal (we didn't know how to change it), cam and a couple of other things.
Re-installed the engine and trans together wired everything up it starts and runs great. But we have another leak we didn't notice coming from the freeze plugs behind the flywheel so the trans has to come back out. A minor problem.
He is still debating what color to paint it, were not sure whether to go with a deep red or paint it back a shade of orange similar to what it was when it left the factory.
There are other things we have done but this is long enough for the moment if you made it to the end thats great if you skipped to the pictures I understand lol.
