1965 Dodge Other Pickups

225 slant six

1161487666

Clear

Gasoline

I am re-listing this truck as the previous buyer, who was a local buyer, put a deposit on the truck and shortly after that lost his job and was unable to complete the transaction. I was debating on keeping the truck but I just don't have a good place to store it while I'm working on my other truck, so I am re-listing it. Below is the original ad from a few months back. A few weeks ago I flew up to Northern California to visit my parents and drove a vehicle back to Tucson that I got for my soon to be 16 year old son. On the way back to Tucson I stopped by to check out an old 1965 Dodge pickup that I had seen advertised weeks earlier. I was in the market for an old Sweptline short bed truck that I was going to do a rat rod type job on, but I didn't want something that had been previously modified or cut up in any way. I had to drive way out in the hills of Clovis, CA to an old ranch where this truck had lived it's whole life. When I saw the truck I could immediately tell it had been repainted with a fairly cheesy paint job with even cheesier body work. Normally I ONLY buy older vehicles that have their original paint so I was about to walk away from this truck when the daughter of the original owner came out and began talking about the history of this truck. Her dad bought the truck brand new from Croket Bros Dodge in Fresno in 1965 and it had been used as a ranch truck on their ranch until her father passed away in the in the late 1990's. From that time on it was used sparingly but really mostly just sat there in the barn. She talked about the love her dad had for this truck and the care he took of it. She recalled how the truck began to show it's age and when her son (original owner's grandson) was taking autobody/paint classes in high school his granddad allowed his old Dodge to be used as an instrument for his grandson to learn the art of bodywork and painting on. That's the paint job and bodywork that's on the truck now. The grandson was also present when I looked at the truck and he's now a middle aged man but the paint job still looks like it was just shot on not to long ago which is a testament to the few miles this truck has been driven over the past two decades or so. After hearing story after story of the old Dodge I decided to look closer at the truck and I considered the fact that I was going to put a distressed and patina type paint job on it anyway so maybe I could overlook the fact that this truck was not wearing it's original paint. At least it was repainted the original color (or very close to it). To make a long story short I drove the truck and went over it closely and decided to go ahead and buy it. The grandson informed me he had just put it on eBay earlier that morning so we went on the computer and I hit the buy it now button and I paid them for the truck. I completed my drive back to Tucson and had a friend of mine who lives here in Tucson go out and trailer the old Dodge back to my house. As luck would have it, two days ago I found another short bed Sweptline that was in even better condition than this one and was still wearing the original paint and so I bought it too. Those of you who are familiar with these trucks know that finding a short bed 1960 to early 1970 Sweptline in decent condition is not easy or cheap, so I felt very fortunate to have found two of them within weeks of each other. The problem is I only need one and so I have decided to sell the one owner truck. I will outline it in more detail below: MECHANICAL: The truck is virtually untouched mechanically. It has the 225 slant six with three on the tree manual transmission. Runs and drives well. All head lights and turn signals are working, wipers work. It's a pretty basic truck with radio delete so there's not a lot that can go wrong with this truck. All windows roll up and down as they should and doors open/close/lock/unlock as they should. The engine runs strong but gets warm. It doesn't overheat but gets to about three quarters on the gauge. I changed the thermostat to see if that would cool it off a little but it still runs at 3/4 on the gauge which could be normal for this truck. This is the first truck I've had with the 225 slant 6 so I'm not sure how hot they run normally. It accelerates nicely and shifts smoothly through the gears. Brakes work well but the truck pulls slightly to the left when braking hard. Tires are old but appear to be in good shape with no cracking and plenty of tread. Spare tire is still in it's original place and original jack is behind the seat where it should be. Overall the truck seems to be pretty sound mechanically and could be driven daily. All gauges work but speedo stopped working several years ago but was never a priority for the family to fix it. The family claimed the mileage is original and the odometer never rolled over as the truck was only driven on the ranch through the years with an occasional trip into town, but I cannot prove that nor could they. INTERIOR: The interior on the truck is pretty basic and it is all complete. It's all original and nothing has been hacked up or cut on the truck. Seat was redone years ago and is still in very good shape. Has seat belts for two. No headliner. All glass is good. The grandson said that the reason the inside of the doors are a different shade of blue/green is because that's were they started to test the colors on the truck back in autoshop class and then decided to go with the lighter blue color and never came back to repaint the doors. The floors are covered with some indoor/outdoor carpet which has been in the truck for decades according to the family. Floor pans under the carpet appear to have fairly heavy scale and surface rust on both sides driver's side with no rust through but on the passenger's side there is a small section that is rusted through where the floor pan meets the foot well (see pics). This could be easily sectioned and patched without doing the entire floor pan on that side. Though there is surface scaling on both floor pans they remain structurally solid. Foot wells and rocker are very solid on both sides. Overall the interior is in great shape for the year and the truck is very comfortable to drive in. EXTERIOR: The body on the truck has no major dents but has plenty of minor dings and flaws as would be expected in a 49 year old ranch truck. Chassis and everything underneath is completely rust-free. As mentioned the paint job and body work is a "twenty footer" (looks great from about twenty feet) but you can see where body filler has been used primarily on the left front fender at the front end and the right front fender between the door and the wheel opening. When you look inside of these areas you can see that the dents were not pounded out at all and the kids simply put filler in and roughly finished the areas. In other words, these areas need to be ground down to metal, the metal needs to be worked and straightened and then only light filler may be needed in those areas. The rest of the truck looks pretty good with no major work required. If a rat rod project is what you are looking for then this cheesy paint job can actually work to your advantage as it can be used as part of the patina finish. I was going to lightly go over the truck on the top edges with flat black and then blend the black into the existing color to give it that well worn look and in the process would likely get down to some of the original color as well. This patina finish is fast becoming the choice finish for these old truck and gives them a really cool old look. This truck is an ideal candidate for this type of project. The original wheels are in good shape. The original hubcaps are there and in decent shape with some small dents present. Inside the bed is very solid with only surface rust on the bed floor and the bed floor does have the classic wave in it that these old trucks develop over the years but it is not nearly as bad as others I've seen or owned. Something pierced the front section of the bed that goes up against the cab so there is a one inch tear in the metal almost in the dead center of the panel (see pics). The family couldn't remember how that happened but stated it has been that way for many years. Other than that piercing that panel is dead straight along the cab section which is rare as most of these are beat up pretty good from stuff slamming into it over the years. Front bumper has slight bend on the passenger's side end of the bumper. The grille is perfect on this truck and the front end just makes these truck look bad! SUMMARY: Try finding a short bed swepty of this vintage and in this condition for the price I have set my reserve at and you will be hard pressed to do so. This truck has so much upside it's sick. I would not be selling it if I didn't find another truck that was closer to what I wanted. You could go either way with the truck, either restored original or slammed rat rodded custom. Or just drive it as it is. I'm jumping into the other truck full bore so I need this one out of the garage as soon as possible so that's why it's priced so cheap. This will be an awesome deal for the right enthusiast. As the truck sits right now you will get plenty of looks and compliments. When you drive the truck you just get the sense that it's just a good old girl and a great truck that will only go up in value through the years. One other cool thing with this truck, it comes with the original leather key wallet that the key folds into that is embossed with the Crocket Bros. name on it and the "Papas pk" custom license plate from California.. I do reserve the right to end the auction early as I may be advertising the truck in other media as well as locally. I require a $500 deposit due via Paypal within 48 hours of the auctions end. Check my feedback, check the pictures and bid with confidence! I'm sure I may have missed something so ask questions and I will get back with you just as soon as I can. As with any older vehicle this truck is being sold "as is" with no warranties expressed or implied. Inspections are welcome and encouraged.