Description
1965 Dodge Utiline/Stepside Pickup
****For more images of the truck and it's condition, please click here!
This is an original paint truck out of Texas. It has a great patina and gets lots of attention when I go out for a drive. The best I can tell the truck was bought new in Colorado and then spent time in Texas before being purchased and shipped to the east coast in fall of 2015. The purchaser of the truck passed before being able to put it on the road and I bought it at an estate sale. The person had a fine collection of hard to find original vehicles. His wife said they paid $4,800 for the truck and had it shipped from Texas, but never drove it because it had sat in storage for almost 25 years and had issues. This is where I came in. I brought the truck home and decided to see what it would take to get her running again.
The frame is rust free and all of the glass is in excellent condition. No fogging or cracks or chips. The windshield rear glass and wing glass rubber is in great condition. The window scrappers are missing from the truck. The windows go up and down with ease and the vent glass opens and closes properly.
The following is a list of what has been done to the truck in the last few months and I have receipts for work and parts. I installed:
- New alternator
- Battery
- Battery terminals
- New water pump
- New fuel pump
- New distributor
- New Plug wires
- Points
- Plugs
- Condensor
- Rotor Button
- Coil
- New Resistor
- Oil Changed and Flushed, Twice
- New oil sending unit
- A new carburetor which performs PERFECTLY.
For the cooling system:
- A new high capacity aluminum radiator was installed
- New hoses
- New belts
- Removed the freeze plugs and professionally flushed the engine block
- Installed new freeze plugs, thermostat, and radiator cap.
The engine runs at proper operating temperature and the antifreeze is full and clean. There's no stop leak in the system.
When doing the freeze plugs, new intake and exhaust gaskets were installed. The valve cover gasket was removed to check everything out. A new gasket was installed.
After we got the truck running properly we proceeded to the brakes.
- The truck has 4 new brake drums
- All-new wheel cylinders
- New brake shoes all around
- Brake lines were inspected and the fluid flushed and replaced
The truck brakes great and stops without any vibration or pulling. The emergency brake still needs some attention. I think the cable may need replacing.
For good measure, I also installed a new clutch slave cylinder and line then bled the system. The clutch works perfectly.
At this point, the truck was running beautifully, but rode really rough and the tires had dry rot in them. I ordered and installed 4 new period correct whitewall tires for the ole girl and went for another drive.WOW! What a difference!The truck goes down the highway at 65 miles an hour smooth and straight as could be.
All of the gauges in the truck work properly. The fuel gauge reads properly. (I removed and checked the gas tank as well. It has no rust and very clean) The temperature gauge, alternator gauge, oil light, all dash lights, high beam indicator, and signal indicators all work properly. The wipers work properly and I installed new wiper arms and blades.
Now for what I know she still needs. The hoses to the heater core have been disconnected so she has no heat. The heater fan comes on and runs properly at all speeds, but If the heater core is still in the truck I'm sure it will need to be replaced. It may have been removed. I didn't pull the housing off and check.
The pictures tell the rest of the story about how solid this truck is. The wood in the bed has seen better days but all of the metal strips are in place and could be painted and used. I didn't notice any rust holes in them. The front of the floorboard has some rust but is absolutely fixable. The middle of both rockers have some rust through but the truck comes with 2 new good quality rockers panels. If it were me, I would only cut out and replace the bad part of the original rocker panel.
These step sides are getting really hard to find. Especially in this good, original, unmolested condition. I am only selling the truck because I'm in the middle of restoring a VW camper (my true passion) and need to free up some cash. Please feel free to send me any questions you may have. I will be happy to send you pictures of any specific areas you would like to see. If you need to ship the truck, I would be happy to meet a shipper in town to get it loaded up. Buyer is responsible for picking the vehicle up and or all shipping fees. This is a great running truck, but is 55 years old and is not perfect. It can be driven while you get her ready to paint or it would look great with a clear coat over her years of patina. And of course, It comes with no written nor implied warranty.
***The truck is also for sale locally and I reserve the right to end the auction early,
Thanks so much for looking and good luck!