I like the looks of it. We had a 65 f250 years ago. Had the 4 speed manual. I was going to get it to work on as a kid. My mom instead sold it so she wouldn't have to look at it

 

This one originally had the 4 speed. I have (had) a crash box in my F4, and it's really a 3 speed unless you want to pull stumps.

 

Sweet ride ! Why does it have two batteries and what does the extra wiring with resettable circuit breakers on the driver's side fender do?

 

The PO said he had planned to install an inverter in the bed to power things while camping, so he put in another battery.

I have ordered a wiring diagram from classiccarwiring.com so I can figure out some of the wiring anomalies and make everything work.

As for the circuit breakers, they appear to be like the ones originally in my F4, which had a 30 amp on the main power line running from the starter relay to the ammeter and a 15 amp on a few other circuits. IIRC that truck had only 6 circuits protected by the circuit breakers. I don't know yet what circuits these are in, but they look stock (old). I rewired my F4 and replaced the circuit breakers with a fuse panel. I may do that to this F250 someday.

 

They could be stock because I haven't seen every version of '65 F250, but I'm guessing not. I thought they might be for lighting since I see fog lights and rear work lights. I installed a breaker on my truck for trailer brakes but I didn't see a trailer plug on your truck. I'm a little puzzled because it looks like your breakers are wired in series. That made me wonder if there was some weird electronics under the bed cover.

Not trying to distract from a really cool truck...just had me curious. Your truck looks like it's been well cared for and slightly modified to be more pleasing to drive.

Might not hurt to run another valve cover breather since you don't have a PCV valve. Also might think about changing the plastic oil pressure line to copper or small brake line.

 

Assuming those are 8-lug wheels then those are the rare stainless steel hubcaps in the larger size. Don't lose those. They don't reproduce them as far as I know.

The V-8 hood emblem was first introduced in 1965 and used if it came with the 352 engine. All trucks prior to 1965 only used the gear and lightning bolt hood emblem like yours currently has. They do reproduce both hood emblems. Just FYI.

The sweep speedometer must have broken and they swapped in the bezel and round speedometer from another truck. The "Custom Cab" plate above the steering column but below the bezel was not offered in 1965 or 1966, only in some earlier models so it might have come from the same donor at that time. No worries, just if you are looking for parts you might need to keep some of that in mind. For example, if you asked what the stock part number is for a 1965 F250 2WD Custom Cab speedometer it would not be the part number for the round speedo. Junk like that.

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Thanks for the info. I haven't popped the hubcaps off to look at the wheels so I don't know what they are.

I have already found two vendors with the hood emblem for $60. I don't know if they're good ones or not.

Since you mention it, I think they may have gotten the hood and dash components from the same truck. I don't see any damage that would have caused them to change the dash bezel and speedo, but who knows. It's 51 years old (maybe 52) and I only know what I was told... that I'm the 4th owner. But I have no paperwork to prove that.

 

Since it is an F250 I'd really suspect those are 8 lug innie wheels. You need those style of innie wheels to run those caps. I bet I've only seen about 5 or 6 complete sets of those larger stainless caps in many years of looking. I have a set of 4 of them myself, thanks to another member, that I plan to run on my 1966 F250 Ranger. And painted caps on my 4WD trucks so I have 15 of those wheels so far, but only the 4 stainless caps. The painted caps I have are argent with red lettering and I also have two that were originally white with red letters that were used on the F350. I just dropped 4 of the wheels off at the powder coat shop yesterday to get them redone. I bet yours are just like these.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post16511708

Not a bad price on the hood emblem. Hopefully the chrome is done right. Some aftermarket stuff have had issues with peeling after a couple of years. Not just Ford stuff, we see it on the Firebird/Trans Am stuff, too. I almost always get an OE part and have it re-chromed at my local shop, but that might be cost prohibitive. Chroming has gotten pretty expensive.

I'd leave the dash as it is. Not too tricky to switch back and forth if you ever wanted to go to a sweep speedo, but if it ain't broke...some people prefer the round speedo. I have the rounds in my F250 4x4 trucks (sweep was only 65/66 F100/F250 2WD and 66 F100 4WD in Custom Cabs) and the sweep in my 2WD and I like both types.

If you post the warranty plate numbers we can decode it for you, not that you couldn't, but if you haven't done it yet.

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If that plate is supposed to be on the firewall, I don't have one.

EDIT: Ok, I found it on the door. I know the VIN identifies it as an F250, 352 V8, made in San Jose in '64 or '65 and the sequential number.

I'm guessing that's 129" wheelbase, 8 cylinders? No idea about the D81, or N, or 24. Guessing 7500 is GVWR. I read somewhere the 172 is horsepower. Don't know about the 4000 or the 72.

There must be a paint code in there, but I just got the truck yesterday, so I don't have any books on it yet, but they are ordered.

 

I like to let ND do the full decode if he wants, but you have a good chunk of it.

The warranty plate is missing the black background that categorizes everything, but no worries.

8 is the color code - Springtime Yellow

D81 is interior and cab style - Custom Cab with Light beige crush vinyl and medium beige ladder pattern woven plastic.

N is the transmission - New Process 435 (NP435)

24 is rear axle - 4:10:1 non-limited slip Dana 60

172 horesepower at 4000 rpm

72 is San Jose District Sales Office - 2 digit DSO indicates it was not a special order vehicle.

I almost suspect this was originally a Camper Special and not just a Twin I Beam as the badges seem to indicate. I bet the badges were replaced because the originals were faded and they couldn't find the Camper Special inserts in a reproduction. If you can take a close up of your intermediate wiring harness where it runs to the back of the truck there might be a clue there. I can take a sample picture to show what to take a picture of, if you don't mind.

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Thanks for all this info. Yes, the PO told me the Camper Special tags were faded and he couldn't find new ones so he used the Twin I Beam tags.

 

If you get a chance see if your intermediate wiring harness that runs to the back has just one 3-wire connector or if it might have an additional 4-wire connector. My 1966 is like this and I've confirmed the same extra plug on two other Camper Special equipped trucks so far but both were 1966. It would be in the engine compartment below the steering column area. I believe it comes from the dash harness, through the firewall plug and down to this connector (or two) before it disappears down along the inner frame rail heading back toward the tail light harness. If you have both and can't take a picture can you say if the 4-wire is there - if it has anything plugged into it or not and if so what the thing plugged into it looks like?



Thanks
Chad

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Chad, I can't look under the truck right now, I call those trailer wires, although I'm sure that's not what they're called. Looks like you have 9 wires total there? Any idea what they're for (like maybe a trailer hookup)?

I'm having back problems (still) and don't need to be messing with trucks today. But I did manage to get the pics for the insurance company so I can drive the truck legally now.




Nose to nose



They both fit in the garage.

 

I can appreciate a back problem. When you are up to it, you should be able to make it out from under the hood without going underneath the truck. This is a picture of my 66 F250 4x4 in the area. Basically just about below the master cylinder and to the drivers side slightly. You can see my 4x4 (both of them here) only have the one 3-wire connector. No extra wires at all.



The extra 4-wire connector, if it exists on a given truck is designed to plug in a relay.

I'm just going to scrape some info from ND here and paste it in to not retype it all. Courtesy ND....

C7SZ13482B (replaced C5SZ13482B, C5SZ13482D) .. Stop Lamp Relay / Marked: C5SB-13A410-B, C6SB-13A410-B, C8SB-13A410-C / Obsolete

Fits: 1965/66 F100/250 Camper Special & 1967 F100/350 Camper Special / Use with Camper or Trailer Coach.

Fits: 1966 Thunderbird from 11/17/1965 & 1967 Thunderbird / Use with sequential turn signals.

Fits: 1968 Thunderbird / Use with Speed Control.

Anyway, even if the relay is no longer there or if some contend the relay was only dealer installed then I say another way to tell if it is a genuine Camper Special, modifications aside, is that the intermediate harness will have these extra wires, beyond just the extra 4-wire connector as you noticed, which the relay plugs into. Mine and the 2 others I've looked at have the electrical wrap that looks to have never been touched and since it is wound from front to back they would have to either unwind the harness perfectly from the back to the front to add the wires or re-wrap it completely fresh. Either of which would require removing the entire intermediate harness and reinstalling it. No light work for a dealer install there. Possible, but I'm doubting that.

Anyway, just a discussion I've had with others before and curious whenever I see a possible Camper Special. My original is floating around here somewhere but it looks exactly like this.



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My '66 Merc CS had that relay (twice) and was replaced by Bosch-type after the second failure. The brake lights worked without the ignition on and a click could be heard.
Yes, obviously wired differently and a good way to ID the Camper Special.
Eric