My daily driver for the past several years has been a jeep wrangler. I've spent my time building it up for offroad, as well as helping with my fiancee's jeep. Long story short in a matter of three weeks we ended up with my jeep, a Ford Fairlane Wagon for him, a motorcycle of some sort, and a 1965 F250 in Marlin Blue.

We'd agreed after his Fairlane was restored we'd get me a truck. But when he went to sell his old jeep YJ a gentleman offered the truck and the motorcycle for the jeep. So we took the trade.

This truck has been garaged for the past 20 years according to the last owner (who only owned if for a couple months but got frustrated). He couldn't get it running and had added two extra fuel filters and a fuel regulator. After removing the mass of lines we found the issue in the carb and fixed it (float was stuck). The truck runs beautifully. It's got 104k miles on it and has two extra fuel tanks.





We think it may have been used for camping. The custom cab badges were removed and covered over, and there's no holes for side trim. It's got a 342 and a New Process 435. The rear is leaf sprung but has coils over the rear shocks. Someone mentioned a "camper package" to me that I'm curious about. What would tell me if it is?


Oh, I'm chris from SoCal. I'm a writer and my fiancee is a retired OIF/OEF veteran. He's Chris, too.

 

342? you mean 352?
The coils over the shocks were installed by one of its previous owners. Ford never did that.
You sure it was a custom cab? Not every truck was. Nor was trim std in 1965 or today.
Nice truck though. Have fun.

 

Sorry, yeah, 352. The numbers mean very little to me. It's in there and it runs.

Inside the door you can see where the PO bondo'd over the holes for the custom cab badges. He put on those giant mirrors.

 

Chris & Chris - you have a jewel of a truck ! I am sure the longer you have it the more you will love it ! Got to love the slick's ! Best of luck and much happiness in your truck !

 

Custom Cab it is, because it has stainless steel windshield reveal mouldings, sweep speedo and anodized aluminum grille.

Those are the Genuine Ford optional "Western" stainless mirrors used on 1967/72 F100/350's.

Side mouldings were an option, did not come with any package.

The dual fuel tanks are aftermarket.

 

Welcome chris, down right nice Custom cab!. Needs a little TLC in places but a good head start.

The complete side moldings and badges are available as reproduction so they can be added.

Garbz

 

Thanks. It was one of those lucky finds. We really weren't ready to get a truck yet, I wasn't ready to let the old YJ Chris'd rebuilt go, but he was and he said he could fix the truck with a minimum of work so I figured what the heck.

Were the western stainless mirrors something you could buy after the fact? Seems odd they covered over the holes for the badging to install them. There's no other badges on the whole thing other than the hood... a gear and lightning bolt? Mean anything? I've googled it a hundred different ways and came up with nothing.

 

The Gear and Lightning Bolt hood front emblem was used on all 1961/64's and 1965/66 I-6's.

1965/66's with the 352 have a similar emblem, but with V8. The hood on your truck may not be the original, why the hood emblem is incorrect.

Originally there were right and left front fender emblems, which mounted at the rear of the fenders underneath the cowl.

The left side emblem is missing on your truck, is the right side also missing?

These emblems were chrome with FORD 250 above, there were red inserts with silver lettering, which ...in your case could have said Twin-I-Beam or Camper Special.

Look at FTE member camperspecial65's gallery to see what his truck looks like, as it's similar to yours.

 

Chris,
Nice Truck indeed!

Although you didn't share a straight pic, the angle shot appears to me that it also has had it's grille changed to a '66 grille.

Since the mirrors weren't offered until '67, then yes, they were added later.
I'd guess that the door script 'CustomCab' emblems may have interfered with the mounting of the mirrors or they just looked 'cluttered' to him, so they were removed.
Some folks like them as they provide a GREAT view behind, but some folks don't like them as they also provide a 'blind spot' as they are mounted in the line-of-sight beyond them.
Later truck mirrors were mounted lower on the door to eliminate the line-of-sight blockage.

So what are your plans for it now?
BarnieTrk

 

Nice grab and nice looking truck. You'll enjoy it.

 

You guys rock. Thank you so much. The hood isn't the original, neither is the drivers' side fender. It was yellow at one point. There's no badging on the whole beast, not even on the dash. I think I saw where it had a badge under the speedo, but instead there's a clearance sticker added from one of those old ticker labelers.

My plans are I'm not sure. I originally wanted an orange truck, but the more I look at this color the more I like it (and the paint is pretty decent, we shined it up rather nicely). I also like the blue and white combo, but there's no trim package so I may just keep it all blue for now.

This is what I drive normally...



It's at the point where if I go much bigger with this build, I'll need a tow vehicle so the truck was purchased for that and the fact we needed a truck. I'm tired of driving through town with stuff strapped to my roll cage. We're planning on just using it most of all. We camp and offroad a lot, so the truck will give us much needed room to carry equipment.

 

double post, fumble fingers

 

Chris, Nice truck...Im jealous...as for the package compositions(Camper Special, Custom Cab) look in my galleries under package compositions...all of the nitty gritty is in there.
As for my beast...its not the pretties...but it is a CS truck with almost all of the available options offered. As for your truck...the only problem I see is it has a 66 grille in it...as for the running issue and the PO...thats hillarious...I would almost feel guilty for getting it at the bargain price you prolly paid. I like the color too...my interior is blue :-)


Welcome to the best Ford truck forum out there.


- cs65

 

Love the lists of options. Thanks. The woven seat was a surprise when we removed the fitted sheet but it was almost totally rotted out. Right now we've got a quote to have the inside done for $500. Hopefully I'll be able to see over the steering wheel once the seat is fixed.

We did get it at a bargain since he threw it in with the motorcycle and yeah, guilt set in but the YJ was pretty dang cool so I got over it.

 

Very cool score! Great looking truck! It's nice to start with one so un-molested. As mentioned, the grill has been changed, but is my personal fav. You are totally set, cool , Jeep, cool old truck, all is well. As you've seen, the guys on this forum are awesome. There is so much knowledge and experience here...is a real lifesaver sometimes! Anyway, you have a cool, hard workin truck there!