'65 4wd tires

[75gmc454]

I found a good original 4wd long wheel base stepside near where I live, so I bought it. It is a neat old truck, 283 three speed on the column. It still has its original hubcaps.

The truck needs new tires. I want to eventually do an original restoration.

I wanted to know what kind of tires the truck would have had when it was new. It was never in snow country. The truck was bought new at Check Chevrolet in Baird, Texas.

I want to put a tire on it as close to original as possible.

Thanks.

[TwoFiftyShifter]

3 on the tree 4x4? Wow that's neat....

[75gmc454]

Thanks Ron.
I don't want to get to picky, but I want the truck to look kind of right when I get through with it.

[justcuz]

Does it have split rims? My 63 did when I bought it and it had street tread truck tires on it. If you go online you may find some old truck brochures and you can look at 4x4's and see what was on them. I have a brochure from 1962 at home and the tires were pretty much mud and snow tires.

[Joey~AP]

There is a thread in the 4x4 section that have some original pix. You mite get some info there.

[LILRED66]

Coker Tire is a great resource for vintage truck tires. They can tell you the original size, type and design. Good luck.

[jgh64pkup]

i live about 35 miles from baird

[75gmc454]

Thanks for all of the ideas.
The spare is an old bfgoodrich, it could be original, but who knows. I can check with coker, they will probably know.

It is a three on the tree, with a 3.73 axle ratio.

I will post some pics of it as soon as I can.

jgh64pkup have you ever heard of that dealership. The bumper of the truck has the dealership name and location. It is probably long out of business.

[jgh64pkup]

they have a new name or it could be an entirely different company
link

[justcuz]

You don't see too many 3 spd 4x4's. Iv'e seen a few. My friend in high school and college ended up with a 292 powered 3spd 3/4 ton 4x4. Wierd combo especially since it had 4.56 gears in it. His crawl ratio was not all that great so we installed a sm420 in it out of a 2wd. What was cool is it came from a 1 ton so it had the parking brake on the back of the transmission. We kept that on it and had the new drive flange and u joint installed on the old shaft.
Since the t-case was divorced it was an easy swap.

[75gmc454]

Yeah it has 3.73 gears, just imagine first gear in my truck. Man, even in low range the truck still moves fast in first.

The truck still has the original owners manual. It has all of the torque and horsepower ratings listed. The 292 six actually has more net power and torque than my 283 v8 truck has.

After looking at the spare, I think it is original. I will post some pics tomorrow.

[LILRED66]

With a 3-speed manual, where does the 4x4 transfer case shifter mount? On the 4-speed trucks it mounts on the SM420 or SM465 tranny case and the shifter handle protrudes through the high hump.

[ol Curt]

Some pics would be nice too!!

[75gmc454]

I will be glad to look and take some pics of the setup for you. The shifter handle is in the center of the hump right in front of the seat. I will check the mounting position of the linkage.

This truck is a good one to look at, because it is all original.

[75gmc454]

The spare tire is not a BFGoodrich, it is a Uniroyal fleetmaster Deeplug.

The shifter mechanism bracket bolts to two of the tailshaft housing bolts on the transmission. I could not get any pics of it tonight, but I will as soon as I can. My batteries in my camera died and I could not find any new ones. I managed to get a few pics before the camera quit.

[justcuz]

Wow, that baby is the closest truck to original I have seen in a long time. My 63 was the same color originally and I converted it to a stepside after hitting a tree in a wood hauling incident that wiped out a bedside. Nice truck! Mine had 3.73's in it also, which I think was the standard gearset for 1/2 ton 4x4's of the era.

[62 short step]

Nice 4x4! My brother in laws 63 4x4 has a three speed also. My 61 4x4 came with the sm 420, it has a 700 r4 in now though.

[joe231]

cool truck!!!

[75gmc454]

Thanks guys. The old truck drives like a new one. Except for the flat spots on the tires, and it being low on power.

The 283 needs a rebuild. It looks like it has never been out of the truck. It is missing, so I ran a compression test. I know it was on number 3, and it had no compression.

The truck has a 525AA paint code if I remember, but not sure. But I know for sure it is called fawn, which is a 65 only color. There is a picture of a truck on the site in this color. It is a good bit darker than you would think. My truck is just faded so bad that it looks almost like white in some places.

I am going to paint the truck as soon as I get some time to work on it. A little white paint on the grille and hubcaps, and it will look like new again, hopefully!

[justcuz]

Chevy used the same color for many years and just changed the name. My 63was very close to your color. Not sure what the name was. Marina blue on a 69 Camaro is the same color as Lemans blue on a 66/67 Chevelle. Lots of different names for the same color. Those guys in art and design had to do something to earn their paycheck!

You may just have a burnt valve on number 3. If it does not use a lot of oil or burn much you may get away with a valve job.

[75gmc454]

I agree. The quote I made came from another post under the title of original colors or something.

I have all of the chrome, bumpers and the grille off of the truck now getting it ready to be painted.

Where does the interior color begin. On mine it is hard to tell because both colors are so close. It looks like the complete inside of the doors are painted the interior color. On the cab it looks like everything outside of the rubber door seal is body color and everthing inside of the door seal is interior color. Am I right????

[justcuz]

[Where does the interior color begin. On mine it is hard to tell because both colors are so close. It looks like the complete inside of the doors are painted the interior color. On the cab it looks like everything outside of the rubber door seal is body color and everthing inside of the door seal is interior color. Am I right????[/QUOTE]

Yes as I recall that is correct. Outside the weather stripping is body color, inside is interior color. The seperation is at the pinch on the panels that the rubber goes over.

[pulltilbroke]

Thats a neat old truck ya got, kinda odd seein a 3 spd in a 4x

[factorystock]

Nice truck to do a restoration on! Most 4x4's had a rough life. Most 4x4 1/2 ton came with the optional 6.50x 16 tire for extra ground clearance(6.70x15 standard(today 7.00x15). Some even have the very rare 7-17.5 tire (8-17.5 today) optional tire for the maximum ground clearance. 16" and 17.5" were common on goverment ordered 4x4's. The Fawn exterior paint is different from the interior medium fawn metallic all 1965 trucks had. The 65 Fawn exteror paint was used only in 1965. It is true there was a Desert beige (62-63) very similar but is a slightly different shade and has a different paint formula.The 64 Fawn color is very different and has a lot of white in it. The 64-65 light green is similar to the 66 light green, but is a shade off and also has a different paint formula.This is also true of the light blue. The 60-63 light blue is different than the 64-66 light blue and has different paint formula. I love to see restored original color trucks,there are many great forgotten colors covered in repaints.At shows, the torch reds and corvette yellows get a little boring.On some East coast assembly plants the firewall and door jambs were painted the interior color. Most most Midwest and all WestCoast assembly plant trucks, the firewall and door jambs were painted exterior color.

[justcuz]

Very good info, interesting about the breaks in the paint between factories too!