Todd Parker's 1965 Chevy 4 x 4 Fleetside Longbed

27 March 2006
# 1482

From Todd :

       Howdy.  I wanted to send a couple more photos that show some of the finished parts of my Stovebolt.  Thanks for the chance to show the results of our hard work!  These new photos show the the new shocks and stabilizer links for the front suspension and a few more finishing details. 

       Still finished, just working on details. Good thing -- I have spent three times more than I budgeted for the restoration! Bad P&L management on my part!

       Your site is awesome and I love checking in at least once a week.

Todd Parker
"paraquat"
Bolter # 10672
Houston, Texas

       This picture that Todd sent is one of my favorite angles, so I needed to keep this one big! ~~ Editor

29 May 2006 Update -- Happy Memorial Day. Let us all remember those who have gone before ...

From Todd:

       It is

F I N I S H E D !!

       Since I submitted the original photos, we’ve now finished the truck! It has just short of 400 horsepower and is a factory original 4 x 4. We didn’t stay completely pristine in our restoration, but it is very fast. Goes zero to sixty in about 4 seconds, but takes about 60 seconds to go from sixty to zero! Got some brake work to do!

       Hope your viewers enjoy.

Todd Parker
"paraquat"
Bolter # 10672
Houston, Texas

27 March 2006
# 1482

From Todd:

       Here are the before and after photos of my 65 Chevy 4 x 4 Fleetside Longbed. I bought the truck in 2000 for $300. A friend of mine had bought it at an auto auction and only wanted the tires that were on it. It had no engine and a big hole in the rear end cover.

       I took it home and put it in my garage in Houston, Texas, where the rust proceeded to eat away at it until I finally decided to restore it in January of this year (2006).

       My son, Stephen, needed a car to drive to school and the thought of another car parked by the curb while the garage was filled with the rusting carcass of the '65 truck was not good. After a discussion, we decided to do a ‘rush’ restore on it and rolled the truck onto the driveway on January 29, 2006.

       We stripped the truck, removed the bed, kicked out the old wood, primed and painted the truck.

       I drove race cars for over 15 years, so I had a ton of old 350 Chevy parts at the engine shop. I commissioned a 375 horsepower (you don’t want to give a 16 year old boy too much horsepower!) engine built. The truck was missing the engine and crossmember so we fashioned an engine mount system from ½” steel and used race car tab-style motor mounts and slid the motor in front of the 4 speed toploader transmission.

       New bed wood and bed strips were installed. The seats were removed and recovered. Put in new carpet, new glove box door, new steering wheel, new rear end gear and added many, many other parts. Here's an interior shot ... before and after.

       We’re already have people stopping while driving by asking about the truck and we haven’t even drive it yet. Can’t wait to get it on the road! We are soooo close to getting it running. We got it wired this weekend but have WAY too many wiring glitches for it to start. Will continue to week out the rat’s nest under the dash over the next few days.

Todd Parker
"paraquat"
Bolter # 10672
Houston, Texas