1964 Chevy Wrecker (life long dream) build.

1-SHOT · Sep 22, 2020

I sell a LS swap

Greg Rogers · Nov 2, 2020

Keep up the good work. I really like it!

woodbutcher · Nov 4, 2020

Very nice Sir.Thanks for posting.I`ll saddle up and go along for the ride.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

BrandonBerkosky · Mar 17, 2021

1-SHOT said: ↑

I sell a LS swap
Click to expand...

Yeah. Not H.A.M.B. friendly so I didn’t want to mention it. Not sure how to feel about it but I don’t have anything against modern drivetrains.

Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

SS327 · Mar 26, 2021

Too bad I did not know about this build. I have a 64 c60 wrecker sitting in my back yard. Ashton wrecker body, Tulsa winch and extendable boom. I used to tow trucks and busses for my buddy’s junkyard. I have all kinds of transmissions and parts. You did one hell of a job on it!

John Z · Jan 29, 2024

BrandonBerkosky said: ↑

I built this truck over the winter and finished it in February 2020.

I think a lot of us have that old story of “the gas station I hung out at when I was a kid”. That’s where mine begins.
I’m from northeast pa near Scranton. There was this place called Taylor auto exchange. Run by the two guys who started it in 1958. They had about 11 acres and they hadn’t crushed anything since 1970ish so there was cars as old as the 1920s back there.
It was amazing I would go back there every single day after school and look at the same cars over and over again. All my fathers cars were there, my uncles cars. Basically a majority of the cars that were junked in Taylor old Forge and moosic since 1958.
They finally sold the cars for iron and crushed everything in between 1999 and 2000. I was 13. Out back is all just woods now. The Texaco building and the gas pumps remain ready to be leased

They opened in 58. So in 1958 they bought a 51 Chevy with a weld built wrecker body.
They ran that truck until the 51 Ch***is had enough of the northeast Pennsylvania winters. My uncle tells me sometime in the 60s they swapped the body over to 1957 Chevy cab and ch***is. Lather rinse and repeat it rotted away again and the wrecker body ended up on a 1964 ch***is. Where it remains. In the early 80s the 292 quit and they dropped in a 68 camaro 327.

Then Roy and John decided to sell the truck as the junkyard was closed and the sling was obsolete. I was too young and my father would not let me buy the truck. They wanted $1500. John Santioni actually talked my father out of it. He said something like “come on Dan. The kid is 13. What are you going to do with it”?

It was sold to a local hoarder for $400. He drove it a mile up the road to his unofficial junkyard where it remains as it has since 2001.

I never forgot about that truck. I stopped thinking about it everyday. Maybe I didn’t think about it for a whole year sometimes. But it always stayed in my mind. I tried, unsuccessfully, many times to buy it over the years. Big Ted always sends me packing. I would sneak onto his property at night. The paths through the culm dumps would take you right to it. I would just stare at it and think of my next attempt to buy it.

Last fall I was looking on Facebook marketplace and there was a green 1964C 50. The exact truck I needed. I tried to stifle my excitement and tell myself forget about it. A few days went by, But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I showed my father the truck and he said Bran you’ve been dreaming about this truck for 20 years why don’t you just do it. Buy it and build your own. Forget about that other one. So there we were driving to Binghamton at midnight on a Sunday to pick up the truck.

So then I went down to see the original and I took a few pages of notes and I drew the bed out and wrote down all the measurements the best I could. Took a bunch of pictures of areas of important detail.

So here’s the build thread showing my version of the 1964 Taylor auto Chevy with late 40s early 50s weldbuilt B5 boom and streamline body.

Here is the original in 2000

2008

2019

Click to expand...

That's really cool. I used to hang out with a guy that used to work for Taylor auto in the late 60's - probably drove the original truck.

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1964 Chevy Wrecker (life long dream) build.

1-SHOT
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from Denton

Greg Rogers
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from Central Michigan

woodbutcher
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from LaFollette Tn

BrandonBerkosky

SS327

John Z

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1964 Chevy Wrecker (life long dream) build.

1-SHOT Member from Denton

Greg Rogers Member from Central Michigan

woodbutcher Member from LaFollette Tn

BrandonBerkosky

SS327

John Z

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1-SHOT
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from Central Michigan

woodbutcher
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from LaFollette Tn