From Father to Son
As of March, 2017, this truck is for sale. Please contact Mark Monaghan for details.
Mark had the following to say about his Rampside:
"I acquired this truck from my father 1998. He had found it in a barn in northern Minnesota, outside of Duluth. When my father first bought it, he attempted to drive it a short distance home but during the trip, the engine failed. He decided to replace the engine with one from a car. One of his friends took the original engine, or maybe it was scrapped--I am not sure.
Soon after, my father and mother decided to bring the truck to me in Florida by towing it behind their RV. Near Eau Clarie, Wisconsin, the RV's electrical system shorted out and they had to abandon the Rampside at a service station. I contacted a vehicle transport company and they accepted the job of bringing it to me in Titusville. A couple of weeks later, on the night I was to receive the Rampside (and see it for the first time), I got a phone call from the transport driver. He said to meet him with 'a couple of pairs of vice grips and a chain.' I also had a trailer, to move the Rampside to a storage area. When I met the driver, I realized why I needed the tools: During the trip, the rear engine mount bolt had fallen out and the engine was hanging down in the rear! The vise grips were to clamp the rear mount to the frame.
This Rampside had had a rough life and it was obvious that it had been driven mainly in Minnesota. The frame was completely rotted away (what frame there is in a Rampside) and I replaced it with 2" X 4" steel tube:
The bed bottom was nearly non-existent as well. I did the best I could to repalce the bed, frame, and ramp attachment structure. The interior of the bed was redone with aluminum plate. It is bolted to the frame with plastic spacers to limit corrosion from dissimilar metals. The front wheel wells are fiberglass due to the original ones being completely rotted away. The rear wheel wells are metal. A friend of mine at Ken's Autobody here in Titusville replaced the rotten parts of the ramp skin with metal. The ramp does work and is usable. And, of course, the driver's side lower panel was rotted away:
The front end and windshield areas were actually in good shape and are shown here almost ready for paint. I didn't think I would ever sand one thing so much!
The front windshield is new. I added a sliding back window and a sunroof:
The underside of the body was coated with a rust inhibitor. I installed rechromed front and rear bumpers.
I replaced the engine with one I purchased in 2000 at the 30th CORSA convention in Daytona. I did not rebuild it. I replaced the carburetors with a matched pair from Wolf Enterprises and I changed the oil pan to a Clark's model with a heavy-duty pickup. I replaced the points with an electronic pickup. Whomever rebuilt the engine installed the harmonic balancer 180 degrees off so I had to re-mark the top dead center position. In the following pictures, the mechanical fuel pump is still in place. I have since installed an electric pump. The pump is wired so that oil pressure must be present before it will operate.
The truck has a very good 4-speed transmission that I bought on eBay. I also replaced the clutch and cable at the same time, as well as the emergency brake and throttle cables.
I completely went through the front suspension and rebuilt or replaced everything, including the brakes and brake lines. I removed the gas tank and had it refurbushed, including a new sending unit and filter. In the rear, the brakes were rebuilt as well as the axle bearings and yokes, and new brake lines were installed, along with a dual master cylinder, and the system runs DOT5 fluid. I also installed new shocks all around.
I added several additional instruments under the dashboard: an oil pressure gauge, cylinder temperature gauge, charging voltage gauge; and on the column, a tachometer. There is also an oil temperature gauge that is inoperative. It needs a sensor installed in the oil pan but the wire is routed for the installation."
Information from the data plate
Description |
Description |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
STD |
Standard equipment |
5521CA |
White, solid color |
2 1964 |
February, 1964 (*) |
(Click on a heading in the table for more information on that item.)
(*) The dealer did not follow the prescribed format for the delivery date, which would be 02 4 for February, 1964.