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Well my name is Ed Thomson and im 19 and this truth is about my first car. It all started when i was 13 when my dad and i started looking for my first car. we had been to see dart and dusters, and chargers, coronets any mopar that was in my little price range. so after a heartbreak of have a 67 GT dart with a 318 and buckets pulled out from under me i was bummed... well a week then a month then i turned 15. my dad (who is and has been a truck driver all his life) told me he found a car near our house! so that weekend he took me to see it, expecting to find another dart or something. but no it was this odd looking thing that had PLYMOUTH across the tail. it was a 65 Plymouth Belvedere II? i had never seen one and honestly thought it was ugly haha, me being 15 at the time hadn't had the taste yet. it had a old faded For Sale sign with 5K written on it. my dad could tell i was confused about what i was seeing. so we knocked on the door and the owner came out and we talked for an hr or so, getting the history and what not. my dad telling him it was for me and that the price was high so we would think about it. we after 5 visits i got him down to 3000 and she was home. so we rebuilt all the drum brakes and new brake lines. so while we got the car to where he felt it was safe enough i was getting my license and all that good stuff. so the time came that dad had to show me how to drive the beast, manual steering/brakes and a 3 speed column. took me a bit but i got it and it was great! so off to HS i went with my first car. so while i was driving the car everyday to school i was working two jobs (almost 45hrs a week), saving so i could build the motor. we picked up an Rv 440. i took it apart and cleaned, then polished the inside and outside of the whole motor. WOW! that was a lot of work. so after spending all the money i saved into the motor it came out a 505 wedge with edelbrock victor heads and an endless list of stuff i saved to get. so i put the motor together and then it all sat while i was at Wyotech. well chassis fabrication came around and then one of my teachers (Ryan Smith) showed us the movie of how the Funny Car Farm built that dart into an AWB. well by now i am a mopar or no car kinda guy and i have read as much as i could get on the AFX cars. and i had a chance to build one so i did, all thru chassis fab i converted the belvy to an A/FX car. i moved the rear Axle up 12" and the front torsion Bar suspension 10". pics below(i hope they work) so after spending 3 months of non stop working is was off to Street Rod where i had another great Teacher (Andy). he helped teach me how to make the inserts for my .25 panels and move the wheel well openings forward to match the new wheel base. this was another 3 months. so after alot of work and time i decided to move to AZ with my girlfriend, and the 65 came with of course, along with my daily driver 68 Dart with a built slant. now who ever reads should know there is alot of stuff left out so it will fit on one page but this has been an almost non stop project since i was a freshman in HS. and it still has a ways to go but it will always be my first, 65 Plymouth Belvedere.
![1965_Before_Body_Work[1].jpg](https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/1965_before_body_work-1-jpg.105530/ "1965_Before_Body_Work[1].jpg")
Well my name is Ed Thomson and im 19 and this truth is about my first car. It all started when i was 13 when my dad and i started looking for my first car. we had been to see dart and dusters, and chargers, coronets any mopar that was in my little price range. so after a heartbreak of have a 67 GT dart with a 318 and buckets pulled out from under me i was bummed... well a week then a month then i turned 15. my dad (who is and has been a truck driver all his life) told me he found a car near our house! so that weekend he took me to see it, expecting to find another dart or something. but no it was this odd looking thing that had PLYMOUTH across the tail. it was a 65 Plymouth Belvedere II? i had never seen one and honestly thought it was ugly haha, me being 15 at the time hadn't had the taste yet. it had a old faded For Sale sign with 5K written on it. my dad could tell i was confused about what i was seeing. so we knocked on the door and the owner came out and we talked for an hr or so, getting the history and what not. my dad telling him it was for me and that the price was high so we would think about it. we after 5 visits i got him down to 3000 and she was home. so we rebuilt all the drum brakes and new brake lines. so while we got the car to where he felt it was safe enough i was getting my license and all that good stuff. so the time came that dad had to show me how to drive the beast, manual steering/brakes and a 3 speed column. took me a bit but i got it and it was great! so off to HS i went with my first car. so while i was driving the car everyday to school i was working two jobs (almost 45hrs a week), saving so i could build the motor. we picked up an Rv 440. i took it apart and cleaned, then polished the inside and outside of the whole motor. WOW! that was a lot of work. so after spending all the money i saved into the motor it came out a 505 wedge with edelbrock victor heads and an endless list of stuff i saved to get. so i put the motor together and then it all sat while i was at Wyotech. well chassis fabrication came around and then one of my teachers (Ryan Smith) showed us the movie of how the Funny Car Farm built that dart into an AWB. well by now i am a mopar or no car kinda guy and i have read as much as i could get on the AFX cars. and i had a chance to build one so i did, all thru chassis fab i converted the belvy to an A/FX car. i moved the rear Axle up 12" and the front torsion Bar suspension 10". pics below(i hope they work) so after spending 3 months of non stop working is was off to Street Rod where i had another great Teacher (Andy). he helped teach me how to make the inserts for my .25 panels and move the wheel well openings forward to match the new wheel base. this was another 3 months. so after alot of work and time i decided to move to AZ with my girlfriend, and the 65 came with of course, along with my daily driver 68 Dart with a built slant. now who ever reads should know there is alot of stuff left out so it will fit on one page but this has been an almost non stop project since i was a freshman in HS. and it still has a ways to go but it will always be my first, 65 Plymouth Belvedere.
