1965 Second Series D100 Custom Sport Special
426 Street Wedge
Owned by Steve & Carolyn Bell
1205 S. 276th Pl.
Des Moines, WA 98198
Restored by Steve and Casey Bell
Originally owned by Fred B. Lang (Carolyn’s Father)
November 18, 2003
Fred Lang owned a 1964 Dodge D100 CCS with a 413-ci engine. When he found out about the new 65 _ model coming out with a longer wheel base and a wider tailgate he knew it was what he needed to haul his camper, boat and family of seven over the Cascade mountains to their favorite camping spot.
Fred special ordered this truck from BBC Dodge in Seattle, Washington early in 1965. The new model was being introduced in spring of that year. He ordered the truck with every conceivable option including the 426 street wedge engine. He didn’t know it then, but he was ordering one of the rarest Dodge pickups ever to be built. So few were built that they didn’t even keep production numbers. Fred became very frustrated with the delays and excuses on delivering his special Toreador Red pick-up. Only later did we find out the real reasons for all of the delays. His "baby" was delivered to BBC Dodge in August of 1965. Fred sold the 1964 413 to his brother.

This truck came to personify Fred Lang. Fred was a self made man with a less than high school education. Educated in the school of hard knocks Fred became one of the more successful homebuilders in King County Washington. Everyone knew Fred was coming when he drove up in his bright red, and fast, Dodge truck. He loved to take it to Seattle International Raceways and compete in the bracket races. He turned more than a few heads with ET’s in the low 14’s and high 13’s.
The truck has always been special to our family. When I married Carolyn I went to work for Fred. I used to drive the truck on material and dump runs. Through the years the truck has always been garaged. My son, Casey, admired the truck from the time he was small. When he was a senior in high school he was allowed to purchase the truck with the promise that he would not sell it outside of the family. Casey was the one who started researching the truck and found out how special it really was. When Casey went off to college he found that and an old truck with a gas-guzzling engine was not the most practical vehicle for him. I purchased the truck from Casey and stored it for a couple of years until I was ready to start working on it. I was finishing up a frame off on a 1953 Chevy pickup that I had retrieved from my fathers homestead in Montana.

Casey and I started taking the truck down in the fall of 2001. We completely dismantled the truck down to the frame. Every mechanical part on the truck has been rebuilt or restored. The 426 was taken apart, balanced, blueprinted and reassembled with the original heads and manifolds. The rear-end, transmission, power steering, power brakes, tachometer and complete drive train have been rebuilt. The truck was painted the original Toreador Red color. All of the bright work was re-chromed. The interior was restored to original condition. The black racing stripes were applied. The only thing I could not bring myself to do was to put the original style wheels and tires back on the truck. It looks a lot better with the heritage American Racing Torque Trust wheels.



Back to why it took so long to deliver the truck originally. The 426 high performance package on the newly re-designed 1965-second series truck was an after thought. When the truck came down the assembly line they actually had to take the truck off the line and send it to a special shop. There they had to modify the frame (they literally torched the transmission frame cross member), build special motor mounts, build a new transmission cross member, install torque rods for the 3:91 posi-traction rear end, modify the cab to allow clearance for the exhaust manifold (they just pounded out a dent in the firewall), install the add on power steering and power brakes. I can’t verify this, but I believe that after building our truck the Dodge engineers said no more. In 1966 (which came out one month later in September of 1965) you could buy the same truck but with the 318 as the largest power plant available.

This truck comes with all of the supporting tags and documentation that verify it as an original 426 Custom Sport Special. We have the SERT (Special Equipment Release Truck) sticker and the data plate that says "SPECIAL" for the horsepower rating.

Our goal was to complete the truck for Casey to drive his bride, Andrea, away from their wedding on September 20, 2003. We finished the truck one day before the wedding. Yes, he exceeded the speed limit as he drove to the reception. I’ve promised my father-in-law that he can take the truck down the strip next spring. You can be sure that at 78 years old he’ll try his best to beat his ET’s from the 60’s.