Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

I know plenty of you guys have bought a truck that looked good, etc. Make the deal, get home and upon further investigation you find things that make you go what the...i exprienced one of those tonight. Spent some time on the 70. Started looking at the wiring, its a wack mess. I trace this random phone wire from close to my battery all the way across the radiator support, around the fender well, through the fire wall, and tied to the bottom of the screwed in cup holder. The more i dig the more i face palm. Who else has found good stuff before when investigating a new toy?
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Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

Well, I found out my 350 was a 305 and it had frozen up and cracked at some point and one of the previous owners JB welded it back together:( PICTURES

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

I found a lot on my first truck....since then I've been MUCH more thorough on checking out trucks before buying unless the deal is too good to pass up no matter what the shape ;)

First truck the tranny wasn't bolted to the crossmember at all...and there was only one bolt in each engine stand...and the rubber mount bolt that holds the block to the frame stands was loose on one and no bolt at all on the other....seems the driveshaft was keeping the engine from sliding back since the tranny wasn't bolted either ;)
That and a really hacked wiring harness with live exposed wires in three places that I guessed must have been for the radio at some point...

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

My 67 K10 has/had some serious issues, namely bondo over rust and just cluster-f***ed everything, including the wiring. It's a miracle that thing ran at all. Now it's just waiting for its final demise...

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

O man I've been there its ridiculous what POs do...
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Had my dad pick up a 68 shortbed for me and he didnt check it out very well. Owner said i could drive it home. Here is the frame.

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

Thats the worst frame i have ever seen! Thats the way these old trucks are though, never know what you end up with! Joseph

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

After taking out the rubber floor mat in my jimmy i noticed a large blob of seam sealer on the passenger floor. A year later when i took the top off for the first time in the trucks life i swung my the po's to show him. He was the second owner and had bought it in the early 70s. When he saw the blob on the floor he remember the orriginal owner telling him he shot a hole through it when he threw the gun inside in a hurry!

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I got my 72 home and found out it was a long bed, not a shortbed. PO did a great job of hiding all the signs for me. But just can't blame him, I'm the retard for not paying close enough attention.
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Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

Well, I guess first truck is always the worst. Mine, the PO didn't really hide anything so much as I just didn't check it thoroughly. I should have known that a dockyard truck would have salt on it and be rusted out bad. Cab mounts were rusted through, bed members were hollow, heck I could read the paper through the bed (the bedliner covered it up). The electrical system had a bunch of house connections, or even better just wrapped in electrical tape...

it was a glorious, expensive, learning-experience mess...now I want another one :(

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

This is where people who say original vs not doesn't matter in value can be proven wrong. I'm not talking about high-end big money trucks. Of course,when the stakes are that high you better know what you're getting while the money is still in the bank. When I buy a truck I either look for "unmolested" and as close to "original" or plunk down some hundreds and get what I get figuring on laying my hands all over it before I'm through.
I had a near catastrophe once on a truck I bought 2,500 miles from home. It was rare,unrestored,and original paint with a solid body and that was all I really cared about. "Drive anywhere" the seller claimed and I almost flew out and drove back,but ended up shipping. I watched the transport driver have to start the truck in gear to get off the truck because it had no clutch left. I tried to take it to get gas by sync shifting but at 40 mph (less than a mile away) the tires started hopping up and down like a basketball because the ball joints were so bad. Then,I decided to drive it to my shop using back roads and a lot of patience,but going up this steep hill (less than a mile the other way) it bogged down real bad in fourth. Shifting to third it about stopped.I got out and felt the calipers and they were hot hot...frozen up. So,before I could drive this truck I could "drive anywhere" I had to put a clutch in,rebuild the front end,and rebuild the brakes. The truck was just worn out and still looked good.

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

My frame on my GMC is a Hot Mess...But we is about to fix that....I did get it for a good price and since it had been in AZ all its life, the rest of the body was super straight. My burb had the Bondo Bandit go off on the rear quarters, got that fixed (Earl is DA MAN). I did drop a deal that a guy was trying to sell a SWB and said it was drivable, got there and a trailing arm along with the drive shaft was broken, still trying to figure out how it was drivable...Serial numbers didnt match the title, title wasnt even close to what the truck year was, another Hot Mess.

On the good side, these trucks are really easy to repair as long as you have some skill and there is plenty of after market support...Try to find parts for a 71 C body Chrysler...Now that is a challenge....


Smitty

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

Recently, bought a truck on the boards here. PO must have sent me a 100 pictures of everything I asked for. I was pretty nervous, but bought it anyways.

Well, after pulling the front sheetmetal, I find that the drivers kick panel and firewall have been worked hard.. Rust on the very outer edge of the firewall. So I decide to pull the interior. Find the seam that holds the toe and floor boards together is totally rotted away. Pull the gas tank and find that the floor has rotted through on the hump portion. Pull the speedo and find that the cowl and inner cowl have rotted through, along with portions above the air vent that connects the kickpanel and cowl together.

Needless to say, I'm still thinking whether to fix this cab or look for another.. Really, didn't want to get into this mess, but I will know better next time.

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

I dare say just about everybody at one time or another

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

It can be a slippery slope when you buy used....even trickier when you buy from a 'distance'.
If the truck looks like a great deal you feel compelled to act quickly which often means not taking (or having?) the time to get into a lot of detail.
I'd rather pursue a truck that is not under a lot of 'pressure' by a low appearing cost. I'd rather pursue a truck that looks like its priced fairly where I have more time to check it out and make sure it is exactly consistent with a good price....then try to present a respectful offer to the seller to get it closer to a 'nice' price.
I never expect perfection and I always expect I will be doing some things to it but I just want that work/upgrade stuff to be in line with what I pay for the truck.
Lesson/Point: if it appears to be a real/great price and deal....be very, very, very careful, because you will be excited and slightly compelled to act quickly and possibly irresponsibly;)
My two bits.
Coley

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

I can honestly say that I have never gotten burn, it helps that I have been in the auto business for 25 + years so it is really hard for me to miss a problem....

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

My is far from a burn, i feel i burned the po buying mine for 950, he sold it to me that cheap because the truck had been many first vehicles to different kids throughout the years he knew, but he knew that i would be the only one to give it a good life, no longer as a work truck, but a beefed up streetrod truck. but sometimes you can only wonder what they were thinking when they did what they did. Probably the last kid that had it. Im still sorta a kid, just with some common sense...ish.
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Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

I did buy a '70 Challenger back 10 years ago and it turned out to be an R/T after getting it home and checking the vin.

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

110 volt house wall switch wired in under the dash for kill switch. '72 Nova.

Bare end of HEI run wire looped over a pan screw driven in the J-box. Truck ran fine. '71 C10

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

When i bought my 72 the frame looked perfect, surface rust but no rot. Well, a few weeks ago i unbolted the helper spring stoppers to sand blast and paint them, there was a 3 inch crack right through the frame on the right rear stopper. Then i found a spot that was patched with bondo and painted brown to cover a hole in the top shock mount cross member.

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

:) That's awesome!!

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

Yup... happened to me on a '67 C10. I didn't learn my lesson and it happened again on a '71 Jeep CJ5. Glutton for pumishment, and I still didn't learn on a '63 C10.

I've learned my lesson now... :) I wikes my '72 GMC! :metal:

Gary

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

My best was a 93 blazer I bought. Got it for $1400. Said it had a freshly rebuilt motor but they couldnt get it to run due to wiring issues. Everything looked legit as far as engine rebuild, but had major wiring problems. Got it home and fixed a under hood wiring mess. Fired right up but....... sounded like every rod in motor was knocking.

Yanked engine and come to find out the genius who rebuilt it used standard pistons and rings with it being .30 over and standard rod and main bearings with crank being turned. I was beyond disbelief. Put it back together with correct parts and a trip to machine shop to check it over. Ran like a champ.

Later found out truck had mismatched axle gear ratios in it too the first time it snowed and I used 4wd. About freaking ditched it on the ordeal.

Re: Who's bought a truck and then found...
 

I bought a 72 cheyenne super swb 4x4 actually traded a really nice 54 ford 2 door wagon with nova sub-frame and 350/350turbo drivetrain plus some cash for this truck....body had rust but nothing really serious, got it home and started to disassemble for frame off and found that po had used chicken wire and bondo to fill softball size holes around 7 of 8 spring hangers frame was toast and almost impossible to find swb 4x4 frame...I was so disgusted I keep what was worth keeping and scraped the rest