New to the board

[patternmakerbob]

HI guys and a few girls (where were you when I was single?). I have visited this site many times in the past but didn't become a member because I didn't have a truck. I have had (4) 67-72 chevy trucks in the past and now I do again. Click on avatar to see my one pic. Haven't figured out how to paste a pic in the middle of the message.??

I am most impressed with how no matter the question the members have an answer.

First off NEVER buy anything off ebay without going through ebay. Most of you understand what I am saying. I found my truck on ebay and asked if there was a "buy it now price" I was told there was and I was excited. He called me and told me he couldn't change it the auction to "buy it now" because he had less than 10 feed backs. I found out later that this was bullsh#t. I made the deal anyways.

71 Chevy hugger orange, white top, longbed. 454 3 speed on the floor . Power steering.

The seller told me he would drive it from Gentry AR to Joplin, MO and it could make it the rest of the way home to STL with no problem.

I met him at the flying J in Joplin and had the cash. I noticed he trailered it but was just not thinking after 6 hours of driving with the kids. They were hungry and the wife just wanted the deal over so we could eat.

We started it and took it for a test drive. I put on the emergency brake and the seller had to get under it with a hammer to get the wheel loose. He told me "we don't use that much". OK no big deal, just the E brake sticks right?

He had brought his wife and she was very nice. They seemed like honest people and boasted how she drove the truck frequently, rrrright. The collectors on the headers were leaking and he told me about "open header night" when they close off main st. and the cops let you cruise with open headers and do burnouts. "As long as you don't get too crazy" UHHH OK where DO they draw the line for safety in Arkansas? I soon found out.


I drove it to the hotel Saturday night and knew there was going to be some work ahead of me.

None of the guages worked! even though the seller told me the fuel and temp did work. I got under them to see nothing hooked up. OH boy. I went to Orieley's in Joplin at 9 am. and was going to put a temp guage in so I could monitor it on the way home. I also fixed the shock on the left rear that was hanging and replaced the top radiator hose, neck and thermostat.

I noticed the tires were chunked out on the rear and dry rotted on the front, no spare. I took it to Firestone in Joplin for a set of new tires for the drive home. When they removed the wheels all hell broke loose. The master cylinder was not holding fluid in the rear reservoir, so it was replaced. When they tried to bleed the brakes the rear drive wheel had a brake line that was cut and crimped (guess for burn out night.?? Way to go, thanks for telling me, I could have rear ended my own family on the way home, dumb*ss) Tried to bleed them again and the wheel cylinders leaked. The drums were taken off and on the passenger side the parts literally fell to the floor (uhh burn out night was fun??)
So I had the back brakes replaced. The kid doing the work, Josh was really good. He noticed the rubber fuel lines were dry rotted and leaking. So they were replaced along with the fuel filter. I also had them change the oil since I was going to drive it 300 miles home. They couldn't complete the work on Sunday night so we had to stay in the hotel again. This meant my kids would miss school on Monday. That's when you are a redneck. Your kids miss school because of an old chevy truck purchase.

Total Cost at Firestone $698 , very fair in my opinion for all that work and new tires! Truck was ready to roll on Monday around noon. I would have done the work myself but I was staying at the Hampton and it was raining outside.

I drove it to Springfield (1 hour) and realized the rear end was going to have to be changed. It is way too low, 4/11, 4/10??. The truck would run ok but back fire occasionally.

I stopped in Orieleys in springfield, mo and bought a timing light. To my surprise, not, it was way off. I timed it and it ran much better.

We got on the highway and came up on an 18 wheeler. I had to hit the gas a little hard to pass and it started backfiring really bad. So bad in fact that it blew the hoses off the quadrajunk. I put the hoses back on but it ran horrible.

Quadrajunk 0, backfire 1.

We stopped in St. Roberts and found an autozone. I bought an edelbrock 600 with electric choke and put it on in the parking lot, 48 minutes flat thank you.

We ate at taco bell and got back on the highway around 9 pm. The truck backfired very bad and died on the highway. I made it maybe 10 miles to dolittle, Mo and called for a tow. I was done, nothing else was open. Guess the wires were crossfiring.??

The tow cost me $250 and we got home at 1 am Tuesday.
All toll it cost me over $2000 to get it home, but at least I have some new parts.

Wife is freaking p*ssed. I am in deep financially and it still isn't running.
I have some work to get finished with my business before I mess with it again.

First will be a compression test and if that is good then complete tune up and new ignition.

Going to put in Oriely guages and make a nice cluster out of Cherry. It will be awesome and at a fraction of the cost.

Wow I typed alot.
Bob

[68 short step]

bet your wife is mad at you, alot.......
paint/body looks to be in good shape....
post some progress pics when you're aloud to go work on it again. whats your plans for it?
and welcome

[msgross]

Hope it works out, welcome to the board.

Lesson learned for everyone..BORROW A BUDDIES TRAILER... I rented a U-haul to pick mine up but it was never supposed to make the trip home. Sucks that the guy lied, hope the wife lets you out of the doghouse soon, winters coming....

oh yeah, to post pics you need to click on the little paperclip or press "Go Advanced" and do the same. Pics need to be smaller than 100K so you have to resize it (use paint or any other program) then post it.

[patternmakerbob]

Plans are to drive it. Change the rear end and the seat, has a cool tweed seat now but I want a grey late model comfortable seat. Maybe new wiring harness and vintage air in April.

Show trucks are nice but I want mine a little rough. But it should run and be safe!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the advice on the pics. The KB on my pics are running in the 850's. Guess I will have to figure out how to change that.

Bob

[LUV2XCLR8]

From West TN

[krue]

Welcome to the board, wow what a story!

[centsless]

Great story....bad deal...why cant everybody just be honest, someone could have gotten hurt or worse because of someones dishonesty. geez
anyway, welcome to the board, and I hope to see pics soon!
Bob

[msgross]

open the pics up in MS Paint (right click on pic and select edit), Image then Stretch/Skew (Cntrl-W), adjust stretch on both Vert and Horiz to less than 100% (50 maybe?) then resave. see how many Kb's your at and then post away. I like to keep original pics normal size then open another folder for the copies that I resize (post here, email etc...). Good luck

[Pl4yboy]

Also try saving as PNG or JPEG. JPEG reduces quality a little but definitely reduces file size. PNG maintains the original quality.

[patternmakerbob]

Wow Thanks I didn't know I would get computer lessons on here as well.

[krue]

That's a good looking truck.

[msgross]

nice truck to start with, and a BB too! mind if i ask what it cost ya?

There is actually a computer area to ask ANY computer related ?'s...

[patternmakerbob]

ebay Item number: 200045072301
Met him in Joplin, MO
$2500 sale price
$1500 in repairs and tow
$500 in hotels and food.
$400 in pampering money spent by wife at mall during repairs.
and a love affair with my hand that may last for 6 months, because she is really upset.

[msgross]

Originally Posted by patternmakerbob

and a love affair with my hand that may last for 6 months, because she is really upset.

The ad does say "runs good, drive home" but he didn't say drive home in the truck!

At least you still have Cardinals baseball to brighten the mood!

[corn]

Originally Posted by patternmakerbob

ebay Item number: 200045072301
Met him in Joplin, MO
$2500 sale price
$1500 in repairs and tow
$500 in hotels and food.
$400 in pampering money spent by wife at mall during repairs.
and a love affair with my hand that may last for 6 months, because she is really upset.

I smell a priceless joke here.

Oh & SWEET BB. If you are happy with it now it was all worth it...

[patternmakerbob]

Body is far from perfect. But for STL standards the truck is not rusted out by any means.
I am sure it will work out. I plan on putting a rear bumper on it. Looking for a simple factory one. No tow hitch area.

Grill and bowtie are new. Bezel??? needs to be replaced it is beat up.

I will probably put a snap on tonneu cover back on to fill the holes and I can use one anyway.

[FleetsidePaul]

Take your wife to the local Chevy dealer and show her the price of a new Silverado.
That should help calm her down and get you back in good graces.

Nice truck . gotta love a big block!

[BarryB]

Nice truck! from Northeast Tenn.

[Longhorn Man]

I love storys like that. None of mine have been that expensive to get home...but the stories are always priceless.
On the skin, it looks like a nice rig, and from the poor body woork filling in the snap holes, I'd suspect it'd be easy to spot any other repairs he made.
Is the option sheet still in the glove box? What all is listed on it?
As for your running bad part... I would take a good look for a burned plug wire soince they are just flopping around close to the headers. I would also remove that EGR valve and make a block off plate, one that is screwing up can cause all kinds of problems like backfiring. Plus, I'm 99% positive you don't need one on one of these trucks anyways. (assuming your area even looks for that kind of stuff)
Either way, you have come to the best place to get info, welocme to the board.
PS... don't throw that seat away when you replace it... there's a few ppl here that would love to get there grubby mitts on that seat.

[Palf70Step]

Looks to be a nice truck. Know the feeling, I bought a 69 to drive while I worke on my 70 and it died on the way home also. Oh well we live and learn. Welcome to the board.

[49studebaker]

It is a very good story(hey, at least I found it entertaining) I've lived stuff like that for years, never quite that expensive though. I can just see the look on your wifes face. She is still thinking about the part when you were telling her it wouldn't be that expensive to get an old truck up and running. I always feel bad for people when I see them broke down or getting towed home and they still got the paper license plate from the cheapo car lot stuck to their rig.