Guess what I bought!!!!!!

[Yukon Jack]

With the outstanding assistance of Blazerboy, I now own a wrecked 1988 or 89 Chevy 1 Ton Crew Cab that just happens to have a running 454!

Blazerboy called me up a while ago and said this truck was sitting at a body shop just across the street from his work. Blazerboy went out of his way to track down the owner and made repeated trips to their house to assist me in purchasing this truck. Got the whole truck for $850. I'm about as excited as can be.

The trip to pick it up was very memorable. Being too cheap to call a wrecker, and knowing the U-haul dollies are not wide enough for a dually front end, I got the bright idea to use my round bale hay trailer, heck, it's darn strong I was thinking.

Well, get over to start the process last night with Blazerboy's assistance at about 6:15. Our first order of business was to get the front bumper and sheet metal out of the front tire. A few yanks and tugs with my truck and the fender and bumper were out of the way. We then took the flat front tire off and put on a spare tire that I had.

Next we started to survey our situation and see how we were going to get the truck on the hay trailer. I thought we could use my jack stands and super strong cinder blocks (kids don't try this at home) to get the truck in the air and then back the trailer under it. Jason (Blazerboy) borrowed my cell phone and called his life insurance agent to up his policy a few $100K and then he was game.

We soon discovered the truck was kinda heavy, go figure! We got the truck up on a cinder block and jack on each side, then when whe tried to get it a bit higher, we had a little cinder block disintegration. Nothing major, Jason did borrow my phone for another call to tell his parents that he loved them and that he wanted to be buried with his Blazer.

Well, Jason decided it was time for a modified plan and saw that if we took the wheels off the trailer, we could get it under the truck easier. That was a brillant idea and in no time at all the truck was sitting on the trailer. Course the trailer was unhooked from my truck so we had to then hitch it up.

As you may recall, my truck sits a little higher than stock and it took some serious jacking to get the trailer attached. I wouldn't say we had any near death experience on this part, but Jason did borrow my phone again.

Well, finally got it hitched to my truck and we notice the trailer had a slight, minute, bend. Ah, nothing to worry about, it's strong as hell.



As some of you might know, a 69 4x4 has a closed knuckle axle. They aren't exactly know as a tight turning axle. Turns out I had some serious backing up to do before we could get out of the parking lot. We started to back up and the darn truck shifted a little and the trailer tongue started to, uh, well, bend. In fact, darn thing bent so much that the 1 ton truck's front wheels were now contacting the pavement. Jason breaks out the wrench and we have the front tires in the back of the truck in a flash.

Fight backing up and turning for a while, notice the rain clouds approaching, and finally get somewhat turned around. Problem is where I got turned around to only left one exit path - through the back field of a business. Jason has had a few run in's with the guy who owns that business and they don't get along to well so he was just dying laughing as I take out through this guys field (it was just grass and I did no damage!)

We get to a exit street finally and the darn truck has slide so far on the trailer that the trailer wheel is hitting the fender. We use Jason's truck to pull the 1 ton over a bit, but as soon as we get going, it slides back over. So, here I am driving down the highway at about 5 mph, with smoke rolling off the trailer tire as little chunks of tire go flipping this way and that. I pull over and Jason walks up. We decide to limp up to a parking lot and try to get the truck back on the trailer correctly.

Using our brains, we (and by this time I was referring to us as Sanford and Son) grab our floor jacks, lift the truck up a little and then push the trailer over where it should be. Going 20 mph we plod on our way about 6-8 miles in the now dark night. We only had to stop one more time to jack the truck up and slide the trailer over.

It's now about 9:45, lightning, and we're thirsty and hungry so we stop at a Sonic. We order, the waitress hits on Jason, we eat and then we get on our merry way.

Make it home by about 10:00. Jason has me get a pry bar and we get the hood open. We expected more damage under the hood but it actually looks pretty promising. Jason says, give it a try so I hop in, turn the key and she fires right up!!!



Jason checks the oil pressure and at idle it was above 40.

Well, below is a link to more pics of the truck.

I will be posting a message shortly in the engine area for questions I have about swapping this into my 4x4.

Guess my story is over, Jason, don't forget to call your insurance guy and lower your limits!

http://yukon.b0xen.us/bigblock.html

[Randy70C-10]

Cool. Hey, you can turn your truck into a dually now!

[Classic Heartbeat]

What a great story and it sounds like you had a great time. Now what are you going to do with it now that you have it home? Will your wife like the new yard orniment? LOL Just kidding! Good luck with it... WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[BobbyK]

That was pertty d#mn funny,you tell a good story!Nice buy by the way.

[Yukon Jack]

It's going in my 69 4x4!!!!!!!!!

[68 Stepside]

Hilarious story, and sweet truck! Looks like the trailer's hurting a wee bit! At least you had a tough truck to pull it with. You should have seen the 1/2 ton swb dodge that pulled my panel home....if he would have gunned it, he could have pulled the front wheels easily...lol

BTW, what are those black streaks down the passenger door and fender

Once again, congrats, you lucky (&*%^@#*(&^()*! :p

TJ

[Yukon Jack]

Yea, the tire contacting the fender really cracked Jason up - he was saying, see you can smoke a tire with that old truck! Maybe with that 454 I will be able to make those swampers bark. We'll see about that.

As for being a lucky (&*%^@#*(&^()*!, I owe a huge thanks to Jason for the heads up on the truck and all the effort he put into making the deal happen and getting it home. That's his lowered Chevy in the picture. It's got a killer stance.

[Bamm]

I thought those kinds of stories only happened to me...........LOL....JB

[Longhorn Man]

Kinda sounds like my storys too.
To leak another thread into this one...it woulda been alot easier if you had a tow bar!
Awsome stuff, and good luck with the swapping, sounds harder than my caddy into longhorn project.

[blazer boy]

lmao!!!!! i couldn't have told it better!!

[barn9]

That's hilarious! And I was just 40 miles away. I would have come up just for the entertainment value alone! Probably wasn't that funny while it was all happening though. Mark, you're getting a lot of work stacked up to do on the truck, holler at me if you need an extra hand, or a beer-in-one-hand-point-with-the-other supervisor, or in a situation like this one, a WITNESS!
You, Jason, and myself are going to have to get together with Ironhorse sometime soon and check out all the work he's done to his truck, it would give us all an excuse for another fun day.

[Mike C]

Congrats Mark! Great story, too! Lookin' forward to hearing all about your trials and tribulations on big block in a 4x!

[Ironhorse]

HeY Jack, Enjoyed the story of your find on the 1 ton dually. Sounds as if you had quite a time getting it home. Reminds me of a few things I've gotten myself into over the years. What are you plans for the rest of the truck when you get the BB out of it? The rear axle, frame and box would make a helluva' trailer for hauling. My brother-in-law would be green with envy. With him, everything bigger is better! Sounds like you had a good tip from Blazerboy. Won't be long I hope and I'll have my truck up and done and will make a trip to Rose Hill with it sometime. Need to run over and visit with barn9 also.

[Yukon Jack]

Barn9 - luckily now I can delay the four speed until I do the engine. Man I'm good at procastination! I will probably work on pulling the engine in the late evenings after the kids are in bed so I doubt that would be good timing for you to come supervise, but when it comes time to start adding stuff to the engine and installing it, that will probably be a job I do during the day with help from Jason. He's offered to help out and he's gonna regret that I will be sure to let you know when that happens so you can come and join in the fun. My guess is I won't even be able to start rippin out the engine til mid to late August. Just have to see.

Ironhorse - when you head down to Rose Hill, lets let Barn9 know and we can meet at the Sonic some weekend afternoon. Jason's got a hottie there that digs him. We can have a good laugh watching her hit on him.

Regarding plans for the rest of the truck. The rear axle is probably sold for cheap to my buddy with the 1 ton 4x4. Just depends on the gear ratio. I'm guessing with a 4 speed and 454 they would have put 4.10 gears in it but I haven't verified that yet. I will scavenge some of the engine bay stuff like the retractable light and coolant recovery tank. Probably give the ac setup to my 1 ton 4x4 buddy as a way to say thanks for all the help he has given me on my 69. Probably just sell the remainder of the truck to a salvage yard.

[Super Chevy]

Good Find Jack! Great Story too,lol. I bet you cant wait to get that motor in your 4x4 and go smoke some tires (the ones on your truck )

[Rod]

Im looking for a front dually diff. Rear diff would be good too. How to get it to Manitoba Canada is the problem.

[lukecp]

Good deal on the dually! Are you planning on keeping the TBI fuel injection when you swap motors, or are you gonna go with a carb?

[Yukon Jack]

I've already got the TBI and computer sold. Gonna go with an Eldebrock Performer manifold and probably a 750 Performer carb. I have a post on the engine asking for suggestions on that issue.

[DennyB]

Great story Jack, I enjoyed it!



BTW,

......Being too cheap to call a wrecker....

Its called Frugal
Denny

[Pumkin Truck]

That was a good story...but...the part where you said that you two stopped at sonic for some grubb and the waitress hit on Jason..On my side of the globe all the waitresses at sonic are like..16 How old are yall?!! WTG!!!!

[Yukon Jack]

Jason's just a youngster, 20 I believe. Remember being that young - not that I'm old (34) but I wouldn't mind jumping back to those days. Cracked me up, I called Jason in the morning to see if we could pick up the truck that evening. Jason immediately said yes. If it were him asking me, I would have had to call home and check with the wife first and probably beg in advance for forgiveness. Now where's that darn time machine!