My son bought his first truck tonight

[hgs_notes]

My boy got his license this past winter and decided he wanted to buy his own car. He has a job, but still hasn't built up much savings. I told him to look for a small cheap truck, and he remembered that a friends dad had a truck they weren't using. Turns out they were looking to sell it.

I started with my 71 C-10 reg cab long bed with a weezy engine, rusted rockers, cab corners and floor back in 1983. He is starting with a 1995 Chevy S-10 2wd longbed with a 4 banger, rusted rockers and cab corners. He is thrilled. The seller is going to fix a couple things tomorrow and we'll bring it home in a day or 2. I'll post a pic of his smiling face next to his very own $500 first truck.

I'm thinking turbo. Anyone know if these little 4 bangers from chevy can take the abuse?

[elf w/capital T]

sweet deal! good for him! i would just throw an ls1 in it.... keep it simple

[slow72pckup]

I would say just throw a small block in it way cheaper then a turbo but four cylinder probably safer for new driver
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[midniteblues]

my boys first ride was a 92 2wd lwb s10 4.3 auto a great first ride for a beginner and cheep n easy for kids to learn on.he paid 400 4 it with 190k and sold it 2 yrs later 4 1000 to a buddie it now has almost 100k more on it and wont die! If your kid is anything like mine he will whoop on that poor little 4cly sounds like a cool project though

[BLOWN72]

My first car was a 92 s10 short bed, 2wd, v6. I did a lot of work to it, made it look good and run and sound even better and I whooped on it a lot. My buddies first was a 95 sonoma and he beat on it from the day he got it. Both of them are still going like champs and he still owns the sonoma, looks a lot different then factory but drivetrain. Perfect first car for any kid.

[72 Super]

Congrats to your son and Enjoy the memories!!!

[Street Smart]

Great memories being made... I wish him many, many safe miles!

[hgs_notes]

Here he is with his first truck. The seller even threw in the bed tool box, fixed the AC and gave back $40 to renew the plates.


As you can see it is a bit rough, rusty and dinged up. But it seems to run good, has good tires, no broken glass and as far as we know, everything works.

[Mike Bradbury]

We all know that teenagers can get in enough trouble without the help of a turbo. I say let him get used to the rules of the road and get comfortable with the little engine that could.
I started out with a $100 '71 Pinto in '83 with no engine, hunted down an engine in a junk yard for $200. I learned to tweak as much power out of that stock engine that I could. I learned because I had to if I wanted some sort of perfomance out of that little 2000cc engine.

[Liz]

We have a s10 forum here (btw moved this there) Have him sign up and research that stuff himself (with your guidance).

[hgs_notes]

My turbo comment was meant more in humor. He wants to run it like it is for now. Doesn't even want wheels and a drop. He wants to use the bed tool box if thats any indication of how much of a street racer he is. Although, come to think of it, the tool box would make great ballast and gives it a total sleeper look.

If we end up doing anything to it, like rust repair, suspension, etc. I'll probably just put it in this thread. Doesn't seem to be much activity on this section of the board.

[Liz]

Maybe you could change that by having him post It is not the busiest part for sure, but it does have its moments. If folks start using it, it will just get busier.

Congrats to him again!

[hgs_notes]

We just did the first father/son repair job tonight, new front brakes and rotors. The pads were basically gone and the rotors were grooved. So he picked up the parts himself and we did it in the driveway. I pretty much did the first side explaining to him what I was doing, then had him do the other side with my guidance. He did alright and pretty sure he learned something.

The punch list for now:
Oil change/tune up
Replace rear tires (it has blizzaks now, will save for winter)
Replace tranny dipstick, change filter (broke and leaking)
Check rear brakes (they work, just inspecting)
Rust repair, cab corners, rockers, rear wheel arches, etc. (kid needs to learn to weld some time)

[hgs_notes]

Oh the joys of owning an old truck. Found a leak under it, looked like oil, but wasn't. Gas tank is rusting out and sprung a leak. The oil look is from the gas disolving the tar and making it look like wet oil. Draining it now, not a fun job.

[hgs_notes]

New gas tank was delivered today. Not sure how soon it will get installed, it's starting to rain out.


Yesterday I stopped at one of my favorite junkyards. I hadn't ever looked at the s-10's there (no need before), but did this time and found a straight rust free tailgate for $35. Eventually I'll practice some more with my spray guns and get it painted red to install.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice little gas saver there. It isn't that bad at all for the money. Especially with working a/c.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice little gas saver there. It isn't that bad at all for the money. Especially with working a/c.

Yeah, it was cheap enough that with the maintenance items that are popping up so far, I'm not getting bent out of shape. I also picked up new spark plugs and an air filter for it yesterday. More teaching opportunities.

[hgs_notes]

Ran into some problems with the tank replacement. Typical old rusty truck stuff. Bolts breaking on the tank strap, cut those off, rusty sending unit. So another order of parts needs to be delivered before he gets it back on the road.

[hgs_notes]

The parts came in yesterday to finish the gas tank replacement. A new sending unit, but used the old pump to save some coin, new straps and bolts. Last night we almost had it done but the sun went down and the misquitos were hungry, so I finished it up this morning. Started up good, no leaks and everything is ok.

Too bad it'll be a few days before he can get his driving privelages (sp?) back. He was up half night playing video games and took off with a friend and went to the next town down the highway for McDonalds. Well past his established bed time, which is a pretty liberal 1 am. Need to find some chores for him to do.

[hgs_notes]

I let me son drive us to the Back to the 50's show/swap meet up in St Paul. He's never driven in a major city before and he was pretty excited to try. He did fine, but without me there for directions I think he would have been lost. You know when you are going down a freeway in a major city and it will split, but there are also exits coming up. He was getting confused because he would pass one sign that said it was the same freeway in that lane, but also the lane for another freeway coming up, then again with that lane designated as another highway that would be exiting soon. Anyway, I thought it was good experience for a kid that has hardly driven outside our pop. 3500 town on the prairie.

At the swap meet we found a set of wheels and tires he liked. The wheels just need to be cleaned up a bit and new lug nuts because I don't think his current ones will work. The tires are like new and the complete set we got for $170. Plus now we don't have the cost of remounting, which around here runs about $15-20 per tire.


One area of the swap meet was for the car corral, and we walked through that. A little back story. We were not exactly thrilled with his impulsive buy into this truck. The main reason I agreed to let him go through with it was that it was super cheap, would give him some responsibility and the experience of having something that was going to need some attention to keep on the road. (the gas tank was unexpected, but oh well) He really didn't need his own ride yet.

So here we are walking through the used car section at the swap meet. One of the first to catch his eye was a 67 mustang coupe for $6000. Pretty nice shape with an inline 6. Not a bad car at all but way past his budget. A little further down was a very nice 72 Skylark. Brand new 350 engine, excellent original interior, paint was in pretty good shape, just a bit faded, very straight sheetmetal, new tires, wheels exactly like the ones on my C-10, a little rust behind the doors, but solid elsewhere, and the guy was asking $3850. I'm guessing it would sell somewhere between 3000-3500. My son really loved the car and I'm thinking this would be one he could afford (with my help) and he would want to keep forever.


Instead, I told him his realistic options. First he needs to keep working and save as much as he can. He needs to drive the wheels off his truck and get as much out of it as possible. Keep fixing the little things, clean it up, maintain it, but not to throw money at it because it's just not worth it. Maybe in a year or 2 he'll have enough saved up where he'll be able to come to a swap meet like this and buy his future money pit.

It really was a sweet ride though. To be perfectly honest, if I did not have my Jimmy project right now and if I had already sold off my 2wd blazer project parts pile, I might have driven this home myself. It's one of those cars that aint perfect but nice enough that you would want to drive it all the time and not have to worry about the paint. With some preservation in the rust areas you could slow it down and hold off one the body work and repaint for years and just enjoy the car until you can afford the rebuild.

Anyway, we talked about his sisters beater tempo and the fact that it was cheap to start with, cost us several hundred in repairs and maintenance, but the kids have all been driving it around for almost 3 years now with no car payments, liability insurance and its been pretty reliable. We're hoping for the same from his little S-10.

And as for S-10 repairs, one of the next things to do is find out where the freon is leaking because it lost its charge again and the radio has one working speaker out of 4. I practically begged him to buy a decent used radio at the swap meet. One guy had a couple dozen good used ones for $10 each and there were speakers all over the place cheap. Oh well, we'll do it the hard way.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

And as for S-10 repairs, one of the next things to do is find out where the freon is leaking because it lost its charge again

Look at the actual fill/check ports, they have that tire looking valve stem thing in them. The bigger one was leaking on my truck. It could also just be a worn out seal. Look for an oil residue coming out around a joint or something.

[Woogeroo]

A much younger cousin of mine, that is what he got, a a used 4 banger s10... after a month of driving a 4x4 with a v8, the gas bill killed him!

He did a lot of work to it and really fixed it up into a nice riding truck.

Looks like he has some readin' and wrenchin' in his future!

He'll learn a lot fixin' that up for sure.

Have fun with that fuel tank swap... I did that job on a '85 s10 my dad had when I was in high school. It was quite the contortionist trick.

-W

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Woogeroo

A much younger cousin of mine, that is what he got, a a used 4 banger s10... after a month of driving a 4x4 with a v8, the gas bill killed him!

He did a lot of work to it and really fixed it up into a nice riding truck.

Looks like he has some readin' and wrenchin' in his future!

He'll learn a lot fixin' that up for sure.

Have fun with that fuel tank swap... I did that job on a '85 s10 my dad had when I was in high school. It was quite the contortionist trick.

-W

My son is learning, don't know how much will stick, but anything will help. The gas tank was done last week and it is a total pain. It was harder to swap the tank in that S-10 than it was to move mine from the cab to under the bed on my C-10. We replaced everything except the fuel pump. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.

Here it is with his new wheels and tires. The OEM lugnuts worked just fine. Not as pretty as chrome but they will do.


So we have new front brakes and rotors, new fuel tank, new wheels and tires, new air filter. Need to do spark plugs yet and whatever else pops up.

[Woogeroo]

hgs_notes : I was told by someone else... long after I had swapped out the tank on the '85 s10 that it was a lot easier to just pull the bed and then take out the tank.

If I ever have to do one again, I may try it that way.



-W

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Woogeroo

hgs_notes : I was told by someone else... long after I had swapped out the tank on the '85 s10 that it was a lot easier to just pull the bed and then take out the tank.

If I ever have to do one again, I may try it that way.



-W

I was thinking about that while I struggled to get the tank out. The problem is that the bolts holding the bed were probably rusted as much as the cross braces they go through and I would have been struggling with that too. All I know is that I don't want to do it again.