Opinions: Would you sell... to buy...

[C10_ustacould]

Okay guys I am thinking about selling my rust free '71 cab to buy a "complete" '68 driver (6 cyl/power glide). What do you think? I haven't seen the '68 in person yet, but it has supposedly had all body repairs done. The advantage to this truck is, it is complete and I can drive it around while making upgrades. If I build the cab I am starting from scratch. Let me know what you all think.

The '68 comes with an additional pair of doors...

[C10_ustacould]

More pics...

[71swb4x4]

Have you seen that truck in person? I would really check over the body work. The paint doesn't look great, and if the body work matches the paint you might be in for a surprise. Whatever you do please look the truck over in person. I may be totally off base on the questionable body work, and that is fine.

[C10_ustacould]

Yeah, I think the paint is rattle can. All I care about is if the body is solid in the trouble spots. I will certainly look it over before making a final decision.

[oldgold70c10]

x2
You build it,you know what's in it. The 68 looks like someones been hacking through it just a bit. Might be Okay if you don't mind undoing someone elses handy work!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Id look that over very welll...

[Sicklajoie]

Looks like it could use a driver's door.

[C10_ustacould]

It comes with a pair doors that are supposed to be in good shape.

[weircc]

by the pics u better just keep ur cab looks like a 600 dollar truck to me if ur cab is rust free its worth probably twice that

[cdowns]

i'd check to see if that is a cutdown frame that might b the reason the rear wheel is too far foward// basically it looks like a real loend truck with quite a few problems that has been given a bunch of cheap paint to move it quickly

[67_C-30]

What do you have now besides the cab?

[MAK191]

I understand what you are thinking . Its hard to find a truck like that in FL. Where is it from looks like out of state plates? That could be a good thing. Why not buy it and build your cab with the extra doors you get then swap it over the the truck. Then sell the blue and white cab. That way you know what you got and the hard part is done. By the way are you sure that is a 71 cab? It doesn't have the vent hole. Did you fill it in?

[leddzepp]

Look the truck over and go from there.

[C10_ustacould]

@ 67_C-30 I also a good pass. door, a swb frame, a tilt column, and a 73-87 style front end 5 lug rear end that I plan to swap into what ever I build. So, I have some stuff, I just don't want to miss an opportunity that may speed up my build.

@ Mak191 You have me thinking I may not know what I have! Can you school me on what to look for?

[ChevLoRay]

Speed up your build?

Trust me on this one, but what you already have vs. what you're thinking you'd have to do to the '68, ain't gonna be a competition. You're going to want to do things to the '68, that you're planning to do as you build the '71, only you're going to have to take it apart, then do the work. The '71, is going to be done one time...as you build it.

I don't think you're going to find the '68 cab to be as nice as you want it to be, especially when you go over it with a fine-tooth comb. If it has been a FL truck, you know there's likely to be some rust on the bottom of the cab, the chassis and all its' components are going to be needing some TLC, just to be neat, much less "clean".

In my opinion, you're not going to be happy when you get the '68 and look back on what could have been. But, that's my opinion.

[BlackTopMotors]

As long as you check it out and know what your getting it might not be a bad deal. Bring your magnet, check the typical areas...does it have the spid label and vin? Hows the steering, brakes, electrical...? You could fix it up on a low budget and turn it. Nice wheels. It would be worth a close look.
.
.
.

[oldblue1968chevy]

if you already have a frame etc keep your nice cab and frame and start there

[C10_ustacould]

Great view points, I appreciate all of them. I think that even though I have the itch to have a 67-72 as a driver, I will stay with what I have. I went out and worked on my frame for a couple of hours today. Cleaned off a bunch of Alabama/Georgia clay and started to remove the center cross-member. I have a ECE cross-member to go in it and I hope to break down the 73-87 front end tomorrow and fit that cross-member too. Again, thanks for your 2¢!

[cpisani70@aol.com]

I would keep what you have the cab is the hardest part IMO . I hear that you want a driver but I would stay on your already plotted course
Posted via Mobile Device

[MAK191]

[/QUOTE]@ Mak191 You have me thinking I may not know what I have! Can you school me on what to look for?[/QUOTE]

As far as I know all 71-72 cabs have a vent between the vin plate and the door catch thing. I can take a pic of mine if you need to see what it looks like. As others have said the cab is the hardest part. So I guess it depends on what they are asking for the truck and did you go look at it.

[67_C-30]

I'm going to play devil's advocate - and please don't take offense to this, because I don't mean any. If you HAVE to sell your cab to buy that truck, you are going to to be working your project for a LONG time it would seem. Ideally, you could buy the '68 and drive it and work on your '72 slowly. Maybe I'm reading you wrong, and you CAN buy the '68, but don't want to have 2.

I say this because if you are truly starting from scratch (and it sounds like you are) you are going to have to have a pile of money to put it together in any kind of short time frame. Your sig "Working toward a '67-72 SWB Fleetside, LSx. I have the plan... I just need parts. Oh, and some disposable income!" tells me you are in for a LOONNNGGG build. Longer than you could probably ever realize. All the little stuff that you don't seem to have is going to be costly and time consuming to track down. Stuff like brackets, supports, nuts, bolts, clips, retainers, etc. don't seem like a big deal until you need them. I reallly couldn't imagine building a truck like that. It would drive me crazy not having everything. A big percentage of these long, slow build end up being sold due to lack of patience, money, interest or life changes (like buying a new house, kids, marriage - whatever).

I'm throwing this out there because I have owned cars/trucks for a decade or more at times that I bought parts for, slowly pecked at, but never got to finish them. I never got to enjoy them. I was always waiting to do something when I could do "this" or waiting until I could "this, this, and this" all at the same time. The time never came, and I sold them.

I had house fire last year, and lost thousands of dollars worth of parts for my trucks, my '69 Camaro, '67 Firebird 400, and my disassembled '71 Pontiac GT-37. I had $1800 worth of interior parts for the GT-37, an engine kit for the 455, restored dash with new gauges, tach, radio, etc. and tons of other stuff. I had tons of parts tthese trucks like Custom Autosound stereo, new headliner, dash, cluster w/ tach, $1000 Vintage Air system, new '72 door panels, new '69 - '70 grill, new side trim, and on and on. I bought all this stuff for projects that were never completed and truthfully would never been completely even without the fire happening. I had the GT-37 for 12 years, the '67 Firebird for 8 years, had a truck I bought all that stuff for many years and they all had one thing in common - I never got to enjoy any of them.

Since the fire, I've had a change in philosophy. I sold the GT-37, the Firebird, several of my project trucks, and '70 Nova. I kept my '67 C-30, my '69 Camaro, my '69 C-30 ramp truck and my military Blazer. All of these run,and I get to enjoy them as I work on them. I am currently in the market fot a SWB '67 - '72 truck. I want a driver, and I will only buy a complete truck, even if it needs some work. I already have a '71 SWB roller, and '67 SWN stepside roller, but I am going to sell them. I am going to buy something that I can start driving now, and I have pretty much all of the sheetmetal to make a nice truck, but I am not to totally disassemble a truck. Im going to buy a decent driver, and put all the stuff I have on it to make it nice.

My advise would be to buy that '68 (or another truck) that you can drive, and improve it. If you could keep your cab, that would be great because you could use on the '68 if you needed to, or you could leave the '68 as is, and slowly build the other one. Either way, you would be enjoying driving an old truck!

Again, I mean no offense and I'm not trying to sound like a know it all. I have just been exactly where you are many times. I have always had big plans. Having a plan has never been my problem!

[C10_ustacould]

??
Posted via Mobile Device

[Vintage Windmills]

That 68 is hacked together. Look at the overspray on the gauge bezel in lower left of the last pic in post 1. Also the overspray in the bed. If they cut corners like that imagine what else they did.

[67chevy1series]

DO IT a cab for a truck? thats like trading a shoe for a house!

[Monty]

67-72 short boxes in any condition are like gold around here.