What to do with my '68?

[75-K5]

Well guys I hate to say it but I think the '68 is almost done for. Although the body looks good from the outside, the underbody is nearly gone. The cab mounts, bed mounts, cab corners, and floors are all trashed, and the rockers are totally gone, as in they aren't even there anymore. The traction bars have 1" diameter rust holes in them. As much as I hate to do it, I'm thinking about parting it out. If it was just body work I wouldn't care, but this is major structural rust and I'm afraid someday I'll hit a bump the wrong way and fall through the floor! It has a new engine and the sm465 is in pretty good shape, but the rest is almost un-salvageable. It also has countless wiring problems. The steering and suspension is shot as well, the front end rattles unbelievably loud when you get above 20 and there is 1/2 turn of play in the steering wheel. I would love to fix this up and make it a decent truck again, but day after day it gets less road worthy and more dangerous. My thoughts were to part out the few decent parts left on it, use the engine in my new '82 K20, and either sell the 465 or save it for a future tow/haul project. I am wanting to use the bed and rear axle/frame for a utility trailer. I'm thinking such things as the front clip and doors would bring decent money, even if they aren't perfect since they are original. What is everyone else's opinion on this? Again, I hate seeing old trucks get wasted and am very anti-scrap, but sometimes there is just no choice and rebuilding every single piece of a truck is just not cost effective for me and I feel I won't be able to get the full worth of the truck if I just sold it whole since there are many new parts that are worth decent change by themselves, but as a group may not be.

[Fred T]

I, too, don't like to scrap out old vehicles. But there does come a time when the rust is so bad it can't be avoided without throwing major $$$ into the project. Fortunately, there are still a lot of these trucks around. So don't feel too bad about it, use what you can, sell what you can, and sell the rest to the scrapper.

[krue]

Originally Posted by Fred T

I, too, don't like to scrap out old vehicles. But there does come a time when the rust is so bad it can't be avoided without throwing major $$$ into the project. Fortunately, there are still a lot of these trucks around. So don't feel too bad about it, use what you can, sell what you can, and sell the rest to the scrapper.

I agree. No sense in wasting money on a basket case.