new memeber of the owners club.... maybe

[blackdawn]

I have always liked the style of these trucks and have been looking for a good candidate to turn into my daily driver for the last couple months. so, i drove 250 miles up from where i live in California to the bay area and bought a 1969 stepside truck. it was advertised on craigslist for $3500, it had a 350, and a 700r4 in it and it was primered and claimed to have a good straight body good straight frame, and no major rust. so i got up at 6:30 in the morning and proceeded to drive for 4 and a half hours, then spent another 2 hours trying to track down a trailer from u haul (i was supposed to borrow a buddies but the wiring was not working when i went to pick it up the night before). so before i rant on too much i found that the po had lied about a lot of stuff, some i caught while purchasing the truck and some i found out after that would have been a deal breaker.

so i'm going to list off the good and bad's of the truck and i'm curious to see if i just completely got a bad deal or if ill make it out ok, and if i should just ditch the truck now and get a different one or not.

frame -
good- looks like it was painted about 10 years ago, so little bits of surface rust here and there.
bad- springs where cut in the front and back, too low and badly done, shocks where some junk thrown on, has the wrong rear bumper mounts, looks like the truck hit something head on, the 2 tabs where the bumper mounts to where bent in and the front horns look bent to the left. where the horns meet the first cross brace its about 75 degrees on onside and 105 on the other where it should be 90 and 90. in the back its only off by about 5 degrees in the same manner. (this was hidden from me by a half mounted straight bumper and cut front springs that i already knew about)

front fenders -
good - they looks in decent shape, and dont have too much bondo as far as i can tell
bad - they shaved the front markers off of both sides, one of the inner fenders is cut to allow everything to fit still with the tweaked frame.

bed -
good- i think the fenders are salvageable, one is a little heavy on bondo, and the steps look in alright condition
bad- the bed was hit, the sheetmetal sides both ripped at the front and they attempted to bondo it straight, the wood/ innards are missing, the step supports are missing, the tail gate is dented and has a weird hole cut into it.

bumpers -
good- the back bumper is a chrome one with the license plate holder in good condition
bad- the front is a while one from the wrong year and basically scrap metal

hood -
good- looks in decent shape with out too much bondo from what i can tell
bad - looks like a bunch of small dents in it

cab - (probably the one semi saving grace of the truck)
good- no rust minus one spot from what i can tell, windows are all good rockers etc, dash has no holes, its in good condition, cluster looks good bar 2 of the gauges, the steering column looks good and is solid, the tank looks good, glovebox is good, glass is good.
bad- there is one tiny rust hole dead center of the drivers side floor, still sounds strong, looks like they mounted 5 different kinds of seats, so there are a bunch of random holes, they converted to a column auto from a stick, the seat is a throw away, no carpeting, the headliner was horridly glued in, ignition is dangling out the bottom of the dash.

engine -
good - once it was started, it sounded good, and felt powerful, was able to drive around to load and unload (couldn't drive it on the street due to reg/springs)
bad- starter is done, can hardly get it going, carb needs to be adjusted and cleaned out, and someone put the valve covers and hose to the one on backwards (doesn't effect much but makes me wonder what else they messed up)

tranny-
good- i tried to make it slip by putting it in gear and mashing the breaks and gas and it sounded good both forward and reverse
bad- haven't been able to test at speed/go through the gears

doors-
good- has glass and functional doorhandles?
bad- they put bondo on too thick so it cracked and is now rusting under it, they shaved the mirrors, and i didnt catch this but the bottoms are starting the rot out

brakes-
good- has disc brakes in front nice big rear drums in back
bad- the master cylnder is leaking from the seal, havent inspected the breaks themselves yet, but they do function

so all in all if i had known everything that was bad i would have never bought it even after the 500 mile round trip and horrible gas prices. its too late now though i have it. i will say it is very hard to find any short bed trucks on the central coast in cali, so i may not be in too bad of shape money wise. so, what do you guys think, try and sell it and recoupe some of my money, or just dive in and know that from the frame up its new/ or good condition used, and done right?