My New 1976 Silverado SWB

[79 silverado]

After some time away off the board in "hunting mode" I finally found a truck I pulled the trigger on to resurrect. Here's the background:

1976 Silverado, actually the first SWB I've ever owned so that is something of a new experience for me. The previous owner purchased it in 1979 after his divorce and has had it up until yesterday when I brought it home. I'm sure I overpaid by a few hundred given how the economy is, but it is a nice original truck which seems harder and harder to come by for the 73-80 years. (I almost sprung for a 81-87 a few times, but there's too many headaches involved in converting to the 73-80 front end for me to handle without just going that age to begin with.)

There is 132K original miles on the original 350v8 with the automatic trans. Numbers match, and engine has never been opened up, not even the valve covers. Unsure of rear gearing since the original SPID label in the glovebox does not list a rear gear option??? Has the nice sport rear bumper (and mirrors) and never worked or towed a day in its life! A nice bonus down here in GA is the factory AC package.

I will need a little work down the road, and once about 13 years ago now it had been repainted. The body is super straight as far as dents and dings go, but, it had a little mud put in back when that repaint happened in the past... Bottom of the fender and one of the lower rear bedsides behind the wheel - still a nice ten footer though. Likewise, being about to turn 37 years old in September (it was an early build date) The little bumps and bruises from time are relatively minor and what little rust there is is not severe at this point... Still, for something no shadetree mechanic ever worked on and is basically factory status except a period correct radio and a conversion to true duals back in the early 80s by an exhaust shop (factory manifolds in place) I think its a good start - no time to be wasted un-doing or even figuring out what someone else may have tinkered with and cobbled together...

I'm attaching some pictures taken with a camera phone, so sorry for the lower quality for now. Eventually I think I'll make a 1-2 year build thread fixing it up right, and likely the way I would have ordered one had I been around back when these were new. For right now I know I need to replace the factory lap belts with shoulder ones and do some good tuning up and cleaning. New tires are also in the works, just the basics.

Most importantly, I'll need to be renewing my membership here since I'll be around these parts again more... Then we'll see about figuring out the colors and parts I need help finding

So here's some pics from above for now, comments appreciated good or bad so don't hold back!