I picked the 84 diesel short bed up today.

[rs74]

Well I made the five hour trip down to take a look at it today. Actually took six with a few stops. I will have to say that I almost walked away without it. I knew that I shouldn't be expecting much considering what he was asking. As far as interior I was hoping for the majority of it get by with a good cleaning but no such luck. The door panels are all chalky and there is a layer flaked off on top of the panels. Dash pad is pretty cracked up, Kick panels look about like the door panels, no headliner. Needless to say I am going to the junk yard to look for possible replacement pieces in either the tan it is now or some Mahogany.

The body is pretty much what I thought it may be, well maybe a little more paint loss and rust than expected. There are a couple of spots on the tailgate that need cut out and replaced. Not very big spots though. Maybe two 2"x2" sections. The one spot that I cringed when I saw it was the drivers door jam rear vertical seam. It is starting to rust where the seam sealer was. I am going to brush on some rust killer, sand down with a flap sanding disc and see if it needs more rust killer. Have to replace a window switch after I lube the tracks down. The heater box is not switching modes so I assume as of now that maybe the plastic clip for the blend door might be broke.

Definitely needs some tires but I may put a set of wheels on it for temps until decide what size tires to put on the rallies. I have an 85-87 GMC grill found for it. I know its an 84 but this grill is new. I might just put the new one on the dually and take the dually grill and put on the short bed along with the spare headlight bezels I have.

Anyway after looking it all over and needing pretty much everything I just described I was starting to feel in my gut that this may be more than I wanted to mess with. He started it and it would run for about 10-15 seconds then die. Did that about three times so I was really getting that feeling even more. I had not even drove it yet and thought it was a lost cause. I told the guy I thought it needed more than I wanted to give. I think it must have upset him a little by the way he said REALLY?, kind of like I was nuts. He said it ran good and drove good and that it was out of fuel so that was why it ran like that he thought. So I said if he went and got some fuel for it then I would take it more a drive. While he was gone me and a buddy talked about it for a bit. My friend thought for the money it wasn't a bad deal. If nothing else fix it on the cheap and flip it or part it out. Well the test drive changed my mind for the most part. He put fuel in it and it ran just fine, never died once and idled fine. I drove it and it actually had some pep in its step for having 3.08 gears even though the 700r4 is toast. The steering was nice and tight too. So for those couple of reasons we negotiated and I loaded it up.

So I am junk yard hunting for interior parts, looking for tires, taking all the side trim off so I can buff it out and then see about getting new trim back on and figuring out what to do about a transmission. I have read where a couple of people have taken a gas 700r4 trans and put in a diesel converter and everything was fine. Still on the fence as to what I am doing there. Anyway if I get time tomorrow I will get more pics. Been a long day with six hours there, couple of hours messing with the truck and six hours back.