What would be a realistic offer?

[70monte]

I'm hopeful that the the floor and cab supports are not too bad. I did ask him if the cab supports were rusted out and he said they weren't so we will see. To be honest, most of the trucks I've looked at in the past couple of years had bad cab supports and I saw one truck that had been redone and looked very nice and they left one of the cab supports with the side rusted out.

I've seen plenty of people restore cars that needed entire floor and trunk pans which is a much larger area than the floor of a truck cab. Pretty much all the body work that will be needed will have to be done by someone other than me since I don't know hardly anything about it. I had the body of my 70 Monte Carlo done years ago and it needed both quarter panels replaced as well as some floor pan work and roof work. They also had to rebuild the lower part of the back window metal as it was rusted out from the vinyl roof. All of this stuff will be done a little at a time so I'm not in any hurry and I can get stuff done as time and money dictates.

Wayne

[70monte]

I went and looked at this truck today and ended up passing on it even though he lowered the price to $1,200. The bed would definately have to be replaced as it had quite a few rust holes in the bottom and sides of the bed as well as in the tailgate. The rockers, cab corners, cab supports, and the outer portions of the floor pans would also have to be replaced. Someone had used the expanding foam in the rockers sometime in the past, way before this owner had bought it.

It did have a rust free cowl, roof, and above the visors inside the cab. The bottom of the doors were pretty much rust free except for one tiny hole in the driver's side door. There were dents in the passenger door as well as in both fenders. The fender dents were not too bad. Lower part of radiator support was bent in as well as the AC condensor. All of the trim was on the truck but a lot of it was dented.

The part that was the real deal killer for me was how the truck ran. It was not running on all cylinders and was smoking blue smoke out one side of the exhaust pretty bad when you reved it up. The carb was also dumping fuel down into the intake because the smell of fuel was overpowering and it also smelled like gas out of the exhaust. The truck only had 113,000 miles on it.

The oil level was way high and smelled like fuel. It had an exhaust manifold leak but the rest of the engine didn't make any unusual noises. Probably if you rebuilt the carb and gave it a tune-up, it would run a lot better but I didn't really want to take the chance.

It was all original but needed a lot of work. I also shined my light down into the oil fill cap and it looked kind of dirty like the oil had not been changed very well. It had quite a bit of exhaust pressure coming out the left side tailpipe but not as much on the right side.

I'm just going to wait and find one in better shape. There will be more that will come up for sale.

Wayne

[70cst]

Well 70monte: after reading this post...

I think you made the right decision unless you bought it to part out. Sounds like the engine had more than a carb issue but one wouldn't know until one dived into it. Also sounds like it had a fair amount of rust.

But on the other hand if one coculd do all the work by oneself...then maybe it woud be worth buying to fix up.

Good luck with your search. Its a buyers market so I am sure you will fine something eventually.

By the way....this was the bed on my truck before I bought the Circuit Rider.

[WIDESIDE72]

Originally Posted by 70cst

By the way....this was the bed on my truck before I bought the Circuit Rider.

Yea...SPEED HOLES!!!
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[70monte]

Wow, that bed is bad. The bed on this one was not close to being that bad. I can't do the bodywork myself so it would have to be farmed out and it had more rust than I wanted to deal with.

I didn't buy it to part out because I live with my fiance and she does not like junk vehicles laying around so she would not go for me parting it out unless I could get rid of everything quickly. Since I didn't know the condition of the engine, I didn't know if I would have made enough parting it out to make it worth my while.

The guy relisted the truck on CL after I left for $2,000. I'll be curious to see if he gets it.

Wayne

[70monte]

After looking at a bunch more ads for these trucks on CL, I'm starting to second guess my decision not to buy this truck. It seems like most of the trucks around here are in about the same shape body wise but for more money and they all are small blocks.

I got to thinking I would probably go through the engine of anything I do buy that has an original engine anyway unless it was already rebuilt so that the issues this engine was having wouldn't be that big of a deal.

It is still advertised for sale. I'm still undecided about contacting the owner about buying it. I guess I will have to do some more thinking on the matter.

Wayne

[71swb4x4]

Wayne, I highly suggest you look outside your area for a more rust-free truck. The time and money you save by not having rust repair is well worth it. If you find one that is too far to drive and look at, post it on the board and see if a boardmember will look at it. I have looked at trucks in my area for people, and other members have looked at trucks for me that were too far away. Get a good indepedent person looking at it, buy it, and go get it, or have it delievered.

[70monte]

That is a good suggestion as I really don't want to deal with a real rusty truck. I'm not concerned about the bed as I have seen some pretty rust free ones for sale around here. The problem is that I have not seen a lot of trucks that don't have rust in the rockers, cab supports, cab corners and floor boards, even in states that are supposedly rust free. I've looked in CL in most all of the states and most of the trucks for sale have these rust problems unless they have already been repaired. A lot of these trucks are for sale for some crazy prices. I will probably wait but I have not seen many trucks that I would buy for the asking prices.

My problem is that I don't want to buy someone's hack job or heavily modified truck. I'm looking for one that is mostly original with the original drivetrain and I want a factory big block with an auto tranny. This narrows down the selection quite a bit. I guess I just need to be more patient.

Wayne

[70cst]

70monte ...

As mentioned: Rust can be much more costly to repair then mechanics. I would rather find a sold truck needing some mechanic work with no rust than vice verse. Good luck with your search.

[70monte]

I know that fixing rust is the most expensive part of any restoration. I have a 70 Monte Carlo that I had the body done back in the early 90's and it wasn't cheap. Unfortunately it needs some body work again.

I will keep looking but I'm not very optimistic.

Wayne

[70cst]

Originally Posted by 70monte

I know that fixing rust is the most expensive part of any restoration. I have a 70 Monte Carlo that I had the body done back in the early 90's and it wasn't cheap. Unfortunately it needs some body work again.

I will keep looking but I'm not very optimistic.

Wayne

Seek and you shall find

Patience is the key and it is a buyers market at this time.

Best of luck.

Keep us updated

[oklalawnboy]

If you get buyers remorse, I'm sure you won't have any trouble getting your money back. I gave 1500 for mine and it had more rust and a blown 350 engine.

[Fogline69]

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv...220173219.html

I would think that you would save money starting with something like this.
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[A.Bursell]

Keep looking, you will find what works. And trust your gut.

I think you should open your search to other engines as well. If you already plan to do engine work anyway, you might find another truck that works and put whatever you want in.

Adam
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[Mr Chevorlet]

Well 70 monty when you bring it home give me a shout if you need any info or tips i could run by. Introduce myself and give you any pointers. I have been building these trucks for 20 years now. And to answer your question yes 1500 would be a decent price if the whole underneath is not rotted under the cab. But it is a big block and like others have said that could be worth it.

[70monte]

Originally Posted by Fogline69

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv...220173219.html

I would think that you would save money starting with something like this.
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That is a nice truck and I wouldn't mind something like that other than it has a small block in it which I don't want. If I'm going to spend the money on a truck, I want to buy what I want rather than settle for something I don't. My sister lives in Thousand Oaks CA so when I go out to visit, I will look for examples like this one.

For example, my 70 Monte originally came out with a 400 SB and later had a 350 SB in it. I had a chance to trade for a 69 Caprice with a 396 BB in it and ended up putting it in the Monte. It turned into a lot funner car to drive with way more power and I have never regretted putting the BB in this car.

I also have two 98 chevy trucks. One is a 1 ton with the 7.4L Vortec and the other with the 5.7L Vortec. There again, I enjoy driving the BB truck a lot more than the SB one because of the power and torque it has over the SB.

I know limiting my search for a factory BB truck reduces what is available but it is what I want and is what I will eventually buy. Thanks for all of the replies. It gives me some things to think about.

Mr Chevrolet,
Thanks for the offer. I have not decided on any purchase at the moment but when I do, I will definately hit you up. The 72 GMC that I looked at and almost bought does need some rust repair. The bed is shot and would need another one but I have seen some relatively rust free ones for sale so that would not be that big a deal. On the cab, it would need both inner and outer rockers, both cab corners, all of the cab supports and the floor section from the seat to the rockers on both sides. The rest of the floor looks fine from underneath. The cowl, top of roof, inner roof, and bottom of doors except for a pinhole in the drivers door are rust free from what I can tell. To be honest, most of the trucks that I have looked at around here for the past couple of years have had just as much rust or more, most have not been BB trucks, and most of the owner's wanted more than the $1,500 that they want for this one.

I just drove through Clever today on my way to Aurora where I live with my fiance but I also own a home in Nixa and is where I was coming from.

Wayne

[70monte]

Well, the guy who had the 72 GMC that I was looking at sold it today. I had actually decided I was going to go ahead and buy it for the $1,200 and called him this morning. He said that someone was coming to look at it and that he would call me if the guy bought it or not. He called about three hours later and said he took $700 in cash and a 1987 Ford 4x4 in trade for the GMC. I should have called yesterday when I was going to. I guess if you snooze, you lose.

I've been looking on CL all over since I looked at this truck and every truck that I looked at online that met the requirements of what I wanted seemed to have as much rust and cost twice as much as this one did. I may just have to wait until next year when I can save up some more money.

I have also decided that I'm just not comfortable buying a truck in a state where I cannot physically look at it and hear it run so buying anything that is not in a few hours driving distance from me is probably out.

Wayne

[j ripper]

Keep at it. One will come up. I don't even do a search on the list anymore if I am really trying hard to find a car or truck. I just go right to cars and trucks for sale and refresh every 15 min. Searches don't show up right away on a new listing. Doing a search could be too late on a good deal.
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