My Luxurious late model truck (not so much)

[Tx Firefighter]

The name is a joke. There is nothing fancy, nor will there be anything fancy about this build. Valerie and I joke that I've finally got a luxurious new truck to drive.

Those of y'all who know me well know that the GMT400 is my favorite style of truck. I've been wanting a 4 wheel drive for a few different reasons so I figured to get an old beater and build it up.

My criteria were....

1) White in color
2) 3/4 ton, 8400 GWV with 8 lug wheels (not the 6 lug light duty 3/4 ton)
3) Standard transmission
4) Regular cab
5) 350 engine, not diesel or big block under any circumstances.

Guess what, that's not a common truck. I found a fair number of extended cabs, light duty 3/4 tons, different colors, and automatic transmissions, but seldom ran across one that met my "must have" criteria.

Finally, I found this old ranch truck on Craigslist. He wanted 2500 bucks for it. I drove it and looked it over and it was obvious that the 350 was only hitting on 7 cylinders so I walked away.



About two weeks later the guys texts me and asks if I was still interested in buying the truck. I had let it drop since the truck wasn't worth 2500 or even close to that number to me. I told him I liked the truck but I wasn't a buyer at anywhere near his asking price. He asked me what I had in mind and I came back with 1500 dollars. We settled on 1700 dollars and the deal was done. I had bought a 4x4 with a hurt engine. I'm sure some of you guys will think I paid too much, and I might have, but if you want an 8 lug, 8400 pound GVW, white, regular cab, standard shift, small block truck, you have to settle for what you can find.

The run down on what I got....

350 TBI, Muncie SM465 transmission, NP241C transfer case, and 4.10 gears. And, don't forget, only 7 of the 8 cylinders were reporting for duty.

Caved door.



Ranch truck interior.





My favorite transmission ever.



We don't get rust here in my area of Texas.





Ranch truck bodywork. You guys with livestock will recognize what happens when you park a feed truck anywhere near hungry cows. Bump...



Dig the barbed wire pinstriping.





More in the next post....