Sad Longhorn story

[jlmerie]

I went to a swap meet on Saturday and saw a fellow I knew. He had a couple of Longhorn emblems for sale and we started talking about them. I have listed them for him on ebay, but that was just the start of the sad story. He told me he had gotten them off of a 1968 Longhorn truck that had some how ended up at a local Pull your own Parts place. He said the truck was an original 56,000 mile truck and that he got the dash cluster out of it. It was an original bucket seat truck, but because this place insists on taking the gas tank out of the cab of trucks, some lazy SOB just took his fork lift and ripped the original bucket seats out of the truck so it was easy to get to the gas tank. I was done at the swap meet and decided I needed to see if this story was true. I went to the place he told me about and found the truck. It was even further picked apart. I thought some might be interested, so I went back with my camera. About all that is left is the frame and the bed. But the bed is very nice, all things considered. A couple of dents in front of the wheel wells where Mister Forklift got crazy. I wish I had some way to get this bed out of there, but I don't. Worse yet is that the entire bed can be bought for very little money. Oh well, here are the pics. I also took some pictures of seat belts I took out of a 1967 truck, but I thought this style belts were not used after 1966. Does anyone know? Sorry for the long thread, maybe I should have put it as a rant!

[LUV2XCLR8]

That is truely a very sad story, nice looking bed though

[toms68cst]

Man that sucks. That would have made a really nice driver/project for someone. That was a pretty nicely optioned longhorn. See if the Chrome hub caps are sitting around there. Mike (stllookn) is desperate for a good set.

It seems most junk yard operators see this kind of stuff as nothing more than scrap metal.

[cheyenne10]

downer. With as many of the regular trucks as they made these rare models are fading fast.

[68gmcdually]

That is really too bad. I really wanted a longhorn bed for my buildup but didn't want to destroy such a rare animal. Something like that would have been perfect.

[John Fabris]

those belts are correct for 1967 (mine still have the sewn on tag with 67 on them) I am not sure about 68.

I just sent in three sets of these belts to get restored, (new webbing, rechromed buckles/anchors, repainted) around $330.

[jlmerie]

Thanks John. These belts had the date tags on them still also. It was just that they were very early. One of them said 1967 but the date code was 31 66. Which I think means the 31st week of 66. That would be in July, wouldn't it? Would be for a very early 67. I did not know if they had just used up the rest of the stuff from the 1966 model year. Were these buckle styles used in 1966 also?

[stllookn]

Ruined my day! What a sad story! Yes...I could use the hubcaps and the forward lower body tri...but not seeing it in the pictures. I just can't imagine them spearing those buckets with a fork lift...!

[special-K]

Let me at him!!What an inbreed!!If brains were money,he`d be broke.

[panhandler62]

From what I can see... there was very little, if any, rust on that thing before it got butchered.

[bucket]

don't let longhorn man see this post.

[Robert1970C20rstbukt]

hey i just found a 69-72 ochre GMC SWB stepside at a yard here and it was complete and the body was in awesome condition, but it got smashed. had a 307/3 speed. the guy that owns the yard is more interested in scrap metal than parts i guess.

[Longhorn Man]

Longhorn man has looked at this post at least a dozen times this evening.
Pretty sad the way they poke things with the fork luft..I've always hated yards that do that, and generally stay away from them.

[special-K]

I know a smart man(he`s a hillbilly)that has enough sense to know that the 8,000 or more vehicles he has in his yard will be there when everyone else crushes theirs.When the mobile crusher comes around he tells them,"just go crush everybody else`s so everybody will come to me for parts.Seems he manages to make a good living off of hauling cars and selling parts.

[lloyd k]

man i bet those bodyside moldings are some rare pieces,somebody allready got the fronts

[73737373]

Look at how many people on this very website take apart perfectly good trucks only to lose interest in them, leave them out in the elements or don't know what they're doing and ya wind up with a bunch of pieces and parts. To each his own, but to me, that is as sad a story as the guy w/the forklift.

There was a mint 50K mile 66 Chev LWB in Minnesota on ebay a while ago. Like many of our trucks, it had a heritage of single ownership, low miles and meticulous care. Here's the kicker, someone actually "asked seller a question"...."How does this truck go in the snow?" can ya believe it? Some knucklehead is going to take a piece of history and drive it in the MN winter!!! The guy said he didn't know because he had only driven it in the summer.

[junkyardjohn]

YOU HARDLY EVER SEE THEM OUT WEST HERE. IT'S NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE SO RARE. IT SEEMS NO ONE BUILDS THEM BECAUSE THE GENERAL CONSENSUS IS THEY ARE BUTT UGLY TRUCKS. THERE WAS A LONGHORN BED, THAT WAS RUSTFREE & SITTING IN A BONEYARD NOT TO FAR FROM ME. IT HAD A SUPER-SOLID BEDSIDE TOOLBOX IN IT, & I ASKED THE GUY THAT OWNED THE JUNKYARD IF HE WOULD CONSIDER REMOVING THE T/B FOR ME. HE SAID NO PROBLEM... TO GIVE HIM A COUPLE OF DAYS. WELL I WENT BACK & HE HAD CUT THE ENTIRE TOOLBOX OUT WITH A TORCH. WHEN I MENTIONED WHAT A SHAME IT WAS TO RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD BED , HE REPLIED... THAT BED HAS BEEN SITTING HERE FOR 2 1/2 YEARS WITH NO ONE SHOWING ANY INTEREST AT ALL , & IF IT WAS A SHORTBED OR EVEN A LONGBED IT WOULD HAVE BEEN GONE IN A MATTER OF WEEKS. HE CRUSHED IT. I DON'T REMEMBER CRYING OR GOING INTO MOURNING . DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THOSE HIDIOS OCHRE COLORED TRUCKS. JOHN

[Buckman]

I'm a newbe so I'm going to ask a stupid question, what is a longhorn truck and what is the different's in them?

[flip66]

I dont know if its my PC or the board but I can not see the pictures.

[Longhorn Man]

Check out the link in my signiture...it explains the Longhorn truck.

[RPOZ11]

Sad I agree, although I have seen 5 lately more than I expected still running out west here...

[longhorn71]

man i almost cried reading that I could use that box badly here.to bad it is so far away

[al's71gmc]

I found a yard a year or so ago with about 500 cars and trucks. The old guy had a wrecker service and had retired sometime in the eighties. He died 2 years ago, and I called his son-in-law and worked a deal to take parts. My partner and I could take anything we wanted for $100/day. We made around $20k selling parts on ebay in about 6 months. Would have made a lot more except for 2 things. First the cars were 200 miles away, and second he brought in a crusher and cleaned out the yard. I went down to get some parts and the place was smoothed out. About 20 flat cars left waiting for the last truck to haul them off.

[truckdude239]

they did what? they took an fork lift to the truck let at him let me at him that is an sin who would do something like that its just wrong

[edmonton72]

My uncle owns an auto wrecker business and I have worked there before. They do treat nice cars like crap for parts. At my uncles place they sometimes lift the cars with the fork lift by stabbing the forks trough the windsheild and hold the car up by the roof.