What are you looking at when buying truck?

[Vandals909]

I have looked at a couple of truck over a year period now. I was wondering what are some of the things you guys try to check out when buy a used truck? Do you take a magnet and go over the truck to check for bondo? Get under it to look for bent frame rails?


Found on today in my venture to find a short bed and the price is check at I think at 2k. What should i be looking for when i go to check it out? I know i will get vin to run through DMV for back fees! It is an original short bed.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...blacktruck.jpg

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...lacktruck2.jpg



thanks for your opinions!

[extd56]

Looks more like a parts truck from the pictures but you have to start somewhere. The truck looks to be a 67 with a big window cab. I look for a clean cab, no rust through. A good title with no back fees of course and hopefully already on non op with DMV. It is nice for the truck to already have disc brakes and hopefully the bed is in good condition. The front end sheet metal is cheap and easy to find. I am always a little bit scared with trucks in primer if I am going to build them as primer is great for hiding problem areas and does not like being left out in the rain. When you lok at the truck check around the windshield for rust, check in the cowl area for rust, look at the top of the roof for problems, crawl under the truck and look at the bottom of the cab for rust and any prior attemps at rust repair. I like to buy trucks that have old original paint or a old paint job if loking at a project. I guess the last thing I can day is buy the best truck you can afford and it will be cheaper in the long run, time and money wise.

[cdowns]

for 2K i wouldnt spend the gas to drive there and look at it// it appears to b more of a $500 start to a project

[Jobe72]

Keep looking, found my truck on CL for not much more than that and I drove it home!

[Original67]

Have to remember guys he's in Cali not the midwest or FL. Trucks are cheaper here as we bought more in these parts. But I have to agree the Price does seem high.

I would keep an eye on the local market valve, when under it look for thinks like rattle can spray coating or bed lining material. it covers a lot of hidden dangers. Rust around the windsheild and around the wiper motors under the cowl. If you are not happy with the bed MOVE ON or your will end up buy 3 more trucks trying to get the pieces to be happy with the bed. It all depends on what you want the truck to be when your done. if your going to cut it up then you have less to worry about. if you are going to restore it hold out for a better truck or considering driving a few 100 miles from home to find a better start.


Just my 2 cents from someone that got a free one from family and it has turned into I could have bought 3 trucks for what this one will cost me in time to repair.

[Fitz]

Originally Posted by Vandals909

I have looked at a couple of truck over a year period now. I was wondering what are some of the things you guys try to check out when buy a used truck? Do you take a magnet and go over the truck to check for bondo? Get under it to look for bent frame rails?


thanks for your opinions!

I start with the VIN & Title. If they are OK then I check frame to be sure it isn't bent or twisted or cut up by a PO. If that's OK then rust. Top of the A pillar where the cab roof joins, bottom of the A pillar at the cowl, rear of the Cab behind the door sill/B pillar, bottom of the airvent by the lower door hinge & rocker panels. Take a real close look at the doors. It's hard to get replacements and the aftermarket repops are too flimsy for my taste. Fenders you can always fix and the bed panels and tailgates are plentiful. There aren't many of these trucks without some rust holes...most of them led pretty hard lives and were almost used up but if the asking price is over $3000 I get out a magnet and search for bondo. If I find it I offer less or just walk away. I am especially wary of trucks in primer. Primer can hide an awful lot of sins...I've found rusted out rockers stuffed with chicken wire and slathered with bondo....

Just remember...every truck has a 4.10 posi rear and every 350 is a 4 bolt main block that was just rebuilt so do your homework, know where the numbers on block, trans and rear end are cast or stamped and know what they mean...

The mechanicals never mattered much to me because I usually fix, rebuild or replace a lot of stuff, just do not plan on getting something that will be reliable unless you helped the current owner fix it!.

[Vandals909]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I keep on going back and forth between spending 5 to 6k for a short bed and spend about 2k on long bed and shortening it. Here are some examples

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/1693505408.html

The one above would be about a 8 hour drive for me


I have check with DMV and appears the fees on the truck are not very substantial.
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/1692228145.html

[oldblue1968chevy]

If your not interested in driving/working on it..buy a frame and start from there lol

buy swb roller blast powercoat it all, go disc nice wheels tires, rust free CA or AZ bed, good cab and choose sheetmetal that you like (grille).

Good luck!

[Vandals909]

I'll keep looking for something drivable or that will not take much to get going. Thanks for all the replies.

[beebster]

best advice i ever got is similar to what everyone is saying.
Buy the best truck you can, preferably one that is already a driver.

I bought a 500 dollar 69 chevelle, it needed quarter panels but i said "i can do it"
it needed a motor and trans but i said " i can do it".The trunk floor was gone but i would learn how to weld i told myself,needed new interior but i thought "cheap at the boneyard" After about a year and a half all i had in it was a used 350 for all my trouble.

Had i save up a couple of grand back then (1992) i could have gotten a decent restorable, runner that i could DRIVE while fixing.
I learned a valuable lesson.

[darthwall]

naw thats just motivation couple beers the right tools time flies by lol

[prostreetC-10]

Boy....I'd have to agree with the clown. Looks like there is maybe a few hundred dollars worth of truck there.

To answer your question, sometimes I look at the "seller" harder than I do on the item being sold. Years ago I passed on a cherry Porsche convert because this guy was REALLY selling me. I started to notice non-facotry wiring and other things that started to add up as this guy kept going one. SHould have been one of those cars where you open the garage door and say nothing. Started thinking it might have been a stolen recovery so I walked.

[neba]

if you spend 2,000 you will get a truck that needs 10,000 in repairs. unless you can do body work and engine rebuilding yourself. also requires a garage to work in and hundreds of hours of free time. not trying to dicourage you, its a great hobby. just be sure you realize what your jumping into.

[Vandals909]

This truck looks like a good place to start, i could drive it and save up for the engine I want at the same time. Only thing that sucks is it is a 8 hour drive to take a look at it,

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/1693505408.html

I hope that by posting these trucks on here no one sees it and buys it before i get the chance.
I have emailed the owner and asked for additional photos. Wonder as for price what I could get hi down to?

[JRBECK64]

Take a close look at the Firewall on the top outer parts in the back for rust. Look up under the dash and look for sunlite through the vent plenum. If you have hole, RUN. A lot of times these old trucks have 40 some odd years of leaves and mud that have rusted out the bottom of the vent plenum and the firewall along with the floor boards and so on. If you look at the windshield there is a slotted panel where all that 40 years of stuff falls into. Other than that I would look at the inside roker panels and the cab supports. Is the bottom of the bed in tact because the replacement panels are spendy. Look at the lower parts of the front fenders and the passenger lower cup on the fender along with the Core Support on the passenger side for rust. All these panels are repairable and you can replace them given the right tools and time. If your looking for a driver imediately then you might want to pass this one up. Is it near the coast? I have seen a lot of trucks up here in Oregon that are rust buckets just because of the salt air near the coast. Good luck on your search for a truck. Just for reference I bought a similar truck for $600 that needed a complete restoration.

JRBECK64

[Cole Trickle]

Originally Posted by Vandals909

This truck looks like a good place to start, i could drive it and save up for the engine I want at the same time. Only thing that sucks is it is a 8 hour drive to take a look at it,

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/1693505408.html

I hope that by posting these trucks on here no one sees it and buys it before i get the chance.
I have emailed the owner and asked for additional photos. Wonder as for price what I could get hi down to?

If it tuns good and the body is straight and 95% rust free thats a pretty good deal in CA.

I had to drive to Utah to find something worth working on for a fair price. I spent just a tad more than that but got a really sound truck.

Like others have said imho its better to find a truck for 6K where the previous owner invested 12K and now needs to move on. You could easily spend more than that on the first basket case and not be at the same level.

[junkyardjohn]

Originally Posted by original67

have to remember guys he's in cali not the midwest or fl. Trucks are cheaper here as we bought more in these parts. But i have to agree the price does seem high.
:

i'll have to call b.s. On this statement. I lived in carson city nevada for 12 years & would see at least 30 of these trucks on the road every day. I sure don't see 1/10 that many here in ky. The reason trucks are slightly more expensive on the west coast is because there is no rust in 90% of them. They haven't been rusted out & repaired.back east they tend to be 90% rust buckets. The general might have sold more trucks back east than they did out west, but the rust factor caused most of them to be crushed thirty years ago. All the small parts were crushed right along with them. Would you pay an extra $500 or $1000 for a project that never had any rust issues, or would you rather save a few bucks initally & wind up with a cobbled together, patched up rust bucket? This theory doesn't include every truck, but i have personally parted over 50 of these western trucks & find it to be true from experiance. Once you've built a rust free truck... Well lets just say that brown stuff is bad news to repair. You'd be alot farther ahead spending the money up front than after you pull out the carpet & sill plates & do your best to repair what salt & humidity did in the last 40 years. 5 or 6 years ago nevada had more 67-72 chevy trucks registered an on the road than all other states combined (at least thats what i read). Start with a good g.m. Built body.. Everything else can be replaced. I personally wouldn't even consider a $20,000 truck that had so much as a rocker replaced because of rust. Just my opinion. john

[Diablo de la Noche]

Maybe an idea, if you are really serious, is to get ahold of detailed photos of a truck in good shape. Compare these photos with the truck in question, like the placement of the shock mounts, motor mounts, etc. Sometimes, 40 years of creative engineering can move these things around. There shouldn't be any extra welding on the frame, and you shouldn't see any fresh, shiny metal anywhere (this might indicate parts rubbing where they shouldn't). My truck has a cool dent in the cab behind the driver's side seat under the window. The only thing that could have cause that is being in a very violent crash. I have since found more damage that indicates it was hit in an off-set driver's side head-on, or a pole. Take a small hammer and tap some of the panels. I found out my passenger side rocker is fiberglass. Nice job, but a little fragile. Look for indication of leaks around the windows. Difficult to fix if you aren't an experienced welder or window puter-iner. The electrics should be replaced, so if you are going to do a resto, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Also, one of the most expensive parts is the bed, so make sure it is in good shape.
Most importantly, get the style you want. It is a major job to turn a long bed into a short bed.
I ran into a 67 Firebird in an abandoned lot a couple years ago. It was complete, but had been sitting a loooong time. Factory AC, and the body was coated with bird poo, protecting the paint. I started researching what it would cost to build it, and quit counting the $$ signs at about $12K. The longer they sit the more soft stuff they need. I bought my kid a 95 Chrysler Concorde with 55K miles for $1500. Seemed like a great deal. Problem is, it sat for about 6 years, being driven around the block once every 6 months. I had to replace most of the hoses and the plug wires. I found out they needed to be replaced using the "accidental electrocution" method. The tires were the second set, put on in '97. And the tranny leaked (and still does) from one of the cooling hoses. Possibly main seal leak, cv joint has dry rotted, radiator is corroded, and there is a strange smell inside. Probably would have been better if it was a 155K miler!
My point is that if the PO/seller drives the truck it is probably in better shape than one that has sat for years.

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by Diablo de la Noche

My truck has a cool dent in the cab behind the driver's side seat under the window. The only thing that could have cause that is being in a very violent crash.

Not so, I have seen a lot of trucks with damage to the back of the cab and/or front of the bed from "shifting cargo". All it takes is something heavy, like an engine, that is loaded too far back in the bed.....and a quick application of the brakes.

[Diablo de la Noche]

Originally Posted by LONGHAIR

Not so, I have seen a lot of trucks with damage to the back of the cab and/or front of the bed from "shifting cargo". All it takes is something heavy, like an engine, that is loaded too far back in the bed.....and a quick application of the brakes.

Yeah, I've seen that too. Unfortunately, it is bent outward from the inside, and it has a nice twist, torsion forces at work, with a kink if the middle and a nice tear in the kink. The outside is twisted, too, but not as bad. Window is still tight, luckily.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Diablo de la Noche

Take a small hammer and tap some of the panels.

Whoa! I don`t know if the sller would appreciate that!

I`d go for the $6,000 truck.