Just purchased a 71' C20 Custom.

[King951]

Hey there,

A bit of background on me. I am 20 years old and from Southern California. I purchased my first old truck which was a 1967 Ford F100 4x4 about 3 years ago. Made a short move to Florida and back and in the process ending up selling my truck. I have been in the market for another ever since. I am not bias towards Ford or Chevy, I just enjoy old American trucks.

As for the truck I just purchased. It is a 1971 Chevrolet C20 Custom pickup. It has 90k original miles and I purchased it from the son of the original owner (original owner passed away not too long ago). The truck has a 350 v-8 and a 3 on the column shifter. The truck was very well taken care of and is extremely original. It has been sitting for quite a few years (since about 2008 I believe), but has no back fees. The son of the original owner got the carburetor rebuilt, new fuel tank, new sending unit, new fuel pump, and today I worked on getting the truck started. To my surprise with a little bit of gas it woke rite up and idled amazingly smooth. Oil pressure was good.

The truck would continuously die unless manually feeding it gas. I was able to pull the line directly before the fuel pump and gas was freely pouring out, yet it was unable to pump gas the 2-3 feet from the fuel pump up to the carburetor. Why this is happening with a brand new fuel pump, I do not know. Perhaps the owners son installed it wrong?

Another issue I have ran into is the shift linkages are beyond out of whack. Like I said, it is a 3 on the column. It feels like I am able to get the truck in either what is Reverse and 1st, or 2nd and 3rd. It was previously stuck engaged, I did some fiddling around and was able to get the linkages where it would go into neutral and up and down but no sideways movement if that makes any sense. I tried reading an article on this issue but with limited phone battery and time there was not much I could do. Tomorrow I am making a trip back out there. If I could at least get the truck driving, (which would be doable once I fix the gas and linkage problem), I can drive it home. I am only about 10 city miles away from the seller.

My plans with the truck:
Gonna do a full tune up. Plugs, wires, all fluids (oil already changed), I want to upgrade it to electronic ignition, new cap/rotor, new tires, look over / possibly new brakes depending on condition. I plan to make this my daily work horse.

The son of the previous owner told me the truck was repainted about 15-20 years ago to a blue color. (Was originally green.) The paint is in pretty rough shape but I honestly like the "beat" kinda look and don't plan on painting it any time soon. There is a small amount of rust on the passenger side floor well but the previous owner included a replacement panel for that area that I plan to weld in. The truck also has a newly reupholstered bench seat.

Here is a link to the album for anyone interested in photos: https://imgur.com/a/px4WG

I ran the vin code and came up with the following.

CE241Z609459

C = 4x2
E = V-8
2 = 3/4 ton
4 = Pickup
1 = 1971
Z = Fremont, CA
Sequence Number = 609,459

Any input / recommendations / feedback in regards to the truck is much appreciated as the majority of my knowledge is in pre-smog Ford trucks, this is my first Chevy.

Oh and for anyone curious, I got the truck for $2,000 cash in hand. Clean title, no back fees, original owner, 90k miles, figured it was worth a shot.

[Yotapane]

Looks like a solid truck

[mongocanfly]

looks like 2k well spent. .and those old column shifters will make you pull your hair out sometimes...but you won't have a 4th gear in it...pretty sure you ment 2nd and 3rd...

[King951]

Originally Posted by Yotapane

Looks like a solid truck

Thank you. The body is extremely straight. Looks like there is a small scrape on the passenger side rear fender. I didn't even notice it immediately, probably just going to leave it as is for now, especially since I do not plan to paint this thing any time soon. Aside from surface rust the only real areas that are rusted out is the side step on the passenger side, which the previous owner's son purchased a replacement weld in part, so I will take care of that as well.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

looks like 2k well spent. .and those old column shifters will make you pull your hair out sometimes...but you won't have a 4th gear in it...pretty sure you ment 2nd and 3rd...

Thank you and yes, the more I read about the linkage adjustment on this 3 speed column shifter the more confused I am. Also yes, I did mean to put 2nd / 3rd.