Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Brought home a 62 C-1500 yesterday. 305 3 in the tree, plain jane truck. It is a survivor truck, owned by one family, and never drove in the winter. Truck spent the last 8 yrs tucked away in a shed. Family provided pictures and was told the history of the truck from day one. It started out life as a camper and later was changed to a box. They kept the original tires and wheels, hubcaps, radio, owners manual, paperwork. Gotta do some brake work and do all the things that it needs after sitting that long, otherwise it should be good to go. Pretty **** happy to find an original truck in this condition and especially in of all places Minnesota. :upyes: Dave

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Congratulations Dave! What an exciting find. I would recommend that instead of doing the customary full restoration that you preserve it as it is. This is becoming the trend more nowadays at car shows because of the story it tells. It will generate more interest than all of the fully restored vehicles one sees and in my case actually get tired of seeing.

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

I agree with you. That is the whole reason I bought another GMC, is I wanted a driver. I have a 66 that is restored. Just a good cleanup and get everything mechanically sound. Should be fun. Dave :upyes:

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

That is a great find and with 80K miles just broken in.
I noticed those big front hubs on your first post. I don't think I've seen them before.
Not a 4x is it?

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Are those wheels 16”? Such a nice find, just clean up and go! And it has the wood box too; Nice.

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Thanks for the encouragement. It is a two wheel drive,the caps on the wheels are pretty large and I suppose that is so they will fit over the 3/4 ton hubs sticking out on the rear axle. I was surprised it has 15in rims and the original split rims were also 15s. I was impressed that the steering sector has no play in it and the shift linkage on the column is very tight and works smooth. After sitting for 8 yrs I'll have to flush the gas tank,change out all the lube oils,tune up the engine and probably go through the carb,also the wheel bearings and brakes will need service. Fiddling with these old GMCs is how I recharge my batteries, should have a full charge in a little while. :rowdybeer: Dave

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Congratulations on finding such an exceptionally original and well preserved truck! They are few and far between. Very very nice. Enjoy.

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Nice find!

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

Hi Dave
I did not intend to demean those who have put so much time into full restorations. It just seems we went through a time when that was the first thought when someone got a truck like this. I strongly suggest that you, at each oil change, open up the oil filter, spread out the pleated paper, and inspect it carefully for non-magnetic bits of metal that keep appearing. If you find this, get to changing out the rods and main bearings. You can do it without pulling the motor. We find that sometimes motors that have been idle for many years have had the bearing faces acid etched which leads to the coating peeling off, leading to eventual bearing failure. We have had it happen; not a good thing! By the time we audibly heard evidence of it in knocking, the crank was hurt because the etched metal is harder than normal bearing metal. You will catch it in time if you watch for it in the filters. In fact we now make it the first mission to replace the bearings in the motor. We usually find the start of the etching on the old bearings, a dark hard coating.

Re: Shed Find 62 3/4 ton
 

WOW! What a clean 56 year old truck! I would just shine it up a bit and drive it on nice days. I wonder why the 3-on-the-tree on a 3/4 ton truck? Neighbor I did fieldwork for when I was in High School always had half ton Chevy trucks with 3-on-the-trees and small V-8's, 283, 307. About that same time Dad had a '60 Chevy with 261-6 and SM-420 4-speed, towing or heavy hauling was no problem with the creeper low gear. With today's 5 & 6 speed wide ratio transmissions slow creeping or rock crawling is possible as well as economical 70+ mph cruising.

That era GMC truck had some of the most striking styling, very sharp!