Looking for information - Buying a truck

[vwgreg]

Originally Posted by lizziemeister'sV6

Been on this road before myself and friends of mine. First thing I would do is look at your State's Motor Vechicle guide lines on GVWs. If the GVW is over 26,000 pounds ( an example ) you may need - different operators license, commerical insurance (farm trucks rules vary) and higher road license plate tax based on the tonnage. This is a problem with older grain trucks that have a beautiful cab/body and would make a easy swap onto a smaller tonnage frame. But the VIN# on the Title/ and Plate on the cab tells the WHOLE story at the Courthouse DOT Office. You could change the VIN Plate on the cab but the title has its VIN # - I WOULDN'T EVEN think of messing with any alterations to either. Just walk away. Just do your homework before you make any decisions.

Thank you for the post.

I know about the issues with registration and the state. I can have and have had an over 26k GVW truck before - FL80. I no longer have a class A CDL but hold a chauffeur license.

The thing with Michigan, where I live, is vehicles before 1984 are licensed by manufacturer's curb weight but after it is licensed by MSRP. The exception is with commercial vehicles over 26k. So if I got the 1966, it would be strictly on weight and cost $48 for plates on the truck. I am trying to avoid anything after 1980 because I am so sick of emissions and auto transmission problems.

The title and Vin stuff always make me nervous, I have owned problem vehicles in the past, and I have one sitting here that I can not apply for a title for thanks to claims of ownership that have to be established by a property owner who sold it to me and they are no longer the owner of the property and I can not find them anywhere.

[vwgreg]

Hi all, just an update.

I have looked at maybe a dozen trucks since I started this venture, fell in love with a great looking 1962, but the owner would not budge on the price so I just gave up on it, and went on to other things. Then I just looked at FB marketplace for the heck of it there popped up a 1970 GMC c3500 within my price range.

I saw it was posted an hour before and contacted the owner, who responded fast. He said come on down and look at it and I did.

Not the prettiest thing, the paint is awful, looks like someone painted it with a brush, the color scheme is bad and so are the company logos from the 90s.

The interior is complete, the seat is actually confortable. It had some rust on the cab but the corners were nice the doors were not. The floor pan seemed to be solid, I pulled up the mat and it looked really good but there was rust on the rockers. The rest of the truck is in good shape, it has a dump body, 4-speed, but a 350.

The best thing about it, it has windshield wipers, only one other truck I looked at had them, but all the others were missing.


Everything on the options tag is right on, it is an 11,000 gvw which I can license without no issue at all, insurance is cheap, plates are $50.

Oh and it has a clear title, so it.

I wish I could find a V6 truck but I have to get something going, I need to haul 3500lbs of water. If the V8 dies on me, then I will throw in a V6.

[Prowbar]

Great to hear that you found a solid truck in the rust belt!
No V6? oh well.... At least you're not pulling an existing V6 truck to swap in a 350... GMC folks aren't too fond of seeing that...

Good luck with your new purchase! Would like to see some pictures if you have any.

[George Bongert]

Originally Posted by Prowbar

Great to hear that you found a solid truck in the rust belt!
No V6? oh well.... At least you're not pulling an existing V6 truck to swap in a 350... GMC folks aren't too fond of seeing that...

Good luck with your new purchase! Would like to see some pictures if you have any.

Regarding your comment, Prowbar, as I have recently indicated, replacing a good rebuildable or otherwise good running and operational GMC V-6 with an SBC 350 is a sacrilege. GMC Big Block V-6 powered trucks are unique in their own right, and replacing the Big Block V-6 with ANY Chevy V-8 spoils the value of the GMC Truck.

[lizziemeister'sV6]

Well said George -

[Prowbar]

Originally Posted by George Bongert

Regarding your comment, Prowbar, as I have recently indicated, replacing a good rebuildable or otherwise good running and operational GMC V-6 with an SBC 350 is a sacrilege. GMC Big Block V-6 powered trucks are unique in their own right, and replacing the Big Block V-6 with ANY Chevy V-8 spoils the value of the GMC Truck.

I agree!

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by George Bongert

Regarding your comment, Prowbar, as I have recently indicated, replacing a good rebuildable or otherwise good running and operational GMC V-6 with an SBC 350 is a sacrilege. GMC Big Block V-6 powered trucks are unique in their own right, and replacing the Big Block V-6 with ANY Chevy V-8 spoils the value of the GMC Truck.

While I definitely agree with George and Prowbar regarding keeping your V6, we have to remember that we occasionally get a new member who bought a 60-66 GMC with the original V6 already replaced with a small block Chevy (or even a Cadillac engine!). And some of the later trucks came from the factory with inline sixes. And it is possible to replace these V8s and inline sixes with V6s in the future.

[George Bongert]

Another thing that I am sick and tired of seeing is the ABSOLUTE RUINATION of collectable vintage pickup trucks being modified with stupid fat tires and equipped with suspension kits that allow the truck to basically SIT ON THE GROUND!! I saw what would have been a very desirable and original 1950 Chevy pickup that was modified in the manner that I have just described. The truck was for sale with a plenty hefty price tag on it, but personally, I wouldn't have given the owner scrap iron price for it!! In my opinion, the truck was just plain ruined, and as far as I am concerned, anyone who destroys these valuable old trucks in such a manner need their backsides kicked over their shoulders!!

[vwgreg]

Originally Posted by Prowbar

Great to hear that you found a solid truck in the rust belt!
No V6? oh well.... At least you're not pulling an existing V6 truck to swap in a 350... GMC folks aren't too fond of seeing that...

Good luck with your new purchase! Would like to see some pictures if you have any.

Thanks. I’ve been doing this thing with cars and trucks since 1975 and I prefer dealing with older stuff than I do the new junk. The GMC V6 world is new to me, why I reach out here, I learned a heck of a lot that helps me.

As much as I think SBC is a good engine, it is overrated for some things, not everything. In this case, this truck may be a good fit for the purpose but compared to other engines, to me, it is the cheapest and easiest to work on for most which makes it attractive to them. A lot of people don’t put much thought into actual repairs but just are parts changers.

Originally Posted by George Bongert

Regarding your comment, Prowbar, as I have recently indicated, replacing a good rebuildable or otherwise good running and operational GMC V-6 with an SBC 350 is a sacrilege. GMC Big Block V-6 powered trucks are unique in their own right, and replacing the Big Block V-6 with ANY Chevy V-8 spoils the value of the GMC Truck.

Agree, I am a purest at heart, if it comes with a factory drive train, it should have that drive train unless there is a real reason to replace it. The body is in very good shape and I am going to just clean it up, maybe stripping the crappy paint off of it and returning it to the original blue (it is flat green now).

The only mechanical modification I can see doing to this truck is to put a Brownie in it to make it more highway-usable. The other mods I may be going to do are period mods like transistor ignition (which I think I have a couple of GM conversions in my collection from the ‘60s. Oh and better fuel filtering, but that’s it.

Originally Posted by Ed Snyder

While I definitely agree with George and Prowbar regarding keeping your V6, we have to remember that we occasionally get a new member who bought a 60-66 GMC with the original V6 already replaced with a small block Chevy (or even a Cadillac engine!). And some of the later trucks came from the factory with inline sixes. And it is possible to replace these V8s and inline sixes with V6s in the future.

Just to be clear, the truck I am buying has a factory 360 in it, not a V6, I wish it was. I looked forward to having a V6 in the next truck, but alas, it didn’t happen. However I am going to buy the 351 near here that is complete from fan to the trans, it is a mid-60s engine and has the air compressor I want, which of course the engine is priced for at the same price as a replacement air compressor.

Originally Posted by George Bongert

Another thing that I am sick and tired of seeing is the ABSOLUTE RUINATION of collectable vintage pickup trucks being modified with stupid fat tires and equipped with suspension kits that allow the truck to basically SIT ON THE GROUND!! I saw what would have been a very desirable and original 1950 Chevy pickup that was modified in the manner that I have just described. The truck was for sale with a plenty hefty price tag on it, but personally, I wouldn't have given the owner scrap iron price for it!! In my opinion, the truck was just plain ruined, and as far as I am concerned, anyone who destroys these valuable old trucks in such a manner need their backsides kicked over their shoulders!!

I have seen perfectly good cars be hacked up by someone and seen them try to sell them for outrageous amounts of money. I looked at a local 1967 Imperial 2 door last spring, I saw it a couple of times up close. It was all original, the paint was in great shape, and very clean, 43,000 miles on the clock with almost every option you could get. It was priced at $4500, but it didn’t sell. It stood on the edge of the road for at least three months, then vanished. It came back, the wheels were these junk urban 22-inch things on it and lowered, which made it very ugly. It has tinted windows now, the fender skirts were missing, it was dechromed and it looked like the guy replaced the seats with modern seats out of a truck. I stopped to look at it, the price of it was now $11,000. It sat out at the edge of the road until October and then pushed back to the garage where it sits today covered up.

I’ve seen this happen a lot of times with a lot of rare cars. The saddest was a single owner 1936 Packard 120 sport coupe which was an absolutely beautiful and rare car. The guy bought it for $8k, drove it to his garage and chopped, channeled it, lowered the car, and stuck a BBC in it. Then he painted it with a god-awful purple. Everyone seems to think what was done was art, but seeing the original car, it was so sad to see someone hack it up so badly.

[AZKen]

Young folks, like we used to be, have been doing that since Model A days and 32 ford days and T bucket days and many of us did that ruination. Had fun, learned about mechanic'in. Let those who have never done that cast the first wrench.

There was no such thing as antique, collectible, old valuable cars...and nobody owned a truck. Just old jalopys no one wanted. We put that new fangled chevy 265/283 V8 in everything. The definition of cool. We now appreciate the unique value of GMC/V6. I think we can welcome others here and help them with everything but their V8 and super-mod questions. They are having fun and learning and are just as excited as we were.

This is just my too sence.