Looking for information - Buying a truck

[George Bongert]

Originally Posted by 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.

Personally, I have always had a love of anything old and historical in nature. I am one of the few individuals who frown on these radical modifications of perfectly salvageable and restorable pieces of automotive history. Seeing the outright "butchering" of these vintage vehicles by those who think they are creating something that they think is a work of art is enough to make a grown man who appreciates the true beauty of that which is old.....CRY!!

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by George Bongert

Personally, I have always had a love of anything old and historical in nature. I am one of the few individuals who frown on these radical modifications of perfectly salvageable and restorable pieces of automotive history. Seeing the outright "butchering" of these vintage vehicles by those who think they are creating something that they think is a work of art is enough to make a grown man who appreciates the true beauty of that which is old.....CRY!!

Well said, George!

[LEWISMATKIN]

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 couldn't agree more!!!!!!

[George Bongert]

Originally Posted by vwgreg

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.



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.



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.



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.

I see that some of our members have gotten my point. I just don't understand the mentality of these individuals who would take something as rare as a 1967 Chrysler Imperial, or an even rarer 1936 Packard 120 Sport Coupe and destroy those vehicles in the manner that they did. Obviously they have no appreciation whatsoever for the history of these automotive companies, or what they produced. As I said, and as far as I am concerned, what they have done to these vintage vehicles is a SIN, and they rightly deserve a good swift kick in their backsides!! Yes, I did convert my old '63 Chevy one ton from the Chevy 292 I-6 to a GMC 305 V-6, but that did not affect the original appearance of my truck, nor did it decrease the value of my truck. Disagree with me if you like, but as far as I'm concerned, the conversion that I did only increased the value of my truck, since the GMC Big Block V-6 engine was a far better engine than the Chevy 292 I-6!!

[AZKen]

George, no one is arguing with you. You are a passionate GMC guy and passionate about saving other kinds of vehicles. I am in the "keep it original as possible" camp. I do consider safety, drivability on hiways and reliability of the old trucks I've owned. I always like to keep the exterior and interior original.
This site is all about keeping 60-66 GMC's and their motors pure. It's a site for helping that cause. But this site is in America. We can't score GMC owners/members or judge GMC owners/members or punish them or admonish them. I hope there will never be a list of rules about how pure a GMC has to be. Many posts about carb/manifold mods, brake mods, steering mods, wheels, gauge cluster mods, alternators, trans mods, etc. are discussed from time to time. Motor swaps even. No reason to rant. Your opinion is a popular one here. There are lots of things that have changed in my lifetime. I don't like most of them. But to each his/her/them/they own. I guess. Be assured there are many closet (garage) Chevy V8 members. Maybe some of that goes in "Other Rides and Projects".

[George Bongert]

Originally Posted by AZKen

George, no one is arguing with you. You are a passionate GMC guy and passionate about saving other kinds of vehicles. I am in the "keep it original as possible" camp. I do consider safety, drivability on hiways and reliability of the old trucks I've owned. I always like to keep the exterior and interior original.
This site is all about keeping 60-66 GMC's and their motors pure. It's a site for helping that cause. But this site is in America. We can't score GMC owners/members or judge GMC owners/members or punish them or admonish them. I hope there will never be a list of rules about how pure a GMC has to be. Many posts about carb/manifold mods, brake mods, steering mods, wheels, gauge cluster mods, alternators, trans mods, etc. are discussed from time to time. Motor swaps even. No reason to rant. Your opinion is a popular one here. There are lots of things that have changed in my lifetime. I don't like most of them. But to each his/her/them/they own. I guess. Be assured there are many closet (garage) Chevy V8 members. Maybe some of that goes in "Other Rides and Projects".

You do have a point. Maybe it's just me, but seeing some of the things that I have seen done to vintage classic vehicles just plain irritate the He** out of me. That said, I will now leave well enough alone. Thanks for putting up with my aggravation about the destruction of vintage cars and trucks.

[vwgreg]

Originally Posted by George Bongert

You do have a point. Maybe it's just me, but seeing some of the things that I have seen done to vintage classic vehicles just plain irritate the He** out of me. That said, I will now leave well enough alone. Thanks for putting up with my aggravation about the destruction of vintage cars and trucks.

I wasn't trying to bash you or maybe I'm reading into something that isn't there. My point is the same as yours. I am careful to make sure I expeience my new truck as it was inteneded to be driven, just like my Corvair, I am not going to hack it up with all kinds of modren mods to make it like others, it is unique just by being mundane raggy car.

[George Bongert]

Originally Posted by vwgreg

I wasn't trying to bash you or maybe I'm reading into something that isn't there. My point is the same as yours. I am careful to make sure I expeience my new truck as it was inteneded to be driven, just like my Corvair, I am not going to hack it up with all kinds of modren mods to make it like others, it is unique just by being mundane raggy car.

No, I didn't think that you were trying to bash me, and I appreciate your willingness to keep your vehicles as original as is humanly possible. I was venting my frustration(s) about some of these "artists" on TV who will go to any length to deliberately destroy and modify vehicles that should be left alone for their historical and collectable value. Those clowns shouldn't be allowed anywhere near vintage vehicles with tools in their hands!!

[vwgreg]

Just an update. Sorry for the length of it

As I said, I got one heck of a deal on a 1970 GMC C3500 Dump truck, when it was all said and done, the seller got $1020 out of me for it. He said it ran but hasn't been able to get it running. I had several delays in getting the truck home and yesterday I told the wife, that it is coming home today and it is home now. I had to flat tow it home with a tow bar and my little ranger thanks to having two people back out helping me get it home. It was one heck of a trip, three lefts and four rights, and the truck did not want to track with the ranger, it would push the ranger but alas, it was all on dirt back country roads at 5 pm Sunday.

So when I got it home, I could not move it off the road where I needed it to be, I was burning up my clutch in trying to get it to turn onto the property. So seeing I live at the end of a dead-end road, no one cared if it was on the road, even the cops who came here to make sure nothing was going on didn't even slow to look. I left it hooked up to the ranger, grabbed a battery off my tractor before going into the house for the night, and made sure it cranked. It had oil pressure built up so it turned over, and went to bed happy.

This afternoon I started to work on the truck. I started with a little starting fluid and nothing. So I checked the spark, and there was none. Pulled the cap off, and the points were closed on the top of the cam so I checked again for a spark by opening the points and there was a spark. Adjusted the points to 16 thousandths, but still when I turned it over, no spark.

Pulled the points, and went off to the parts store for a new set, thinking they would have them in stock but I shouldn't been surprised at what was about to happen. I got to an Advanced Auto, and not one person in the place knew what points were. I kid you not, I was shaking my head and thinking how can anyone working in a parts store not know what they are? So I went to my next store, Auto Zone, where not one person knew what points were but one of the counter persons thought I was making it up, the manager who is 47 years old said he may have heard of them once and when I showed him the one I took off the truck, he was holding it up to everyone to show them what it was. There were even some people there who said engines don't use them.

So needless to say I didn't get new points. Instead, I dug for 30 minutes while the eclipse was going on to pull out my ignition toolbox, and I realigned the points, burnished the contacts the reinstalled the points. I had my wife crank over the engine, and I have a spark now. I got gas into the carb (tomorrow's project is to drain the tank) and it came to life. After messing with it for 20 more minutes, I unhooked it from the ranger, pulled it back away from the ranger, and turned it around to back it up where I would be working on it. It needs some brake work (weird problem, the pedal is stuck), and a bunch of electrical work, I have to get it cleaned up, it is a mouse house for sure. And I have to get a new passenger side window.

I have pictures but I can't figure out how to post them, I will as soon as I can.

[Jim A]

Whew! You got it to the OR. Hopefully the oil pressure prevented any damage.
It is a scary story about points.
Keep us informed.