Road Trip Retrieval

I shopped around a long time for my most recent truck before finding it. Lots of time went by as I kept an eye on Craigslist, Offerup, and FB Marketplace. I spent plenty of time perusing ads (wasting time).

I had reached a position with the old 84 Chevy that I was just no longer interested in the truck. Well, unless I was driving it--that was always fine. I wanted to upgrade my truck in several areas but it was not the base I wanted to build on. I felt I'd be just giving my money to the next owner. I wanted to start with the right truck.

When I found what I considered to be what I was looking for, it was on Facebook Marketplace (I only have a FB account for their marketplace.) I wasn't thrilled because it was so far away, but that's just the way FB anything works... you tell them what you want to see and they give you what they want you to see anyway. Thanks to retirement, I didn't have to do much planning to go down to look at the truck. I chose a day and away we went. (Looking back, we should have gotten a much earlier start.) By the time we got to the guy's place near Grants Pass, Oregon, it was after 5pm.

Here are a few pictures from the ad. (I thought I had saved them all, but I lost several.)

The truck looked a little better in person than it did on the ad, which was a good start. It seemed to run fairly good, and everything I looked over was looking okay as well. We took it for a drive, and when he stepped on it, both the engine stumbled and the transmission slipped briefly at the same time. He only acknowledged the the engine, citing the engine as 'not being warmed up'.

I wasn't too worried about that. I was mainly worried about whether or not it was going to get me home!

Like a fool, I really didn't check too many things before taking off for home like I should have. Maybe it was the weed we smoked to ease nerves or whatever. Luckily, nothing went wrong, but several things could have (more on that later). It was very evident right away that the tires were too short in stature when I got on the freeway. The rpm's were a bit higher than I was used to. I remember asking the guy what the rear end ratio was. "Low," he said. When I got on the freeway it was almost as if there was no high gear and it was stuck in 2nd! You can see by the picture here how much shorter these tires were. The tall one on the right is the correct, stock size, and even fairly worn down was a lot taller than what was on the truck.

I didn't check the water level before we left, and it was dangerously low when we finally got home (yes, we got home without incident) at about 10 or 11pm. When we left the guy's house I gassed up before getting on the freeway. It has two gas tanks, but the right tank hadn't been used in a while, and I didn't feel like causing a major fuel line blockage if I suddenly opened up a dam of shit of some kind. I filled the tank, and by the time we crossed the Columbia into Washington again I was on fumes. Obviously, I was driving too fast, trying to keep up with traffic with normal gearing. For the final leg of the trip I kept the speed around 55 or so and had almost a half a tank left when we pulled into the driveway! Huge difference. Another thing that happened: Not long after we first got on the freeway with it the brake warning light came on. I didn't think much of it--I just figured it was the parking brake lever switch. The headlights were a little on the dim side, but they were working and the alternator was charging, so that part was fine. Lots of noises, rattles, squeaks, and unknowns. I had 2 dash lights, and none of the gauges were working except the temperature, and I didn't much trust that either. Luckily, it never rained on the way home, because although the wipers did work, I had no idea if the rubber on them would be up to the task.

I went out to check out the next day to see what I had bought (laughs nervously). The brake proportioning valve had apparently saved my ass. The left rear brake drum had a puddle of brake fluid under it and saturating everything, and the rear brake reservoir was bone dry. Without the two-part master cylinder that all vehicles currently use I would have been without brakes. Note to self: Never assume it's just the parking brake switch. I also noticed the radiator was dangerously low--like below half. Yow! I could have wasted the newly-rebuilt engine out of stupidity!

I have a rule: I never do anything major to a vehicle I buy until it's in my name, so that was the first order of business. I hurried right down and got the title transferred and got my new plates.

Ownership. Let the adventure begin.

A Simpler Squarebody

After selling the GMC, I was without a truck. It didn't bother me too much until the time when we went to pick up a radial arm saw in my girlfriend's Toyota Camry. Station wagon or not, a Camry wagon is not a transport vehicle. The saw had to be disassembled to fit inside it of course.

So, I again went out on the hunt.

This time I was searching for something in the same year range, but with little to no frills. I still had a bad taste in my mouth from the 86 GMC even though the 'frills' it had didn't give me any problems. I just wanted a good, simple truck that was old enough to not need to go through an emission inspections.

What I found was the ad on the right:

I was looking for simple, and that's what it was--a "plain Jane" pickup. It ran okay, stopped okay, and drove okay, but there was no way it was going to pass an emissions test with the wrong engine and NO pollution controls left on it. I offered him $1100, explaining my reason. The couple said no to that offer right away and I left. They called me two days later, accepting my offer.  They had to sleep on it a day or two, but I guess nobody else called--possibly for the same reason.

 Anyway, here's a couple of shots of the truck they sent me before I bought it. I think it was a pretty fair deal considering the condition it was in.

 

The truck was pretty spartan, especially when I compared it to the GMC I came from. This one had no carpet, no A/C, no intermittent wipers, no nothing--manual everything except steering and shifting. I was pleased though. I had myself a truck again! 

I had the usual things to fix that I find in almost everything I buy. There are always wiring issues, and this was no exception. When I stepped on the brake the right front turn signal came on, along with the dash turn indicator (although dim). Turns out the socket in the front parking light was broken and the hot wire was grounding out. It had vacuum leaks, bad modulator, and all kinds of small things.

It was a good truck, and it was pretty quiet inside, and rode like a car, but after several years of ownership I had grown distant from it. I wanted a truck to upgrade, but this was not the one. I wanted something better to build on before I started pumping money into it.

Here's what it looked like when I put it up for sale. It was clean, trustworthy, and didn't even have a single squeak or rattle:

 

 
 

The 86 K1500 4x4

My first Square

After putting the Ford behind me, I went out shopping for something with some more creature comforts. This is what I found and settled on: My first squarebody truck, an 86 GMC K1500 High Sierra. It came equipped with a 305, 700R4, power steering, power disc brakes, cruise control, delay wipers, AM-FM cassette, twin fuel tanks, and block heater. I don't understand why they didn't order it with power windows and door locks though--that was about all they missed.

I bought it from a small car lot for too much (I can't remember what I paid actually) money. The mileage wasn't reflected much in the body or interior because it was almost all highway miles. It didn't have a lot of the usual wear you see in high milers. Well, the usual visual wear that is. I decided that the bed was nice enough that I didn't want to see it go to hell, so I had a spray-in Rhino Liner applied to the bed. I really had a lot of fun in this truck. The 305 ran good, used no oil and made no noises, but it was a little tired and anemic after I had owned it for a couple years. The transmission was starting to slow, the rear was starting to whine... You know--all the mechanical stuff was starting to die a slow death. But that's not what really made me sell it.

Not long after I bought it, an electronic gremlin appeared. A mysterious, intermittent loss of spark that would leave me stranded occasionally. Bear in mind, this was also the last of the carbureted trucks before they all went EFI, so that year of Quadrajet carburetor was riddled with electronic sensors. Practically everything on the truck seemed to interact with each other, so it was hard to troubleshoot anyway. The starting system was never a problem. The starter always spun nicely. There was always plenty of gas also. What was missing? What else? The spark! I fiddle farted around with everything I could, but never found the culprit. When you'd come out of the store and nary a fart would it utter.  Sometimes there would be weeks between events, sometimes hours. Sometimes it would work after trying it a few times, but more than once it left me stranded until the next day. I'm pretty sure it was the ECM because it was about the only thing left to change, but I'd had it at that point. No more of that ECM crap for me. I started looking for another squarebody, but this time I wanted something more stripped down and easy to troubleshoot.

Funny--when the guy showed up with his trailer to pick it up, he hit the starter before we started pushing 'just to see' and it fired right up.

Of course.

 

 

 

A New Blog... Again

I couldn't stop myself. I clicked and created... yet another blog.

I had all these thoughts of truck stuff swirling through my head the last few months that I thought I should have a place to park my findings, doings, and goings-on.

I bought my first car at 15 years old, and several cars and years later I finally bought my first truck. It didn't take long for me to wonder, "Why the hell did it take me this long to buy a truck?"

I was working as the lube guy at our local Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealership in the early 80's. One day a fellow traded in his old blue pickup for a new GMC. I looked at that truck (which was butt-ugly at the time) with interest and went to talk to the sales manager. I ended up buying it for $600. Not only that, but about two weeks later he summoned me to his office and there was a brand-new tailgate standing up against the wall behind him!
 "The guy found it under his porch or something." the sales manager continued, "Apparently, he bought the canopy right after he bought the truck, and the tailgate was removed never used after that because the canopy had a big back door."

My first truck: 1965 C10

Sweet! By that time I had been buffing the truck out in my spare time, and it was finally shiny. When bought there wasn't a shiny spot on it--it was all terribly oxidized. Because it was one owner vehicle, it was in beautiful shape--especially the bed. The wood was like new and still had the factory black paint on it! Well, that tailgate really tied the together. The shiny sky-blue paint, the new whitewalls, and the baby moon hubcaps transformed that truck. It had a 230 6-cylinder and 3-speed on the column. I found an overdrive transmission for it in the Little Nickel want ads and paid $75 for it--complete with kickdown switch and wire harness. All I had to do was have the driveline shortened a tad bit. That truck just purred like a kitten and drove like a car. I loved it. I owned that truck for 11 years before I started to have yearnings toward something 4-wheel drive 4 instead of 2-wheel. When the driver's door skin rusted apart at the bottom and the wood bed developed its first rotten board (OMG!), I started the search.

I found a super-straight 62 Chevy K20 in original (read that 'rusty') condition. I fell in love with it when  I heard that 6-cylinder run. What a purr! It would idle down to 300 rpm before it started to stumble. I think I paid $600 for it from the 2nd owner. It was a long-bed stepside, and had a 261 6-cylinder, 4-speed, and 4:56 gears in it. It had a Detroit locker in it when I bought it but I didn't keep it long. We took it up into the snow one time to find a Christmas tree and I could hardly keep it on the logging road when the snow got deep. Every time the wheels would spin, the truck would try to 'walk' off the shoulder on one side or another. I hunted around and replaced that locker with an 'open' rear. What a difference. The body was rusted all over the place like so many are, but the interior was intact. It was always nice and warm and dry inside. I loved the way this truck ran and drove, but the 4:56 gears were a little low for my taste. I guess it was a good pair with the 261 though, because it was not a powerhouse, but had torque like crazy for slow going. The seat in it was absolutely horrible. It was a tube-framed thing that felt about as bad as an Army truck with canvas and springs. I swapped out the seat from the 65 before I sold that on. Ahh, there's that familiar feel... I forget how long I owned it, but I sure got used to the 4-wheel drive.

62 Chevy K20

At some point (I can't remember exactly) I owned this 63 Chevy C10 during the same time frame, but it was mainly a buy it/fix it/flip it thing, so it wasn't around long.

63 Chevy C10

After I sold the old 62 4x4 I bought an interesting old truck from my brother: A 66 Ford F-262 4x4. It was sporting a 410 FE engine that his wife's grandpa transplanted from a mid-sixties Mercury, backed with the factory truck 4-speed. It was a lot of work making that truck halfway decent because it was so neglected. I guess I wanted a challenge. By the time I had gotten it halfway decent I was tired of it. The engine was starting to make a little lower end noise, I was tired of the rattling tailgate chains, the off-center steering wheel (Ford borrowed heavily from other models when they put these 4x4's together), and all the other idiosyncrasies. Even the bed was different because of the wheelbase. It was just an odd truck all the way around and I was tired of its crap.

66 Ford F-262 4x4

66 Ford F-262 4x4

 

After dealing with such a "patchwork" old truck I was in the mood for something more modern. Something you could find parts for anywhere, unlike the 66 Ford.

Time to go on the hunt!