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: