Bought her and drove her home today.
The Brakes need help, and possibly the clutch needs adjusting.
Otherwise, she's in rather good shape mechanically and could be driven daily.
Cosmetically; you've seen the worst as I posted above.
First thing I did was crawl underneath with a flashlight and check over the condition of the metal. I was pleasantly surprised of how good of shape the rear fenders, inside and out were. The bed wood has been replaced with a full piece of diamond plate steel - Pretty practical I'd say - I can work with that. Tailgate is very straight.
Moving on to the front;
The front fenders are rotted where they all rot - bottom rear corner. Otherwise straight and good metal. Hood is straight - no bondo. It has some small portions of rot at the bottom rear corners and couple tiny spots at the front lip. Inner fenders are straight and clean.
The Cab:
Again, the metal is really clean. Even the floors - only some real small area of surface rust on the passenger side in that usual spot.
Crawling under the cab reveals that there is no rot through anywhere. Even the cab supports are clean. Cab corners are just barely starting to show some rot. The rockers; I was also pleasantly surprised.
The older man I bought it from said he bought it from his neighbor who had it stored in his garage since the early to mid 90's until around 2003.
I took some pictures, but they came out crummy because of bad lighting.
I'll get some better pics and post them.
The 327 engine has very few miles on the rebuild, and is also very clean.
Edelbrock Manifold and 1406 Carb. Another big plus is the MSD HEI Ignition.
Discouragingly, It only has the driver's side of the 2-1/2 in dia collector Ram's Horns I had on it - somebody replaced the passenger's with the 2". Also, the 62 shroud is gone.
Overall, I'm happy with what's under the hood.
The most discouraging as I mentioned before, is the buddy buckets are gone.
If "My" buddy buckets were still there, the joy would be complete. But I'll live.
The bench appears to be the correct bench for our trucks. - Again, I'll get some pics.
He had the rubber for the front windshield replaced, and put in a new rear window with rubber. Oh yeah, he put in a new gas tank too. I almost forgot; Rear Air Shocks.
I'd like to thank everyone again for the support and encouragement to not let her get away again. As I crawled underneath near the engine compartment, I saw a memory - a bracket my uncle welded on the frame for my clutch linkage, and I felt a lump in my heart
I know as I dig into her more I'll find more memories.
I worked all summer with my dad and he bought me this truck.
My Grandpa helped me build this truck. My Uncle and Cousin Mike also. And my brother-in-law helped hugely with getting it back on the road. And my sister for letting me store it at her house for almost 2 years while I was 18 and low on funds.
-Robert
