How did you find your Truck -and-Why did you buy your truck?

[wibilly]

i found my first 2 this go around[had others 25 years ago] at a home i was working on. the owner had an unsatisfied lean on the one i wanted so no deal was made. a year later i was back to do another job thereand inquired again. his parents had paid the note and i traded my services for a shortened 71 3/4 ton 4x4. before i left i bought the other one a 72 1/2 ton 4x4 with a fresh 350 and a bad tranny for $ 300. 2 quarts of tranny fluid fixed the tranny. since then i have gathered a 67 shorty, a 72 trazer 2 69s and a totaly rust free 67 cab and clip. it was just a hobby not an addiction til i found this site now i neeed them all

[kooltrailz]

Originally Posted by RedZ71

mine originally belong to my mother-in-law's neighbor. many mornings as my wife and i were dropping out 3yr old son off, i would see her neighbor outside, getting ready for work himself. he and i would often chat about old trucks (since he had a71). so one day in early jan of 07, as i was waiting for my wife to come back downstairs, and he came up and instead of the normal greetings.. it was "hey would you be interested in buying my chevy?"

uh... yeah!!! a few days and $800 bucks later, my new hobby begins!

the day i sealed the deal:


and how she looks now:



ok ok ok .. when i say "how she looks now", i meant right before i started working on her new fenders...

lil off topic but what factory color is your truck? was it the light green on top and dark olive on bottom?

[ABLAZN]

My love for the '69-'72 Blazers started over 22 year ago when I bought one. I owned it when I turned 21 and had a lot of great memories in that truck. I sold it so I could pay for college, but always regretted selling it. 3 years ago my wife and I decided to get into cruise-ins and car shows. After trying to figure out what kind of rig to go with, we chose the Blazer because the whole family could fit in it, plus the wife liked the convertible idea. I spent 6 months looking and bidding on eBay. I also was alway checking the papers on nothing worth my time. I found one on eBay that was only 70 mile away in Portland and made arrangements to look at it. The guy pulled it off the listing and sold it to me for what I thought was a good price. After getting it home, I found a lot more rust then what he said there was. So, I was heart broken. I thought about selling it when out of the blue another Blazer popped into my life. I needed some double sided body tape, so I visited a body shop that I knew the owners of to get a piece. When I got there the first thing I saw was big white 72 Blazer that I thought was one of the rigs that they were working on. The first thing out of the shop owners mouth was "hey, would you like to buy my Blazer". He said that they had taken it in trade for some body work and decided not to keep it. This Blazer was in much better shape then the one that I had and the deal was done a couple of weeks later. I sold the other Blazer to friend who is much better at welding and body work.

The story is regular enough, but it takes one more strange turn. While I was working on it I found things that looked strangely familiar. After awhile I decided to submit for the vehicle title history. When I got the records,I about fell over. They confirmed that the Blazer that have now is indeed the same Blazer that I bought 22 years ago. The story is the link in my signature and has before and after pictures for those who want to see more.

[C/10 Cruiser]

I got my first one...a 1970 GMC Sierra Grande from a co-worker who after a drunken discussion about our dream vehicles informed me he had mine sitting in a field behind his house. $1500 later and I had my factory 402BB Sierra Grande. Unfortunately due to a move halfway across the country and the cost of such a move the truck was sold.

My second one I found through my stepdad, once again I was babbling about missing my truck while driving through farm country where I had spotted a truck. After listening to me whine for a while he got on his cell phone and called a buddy of his who just happened to have a '72 lwb custom deluxe sitting in his garage, 1/2 hour and $700 later and I had my second truck.

[truknut]

I was delivering some vinyl siding for a place I used to work, and I came across a yard sale with the truck sitting out front. It had a FOR SALE sign and the guy said if you drive it you will want it. It was for 750, so I drove it and of course I wanted it. But I didn't have the money I asked the guy would he hold it for me and he said for 50 dollars, so a month later it was mine.

[Big White GMC]

I Got My Truck Back In 1997 After I Graduated High School. I Needed A Truck And My Dad Had A '92 S-10 That He Couldn't Use Anymore ( Too Small For Work ). Anyhoo, The Only Way I Could Get This S-10 Is If I Took Out A Loan To Buy Him A New Truck. Well, We Looked Around For A Week And Found Some Stuff He Liked. I Had Heard From Some People That There Was A Decent 70's Model GMC In Clarkesville, GA. We Went And Looked At It At 3:00 PM And Left At About 3:45 !!! Paid $2500.00. It Was A 350/350 ( Now Has A 305 From An '89 Firebird Formula )With Cruise Control, AC, And Leaf Springs. Years Went On And His Health Declined ( Diabetes ) And In 2005, He Passed Away. The Only Thing He Had To Leave Me Was That Truck. I Will NEVER Part With This Truck. Every Time I Get In It I Think Of That Day We Bought It.
By The Way, This Is One Of The Best Threads I've Seen Yet. Awesome Idea !!

[madman 72]

I had a 72 chevy short stepside in high school. My dad woke my up at 5 in the morning to go test drive 2 trucks a 75 ford long bed and the 72 short stepside. I picked the 72 before the sun even came out. We went and picked it up that afternoon. It had 307 with a granny 4 speed 2wd. I went through 3 years of school, countless sets of tires, 5-6 girlfriends, cases of beer and lots of tickets. I sold that truck after graduation to go to college. I still regret it to this day. I though i'll just buy another one later. Wrong!. They were getting hard to find. After I got out of college I started looking and nothing. Then my old truck came up for sale for $400 bucks and I went to look at it, but my wife would not let me buy it because of my past with the truck. Mainly the stories of the girlfriends and that truck, told to her buy my buddies wives. I told her that we would make our own memories and still NO!!! Well now on how I found my current truck. Well we needed a secong car, so I told my wife that I would just buy an old truck and she could use the new truck. I searched for 3 years and nothing, it finally came down to the point that we needed a 2nd vehicle. We were on our way to amarillo to buy a car when on my way out of town at the car wash sat a 72 short step side. I turned around and bought it. It was the first day the owner had set it out and yes it was the old man that was asked to sell hundreds of times and would not sell. He just got to old to shift he said. As to why I bought one well, THey are the coolest looking trucks out there, I had the best and the wildest times in this year truck, so I have good memories in the truck( Thought my wife would rather me not remeber those times) and the fact that my dad bought my first one for me and that I hope to give this to my son is probably the best reason.

[lpaine]

My Dad gave me my first truck, his old very rusty '72 Jimmy, which I sold and bought another rebuilt/repainted (sort of) '72 Jimmy, I sold that and actually made a profit. Flash forward a few years later, I bought a '69 3/4 ton still have that, last year I went to Oregon and bought my '67 shorty, I guess the "truck bug" came from that old rusty 72 Jimmy my Dad gave me, wish I still had that old rusty Jimmy...

[n2billet]

I’ve always liked the body style of these trucks but I always had too many projects (Ramblers) to actually buy one. Then one day while I was working in my shop, forum member Scoti drives up in his 68 SWB that still wore its original paint. Scot had already lowered it and swapped on some rallies. At that very moment I said I’m getting one of those! So I owe all this madness to him, Scot the wife thanks you! The first 68 SWB I bought was from a forum member (I think he just signed up to sell his truck) anyway, I drove from Dallas to Springfield to get it. I was happy with the truck ps, pb 350/350 five lug conversion and started buying parts for the build. We called this truck “Ethel” and for some strange reason I kept looking at trucks and that’s when I spotted “Lucy” 68 SWB about a month later. It too was located in Missouri so in order to pay for this one I had to sell “Ethel” which the owner of the shop bought right away and placed in storage. Back to Missouri I go (another forum member) and when I got this one home I stopped looking and started doing a quick make-over so I can enjoy it for a while. By this time I’ve got the bug bad and I’m looking for another truck for a major build. I got lucky and found a local truck that another forum member had (lilred67). It’s a super nice 68 C20 that I’m having Porterbuilt build a custom frame and just basically going overboard on…..so in order to help fund the new build I have to sell Lucy which the owner of the shop buys and trades me back Ethel (the first truck) as part of the payment. I ask my son if he wants it for his “toy” and he passes so I sell it to another forum member. I should have never done that and boy do I regret it now! So I’ve bought all three of my 68’s from forum members, got started on this addiction from a forum member so now what am I doing? I’m looking on the forum because my kid has now seen the light and wants a 71-72 and I’m only doing this for the boy……I’m looking real hard! Never know Dad may get to drive it a little while he building “Project Swingset” Oh thanks again Scoti!

[RedZ71]

Originally Posted by kooltrailz

lil off topic but what factory color is your truck? was it the light green on top and dark olive on bottom?

it was the olive green. im taking it back to the original olive/white, which is happening soon i hope. trying to decide which is the logical color to paint first. should i just paint it all olive, and come back and od the cab and stripe, or white cab/stripe first, then mask those off and paint the rest.

(this is what i lay awake staring into the blackness of the night...pondering!)

[gkolmatycki]

I've always liked the clean look of the 1969-72 chevy's. Saw two in a farmer's field for sale. $500 a piece. So I bought them both thinking it would be a fun project to restore one of them & use the other for parts. One had a good body & windows, the other had a good frame & underbody parts. So after about 8 years through Jr. High, High School, & College, I finally managed to finish restoring it. And damn proud of it!!! I can actually say It's mine, because I did all the work on it.

[Sinister]

I had a '72 C-20 a few years back that I was in love with. Blew the motor up, so I sold it. Just last week I found the board again and decided to get another.
Found it yesterday online. Took the train, (which I almost missed), down to San Diego, which was about 2 hours, all the while hoping the sun wouldn't go down before I could check out the truck. Guy picked me up in the truck at the train station. '69 C-20, 350, TH-400, factory air, very little rust. I paid the guy $1200, and drove it 100 miles back to L.A. I knew it was the one as soon as I saw it.

[Already Gone]

I was 18 in 1967 and loved the look of these trucks from when they were new. I was ( and still am) a Mopar man cause I was also there when Muscle Cars were introduced and ride in a '70 Hemi 4 speed manual Challenger with the Super Trak Pak and 4:10's. I also got my first drivers license in a 69 Road Runner 383, 4 speed.

I worked at Chrysler dealers from 1975 until 2000 and redid a 70 (go figger) Panther Pink, number match Charger R/T ( hope noone minds the bfore and after pic of the Charger on here) in the late 80's..

Now to the point.. The first pics are from the first time I saw my truck at the local Easter Weekend Show in 1997 or 1998.. If you look close ( remember no digital photos back then ,so these are scanned) you can see the glove box door is painted pink and so is the gauge bezel. At that time the truck had a 327 and the block was pink as well. I walked into the show that year and my eyes instantly found that truck and I drooled over it then.. Fast forward to late August 2001 and the local downtown Cruise afternoon which encompasses about 6 square city blocks .. By 2001 I had got fired from the dealership I had worked at for 18 years and had left my wife of 25 years and had some severance money from the Dodge dealer sitting in the bank doing nothing. I felt I had been doing for everyone else all my life ( I was 52) and now it was time to treat me. I came around a corner and there was my truck, backed against the curb along with 100's of other trucks and cars but it is the only one I saw and I hadn't seen it since the car show in 97/98.. The truck looked pretty much the same except the glove box door was chrome and the gauge bezel was flat back. There was also a " For Sale " sign ( the attached pic) sitting on the dash.. I called the cell number on the sign but there was no answer and I waited around near an hour for the owner to show but he never did. The next day I called the number and got the guy and he said "did you look under the hood?" I said no and asked how much he wanted for the truck. He told me I'd have to come and look under the hood before he'd give me a price. The truck still had the "350" badges on the front fenders and I wanted to get a price so I went and had a look.. When I opened the hood, lo and behold a big block.. He then explained it was ( and I quote) a done 396 from a 67 Chevelle.. Ok I said now how much for the truck and when he told me I told him he was nuts and stared to leave. Actually he was only asking about 1500, more than I was willing and wanted to pay, but buying cars is very psychological and I wanted to be in control.. He was walkin with me and said try it for the afternoon, it drives so smooth.. Ok so I tried it for a few hours and took it to my bodyman buddy to make sure it was solid and it was then came back and we haggled for a hour with us both giving a little and the deal was done. This was about the 25th of August 2001.. I gave him 500.00 right there and said I had to cash in some stuff which would take a week or two( remember the Dodge dealer money) to get the rest and gave him a post dated check for September 11th/2001..

I now have a Love/Hate relationship ( as I'm sure most of you do) wit my truck and will live in her before I ever sell her..

[OlChev67]

I got mine in 2002 from my friends uncle. It was sittin in his back yard for a few years, and we started workin on it and gettin it running. It had an old worn out I-6 and 3 speed. We had it runnin enough to drive around but not far. I finally asked his uncle if I could buy it and he said yes. I got it for $600, I scraped up enough money to get it, sophomore high school budget, and then sold my 83 rx-7 for $800 to some idiot when I got the truck running good enough to drive it. been in love with it ever since.

Bought it because it was cheap and in good condition.

first pic is after I painted the cab, was young and did it bad lots o' orange peel, stopped at the cab because I didnt want to do it as bad. the bed is what the rest of the truck looked like when I got it, should have left the paint alone. Not its just a 20 footer rattle can paint job, but looks better.

[71big block]

I went to the dealship in early October of 1970 and ordered mine, it came in in mid November right after my 16th birthday and I paid cash for it. I started working and saving when I was 11. I still have it today, presently in a million pieces but soon (next summer) to hit the pavement again. It's a 1971 3/4 ton camper special, orginaly a 402 now a 572, turbo 400. I built the engine myself and the trans too. I do everything myself. When I croke it goes to my granson Zack, he loves it when we do burnouts.

[kombreeze]

I've had a couple of 63-64 trucks. I really enjoyed them I wouldn't mind getting one of them back. I had a 67 that belonged to my grandmother and thats what I used when I drove to college. I told myself that I would buy it from her but unfortunately my uncle beat me to it. He on the other hand was the first one to put me on to that particular body style and over the years he had many lowered chevy trucks. Truth is I was dating my wife at the time and we had some good times in that truck so when it came time to buy my beat up raggedy truck I didn't hesitate. I paid 2500 for it last year have already put in 400 into it but I"ve been driving it on my days off and my fridays for over a year. It needed some cooling work done to it but she runs good gets on the road ok....but I need to lower it to really enjoy it.

p.s
Once I get A/C & heating in it hope to have more good times with the misses, she can't stand the heat.....but she didn't anything about the cold and there are many ways to keep warm.

[Ackattack]

Mine started before I could drive.

My dad bought a 69 SWB when I was in about 6th grade. When it came home it was orange and brown primer. I think he got a lot of crap from my mom, but he painted it up and put some wheels on it. He had it for awhile before he sold it. I think I was really too young to care too much about it, but I did like it.

Well when it came time for me to get my first vehicle I wanted a 67-72. My dad told me no, it would cost too much money to keep it running and I couldn't afford the gas. So I got a 88 4cyl mustang I had that for about a year and a half until I sold it. And in 97 I bought my 72 GMC. It was pretty nice when I got it. We went and looked at it on a Sunday but didn't bring any money with us. We decided that I'd buy it, but I didn't know when we could come back. My dad suggested that I skip school and get it the next morning (I thought that was cool....it hadn't crossed my mind as an option ) So the next day we got it.

I drove it the rest of high school and most of the way through college everyday. My dad was right about one thing, it has cost a lot of money

Now I just started a frame off on the 68....new project and a lot more money

[wild one]

I had always liked the 60-66 short fleet side trucks - just could never find one that I could afford. Whenever I found one in my price range they were soooo full of rust they usually looked like it had spent the better part of their life below the ocean.

To add to that, I have always liked older panel trucks (regardless of make) - so in late 2005 I was at my union local hall talking to one of our Business Administrators and we get into a conversation about older cars. He tells me that he has this "old chevy panel truck" sitting in his side yard with a bad gas tank - he wasn't sure if it was a 66' or 67'.

I made the comment that if he ever wanted to sell it to let me know, I might be able to find a buyer. He then tells me "first twelve hundred takes it home" - I try not to sound to excited when I ask when I can stop by to look at it. When I am able to stop by to look it over, he tells me that he has had this truck for the past 18 years and had swapped out the original 250 I6/3 on the tree combo 10+ years ago with a "350/350 combo out of a 70 something wagon". He then goes on to say that within a year of completing the swap the gas tank develops a leak and he parked it - that was in 1997!

I then spent the next month talking to my wife about it (she was 7-8 months pregnant with our first child - no easy way to ask " Hon, can I bring home ANOTHER project - Pleeeease?"). She finally relented to my persuasive ways with the deal being I finish a long list of honey do's before I can bring the beast home. In May of 06 I finally had completed the list, and with many thanks to a patient seller I went to pick her up and towed her home the 70+ mile trip.

Once i got her home, I went through all of the receipts and found out that the drive line was out of a 1975 Impala, was actually a 400 cid small block, the truck had lowering springs already installed (a 2"/3" drop) and had 295/50-15 BFG's on the rear with 275/50-15's on the front and VERY minimal rust issues (mostly surface rust). I put a blazer tank in her, replaced a cracked exhaust manifold with a set of swap meet shorty headers, went through the entire brake system and upgraded to power discs then flushed all the fluids and started her right up!

Future plans call for a 1972 rear end swap with 3.42's and a posi, (to match the 5 lug front discs the truck now has) a repaint with some new steel wheels(think 15x10's on the rear with 15x8's on the front) and some other
minor details.

Here is how she looked when I first laid eyes on her:

[scott's69]

My grandfather bought this truck brand new in 69. Its the first and the last truck he looked at at the dealership. He traded a 63 2 door impala and got 250 bucks for it. The truck costs $2300 new. I was his only grandson so I grew up in the front seat of his truck. He took me everywhere. Hes been gone since 1997 and its been mine eversince. One day it'll be my sons truck!!!

[cell]

I found it on ebay after checking regularly for about a month.

I got it to teach myself how to work on cars. That's why I went with the mechanically simplest truck possible: manual tranny, 292 straight 6, etc.

[retodd7711]

I got my wreck from e-bay. I didn't win the auction, but the winner never showed with the money. Seller e-mailed and said he'd sell for my bid($300 lower than winner). Checked her out, dragged her home, called her mine.
I bought this to teach my boy about working on cars. Simple straight-forward, 250/4-speed. We've also learned a lot about life and become better friends, under the hood of that old Chevy truck

[Spray-Bomb]

Which one ??? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !!!

[Robert1970C20rstbukt]

I got my truck in 2003. I was 16 and I wanted a truck(not a car, a truck!). I wanted a late 70's to mid 80's Chevy or GMC 3/4 or 1 ton 4x4 crewcab, couldn't find one and Dad didn't want me driving that big of a truck anyway. Grandpaw said we needed to get his old truck running and I could have it. It's been on the road again almost 4 years now. I'm glad we fixed it up, I remember riding in it with my Grandparents when I was a kid and my Dad used to borrow it a lot.

I bought the Suburban on my own about two years ago. We had bought some parts off of it at the junkyard, then the whole truck was bought by a guy outside of town. For some reason he either re-sold it or gave it to the same yard. That time it was missing a couple more parts but I bought it anyway. Mainly because 1970 K20 Suburbans aren't easy to find around here. It's not on the road yet but it will be soon.

[67shortie]

I responded to an ad in the local paper about a project '70 El Camino and got talking with the owner about what I was going to use the truck for, and he said he had an old truck in his 'barn' that he wanted me to look at.

Tel ya, when I walked in that barn a shining light from heaven was on that truck and I had to have it (you know the feeling)

I paid for it, drug it out and put it on a trailer towards home. 3 years later, it's on the road and lovin' it

[tavenner13]

i found the truck on ebay... listen to the sound clip in my signature if you wanna know why i bought it