To buy or not to buy?

[wildmanjoe]

I'm trying to make up my mind whether this 1966 Chevrolet 3/4 ton would be a good buy or not.

The facts:

1966 Chevrolet 3/4 ton.

$1,000

250 inline six

4-speed.

Eaton rear axle.

The Good:

Body is solid other than small holes in quarter panel and rocker.

Drivetrain is known for dead reliability.

Close by.

Easy to fix.

I've got all the time in the world to work on it.

Checked the body with a magnet and no bondo.

Frame is solid.

The Bad:

Hasn't run in 3 years and I'm not spending $1,000 and a vehicle that doesn't run.

Wood bed needs replacing.

Engine and clutch work are not my strong points.

I'd have to knock over and rebuild a barn so I'd have a spot to put it.

Terrible repaint.

I shouldn't really be spending money on project vehicles while I'm severely underemployed.

I'm still up in the air over this. It's the right vehicle at the right price, but at the wrong time. What do you guys think?

Pictures:

[Chris_Doane]

$1000 for that? That's about $900 too much.

[ocnblu]

Being parked where it is allows condensation to attack it. As far as the motor goes, I'd see if it spins or it it's locked up from sitting. Check the oil, take a can of gas and a jumper box, see if it spins over.

A truck like that is ever more rare down here in salt country.

[Camino LS6]

See if it will run with minimal effort, then reevaluate.

Three years isn't all that long to sit.

[Robert Hall]

Money pit. Depends if you want to burn $1000 to start with and maybe another $5000 or more to make it drivable.

[riviera74]

Not with that much rust and debris and problems. Pass. Avoid this EPIC money pit.

[Camino LS6]

That all depends on what you want out of it.

I'd bet that it could be legal and roadworthy for a pittance.

Now, beautiful and show-worthy is another story.

[SAmadei]

WMJ, sometimes I think asking the folks here about classic projects is like asking Congress if they would like a pay cut. "Just buy a nice new Cruze".

It looks solid and its a pretty good price, considering scrap value would be between $400-$600 and it could be parted out for probably $2K. However, its not that far along... they aren't making any more of these, and so its worth saving, if you are willing to put the work in.

Bring a battery and some fresh gas and just try starting it. Chevy straight 6s are pretty darn bulletproof. Even if the engine or tranny turned out to be a complete mess, you and a friend could swap in a $750 junkyard 350/700r4 combo in an afternoon.

I think its interesting that it has a extra intake hanging on the back.

Speaking of money pits, for the $20K a Cruze sets you back over 72 months, you could make this thing pretty sweet.

[RjION]

Going to take a SAAB load of money to fix that rust.

Edited September 9, 2011 by RjION

[Satty]

WMJ, sometimes I think asking the folks here about classic projects is like asking Congress if they would like a pay cut. "Just buy a nice new Cruze".

It looks solid and its a pretty good price, considering scrap value would be between $400-$600 and it could be parted out for probably $2K. However, its not that far along... they aren't making any more of these, and so its worth saving, if you are willing to put the work in.

Bring a battery and some fresh gas and just try starting it. Chevy straight 6s are pretty darn bulletproof. Even if the engine or tranny turned out to be a complete mess, you and a friend could swap in a $750 junkyard 350/700r4 combo in an afternoon.

I think its interesting that it has a extra intake hanging on the back.

Speaking of money pits, for the $20K a Cruze sets you back over 72 months, you could make this thing pretty sweet.

1) Nobody mentioned a Cruze until you

2) The "dangerously unemployed" line leads me to believe there is no intention of putting 20 grand into anything.

[wildmanjoe]

Money pit. Depends if you want to burn $1000 to start with and maybe another $5000 or more to make it drivable.

Not with that much rust and debris and problems. Pass. Avoid this EPIC money pit.

Going to take a SAAB load of money to fix that rust.

See the two photos of rust holes I posted? Those are the only spots on the whole truck that were rusted through; driver's side rocker and front lower corner of the drivers door. Even the cab corners, cab mounts, floors and bed sides were solid and that never happens on Minnesota truck. The rest of the truck would have been a comparative breeze to refinish.

Anywho, it looks like it needs a valve job and ring job as well as new tires. Unless he wants to substantially drop the price, I think I'm taking a pass on this one.

[SAmadei]

1) Nobody mentioned a Cruze until you

I'm just cutting to the chase. There are a few other other threads that have quickly moved from what cheap whatever should I buy to don't buy anything used which usually leads to "buy a Cruze". QED.

Considering that half the folks here seemingly would only buy new, and a large percentage flinch at the idea of even changing their oil, I would venture to say that many people are not really qualified to offer a opinion... especially when 3 people seem to think this vehicle is so riddled with rust when WMJ has provided photos of the only two spots and described it as so.

Now I'm not saying its a perfect project or that there aren't some other nasty bits WMJ didn't uncover... projects always have surprises... but the immediate negative reaction would indicate that _ANY_ project car not from built in the last decade would be immediately shot down, and I feel that it not a fair assessment.

2) The "dangerously unemployed" line leads me to believe there is no intention of putting 20 grand into anything.

$20K in labor cleaning, tuning and stopping the decay goes a far way.

[SAmadei]

See the two photos of rust holes I posted? Those are the only spots on the whole truck that were rusted through; driver's side rocker and front lower corner of the drivers door. Even the cab corners, cab mounts, floors and bed sides were solid and that never happens on Minnesota truck. The rest of the truck would have been a comparative breeze to refinish.

They must think the awful chocolate brown paint job is all rust or something. I don't get the reaction to the whole thing.

Anywho, it looks like it needs a valve job and ring job as well as new tires. Unless he wants to substantially drop the price, I think I'm taking a pass on this one.

Unless the seller is really hurting for money, I wouldn't foresee that happening, as I would say its a pretty good price.

I would stab in another I6 out of something newer and run with it... but I can understand if that's more that you can get involved with.

[Camino LS6]

Personal circumstances aside, it really is a very solid project truck. The easy availability of inexpensive parts makes it even more viable. Just about everything is available for these trucks.

[RjION]

Tell ya what you buy that not so rusted truck ..... and have a great time fixing all the rust that you don't think it's riddled with. Surely none of us have ever lived in Mn. None of us have ever done an oil change. Gad knows none of us have ever owned an early Chevrolet pickup truck from Minnesota. OMG I thought it was brown chit covering the blue paint.

[wildmanjoe]

Tell ya what you buy that not so rusted truck ..... and have a great time fixing all the rust that you don't think it's riddled with. Surely none of us have ever lived in Mn. None of us have ever done an oil change. Gad knows none of us have ever owned an early Chevrolet pickup truck from Minnesota. OMG I thought it was brown chit covering the blue paint.

I checked the front fenders, checked under the battery box, checked around the heater box, checked the floor boards, checked the cab corners, checked the cab mounts, checked the doors, checked the rocker panels, checked the bed sides, checked the wood bed, checked the bumper brackets, checked the frame, checked the mounting arms for the rear axle, checked the A-arms for rust and cracks, checked the coil buckets and ran over the whole body with a magnet and found two whole spots where there were rust holes, of which I included pictures. What's left for there to be riddled with rust? I don't care about the topper and I've never seen a roof rust through unless there was a vinyl top or it was sitting on its roof in the dirt.

Besides which nobody here is insulting you personally; I think some people are just a little tired of members buying vehicles that were obvious problem children, getting defensive right after the vehicle was purchased, then later posting that the vehicle had been sold/scrapped because it was a money pit.

The original method to my madness would be to pick this up as an interesting and useful summer driver and save my Grand Marquiscrapheap as a winter beater since this truck is a six cylinder and insurance would be cheaper. Since a mower engine I recently rebuilt recently bit the dust, I no longer trust myself with engine work and paying someone else to rebuild a smokey engine puts this out of my budget. Because of that, I'm taking a pass on the truck.

[ocnblu]

I was rootin' for ya to buy it. A good cleaning and then a thorough drying out would make a big difference to start with. It would have been fun to re-do the wood bed floor (simple oak boards would suffice if it were me). I wouldn't even have worried about the brown, it wears it as a badge of honor. Carefully selecting and fixing things that only affect roadworthiness would be a good strategy. Shoot, if the rust spots are that small after this many years, I wouldn't even fix them.

Something like this could be a labor of love. Just tackle things as they come up, like leaky wheel cylinders, etc. The simplicity of this machine means the list won't be that long.

I assume you've seen it run, does it really need internal engine work, or does it just need to have maintenance work done and a good run down the road to return to health?

I know I'm too late, as you appear to have made your decision, but I think this may have been an opportunity that should have been seized. Even if the project becomes too unwieldy, heaven forbid, parting it out would have made your money back, shirley.

[daves87rs]

My feeling is if it can't be done right, it's not worth doing at all.

It's one of the reasons I don't have a project car right now. There is a chance that I might be picking up a 26 year old J body vert, but only if the body is in good shape. The rest of the car will be easy since I've already owned a few....and they are cheap to fix.

Since you're underemployed, it simply would not be worth it in case something went wrong. And with that, there is a good chance there would be.

At least in my case, it just needs a fuel pump to get it running.....