Buying old truck sitting for long time

[michael]

Hello all! I’m considering the purchase of an older truck that’s been sitting for a while. This 1983 one-ton chevy is one of the ones I am considering. I’d like to know how to check as many things as possible without trying to start the truck at the sellers place before I pay for it and get it towed home, and also what to do before even trying to start it.

What I would check before buying:
-Hook up a battery/booster pack and see if the electrical (lights, blinkers, etc.) is working
-Existence of fluids (coolant, oil, etc.)

What I would do after buying before trying to start:
-Oil+filter change
-Check and top off all other fluids (coolant, transmission, brakes, etc)

Any additional suggestions would be very much appreciated… I’ve never bought an old truck that’s been sitting for a long time.
Regards,
Michael

Topic

[Andrew Phillips]

A lot of what you are asking depends on how long it has been since it was last driven. When a vehicle sits up for a long time, especially when not garaged, a lot of deterioration can set in. First, check the oil. Dirty is good. Pull the dipstick and look under the oil fill cap. Any gooey caramel looking stuff there? Water? Some condensation might be normal, but you are looking for signs of water/coolant contamination. Pull a small sample from the oil drain plug and spread it out on some white paper towel. Look for metal ‘glitter’. If you see glitter or metal shavings/pieces, the engine will likely need an overhaul. If it is just dirty, that is good news. If the oil is clean, and it’s been sitting for a long time, you should ask why the oil is clean… maybe the seller is trying to cover something up? Next, check the coolant. Look for an unusual amount of rust. If the water is very rusty, you will be in for rodding the radiator, probably changing the water pump as the impeller is probably rusted solid or disintegrated. The thermostat is probably rusted out too. If the water is clear, or better yet, clean and green, that can be a good sign. Check the transmission fluid. It should be clean and red to reddish brown. If it is brown or coffee colored and smells burned, that is not a good sign. Pull the spark plugs and look for fouling, if the seller will let you, and if so, do a dry AND wet compression test. This will indicate the overall health of the engine. What you are looking for is consistency as opposed to accuracy, as a cold compression test can not be considered reliable, but will tell you if one or more cylinders is dead. Check the brake fluid. Make sure the master hasn’t run dry. If so, the seals are probably shot and you’ll have to overhaul or replace the master cylinder at minimum, and if badly deteriorated, seals and lines throughout the entire system. If it has fluid in it, and fluid is clear or only slightly murky, that’s a good sign. If the fluid is so murky you cannot see through it, that is a bad sign, but better than it being dry, as it may only need to be flushed and replaced. There’s lots more, but you get the idea. You should be looking for the big money problems, not the incidentals. In other words, I wouldn’t worry too much about lights and stuff. Those are routine maintenance items. You should be more concerned with whether you are going to have to dump $1000 or more getting it running right. It should be towed to your place anyway, so lights won’t matter at first. Under no circumstances should you risk your life, or the lives of others, driving an old truck that was sitting up with unknown current conditions in its major systems (engine, trans, brakes, steering, suspension).

[Andrew Button]

Carbs get crappy from sitting small passenges get loaded with varnish in them an it blocks idle circuits always, and other stuff– check for black gunk around it. Dry and dirty means float bowl empty for a long time… Look also for things like rust and spiderwebs and other stuff that goes away if the car is driven at all. Smell around for rotten gas. Cars when they sit for a while have a certain stink to them, but once they sit even longer, they just start smelling dust and dryrot. Its been my experience that when they sit for a long, long time once started up, aside from the silly stuff from the tailpipe, they will run sorta, choke, sputter, not idle then then comes the smell of raw gas — usually either a hose will split or the float will stick open (something to be extremely aware of) The more rusting red looking stuff looking anywhere the worse. If there is grease around it is fresh and black, or is it a shade of brown from dust collection. Coolant should be green, not brown or red, and oil shouldn’t seem ancient. I will always take a baster and fill the float bowl with gas through the vent because I hate cranking to build fuel pressure up with an empty fuel line on a dry motor. And most importantly, 80 percent of engine fires are caused by cranking on an engine without an aircleaner. These days I simply refuse to crank a motor thats been sitting without the aircleaner being on it. I once had an 54 olds that I was cranking on with no aircleaner it backfired, and the fireball came out and started the paper gasket on carb on fire in a circle. The car had been sitting 30 years and valves we sticky and it did all sorts of fun stuff. There is NOTHING that makes your day suck more than looking through lower opening of the hood and seeing flames coming out the carb and the car is not running. Hope that helps.

[michael]

Wow, that’s a wealth of information. Thank you!

What do you mean by: “a hose will split or the float will stick open (something to be extremely aware of)”??

Will definitely make sure to have an air filter on there… wouldn’t want my project to turn into a fireball!

How long is too long for it to be sitting? I guess I shouldn’t worry so much about the electrical, but I have just read too many horror stores of wiring problems, mouse chewing, etc. on cars/trucks sitting for years and ruining the electrical.

If coolant and other fluids look OK do I need to replace them immediately, or can I leave them in there to at least get it started? i’d do flushes before using it as a daily driver, of course, and I would definitely do the oil change right away because that’s the most critical… but if I’m buying an old truck I should probably just try to get it running before dumping expensive fluids into it.

Thanks,
Michael

[John]

First thing I would recommend doing is try to find another truck. Looking at all the other ads he has up they all seem to read the same “ran until parked” line. That throws up a huge red flag for me. If you’re still interested in it at a minimum I would bring a good battery, a long handle 1/2″ drive ratchet and socket for the harmonic balancer bolt (most of the gm SB and BB I have seen use a 5/8 ), and a vacuum gauge along with your basic roadside tools. See if the engine will crank over by hand using the ratchet on the crank bolt. If it will and you don’t notice any problems hook up the battery, check the fluids, and see how the truck cranks over (relative compression check cranking).
Does it sound even on all cylinders or does it speed up on one cylinder? Slow down? Knocking or rattling sound? What is the vacuum gauge reading when cranking? Needle bouncing all over the place? That should tell you if the engine is at least rebuildable. If he doesn’t want you wrenching on it there then only pay for its value from the body and chassis standpoint.

On something sitting like that outside for several years expect to have to pull the tank, replace the sending unit, replace the rubber lines and hoses, clean the radiator or replace it, replace at least a few of the gaskets, change all fluids front to back, etc., the list goes on. Change the oil and filter before you try to start it along with the trans. fluid if auto. before running it as well. I would really suggest looking for something already running so you know mechanically what you’re getting into.

[Ryan Wofford]

I would go in this general order
1: check the oil (all the things said by the others apply about the oil quality apply) and other fluid levels
2:Remove plugs
3: insert some sort of lubricant into the cylinders and let soak for at least a day or so
4: as cylinders soak look at the condition of the carb, remove if necessary (will probably have to remove), fix and reinstall
5: insert a cheap inline fuel filter before the carb
6: crank over engine with spark plugs out (this will remove any excess oil in the cylinder)
7: have a friend crank over the engine for you as you ground a plug to the engine block, check for spark (BE VERY CAREFUL TO NOT SHOCK YOURSELF)
8: insert spark plugs (make sure they are in the correct order)
9: try to start the engine

these are very universal rules for older cars and the carburetor will very likely need a slight rebuild and a cleaning but there is a chance of it being fine.

Good luck! B)

[zero]

Just assume that anything that’s rubber has to be replaced and all the fluids (including gas) are useless. This is one of those instances where the price you pay should indicate the amount of risk you are taking. Depending on how much work, time and money you are planning on spending and your skill level you might not even need to be too panicked if something electrical isn’t working. That truck probably has 40 wires in it and troubleshooting shouldn’t be that hard.

[Kevin Terrell]

I would be more concerned with the condition of the body and frame then the mechanical parts. Is the cab or bed rusted? If so how badly? Is the frame solid? Is there evidence of collision damage? Bodywork and rust repair are the most expensive part of restoring old cars.

This truck is 30 years old. I would go in assuming the engine, transmission, and differential(s) need to be rebuilt. That isn’t too big a deal, considering it is fairly inexpensive to rebuild those engines and transmissions. Parts are still widely available, both from GM and the aftermarket.

Just about every part you would need for this truck is now reproduced. This makes it a good candidate for a restoration project. Good luck.

[Gary]

First, it’s on craigslist..for $750, I would be highly skeptical. Second, guarantee it needs a ton of mechanical work. Looking at the body, I can tell theres at least some rot. He even admits it’s rusty. He claims the heads were rebuilt, the bottom end has 100k…I wouldn’t trust that. the C30 frames are study, doubt theres a problem with the frame itself. The floors are probably gone, the rear window will need to be pulled for rust repair from the looks of it. I’d call that a parts truck, if it were me.

[none]

No…This is a parts truck

[Gary]

[quote=”no_common_sense” post=131600]No…This is a parts truck[/quote] Oh ya, absolutely. I think it depends on what the end goal of the truck the OP wants to buy is. Restoration, farm truck or beater…The truck IS an 84′ and depending where the OP lives, it may need to have all the emissions equipment in tact if it is to be used regularly. The drivetrain is cheap to rebuild if you do the work yourself, but the emissions junk, the body and any other problems may make it unworth the investment of time and money. The truck can certainly be restored, but it all comes down to time and money…and the end goal.

[michael]

Well the initial intent in purchasing the old truck was for it to be a project I could learn from, as well as having a secondary vehicle if my primary (at the time, a 96 GMC Yukon) was in the shop or something.

So, I bought the truck, did a few things (sprayed WD40 into the cylinders, turned the engine, did that some more, etc) new spark plugs, changed oil, coolant, put new gas in. replaced starter, and fixed some wiring issues, etc. and the truck started and ran ok.

That’s about as far as I got with my slow-paced project, because my Yukon decided to die a painful death. The rear end failed as I was leaving work and took the transmission with it. That has got to be the most awful noise I have ever heard from a car.

At this point I needed something to drive, and rather than putting $3-4K into the Yukon to fix that I paid a friend of a friend who did some mechanical stuff to do lots of work on the old truck. Lots of brake work, plug wires, distributor, fix wiring issues, driveshaft carrier bearing, etc. just stuff that needed to be repaired.

I drove the old truck (it’s actually a C20, not a C30 as per the listing) got it smogged and registered, and it kind of became my daily driver. I did spend $800 in new tires which I kind of regret doing, because now, a few months later, I’m selling it.

I was hoping the old truck would end up being reliable enough as a daily driver just until my financial situation became a bit better, but it never got to that point. Something was always wrong with it, and I could never trust that I was going to get where I was going. I’m sure if I paid somebody to completely go through it and make everything perfect, rebuild the carb, etc. it could be a decent truck, but I just didn’t want to dump that much money into something so old.

Now I financed an 07 Chevy Colorado and am selling the 1983 C20. I don’t think I’m ever going to get the money back that I lost on it, but you know what? At the end of the day I had something I could drive for a month until I was able to come up with the down payment on something newer, get the financing sorted out, etc.

What did amaze me is the 83 didn’t leak or burn anything, and it passed smog on the first try. They certainly don’t build them like that anymore!

Here’s a few pics, as you can see the C20 did clean up quite well, and it’s not very rusty. Sure, it’s not restoration-level clean but it’s not unsafe either. If anybody wants to buy the old truck, I am asking $2K. I think that’s a reasonable price given the $800 in new tires, lots of brake work, and it passed CA smog.

[Author]

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