If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I know Im not the only one, but I wish the PO of my truck was just in "reach out and touch someone" distance.

My truck has the worst dash stereo hack job Ive ever seen (I thought about starting a post so we could all compare). And I swear there is enough cut up wires for a few stereos under my dash. But most of us have to deal with that.
I bought it as a SWB only to find out it was originally a step side. Not that big of a deal.
I have leafs instead of springs... but the PO made it that way for some unknown reason, and Im starting to get a distinct feeling the rear end is out of something completely different.
Was doing some measuring for a flip kit and my axle tubes wont fit between the leafs and the frame, so no choice but to notch the frame which I haven't heard of anyone else having to do that.

Also noticed I had a little leak that was probably coming from the gasket on my master brake cylinder. Pop the cap... The front pocket is about half full and the rear pocket is completely empty. I drove this thing 3 hours to get it home with my 8 year old son.

I know.. I know :waah: But I needed to vent

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I know the feel. I bought what I thought was a decent truck the beginning of this year, drawn to the ad because it said "minimal rust" and seemed to be clean from the photos. I got there and it indeed looked good, but it had 4 flat tires and was sitting in mud, only the most dedicated would spend time looking underneath it for rust. I did a quick glance over and everything seemed fine to my untrained eye, and I have a tendency to take people's words as honesty.

It was delivered to my house a week or so later, and I got to take a look underneath it, the trailing arms were splitting, barely held together by a hack job welder that was either incompetent or drunk. The cab looked good from the inside, but on the bottom it was revealed to be half made out of fiberglass, and cleverly painted over to hide it. The transmission crossmember was torched out and moved 6 inches forward for some reason, the engine mounts were both passenger side brackets, and both were installed on the wrong holes on the front crossmember.

Inside, none of the lights worked, the heater didn't work, and in the process of painting the cab interior white, they decided it would be a good idea to paint all of the wiring too while they were at it. The dash was cut for a stereo, the wiring was hacked up, every fuse was either missing, blown, or the completely wrong rating, etc.

I've spent the past 8 months getting it back into running condition, using parts from my other truck (thankfully I didn't scrap the metal for money). Got an engine, transmission, driveline, interior in. Just got the gauges and heater working (apparently paint isn't a good conductor of electricity, go figure.) Now just need brakes and tires and she's good to go, when funds allow.

It's been one heck of a learning process, and while frustrating, I think it will be worth it in the end. I learned some valuable lessons:

-Shiny paint can hide a lot.
-Don't look at a vehicle at night without adequate lighting.
-Don't take people's words as the honest truth.
-How to properly inspect an old truck.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade right? I may have felt "burned" on this deal, but with some time and elbow grease, I think I'll have a nice work horse in the end. It's just one of those things you get when you buy a vehicle with unknown history. That's one of the reasons why I appreciate my own frame off build so much. I will know every nut, every bolt, every strand of fabric, every ounce of gasoline that went into it. No secrets, no guessing.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

are you sure you didn't get it from the same guy I bought mine from...lol

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

Hahahaha!!! Could be quite a possibility, he had a good number of vehicles in his lot and kept spouting how he "loves these old C10's."

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I say start the show and tell thread. I'd like to see who's got it the worst. :D ;)

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

Ugh.... undoing electrical wiring nightmares. My favorite hobby....NOT !
I feel for ya bro.. now if I was a whiz at that kinda stuff, and if I planned on gutting the whole truck and starting from scratch it wouldn't be such a big deal I suppose. Well, live and learn as the saying goes.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I learned never jump on the first deal you see. lol

I was looking for swb for few months. I finally found one in decent shape but it was also semi-painted. The price was right...only problem was it with a big puzzle. There were truck pieces scattered across his backyard and few boxes of new parts.

Anyways, so far some of the body work as gotten me to say wtf....I have found a sponge inside the cab where you would install the visor. No wonder it was rusting there. Also, found a pencil as a guide to shape the rear window. The whole cab was full of bondo.

So far 3 years and few set backs. The truck now runs and working on getting it into a daily driver.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I guess I was pretty lucky with mine. It did come with some really cheesy puffy quilted fabric stuff sewn around the sun visors and glued to the dash pad. They kept my visors in almost perfect condition, but the dash pad had to go. I was pretty surprised when I changed my fuel filter as part of regular maintenance to find THERE WAS NO FILTER!

Be careful of trucks that have spent their life on a farm, a long ways from a town with an auto parts store. Those guys would (and will) slap anything on to get something up and working just well enough. There's a thread on here somewhere, that the guy was complaining about the PO using drywall screws all over his truck to fix stuff. Another guy bought a truck where the entire interior was painted white. We're talking everything. Even rubber stuff, and it was probably brush on paint.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

Someone cut my ,67 SWB for a sunroof. The roof and drip rails of my truck were pretty damn nice, and the roof was the nicest part of the cab, except for a poorly installed sunroof. Other than that the truck is mostly original and relatively unmolested by previous owners.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

Good lessons man and sorry that happened to you. I got ripped off on a gun deal last year. Scum bag up in PA advertized this muzzleloader as "clean rifling" and by email told me, "bore shines" and I get it and there is so much rust it tears patches up. He denied any wrongdoing, promised a token refund, then didn't do that. I ripped him a new one on gunbroker. He waited 89 days (so I couldn't respond) then gave me an "F" for my part even though I had him a cashier's check by certified mail (he signed for it) the next day. There are a**holes out there man.

Then there are just plan lazies and idiots. And it's really impossible to tell with any vehicle for sure until the frameoff begins. Good luck all!

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I do know that some of these trucks came with leafs instead of springs, I had a friend that bought one and his had leafs. I know what your sayin bout the hacked up dash mine was like that too....

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

All I can say is "been there, done that", and to add one more thing to your "valuable lesson" list.....DON'T BELIVE EVERYTHING YOU READ IN MEMBERS BUILD THREAD....:exit:

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I found out that the PO removed the springs and installed leafs when I was under the truck and noticed my rear shocks were both broken. The tops were missing. So I started looking to see if I could find where they bolted to, and noticed that the top brackets were at a completely different angle. Someone on the board told me to check to see how my leaf spring hangers are attached. They are bolted in instead of being riveted. So as of right now I have no way to install rear shocks.

And I keep finding cloth rags or ripped up tshirts behind the rust that is bad enough to have rusted through... I don't understand why someone do that either... Lets put something in a rusted spot on a vehicle...That holds moisture.....

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I feel pretty lucky. Sure dash is cut as well as doors, but the ac and power steering work, there is a nice seat cover, and the repaint looks great from 20 feet away.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

took my front clip off last weekend to find my one owner all original truck had been in a wreck and the front horns are all twisted and bent some how that was forgotten about when i asked if it had been in a wreck, also every wire under the hood has a splice or cut in it and solid wire was run all over the engine bay connected to other wires via wire nuts! i also counted 14 exhaust clamps the other day when i was under it!! HORAY for hack jobs!

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

I probably removed 50 feet of extra wiring when I first got my truck, but since then I've probably added 60 feet of new wiring that the next owner will be cussing me for in 10 or 20 years

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

Yep....Buyer Beware. When my son and I got his truck 'Nancy' in January of 2012 I thought I had done a good job of inspecting the truck - knowing what I was getting into - meaning I had a good feeling of what we needed to do to get her safe for the road. Unfortunately it was cold and raining and sitting on gravel so I did not 'fully' inspect under the truck. Long story short - I don't know how we made it the twenty miles home. The tranny case was cracked and leaking. It was a 1000 dollar lesson. Good news it was an awesome father son project and Nancy is in tip top shape now. Even better news was finding out she is a real Cheyenne Super. The dealer said it wasn't a real Super because it was a 1971 model. He was wrong. I do wish I had of known the tranny was bad because I could have used that to lower the price but getting a Super helps ease that mistake.

Re: If only I could give the previous owner a big -O- hug
 

Bondo needs something to stick to. :lol: