Just purchased a 71' C20 Custom.

[King951]

Hey there,

A bit of background on me. I am 20 years old and from Southern California. I purchased my first old truck which was a 1967 Ford F100 4x4 about 3 years ago. Made a short move to Florida and back and in the process ending up selling my truck. I have been in the market for another ever since. I am not bias towards Ford or Chevy, I just enjoy old American trucks.

As for the truck I just purchased. It is a 1971 Chevrolet C20 Custom pickup. It has 90k original miles and I purchased it from the son of the original owner (original owner passed away not too long ago). The truck has a 350 v-8 and a 3 on the column shifter. The truck was very well taken care of and is extremely original. It has been sitting for quite a few years (since about 2008 I believe), but has no back fees. The son of the original owner got the carburetor rebuilt, new fuel tank, new sending unit, new fuel pump, and today I worked on getting the truck started. To my surprise with a little bit of gas it woke rite up and idled amazingly smooth. Oil pressure was good.

The truck would continuously die unless manually feeding it gas. I was able to pull the line directly before the fuel pump and gas was freely pouring out, yet it was unable to pump gas the 2-3 feet from the fuel pump up to the carburetor. Why this is happening with a brand new fuel pump, I do not know. Perhaps the owners son installed it wrong?

Another issue I have ran into is the shift linkages are beyond out of whack. Like I said, it is a 3 on the column. It feels like I am able to get the truck in either what is Reverse and 1st, or 2nd and 3rd. It was previously stuck engaged, I did some fiddling around and was able to get the linkages where it would go into neutral and up and down but no sideways movement if that makes any sense. I tried reading an article on this issue but with limited phone battery and time there was not much I could do. Tomorrow I am making a trip back out there. If I could at least get the truck driving, (which would be doable once I fix the gas and linkage problem), I can drive it home. I am only about 10 city miles away from the seller.

My plans with the truck:
Gonna do a full tune up. Plugs, wires, all fluids (oil already changed), I want to upgrade it to electronic ignition, new cap/rotor, new tires, look over / possibly new brakes depending on condition. I plan to make this my daily work horse.

The son of the previous owner told me the truck was repainted about 15-20 years ago to a blue color. (Was originally green.) The paint is in pretty rough shape but I honestly like the "beat" kinda look and don't plan on painting it any time soon. There is a small amount of rust on the passenger side floor well but the previous owner included a replacement panel for that area that I plan to weld in. The truck also has a newly reupholstered bench seat.

Here is a link to the album for anyone interested in photos: https://imgur.com/a/px4WG

I ran the vin code and came up with the following.

CE241Z609459

C = 4x2
E = V-8
2 = 3/4 ton
4 = Pickup
1 = 1971
Z = Fremont, CA
Sequence Number = 609,459

Any input / recommendations / feedback in regards to the truck is much appreciated as the majority of my knowledge is in pre-smog Ford trucks, this is my first Chevy.

Oh and for anyone curious, I got the truck for $2,000 cash in hand. Clean title, no back fees, original owner, 90k miles, figured it was worth a shot.