I have been looking for a decent 70s-80s D/W series truck for a while now. to me, every one I come across is terribly overpriced. to get rust free decent driver, I gotta go several states away and everyone wants $5-6,000 and more, to start. I'd like to have that much in one, at most. "all in"-- straight bodywork, no rust, and mechanicals "done".
and $2k seems to be the asking price for a hopelessly rotted out, beat up POS, that may or may not run.
I did pick up an 85 D150, about 15 miles from work/ an hour from home, for a good bit less, but it's (only) a slant 6 truck..... the wiring was the worst job of butchery I have ever seen on 1 vehicle (very surprised this one hadn't burnt up before I had found it) I do have wiring straightened up, engine was also partly torn apart,
(manifolds were off because of a cracked exhaust... I did get it back together and running) and gonna need lotsa bodywork, (dented from the PO scraping his way past the garage door jambs) the front cat was disintigrated, the guts from it had the rear cat plugged solid. the old owner had the keys taken away because he can't see well enough to drive any more. but the frame is extremely clean and straight (surprising for a NW Indiana truck) but it supposedly sat in a barn for 10+ years, before this guy got it--- it shows. the cab, rockers, front fenders, doors, and floorpans are solid as a brand new one would be.
I did find a 85 D250 about 15 months ago, that was everything I want in a truck/ for what I considered a great deal/ something like $1700, rust free and straight....except I couldn't get to Texas from Illinois at the time, and about the time I figured out how to get it home, it was gone. I see hardly any of these trucks on CL anymore, anywhere in the US other than the newer (of that series) Cummins versions, that are in the high teens for a starting point.... I ain't paying that, for any truck. there was an 89-90 in St Louis recently with an asking price of $43k..... I'd like some of what that idiot was smoking.... not worth it, even if it had never been titled, and had lived its life in a museum from day 1.
and sorry I ain't into Fakebook.
I have gotten most of the "bugs" out of the 85 that I bought, that would keep it from being a decent driver. but it still needs the body work done, and I do have a "new" /6 in machine shop jail right now, that I have been slowly been buying parts for over the last 6-8 months, I am gonna build up a /6 that has at least what a "stock-for 85" 318 would have had...I'm gonna make this "my" truck. I have a 440 sitting here and a couple of newer Magnum small blocks (none for sale, some is mine and some is my son's) but I'm going for the "different" factor. I've been down the "yank the 6 and drop in a V8" road before. Hopefully when I am all in, all done, I have no more in this truck, than the $5-6k that I listed above. and a nice truck at that, that's "where I want it to be" at that point. the biggest thing keeping it from being there now, is the bodywork. and depending on how much of that I do (my patience isn't what it used to be, which is 90% of a good bodywork job)
I could do most of what is needed here myself. If I don't do so, then I can see spending that much just at the body shop. I "could" just run it as is, with the current engine. It has just short of 100k original miles. but what fun would that be?
the biggest "problem" remaining mechanically at the moment, is a battery draw that kills it dead in about 10 days, if I don't start it or put a trickle charge on it in between, or unhook the battery..... if I start it once a week, it don't kill the battery. Its winter and they have plenty of salt on the ground so I have plenty of time to figure that one out. once the new engine is in, and salt season is gone, I plan to drive it at least a few days a week..... I think it may have something to do with the amp gauge. I had to go to the boneyard and get a complete underhood wiring harness from another truck, and then do a couple of repairs to that.... and I did delete the fusible links at that time, opting instead to run everything that used to be fusible linked, thru an underhood fuse box from a newer truck. I still have yet to undo some ofthe PO's handiwork for the blower motor.... have not gotten to that yet, except to rip out his add on toggle switch and extension cord, that he had run to it..... and also I need to add a better-than-AM-only radio to it. I have a couple of Pioneers here, that will take care of that.
I am debating on scouting the boneyards and accumulating what I'd need, to add AC to it-- factory non A/C truck, but it is a factory 727 truck... even with being a 1/2 ton with a /6.... the 727 is staying put, I'm happy it has that. other "options" are 2 tone paint, PS, PB, long bed, the Ram head on the hood, carpeting, and the "nice" cloth seat, as opposed to vinyl. I also want to find a factory rear sliding window for it. If it were a couple years older, I'd think it was a "MISER" package truck. I think that "package" was gone by 85/ but even by 85 standards, it doesn't have much on it. I got original dealer reciept with it, back in 85 this was what $10k would get you off the showroom floor.
but (I'm not, so don't ask) if I were to put it up for sale, I couldn't get what I have spent on it so far, back...... it's what I have, so it's what I am gonna work with.
why can everybody else ask crazy prices (of which some must be getting, if so many are asking that much) but when I go to sell, even if I start out less than them/ and even if what I have might be nicer than average, I cannot get anywhere close to what others are asking,
and if I don't take what pittance is offered, I find myself sitting on whatever it might be, for years?
About 1-1/2 years ago, my son bought an 80 D150 stepside from Ebay out of Mississippi, /6-833OD, former forest service truck, cuz the logo they removed can still faintly be seen on the doors..... had it trucked up here, but as far as I am concerned he way overpaid, for what it is--- and that's before shipping was considered. It ran but it didn't run that well when he got it, and alot of previous owner "interference" and "rigging," that I had to help him clean up/straighten up. More time involved than money but still that IS worth "something, right? and if ol Dad ("me") didn't have stuff "laying around," it would have cost him more than it did, to get a decent driver out of... and he isn't done, there is more that he should do to it to make it what it should be. I am not a fan of "clear coating over faded paint and bleeding thru primer" to "preserve the patina" but that is what the PO did. and the wood bed? They just stuck a piece of T111 barn siding (plywood) in the bed instead of doing the bed wood anywhere close to right. but today That is worth $5 grand? Not to me.......
Back in about 89-90 I paid $1200 for a truck that was almost identical to this one, that I ran the snot out of for 7+ years (only difference? mine was '79, mine wasn't a stepside)
