'67: First Project

[My6AteUr8]

I'm looking at buying a '67 C-10. This will be my first. I'm pretty knowledgeable on the mechanics but not on value.
It has a 350/350, 650 Edelbrock, Flow Master Exhaust, 4.11 gears.
According to the seller, the drivetrain has approximately 30k miles and the rear main seal leaks a little. He says it's not much and seems to think it's because it sat without running through the winter. He relayed to me that a local mechanic concurred and said it would only cost $200 to replace. I don't see that as possible because you either have to pull the motor or trans to do so, which is an involved task. Then there's the matter of changing out the seal and seating it properly. I know the work involved isn't that simple.
The owner of the truck before him seems to have removed the original wood slat bed and replaced it with diamond plate sheet metal and painted it.
The paint on the truck was done by the previous owner 5 years ago, himself, and looks good from a distance, but horrible from the up close pictures I have seen. The rust spots look to be surface but it's hard to tell as it also looks like the rust was painted over. It seems that the guy did a poor job prepping the truck for paint to me. It definitely needs to be sand-blasted throughout and painted again.
The current owner calls it a 7 out of 10 on a full restore but it's not even a frame-off restore. To me, it seems like the motor and trans was rebuilt and a bad paint job was applied. That's all.
I have a couple of weeks to decide what I want to do as I'm in Afghanistan right now but I'll be home in 2 weeks.
He's asking $8k for the truck based on NADA. He's saying that, in show condition, this truck would be worth 20-some thousand. I'm not sure about that....that's why I'm here. I'm not sure the truck is worth even $8k with it in the shape it's in.
Can I get some help here from you guys? Any input is welcome and appreciated!
I would post pictures but they're all too big for the forum requirements and I don't know how to resize them.

Thanks again!

[sgaylord]

My6AteUr8

In my opinion I would wait to see if it has rust. Check underneath, bad body work is sometimes easy to hide. See my build thread for proof of that! Check rockers, cab corners, floors and floor braces. If all checks out from your description I say you have a 4k truck at best. It sounds like there was no restoration to speak of. If you have a lot of work to do on that truck, I say look in the classifieds on this site. Some of these trucks were someones project with a lot of documentation hosted in their build threads. For that kind of money you should be able to get you something really nice where someone else has done most of the work on.

Good luck and be safe!

Steve

[My6AteUr8]

Thanks a lot Steve! I'll take a look on here. It seems like this guy is trying to find a sucker.

[dmack91]

I agree that it sounds way overpriced. Take your time and don't buy the first one you look at. And never trust the guy selling it without going over it carefully.

I have looked at two "no rust" trucks. One that was missing the first 3" of floor inside both doors under the carpet. The other at least you couldn't see the ground through the floor - probably because he pop riveted sheetmetal over the holes.

Take a magnet with you and look for bondo in the regular places.

Trucks that were selling for 20k a couple of years ago are sitting for a long time at 12k now, and still not selling.

Good luck and thanks for your service.

[mpotts64]

Trust your gut on this one, it sounds like you have enough knowledge and experience on this to know what is going on, it sounds way over priced to me as well, I bought a 67 "rust-free" cab that went across the scales. Pull the valve covers to see what surprises you find there, you can tell if it only has 30k miles and i bet it is not nearly as clean as what he says, also, look the valve cover gaskets when you take them off, if they are dry rotted and crumbled, it has way more than 30k, the whole thing sounds way too suspect to me, best of luck

[My6AteUr8]

Thanks guys. I didn't think about the magnet. Good call Dmack. Everything this guy sounds fishy. He's proven he has no idea what he's talking about. He has it listed for 8k. Yesterday, I told him, BEFORE being able to see it and inspect it for more issues, I'd give him no more than 5k and he jumped at it. Something isn't right so I'm probably not even going to waste my time to go look at it, considering it's a 4 hour drive. Thanks for the help guys! The info has been most helpful!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

1st off welcome to the board....2nd if ya wanna find a nice truck from someone who is honest check out the classifieds here on the board..