I've lurked this site for years soaking up information. I'm in the process of getting a 1952 GMC 3/4 ton truck so finally decided I should become a member and participate instead of just reading over everybody's shoulder.
The truck has a bit of history with my family. My brother bought it in the late 80s because he found a good deal and it was a neat truck. Old pickup, 3 on the tree and low geared rear end wasn't as cool for an 18 year old kid as he thought it would be so he bought another car and gave the truck to my dad. My dad has had it since then and he drove it for a time to do truck stuff with.
He lives in a city, where you take the freeway to get anywhere. Old truck that screams at 50mph not so great in that setting, so it got used less and less. It has a bad crankshaft and my uncle gave my dad an old Chevy Luv to take care of his truck needs. He parked the GMC in the back yard at his house at least 10 years ago and it has sat there ever since. He did at least have the consideration of covering it with a tarp to provide some protection from the weather.
I bought an old house a few years ago. My wife and I do a lot of DIY work on the house and yard. I don't have a truck at the moment thanks to an inattentive driver and that is a real pain when you are buying lumber, and taking stuff to the dump as often as we do.
I started looking for an older (cheap) truck and my dad says, why don't you guys take my old truck and fix it up, and get it out of my yard. So that is where we are at.
Much slower pace around here, and lots of low speed back roads to explore so the low gears are no problem. We are thinking the money going into buying even a dirt cheap used truck will go much farther on the GMC and when we are done we will have something more interesting to toodle around town with than a 90s beater truck.
To the best of our knowledge the truck is all original, body is straight although does show normal wear for a 66 year old truck. Main issue is the bottom end of the engine. It was running when he parked it but it wouldn't start after it had been running a while. A mechanic friend of his thought the crankshaft or bearings were bad. It will need tires and a good general going over, but should it should be a fun project.
I've owned a 1969 Toyota Landcruiser since the 90s, so I've got experience driving a column shift (I refer to it as an anti-theft transmission because most people don't even know what that is anymore). Toyota borrowed heavily from the stovebolt design for their inline 6. I've been told the motor in my Landcruiser is basically a hybrid combining features from the GMC bottom end with the Chevrolet top end, converted to metric. Looking under the hood of this truck I can see some definite similarities, so I expect I will quickly get comfortable with the GMC 6.
