Good morning everyone. Newbie here with a lot of questions.
A gentleman not far from my house has a 1962 GMC 4000 flat dump for sale. I've always wanted a medium duty, non CDL truck for use on improving our acrerage and to have something heavy to pull a farm tractor on a trailer or use with my portable sawmill.
Anyway, the truck had sat in a barn for several years and when the barn needed tearing down, the family decided to pull it by the road and stick a for sale sign on it. The owner has been kind enough to let me fiddle with it to see if there was any life in the 305 V6 engine. After patching rat chewed wires and adjusting points that were not breaking, me and the owner managed to get the truck to fire off and sort of run from an auxiliary gravity fed fuel supply and a constant dribble of gas from a water bottle of fuel. Obviously the Stromberg carb needs some attention but then again it might need more than a small gravity feed fuel supply to work properly. While we nursed it, he raised the bed so it was confirmed the hoist is working. What little the engine ran, it was smooth, had a neat symphony from the solid lifter valve train and there was no big cloud of smoke from the exhaust. With all of this said, here are the remaining issues:
-No brake pedal. Haven't checked the fluid but I imagine the MC, WC's and booster need going through.
No clutch pedal. Figure the MC and SC need going through anyway
-Some jerry rigged wiring under the hood.
-8.25 x 20 tires with what I believe are the infamous RH-5 wheels. Considering his asking price, this seems a deal breaker. I've researched changing the wheels (6 lug) to military surplus 9 x 20 3 piece wheels and running NDT military tires but I'm a little concerned about possiblity of front wheel turning clearance issues and maybe having to put spacers between the duals on the rear.
Not sure if pricing is supposed to be discussed on the forum but he is asking $2,200.00 for the truck and has come down to $2,000.00. Considering the issues and possibly additional expenditures to get it road worthy (to haul gravel), I just don't see it worth anything near that. It's posted on Facebook marketplace and thus far I'm the only person to have taken a serious interest in it. He has had a lot of messages about it but I'm the only one to have actually showed up to look it over.
Researching the GMC V6 engine, I've grown kinda attached to the truck but I also need to be pragmatic in that I want a practical working truck and not some money pit of a yard ornament. Any thoughts on parts availability, serviceability, wheel options, value, etc. Would be most appreciated.
