When we used to live in town, I had an old '67 GMC 3/4 ton pickup, 351 V-6, 4 speed. It was a rust bucket--holes in the floor, driver's door rusted out, I replaced it with a Chevy door of a different color. Later, the box about fell off--replaced with a different one, also a different color. You get the picture.
I used it mostly to run between our place in town and our acerage in the country--short trips, etc. The engine ran great, and is bulletproof!
When we actually moved to the country in 1999, we didn't really have much use for it. The tires needed replacing, the brakes were about shot, the clutch was getting thin. Not worth fixing, so I drove it down over the hill, and walked away.
This summer, I'm thinking, it's a shame to let that good engine rot away. Plus, we now have a man made lake on property next door to us with a road all around it. So I can drive it around and exercise it without having to buy license and insurance.
So this week, we pulled it out, and brought it up into the yard. I siphoned out all the old gas, and put in some fresh. I took some emery cloth to the points, and dist. cap, and, after throwing on a used coil I had laying around, we had spark. After pulling out the fuel filter going into the carb, she fired right up, and ran just as good as ever!! I've since replaced that filter with a new one, and I also added an inline filter ahead of the fuel pump. Hopefully, that will keep any crud from the tank from causing too many problems.
But, at least she's back from the dead, and now I have a place I can beat around with it.