The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1972 GO or NO1?!

There's a guy down the street from me who's got a 1972 3/4 ton for sale. He only wants $1800 for it. Here's what it's got on it:
New Crate 350 motor from GM
New rebuilt Tranny TH400 Turbo Hydra-Matic
Performance Carb
All interior has been redone.
LWB
Alarm system (oops, I set it off and ran )

Well anyways, I asked him how good of gas mileage it got, because I'm not the richest person around. He said he didn't know, but he'd guess about 13-15 mpg. Is this right? I've never heard of one getting that good, and even if it's a 3/4 ton.

So anyways, anyone think this is a good deal or bad? I'm looking for a good truck, right now I've got an 81 that gets 8mpg, and I want something a little better. Then again, it's only 1800, and it's so beautiful

Oh, the cosmetics are a little bad - grille broken in one spot, bed just a little rusty, few scratches, nothing bad though.

Thanks, any replies will be helpful!

The engine and tranny are worth the 1800.00 and it should get better than 8 m.p.g. I say go for it. Good luck.

Bout like mine.....mine has 135,000 on it and I'd not sell it for $1800

When gas was gas I'd get 15 but not for years now(mine has a big camper on it) I'm lucky to get 8 if I push it 75-80 it's half that

The price sounds pretty good going by how you describe the truck. I'm assuming the body is in fairly good shape and it hasn’t had a lot of bondo or shoddy body repair work done. Invest in a small magnet and carefully check out the rocker areas, wheel wells and such. Also look at the floor pans and cab supports from underneath the cab. Sometimes the firewall and roofs on these trucks will rot out if they've sat outside a long time.

Going by your name and profile, it sounds like you deal with restorations so this advice is probably obvious to you.

As far a mileage, 13-15 mpg is the BEST this thing's going to get - that is going downhill with a strong tail wind. I get 12 MPG on the highway with my 327/4 speed 1/2 ton truck. I'd guess 8-10 mpg in town, 12-13 mpg highway is more realistic.

Good Luck!

My '72 1/2-ton, loaded with a big utility bed and pulling a car behind it, got about 13 last summer. Better than I expected!

I'd be surprised if a 3/4-ton ever got any better than that.

Thus comes the rest of the story:
I went and checked it out today - Here's what happened.
It's got a bad upper A-Frame, it's not broken off, just the bearings are gone and will need to be replaced. Almost no rust, only a little on rocker panel. Bed is scratched up, like any bed off a truck. The owner said that the old gas tank had a lock on it, but he didn't have a key, so like an idiot, he took a hammer to the neck, and jacked it up. He said it started to leak a little, and so he took it out from behind the seat and put it up against the front bed panel, along with the sending unit, etc. connected. He said it works fine, just leaks a tad every now and then. I would have NO problem replacing that for SAFETY issues. The blower fan box is cracked open. He said that it will not take R-134, but rather R-12, so he bought a $65 adapter.
The interior:
He said that since the interior gauge lights sometimes do not work, he put a toggle switch under the dash that controls them. He also has a push button starter, since the old normal starter was broken.

Soo....with all these things, does anyone out there think that this is possibly a good truck? It has a really good body for being a 72. Original bumper, most everything works. doors are great. I just don't want to get myself into the situation I'm into now, with the gas crap.

Besides, I thought all that information above might trigger some thoughts to make this a longer post. Thanks!

I'd look for another one.

The a-arm problem sounds like it has not been well-maintaned. The approach to fixing things sounds like there could be more surprises.

I'd check the receipts on that motor and transmission. If they check out and you want the parts the price might be fair, but based on how he has dealt with other things I'd pass.

Well okay, I'd drag it home as a parts truck if it were free.

Haha yes, he is a weird fellow. First he pulls up in his car with a beer - that's enough right there. But then he starts cussing like a maniac about the story of his truck...Yea, if it were free, it'd already be sitting in my driveway

do what ya want, but i think i would suspect everything the guy said was bogus unless you see it with your own eyes. 1800 ain't a bad price if the body is good, even if you have to rebuild the front end. if you are doing your own work, and want to keep the truck, then the price could be more than fair. that body style is pretty popular with collector types, with good resale values.
you are invited to visit the webshots site and check out my old 72 4wd. look under koolkar100.

Is the paint original or is there newer paint hiding a bunch of sins?

If it's original paint and you can really tell that the body is good offer 1200 or 1500. He might go for it.

I'd say it is a fair price considering the drivetrain is new , and the "rigging up " stuff can be taking care of pretty easily . As far as the gas mileage it would depend on how low of gears it has , my 72 1 ton got horrible mileage but it had 4:11 gears and the turbo 350 , but when the tranny went out I put a 700r4 in and it was more drivable ,not sure on the mileage but it was better!

It all depends on how much of the work you can doyourself. If you had to pay a shop to do the work it could turn into a nightmare. Otherwise it sounds like a good buy. I,ve never been able to buy one that didn,t need a lot of work.

Your best hope for rear gears is 4:11. That's as high as 3/4 tons went in 72 if it has the normal HO52 axle. You'd have to get a 1/2 ton to get a 3:73 or 3:07 ratio.