What’s with old trucks?

Seems like pickup trucks have always been somewhat popular to restore etc.   Traditionally it has been earlier truck, but the time has just moved on.

I always suspected one of the reasons pickups are popular to restore is that there will be much less effort involved.  Far less interior and far fewer options and features to mess with.

That price is actually not bad at all.

I go to Southern California a lot and always look at vehicles for sale. The prices in the last year are crazy. If I was Frenchy I'd jump on a sub $8k squarebody.

I've been looking for solid axle toyota pick ups...$20k+...wow.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Not just Ford. I had square body with the unloved 250 six with integral head and it was still going strong at over 200k miles when I pulled it for a SBC swap. 

Early GM square bodies had major rust issues. Bought a 73 Blazer new. Lived in NJ, hand washed it, springtime undercarriage washing. Summer of 1975 I was washing it and discovered a small paint blister in the middle of the drivers door. Touched it and it collapsed exposing a hole. Traded it in that evening on a new Trans Am.

In reply to outasite :

73 models were brutal for rust.  Three years, tops, around here before they had holes.

I should be monitoring the values on the GMT 400 trucks. It might make more sense for me to sell my rust free 88 C2500 than to keep putting money into it. 
 

100% with you on that one Eric.

I am 2 shakes away from buying a crew cab dually and sending the mighty burb to the next home. I hope GMT 400's sky rocket!

In reply to New York Nick :

That's a nice suburban!

GMT400's have been creeping up in value over the past few years. It's really rare around here to see a clean example come up for sale, but when they do come up, they command top dollar. I passed on a few clean 4.3L V6 trucks before I bought the Power Wagon, but looking back, I should have given them a closer look. I wanted something with a V8 after owning a V6 truck for a while. Now, they are priced out of range.

Here it is no smog inspection on 1975 or older, that is a big plus !

In reply to californiamilleghia :

What's "smog inspection"? Sounds expensive.

In reply to bobzilla :

We have no understanding of smog here in Minnesota. New, old, steam powered, nuclear fusion, doesn't matter.  

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

It's nice but pictures like this are always more forgiving than close visual inspection. It gets a lot of compliments especially in upstate NY where it is not common to have a 26 year old truck that's not a rag but it is far from a show truck.

I've been browsing 60s-70s trucks for a couple years now. I used to own a '65 F100. Sold it to buy a '93 Lightning which I'm not in love with and have been wanting to go back to the carb era for awhile. I missed the boat, it seems. I can't justify paying the prices they want for trucks that aren't even really nice. You can still find some decent deals in the 1980s if you look long enough. The 1990s are where the cheap trucks reside now, but I wonder how much longer that will be?

Upside is my $3500 Lightning investment has tripled in value.

I got interested in cars at an early age with the arrival of the August 1977 Hemming´s Motor News.  I still have that issue.  Most of the high value stuff in there are ˋ30´s era Rolls, Packard, and Auburn / Cord / Duesenberg stuff.  Digging deeper there's Gus Grissom's '67 Vette roadster for, IIRC $10k and that's abnormally high since it belonged to an astronaut.  And then there's a '70 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird for $4500.  
 

My point is that as time marches on, what people find desirable changes.  Also, we do not know what will be collectible.  The only sure thing is that if everyone thinks something will be a future collectible, it nearly always means it will not be (limited production 911's excepted).

Can't buy a Jag V12 for $300 any more either. 

New York Nick said:

100% with you on that one Eric.

I am 2 shakes away from buying a crew cab dually and sending the mighty burb to the next home. I hope GMT 400's sky rocket!

 

My all time favorite wheels.  Nothing against your Burb but those hoops will make anything drool-worthy.

aircooled said:

Seems like pickup trucks have always been somewhat popular to restore etc.   Traditionally it has been earlier truck, but the time has just moved on.

I always suspected one of the reasons pickups are popular to restore is that there will be much less effort involved.  Far less interior and far fewer options and features to mess with.

And even a weak azz air conditioner will freeze your gonads off in a regular cab ;-)

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

Can't buy a Jag V12 for $300 any more either. 

Ha ha!

In reply to A 401 CJ :

None taken, I put those on it this year for that exact reason. The look nice while not being ostentatious. Just enough to say hey I am a nice ride but not gaudy.

Gmt400s are going way up now, I'm glad I got mine when I did. Look at this...

I bought a short bed a year ago and I overpaid about 750 dollars according to my loud mouth buddies. But, one lady owner who bought it new locally. Never painted. Texas truck (no rust). Yes, I overpaid. But I was starting to get desperate as these trucks were just vanishing from the market right before my eyes.

Now a year later you basically can't find a 2wd short bed at any price. Now I feel just fine about overpaying. I could likely nearly double my money today if I wanted to.

TLDR.....What something was worth a year ago means nothing today. If you want it you better jump on it. They're not making them anymore. Hesitate and you'll never be able to afford it.

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

I bought a short bed a year ago and I overpaid about 750 dollars according to my loud mouth buddies. But, one lady owner who bought it new locally. Never painted. Texas truck (no rust). Yes, I overpaid. But I was starting to get desperate as these trucks were just vanishing from the market right before my eyes.

Now a year later you basically can't find a 2wd short bed at any price. Now I feel just fine about overpaying. I could likely nearly double my money today if I wanted to.

TLDR.....What something was worth a year ago means nothing today. If you want it you better jump on it. They're not making them anymore. Hesitate and you'll never be able to afford it.

Very true.

I wanna get something like that in the future but I think I've missed the boat on them