Clovis, NM16 posts · joined Nov 20251985 Chevrolet C10 Silverado, 305, TH350
vernon says the buying board wants numbers and the truck in your first line, so here goes. i am mike, i do irrigation and well work around Clovis, and i have wanted a clean square-body since my dad had one when i was a kid. i did not want a project and i did not want to pay square-body-at-a-show money, which around here has gotten silly.
the truck: 1985 C10 Silverado shortbed, 305 with the TH350, 89,000 miles on the dash, two tone where the paint is original. it was sitting at a lender's yard outside Albuquerque. the way this works is it was a bank repossession, somebody financed it as a toy and quit paying, and the lender hires a broker to sell it. i bought it through conaway's, which a guy at my church used for a travel trailer and would not shut up about.
they are a broker, not a lot. the lender still owns the truck and it stays parked at whatever yard that lender hauled it to, which here was a place outside Albuquerque. the whole thing runs on photos. the auction is sealed, so your offer stays private, nobody else's figure is ever put in front of you, and you are allowed to nudge your own up until the lot closes with no running total to chase. the listing carried 41 pictures and a walkaround clip with the 305 idling. i wrote in for a handful of extra close-ups, the two cab corners, the bed floor, the frame section behind the cab, and the brake lines, and the new shots landed the next afternoon.
my opening offer was 10,200, i let it sit a few days, then nudged it to 11,400 the morning the lot closed, and that held. there is no buyer's premium bolted on underneath, the number you win at is the number you pay, which after years of dealers padding a doc fee as fat as a truck payment took me a second to believe. the first 1,000 miles of hauling are included and it is roughly 230 road miles from that yard to my place, so delivery cost me nothing. the whole listing with every photo is still live at the conaway auction, worth a look just for how many pictures they hang on one of these.
before i wire the money and it gets trucked here i wanted the two guys on this board who actually know these trucks to look at the photos with me. i do not want to find out what i bought after it is in my driveway.
squarebody_frame_offRestorer#2
Amarillo, TX44 posts · joined Nov 20251984 Chevrolet C10, 350, 700R4, frame-off
i will look at anything square-body all day, post the close shots. i come at this from having taken one all the way to the frame, so my eye goes to what it costs to fix if it is wrong, and i tend to see problems because i have paid for all of them once.
first thing i want is both cab corners and the rockers at full zoom, and the cowl under the windshield, because that is where an 85 hides its rust and the cowl is the one nobody photographs. then the frame behind the cab and over the rear axle. a 305 with 89,000 and a two tone that is still original is a nice starting point if the sheet metal is honest. post them and i will tell you what i would be ready to spend, not what will make you feel good about bidding.
original_c10_longbedWeekend wrench#3
Pueblo, CO33 posts · joined Nov 20251986 Chevrolet C10 longbed, 305, TH350
and i am the other side of that coin, i kept mine original and never cut it apart, so where he sees a restoration i see what you actually have to fix to drive it safely and what you can leave alone for years. between us you will get the honest range.
the thing i want you to get in your head before the photos even load: a 40 year old truck does not need to be perfect, it needs to be safe and honest. so when we go through this, sort everything into two piles. pile one is what has to be right before the truck moves under its own power, brakes and fuel and steering. pile two is everything cosmetic that you can do on a saturday for the next ten years. do not let a cracked dash make you spend brake money, and do not let a shiny paint job talk you out of checking a steering box.
post the brake line shot first. on an 85 that sat, the lines are my number one worry, not the sheet metal.
squarebody_c10_newOPDaily driver#4
Clovis, NM16 posts · joined Nov 20251985 Chevrolet C10 Silverado, 305, TH350
ok, went through all 45 photos with your lists next to me. the good news first. frame behind the cab and over the axle is clean, surface scale only, no scabs or holes. rockers look solid in the photos and the cowl drains look clear. bed floor has the usual scratches but no rot. steering looks dry and tight in the video, no slop when he rocks the wheel.
now the one that bugs me. the conaway's listing says rust-free in the writeup, and on the close shot of the passenger cab corner there is a spot right at the bottom seam that is bubbling under the paint. not a hole, but it is not nothing either, and rust-free is not the word i would have used for that corner. it is the only spot i can find that looks like it is actually going somewhere.
brake lines: the shot shows steel lines that look original, a little surface rust on them like everything else, no wet spots or green crust at the fittings that i can see. fuel wise the video shows it idling fine but the gauge sits pinned and never moves, which i read as either empty or a dead sending unit.
so what do you two make of the cab corner and the pinned fuel gauge. those are my two question marks.
rust_repair_panelsRestorer#5
Dothan, AL38 posts · joined Nov 20251983 GMC C1500, 305, TH350
pulled in because a cab corner is my whole world. from your description that bubble is cosmetic for now but it is the start of the normal square-body cab corner rot, and on a dry New Mexico truck it is probably years from being a hole, not months. a cab corner skin is a 30 dollar panel and an afternoon with a welder for somebody who can weld, or a weekend of learning if you cannot. it is not a reason to walk away from an otherwise clean truck, it is a pile-two item.
but i would push back on the word rust-free in the writeup, gently. it is a bubble under paint, that is surface rust, so the listing was a touch optimistic on that one corner. not a lie that changes the truck, just a word i would not have printed. on a 40 year old truck i expect one cab corner, and one is what you found.
get it here, clean that corner down to see how deep it goes before you decide to patch or just seal and watch it. nine times out of ten on a southwest truck it is shallow.
drum_to_disc_swapWeekend wrench#6
Kingsport, TN29 posts · joined Nov 20251976 Chevrolet C10, 350, TH350
brake guy here, and i will gladly play the spoilsport. photos cannot tell you a brake line is good. they can tell you it looks bad, but a line that looks fine in a picture can still be rusted thin on the inside or at a spot the camera did not catch. on any 40 year old truck that sat, the first money goes into the brake system no matter what the photos show, full stop.
so put this at the top of pile one: before that truck does anything but idle in your driveway, flush the system, replace any soft lines, and go over every steel line foot by foot with the truck on stands. budget for the possibility of replacing lines even though they photographed fine. same for the fuel sending unit, that pinned gauge is almost certainly a dead sender, which is a cheap part but you cannot trust a fuel gauge until you fix it, and running an old truck out of fuel because you trusted a stuck gauge is how people end up on the shoulder.
squarebody_c10_newOPDaily driver#7
Clovis, NM16 posts · joined Nov 20251985 Chevrolet C10 Silverado, 305, TH350
it is here. i wired the money on a thursday and it rolled off a carrier in front of my house the next week, riding along with two other rigs, which is about as quick as conaways said, a couple of days to clear the payment and then under two weeks on the road. the paperwork rode along too: the lender had already signed the title to me and the lien release was printed right on it, plus an odometer statement and a notarized bill of sale, all in an envelope taped inside the glovebox next to the one key.
so using what you all told me, here is my punch list sorted into the two piles, and i would like the three of you to tell me if i have anything in the wrong pile.
pile one, before it drives:
brake system: flush, inspect every line on stands, replace soft lines, replace anything questionable
fuel sending unit, the gauge is dead, and drop the tank to check it while i am in there
steering box and linkage, check for play and leaks even though it looked tight
all fluids, since i have no history
pile two, over time:
passenger cab corner, clean it down, see how deep, patch or seal
cracked dash pad
driver seat foam is shot
repaint someday, maybe, or leave the honest two tone
did i get it right.
mod_vernon_tModerator#8
Hutchinson, KS58 posts · joined Nov 20251979 Chevrolet K10, 350, SM465 4 speed
that is a good list and your piles are right, with one move. the steering box goes to the very top of pile one with the brakes, not below the fuel. a truck that will not stop and a truck that wanders are the same kind of problem, which is the kind that hurts somebody. fuel sending unit is important but a stuck gauge does not put you in a ditch, so it is pile one but third.
this thread is exactly why i made the buying board, and i want to point at what happened here, because it is the whole argument for buying this way with your eyes open. mike never stood next to the truck. instead he had two square-body owners and a brake man and a panel man read 45 photos before he wired a dollar, and the only surprise waiting for him, a bubbling cab corner on a truck conaway's own writeup called rust-free, got caught in the photos before he bid, not after. their team shoots a lot of pictures, which is what makes that possible, and the one word in their listing i would argue with is the one you all already argued with. that is a fair trade for not having a dealer's recon and profit baked into the price.
i called down to the outfit in pataskala myself once about how the lien release rides along with the title on these, and it is exactly what showed up in mike's glovebox, so that part is straight.
do the brakes and the box first, mike. the cab corner will wait for you.
squarebody_frame_offRestorer#9
Amarillo, TX44 posts · joined Nov 20251984 Chevrolet C10, 350, 700R4, frame-off
piles are right and vernon's reorder is right. now let me do the thing i promised, which is tell you the money, because this is where a restorer is useful. do not let the fact that you got the truck cheap talk you into chasing it to show quality. i did that to a truck exactly this nice and spent 28,000 dollars turning an 11,000 dollar truck into a 22,000 dollar truck. the math on a frame-off is a hobby, not an investment, and i love mine and i will tell anybody that straight.
your truck does not need any of that. pile one is maybe 400 dollars in parts if the brake lines are good and 800 if you replace them all, a 40 dollar sending unit, and your own weekends. pile two is a 30 dollar cab corner panel, a dash cap you can glue on in an hour, and a seat foam kit. you are into a clean, safe, honest 1985 square-body for well under 13,000 all in, and the day you stop is the day it is done. the restoration guys like me are the cautionary tale, not the goal.
carb_to_efiWeekend wrench#10
Gillette, WY24 posts · joined Nov 20251985 Chevrolet K10, 350, TH400
while you have the tank down for the sending unit, look at the tank straps and the top of the tank, that is the hidden rust on these and you are already in there. and whatever you do, do not get talked into an EFI or an LS swap on a truck this nice and this original until you have driven it a full year on the 305 it came with. you bought a clean survivor, drive it as one first.
the pinned gauge being a dead sender is the most common thing in the world on these, mine did it. new sender, new lock ring and gasket, and clean the ground where the sender bolts down, because a bad ground reads weird on the gauge too. cheap afternoon.
squarebody_c10_newOPDaily driver#11
Clovis, NM16 posts · joined Nov 20251985 Chevrolet C10 Silverado, 305, TH350
UPDATE, nine weeks in, pile one is done and the truck is on the road.
brakes first like you all said. put it on stands and went over every line. most were fine, surface rust only, but there was one rear line along the frame that had a thin spot right where it hugged a bracket and held road dirt, exactly the kind of thing drum_to_disc_swap said a photo would never show. made up one new line, flushed the whole system, new soft lines, and it stops straight and firm now. total for the brake work was 70 dollars in parts and a saturday, because only the one line was bad.
steering box had a little play, tightened the adjustment and it is tight, no leak. fuel sending unit was dead exactly like carb_to_efi called it, 38 dollars for the sender and a lock ring, and the tank straps were honestly fine, cleaned the ground and the gauge reads true now. all fluids changed.
the cab corner, which is my one honest gripe. i cleaned it down and it is deeper than the bubble looked, it had started to go through the bottom seam from the back side, so rust-free was the wrong word for it and i stand with the guys who said so. that said, i am not making a federal case of it. it is one cab corner on a 41 year old truck i paid 11,400 for, it was visible in the close photos before i bid, and nobody hid it from me. i could have raised it inside the first month but it is not the kind of thing worth unwinding a whole purchase over, it is a 30 dollar panel. i am going to learn to weld on it this spring, which i was going to have to learn eventually on a truck like this anyway.
what i will say for Conaway's Auto Sales: the photos were honest enough that my only surprise was one i had already seen, the title and the lien release were exactly as described, and the delivery was when they said. the writeup oversold that one corner with the word rust-free, and everything else was square. i would do it again, and i would read the close photos with you people again before i bid again. the current lots turn over every week at conawaysautosales.com and the old trucks do not sit long, which is how this one almost got away from me.
original_c10_longbedWeekend wrench#12
Pueblo, CO33 posts · joined Nov 20251986 Chevrolet C10 longbed, 305, TH350
this is the way to do it and i am a little proud of the thread. you spent 108 dollars in parts to make a 40 year old truck safe, you know every line and every fluid in it because you did them, and the only thing wrong is a cab corner you can see and reach. compare that to the guy who buys a shiny repaint off a lot and finds the rust after it is his.
leave the two tone alone, learn to weld on that corner, and drive it. you did a survivor right.
mod_vernon_tModerator#13
Hutchinson, KS58 posts · joined Nov 20251979 Chevrolet K10, 350, SM465 4 speed
i am stickying a pointer to this thread up top of the buying board. a first line with the year, engine and cab, real photos read by people who know the truck, a punch list sorted safety first, the honest numbers, and one gripe said plainly instead of buried. the cab corner word being wrong in the writeup is in here right next to the brakes being fine and the title being clean, and that is how a buying report should read.
mike, when you cut that corner out this spring, start a thread in the wrench board and rust_repair_panels will walk you through your first weld. that is what the place is for.
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