1972 GMC C10

[ChuckN]

Helping my buddy get this thing out of a barn. I’ll post some pics later- forgot to take some when we were out in the county. As soon as we got out there we went to work and turned tail after we’d gotten soaked by the rain (getting it back in the barn). He’d moved it out temporarily for a family estate sale.

It is a true barn find- pretty good shape except will need a floorboard. Mustard yellow long bed with a topper on back, and a roller pulley/chain system on the top for pulling a canoe/boat up on top. Still has all the original trim and Sierra badge in cursive on the bed side. Topper is set up for camping with a door and curtain rods. The bed wood is in bad shape but appears good enough to stand on, probably been that way for years. We’ll have to look around the property to see if he saved the tailgate somewhere. It belonged to a distant relative and he has since passed so we have no clue of why he parked it.

The transmission lever shifts between gears but will not go into park. Vehicle rolls easily no matter where the gear selector is- some variation of an automatic. Since it was in the dirt and no good jacking surface, we haven’t been under it to see exactly what it is.

He had tried it and the key wouldn’t do anything with a new battery installed, not surprised since it won’t go into park, but I wasn’t there to witness that part.

So I took out the radiator shroud and got a 5/8 on the crank snout and it wouldn’t turn, so I immediately stopped. Oil looks fine, radiator full of clean antifreeze. Hasn’t run or been tabbed since 2000. Engine compartment is all original with A/C installed, sticker says 350ci. Still has the Quadrajet.

We were soaked to the bone from just trying to get it out of the pouring rain, so we called it a day. We clearly have a VGG-style revival on our hands- will post updates and pics next time we get out there.

Next time we are going to pull the plugs and soak the cylinders- the old timer already had a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil on the shelf. The engine bay was bone dry and no signs of water ingress.

I feel like this is going to be fun getting this old thing going.

 

[ChuckN]

My bad, I guess that would be a C15, lol.

 

[TotalyHucked]

That sounds like a cool old truck! Hopefully you guys can get the motor unstuck. It may not have a trans in it or the linkage may be unhooked or boogered up. At least the brakes aren't locked down!

 

[DoubleDingo]

Oh man, I can't wait to see this truck!

 

[Grit dog]

Oh man, I can't wait to see this truck!

Ditto.
Btw mustard yellow is Ochre. Love that color. Only problem is I drove yellow pickups (company trucks) for 20 years and I’m done with yellow….lol
Gets me to wonderin? Is the yellow trim accent on ‘77 models actually Ochre?
Equally as interesting, I have some leftover yellow base coat (school bus type yellow from fixing self inflicted whisky dents on the aforementioned company trucks). Last time I sprayed some was circa 2011. Paint is from the 90s. In 2011 it was still schoolbus yellow.
Now, it’s changed color.
The badge I’m holding below is off the ‘86 thst I dabbed some of that paint on. The attached one is original on the 77. Pretty damn close match.
I need to get an Ochre sample from my buddy. To compare.

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[TotalyHucked]

Ditto.
Btw mustard yellow is Ochre. Love that color. Only problem is I drove yellow pickups (company trucks) for 20 years and I’m done with yellow….lol
Gets me to wonderin? Is the yellow trim accent on ‘77 models actually Ochre?
Equally as interesting, I have some leftover yellow base coat (school bus type yellow from fixing self inflicted whisky dents on the aforementioned company trucks). Last time I sprayed some was circa 2011. Paint is from the 90s. In 2011 it was still schoolbus yellow.
Now, it’s changed color.
The badge I’m holding below is off the ‘86 thst I dabbed some of that paint on. The attached one is original on the 77. Pretty damn close match.
I need to get an Ochre sample from my buddy. To compare.

You must be registered for see images attach

I do believe the "gold" trim in '77 was Ochre. "Schoolbus Yellow" varies wildly depending on who's paint it is/what district the busses are from, at least around here. We have everything from pale/powdery yellow to Ochre busses. My dad retired from 2 different school systems as transportation director and was good friends with the painter at the first, that guy was constantly pulling his hair out trying to match paint when doing repairs

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

I do believe the "gold" trim in '77 was Ochre. "Schoolbus Yellow" varies wildly depending on who's paint it is/what district the busses are from, at least around here. We have everything from pale/powdery yellow to Ochre busses. My dad retired from 2 different school systems as transportation director and was good friends with the painter at the first, that guy was constantly pulling his hair out trying to match paint when doing repairs

We never could find a match for the '77 trim paint on our C25 GMC Burb...but I'm guessing Dad never thought of this.
Our '67 C10 steppy was that pale butter yellow, and the '78 Sierra shop truck was Colonial Yellow, which has just a touch of orange in it to keep it from being buttermilk yellow. As the Colonial Yellow fades, it looks more like the '67 color. Basecoat/clearcoat has been a thing for so long, we forget how badly some of the old style paint fades when the trucks always sleep outside....

 

[DoubleDingo]

Ditto.
Btw mustard yellow is Ochre. Love that color. Only problem is I drove yellow pickups (company trucks) for 20 years and I’m done with yellow….lol
Gets me to wonderin? Is the yellow trim accent on ‘77 models actually Ochre?
Equally as interesting, I have some leftover yellow base coat (school bus type yellow from fixing self inflicted whisky dents on the aforementioned company trucks). Last time I sprayed some was circa 2011. Paint is from the 90s. In 2011 it was still schoolbus yellow.
Now, it’s changed color.
The badge I’m holding below is off the ‘86 thst I dabbed some of that paint on. The attached one is original on the 77. Pretty damn close match.
I need to get an Ochre sample from my buddy. To compare.

You must be registered for see images attach

Looks very close, if not identical

 

[ChuckN]

That sounds like a cool old truck! Hopefully you guys can get the motor unstuck. It may not have a trans in it or the linkage may be unhooked or boogered up. At least the brakes aren't locked down!

That’s what I thought! We got it hooked up and rolling toward the barn, and I had thought that I didn’t want to hit the brakes and lock them up.

Well, the guy stopped a little too quickly so I instinctively hit the brakes, and they kinda worked. More importantly, they didn’t do the hose-trap-pressure thing. And a feller’s got some kind of brakes!

 

[ChuckN]

Well, project update with pics. We went back out to the county and picked up where we left off. We took out the spark plugs after taking out the weird heat shields that bolt to the frame. Then we soaked the cylinders with Aerokroil.

True to my nature, the straw popped off the nozzle and immediately went into the spark plug hole. So, we hooked up a shop vac to a transmission funnel and sucked it back out.

Still wouldn’t turn over (not surprised) but then we got to thinking about the shift lever, and how it wouldn’t go into park. Linkage isn’t bad, and trying to manipulate by hand wouldn’t do anything either. We had at one point figured that when it was in reverse, that it was actually in park and that the indicator was wrong. Turns out that’s not the case.

I wasn’t sure when they started using neutral safety switches, so we put it in “neutral “ and it cranked right over. So our suspicion is that the transmission lost parking gear and then it was…parked.

So he is going to get parts for a tuneup, probably a rebuilt Quadrajet, and we’ll try firing it up off a gas can with fresh gas. Here’s some pictures.

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[DoubleDingo]

Cool truck!

 

[DoubleDingo]

That kind of camper is great.

 

[consti2tion]

Ochre is the best color for 71/72 C10/15. Beautiful truck!! My 72 was originally Ochre but has had some repaints somewhere throughout its life.

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[TotalyHucked]

Man, that thing is too cool! Hope it doesn't fight you too bad, that thing just needs a good wash, cut and buff and drive it the way it is!

 

[Dmack]

The automatic will roll in any gear shift position except park if it's not running. On the shifter not going into park, try dropping it all the way into first/low and cycle it quickly all the way to toward park, while pulling the lever toward you. My son has to do that on his 68 at times to get it into park.

Also, open the hood and look at the bottom of the steering column. You will see the shift arm and the plates it slides against that hold the shift positions. Sometimes some good cleaning and lube will help. If you have someone cycle the shifter while you watch, you can see the mechanism move and see what may be hanging up.