Ok as far as parts go, I've found a few sites that sell many parts for them but I'm positive that I'll run into some that are a pain to get. Have seen several instances where people have made substitutions for things like the master brake cylinder and such that may take a bit of engineering to make them work on something this old. But being inventive to keep old things running is pretty much my job at work so more of the same.
Don't need a special license to drive it (it's not that heavy) though I see that in Oregon, where I live they can get fussy about trying to make people register similar trucks as commercial vehicles because it has air over hydraulic brakes. Looks like there are a few options though like registering as a special interest vehicle but that limits the mileage you can legally drive it and then you're only supposed to be taking it to parades, vehicle club events, and such. The third option I see is to install a permanent sleeping and cooking area and register it as an RV for $300 a year and now that I'm thinking about it I have plans floating around in my head.... Little welding here a bolt or two there..... Hmmmm
Would be my go-anywhere camper... I can see a neat little fold-out section on the bed that could be tucked in tight to give full use of the bed as well. And yes AG vehicle might work as well as I do live in an agricultural area. The cows on the other side of the road woke us up the other morning, having a squabble at 1:30 AM.... Damn cows. The truck does have a slow-moving vehicle sign on it so that may have been how it was being operated before it got stuck in storage.
From everything I've seen the insurance for these is cheap. $200 a year down to like $90 some odd if you go the special interest route.
And it really is in quite nice shape vorlon. Has a few rusty patches starting under the paint but nothing major considering the year and that this looks to be the original paint it looks good.
Totally plan on repainting it just like original. You can just make out all the numbers that were on the side of the hood still. Not to mention it is made of pretty thick steel so I can cut and weld patches in without too much trouble I think if the rust is bad enough in those areas. Everything is really solid frame-wise, with no major corrosion to speak of. It looked good enough in person that we were half tempted to pick it up even before we got the engine to turn over but I wasn't quite ready to take that much of a risk.
Really the worst thing cosmetically was that the driver's seat is pretty well shot but that's normal. Maybe I'll put a nice air ride in it
I'll be trying to get it running fully next weekend. Like I said need to clean out the carb and fuel tank and check if the fuel pump is working. At least the tank and pump are easy to get to.
Need to hook the drive lines back up as they were disconnected to tow it to the storage facility and check the brakes of course because that might cause an interesting drive back home...
I'll get more detailed pics next week for ya all.
