I'm calling this a Barn Find!

Okay, if you saw my post looking for old Alcoas, here's more about the 1984 I just picked up. I finally got the full story on the truck and I'm gonna have to say, this is as close to a barn find as I'm gonna get.

Back in '84, big farming family on the CA coast. The father has worked hard and decides to give himself a new truck. He buys this 359 brand new and uses it to move farm equipment to the different fields. Unfortunately, in 1988, he passes away. His son puts dad's cherished Pete in the big equipment barn and it sits there for 10 years without being driven other than the son firing it up and driving it around a bit to keep the batteries charged. In 1998 however, the son decides its time to finally let the truck go so he sells it to a towing company. Within one year, the towing company is going bankrupt so the son, partly feeling guilty about letting dad's truck go and partly to help out his friend with the towing company, buys the truck back from them.

The Pete goes back to the farm and gets put into light use, moving farming equipment again. After 5 years back on the farm, the son is having health issues and starts selling off equipment. So a guy buys the Pete in 2004 to pull his hydroplane race boat trailer. Money gets tight and the racing gets sidelined and he takes the sleeper off and puts it in storage and starts hauling dirt with the truck for a runway build project. In 2008, he quits driving and the Pete gets parked. Insurance is cancelled and the registration ends.

After over a year of asking him when is he ever going to sell me that old Pete, he finally needs the money and sells it to me. I see the 284K miles on the odometer and ask him if the truck is at 1,284,000 or 2,284,000. I mean, its old so who knows. He then told me it only has 284,000 original miles on it and tells me the whole story above. He even has the ad and information from 2004 when he bought it.

So after cleaning the fuel tanks and lines, putting in fresh fuel and a set of new batteries, she fires right up the second you hit the starter button. Runs great, everything works and it feels tight. It needs rear brakes and new tires (they're really old).

I'm so used to buying OTR trucks where I though 500,000 miles was low mileage, buying a 29 year old truck with 284,000 miles feel like a barn find to me. What do you think? Is that a rare thing to find such a low mileage, excellent condition, SoCal truck (no rust) like this? And its got 2 years left before its out of CARB compliance.

 

Yup, sleeper too. I'm going to put it on a local run to start making some money and look at doing a resto down the road.

 

I have thought about doing the air lines, any rubber that looks too old, belts and checking the wiring for any that looked dry and cracked.

Good question on the fuel in the pumps. I'll have to find out unless anyone here has had experience with that and could say. I'm not worried about the emissions requirements yet other than the smoke opacity test.