Stolen truck found after 30 years

[hack_man]

Wonder if I can put back my old plate?

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[goldpack]

Wonder if I can put back my old plate?

You must be registered for see images attach

too early....(I see you got that inspection tab sticker there from
February 73,...before they inverted the colors)

Vehicle registration plates of New York - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[hack_man]

Thanks for that info! Wikipedia has it all.

That plate was last seen on a '73 Mercury Monterey. I think My truck had the inverted colored plate.
Good to know NY won't be picky about the smog pump. I've also had good luck in MA with emisisons on that truck, they stopped checking after the truck was 15 years old.

 

[elcamman50]

As Redfish stated. It would probably cost considerably more money and WAY more time to try and find all original parts. I would LS swap it. Less time, probably less money, and you get 20+mpg.

In California, all vehicles from 1976 on have to have the original type of engine that came from the factory with all emissions equipment in operating condition. If an original type of engine cannot be found, a substitute that is that is comparable to the original can be substituted. Still, it must have all of the original emissions equipment that came from the factory that year. I am sure a regular 350 small block can be found for a reasonable price here in California. When mine finally gave out in 2007, I found one in a Pick a Part that I purchased and had overhauled. No problems with the smog check. My 1979, C10, Big 10, Short Bed still has all its original emissions equipment, except for a few Catalytic Converters over the years. I do not think the 85 had the Vortex heads yet and was it still a Carb or TBI by then?

 

[Ricko1966]

No vortec until 96 no tbi until 87.

 

[Bextreme04]

Depending on what emissions items are missing, it shouldn't be too hard to put a CARB compliant intake, exhaust, and carb on it. AIR pump and other items could be pretty hard to come by though.

 

[elcamman50]

There are smog exempt counties in Nevada and Arizona as well. And if you can get it registered and insured out of state, you are going to be paying less than California rates. Probably a LOT less. Just make sure that you keep up to date on the registration/insurance so that CHP will have less reasons to harass you.

I live in San Diego County and have a CHP officer living in my neighborhood. He has told me they are going after people who have the Montana, South Dakota and Vermont tags on their cars. Vermont has recently, I have been told, stopped selling the Vermont titles and plates. What he told me, was that if you are in the military, then it is okay to have out of state plates, but if you driver's license is from California and you are a resident of California, your vehicle has to be registered in California. He said they are going to start aggressively pursuing these people. Just a wait and see, I guess.

 

[Ricko1966]

I've been stopped in Kansas for having the wrong Kansas County tag on my car when I moved down here. I was going to wait until tags expired to register in Linn County, but got pulled over and warned. You have 30 days from the time you change your residence to register in your county.

 

[SpeedRacer350]

My Dad also had an '85 that was stolen in '96 when I drove it to my job at a restaurant in Kansas City.

Also, as a CA resident that has a 87 Camaro that I have never been able to register, CA smog is no joke. There's no easy way around it.

 

[hack_man]

We rust belters have the opposite problem. They are lenient on smog testing but the salt kills them. In CA they last forever but the smog requirements kill them.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Depending on what emissions items are missing, it shouldn't be too hard to put a CARB compliant intake, exhaust, and carb on it. AIR pump and other items could be pretty hard to come by though.

It's not so easy. Especially the half-tons, because they have more stringent requirements. Without the factory stickers one doesn't know what was installed at the factory, the hose routing, etc.

I sold my dad's '79 Sierra Grande 4x4 to my middle brother in the early 2000s. Dad passed in '96 and had removed the original smog equipment at some point, but we lived in non-test county. Oldest brother threw away all the smog equipment when cleaning out the shed. About 3-4 years ago middle brother asked if I wanted to buy back the truck. I declined because I knew I would not be able to locate the factory equipment that was removed and it would never pass. He lives in NV and doesn't have to pass emissions where he lives.

That's why I told the OP to sell it out of state, or register it out of state. Unfortunately, registering out of state has its own set of problems.

To me, it's been gone 30 years, selling it makes the most sense

 

[DoubleDingo]

My Dad also had an '85 that was stolen in '96 when I drove it to my job at a restaurant in Kansas City.

Also, as a CA resident that has a 87 Camaro that I have never been able to register, CA smog is no joke. There's no easy way around it.

This is partly why I don't want to sell my '81 C20, it has all the factory equipment, which is minimal, and it's easy to smog as long as it's been ran for close to an hour before going in. The second part of not wanting to sell the C20 is it's a long bed with stock suspension and I don't want it to be hacked up into a squatty short bed. It's a truck, not a race car.

 

[Bextreme04]

It's not so easy. Especially the half-tons, because they have more stringent requirements. Without the factory stickers one doesn't know what was installed at the factory, the hose routing, etc.

I sold my dad's '79 Sierra Grande 4x4 to my middle brother in the early 2000s. Dad passed in '96 and had removed the original smog equipment at some point, but we lived in non-test county. Oldest brother threw away all the smog equipment when cleaning out the shed. About 3-4 years ago middle brother asked if I wanted to buy back the truck. I declined because I knew I would not be able to locate the factory equipment that was removed and it would never pass. He lives in NV and doesn't have to pass emissions where he lives.

That's why I told the OP to sell it out of state, or register it out of state. Unfortunately, registering out of state has its own set of problems.

To me, it's been gone 30 years, selling it makes the most sense

Thats why I said depending on what is missing. Personally I'm not scared by an LS swap and it isn't that complicated. You could do an easy swap to a Gen III from a same emissions category early 2000's truck/SUV pretty easily. Even easier would be a GMT400 L31 swap. Buy a trashed 96-99 GMT-400 and take the whole drivetrain. Swap the tanks to 87 EFI tanks and EP381 pump. Those year GMT-400's didn't have a sealed fuel tank with a pressure sensor, so no need to do any of that, just plumb the fuel vent/purge lines from the GMT-400 and swap the engine/trans/ecu straight over.

He doesn't say if it is 1/2, 3/4, 1 ton... but 85 would have been round pattern on the 4x4, so it's a direct swap to a modern drivetrain while keeping the factory transfer case. If it is a 350/700R4/NP208... it's a direct swap in every way for a modern 350/4L60e/NP231 from a 96-99 1500/Tahoe/Suburban. Same overall length, same motor mounts, same splines on the T-case.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Thats why I said depending on what is missing. Personally I'm not scared by an LS swap and it isn't that complicated. You could do an easy swap to a Gen III from a same emissions category early 2000's truck/SUV pretty easily. Even easier would be a GMT400 L31 swap. Buy a trashed 96-99 GMT-400 and take the whole drivetrain. Swap the tanks to 87 EFI tanks and EP381 pump. Those year GMT-400's didn't have a sealed fuel tank with a pressure sensor, so no need to do any of that, just plumb the fuel vent/purge lines from the GMT-400 and swap the engine/trans/ecu straight over.

He doesn't say if it is 1/2, 3/4, 1 ton... but 85 would have been round pattern on the 4x4, so it's a direct swap to a modern drivetrain while keeping the factory transfer case. If it is a 350/700R4/NP208... it's a direct swap in every way for a modern 350/4L60e/NP231 from a 96-99 1500/Tahoe/Suburban. Same overall length, same motor mounts, same splines on the T-case.

You're not in CA either. It's a whole different animal with the strict regulations. If it were a pre-75 rig I would definitely say do whatever, but even then, if I recall correctly you still have to pass to get it registered, so there we fall back to having factory installed components, whether to pass as an original setup or having all of the modern bits and pieces which is even more stringent than the old stuff, just more readily available.

 

[Terlingueno]

You're not in CA either. It's a whole different animal with the strict regulations. If it were a pre-75 rig I would definitely say do whatever, but even then, if I recall correctly you still have to pass to get it registered, so there we fall back to having factory installed components, whether to pass as an original setup or having all of the modern bits and pieces which is even more stringent than the old stuff, just more readily available.

Yep. When was I transferred to Death Valley, it took three separate, 280 mile round trips trips to Bishop and back to the test place (fortunately the test guy stopped the test because he knew it wouldn't pass the first two times), all new vacuum hoses, PCV valve, EGR valve, plugs, wires, rotor, cap, carb adjustments, and setting timing to precisely what is on the underhood sticker to pass. Not fun...