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Thinking about buying a K5 as first car. Reccomendations & advice?

I had a k5 as my first vehicle and I loved it. That being said, I still lived at home and mom and dad would let me take their car's if needed. I did learn a lot from it, and it has given me the passion to keep building square body trucks.
 
Talk about a loaded question. I am a high school level auto tech teacher and get asked this just about daily. I always reply with what do you want the vehicle to do? I normally get a shrug. Then I suggest a manual shift Accord, Camry, single cab 4 cylinder truck such as a Tacoma, Ranger or B2300's. Which gets me told those vehicles aren't what they are looking for. I tell them to figure out what they want the vehicle to do and get back to me with a budget too.

All that being written, I have an 18 year old son, 5 M1009's and 4 square body Suburbans. Only 2 of each being used daily. The rest are sitting in my field. My own "parts depot" in other words.

My son when he was 13 took one of the parts M1009 trucks apart, redid all the wiring, new everything on the brakes and suspension. Along with paint and interior redo. He worked pretty much daily on some part of the truck for almost 3 years. He was able to take his driving test in it and has daily driven it ever since. Almost 14,000 miles now. He will drive it to college in the fall.

We use the parts depot every so often and buy new parts for anything critical or normal wear. I really don't think jumping into one of these trucks without a supporting money, experience or parts stream is a good idea.

But, if you go for it. You will get a lifetime learning experience.
 
My first DD was 32 years old and I loved it. I sold my k5 square body, when my daughter turned 16 and got her a '95 2 door Tahoe. She drove it everywhere and anywhere. But if you like the k5, why not. But look for something that hasn't been hacked up. If you don't like the idea of 13 mpg, I got 12 anywhere I went. But a friend had one with a diesel and he said he was getting around 20mpg. I think the k5's are great vehicles. Anything you buy unless it's new, your going to need to work on! Carbs aren't going to get you as good as gas mileage as Throttle Bodies or Tune Port Injection. But a good backyard mechanic can keep a Carb vehicle running great. Closer to stock is going to be less abused.

I would talk to your folks and see what they think of your thought of a vehicle. Have them go with you and have them give you thumbs up or down on the ones you look at. After you get a thumbs up from your folks, pay a mechanic put it on a lift and have him look it over before you buy anything. he can check for leaks and warn out parts, check the brakes and steering, he'll give you an idea of what your getting into.

I would suggest you take auto shop in school. And stay in it all the way
 
buy a bone stock civic to be your dd that is not hacked up or riced out and then get a K5 to learn and have fun!
 
I agree with most of the guys here ,get a bone stock reliable driver first,and then a k5 for a toy,if you do the k5,it will take a bit to make it reliable ,but it can be done,especially a tbi truck,very simple and reliable once you understand it,the other thing I see as a negative for a young person is these k5 are not the most economical vehicles to keep running,and need constant tinkering,in which case the good reliable simple daily driver would be needed anyways,and way cheaper to run on a daily basis
 
The newest squarebody you'll find is 25 years old today. Buying one that's been put back to original performance and reliability will cost you 5 figures up-front. I keep mine running with a steady paycheck, a good accumulation of tools, and beer...none of which you likely have.

But you do have good taste.

Gawdammit...I'm old...:doah:
 
I think the way to do it is to buy a more modern vehicle as a DD and find a K5 you can wrench on and enjoy. I grew up loving cars and had a lot more interest (and eventual knowledge) than my biologist father ever had. My parents insisted that I have a newer vehicle rather than the vintage iron I wanted. It made a good tow rig for all the junk I drug home . Get a job, buy something fun that you can learn on and don't worry what the neighbors think when you come home with a 74 Duster with a slant six under the hood and a 440 in the trunk. I always had something cool and fun to work on but the practical DD was always there and appreciated. The older stuff is awesome but you'll lose your love for it if it's a constant hassle. It's much more fun to work on something on your schedule and when it's not necessity.

I'm currently daily driving my 87 but would have probably become incredibly frustrated and ruined the truck as a first vehicle.
 
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