Need the 620 Lowdown

[Johnbalz]

Hi all, I'm new here to these forums. I have been a long time car/motorcycle/jet-ski nut my while life and have built several cars over the years, always American though. I spent many years working as a mechanic in a past life and I have found myself drawn to these 620 pickups. If anyone can point me to a good thread or site that can give me the lowdown on these things I would really appreciate it. Just looking for stuff like what years to avoid/look for, what engines were in what years (and what are the pros/cons of each), long bed vs. short bed opinions and toher general info etc.

I have a great opportunity to buy a '77 long bed with 91k original miles, but I'm a little concerned with smog issues since I am from California. I'm also not sure about the long bed, I've always had short bed trucks.

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to spend some time reading through old threads to try to educate myself.

[DatDoug]

620's are bad-ass! You already know that :) Longbeds are cool, especially if you are going to be using them for work. Of course the shortys look cooler IMHO. Butr the longbeds can look cool dumped with some wide deepdish rims & tires. (check-out 79D50's truck) Of course the KingCabs are the ultimate 620. Especially if your over 6' tall. Its nice having that extra space to lean the buckets back & to put big speakers.

 

KC's are harder to come by tho.

 

As for the years, they are all cool. My fav is the 73 because they have the best looking fender emblem. 78-79's came with electronic ignition & front disc brakes. But you can get disc-brake conversion kits for the drums & they use way better brakes than the stock 78-79's.

 

The best thing to do is to look @ the thousands of pics on here to get a sense of what you will like best.

 

Happy Hun ting

[Johnbalz]

Thanks for the quick reply Doug! Yeah I'm leaning towards the short bed for looks and the KC if I could find it. I'm only 5'7" but I have had a lot of full sized trucks and I had a standard cab Toyota for a bit, believe it or not I felt really cramped in that thing. I guess I'm just used to the full size, but then again I've always had 4x4's and this is a different animal all together.

Any insight as if to these things have trouble passing smog in CA? I'm just trying to decide if I'm better off sticking to '75 and below or if I can expand my search into the '76 and up models.

I've been looking at tons of pics on this site and I really think I would love the SB KC, but in searching Craigslist throughout the country and Ebay I'm disappointed at how few of these are out there, I guess I just have to wait for the right one to pop up.

[]2eDeYe]

You should be ok for smog as long as all the original equipment is still there and functioning. If it's already a CA truck and currently registered, that should give you at least a good idea if it has passed recently.

 

I would say that I have seen more Kingcabs than long beds, but that might be because I already have a couple Kingcab trucks.

 

Makke sure to check the floors to see if they are solid.

 

Good luck in your search.

[Johnbalz]

2eDeYe' timestamp='1335795211' post='678366']

You should be ok for smog as long as all the original equipment is still there and functioning. If it's already a CA truck and currently registered, that should give you at least a good idea if it has passed recently.

 

I would say that I have seen more Kingcabs than long beds, but that might be because I already have a couple Kingcab trucks.

 

Makke sure to check the floors to see if they are solid.

 

Good luck in your search.

 

Thank you for the info. Yeah I may go take a look at this long bed today, it is a '77, second owner, 91k original miles and it looks SUPER clean according to the pictures and he's asking $2,500.00 OBO. I think it may be worth taking a look at.

[K_trip]

$2,500 isn't bad, espcially if it's super clean and well cared for, but they are out there for less.

 

Personally I would stick to 1975 and older, just to avoid the smog. A lot of the EGR stuff rusts away, long before floor boards around here.

Getting the parts isn't easy, between folks throwing it away years ago or letting it rot. Each year is a little different, which makes repairs a pain.

I'm not against having smog equip ... I hate the inspections. Even if you're running cleaner than the sniffer requires, you can fail a smog test.

 

So - I bough a 1974 short bed standard cab. I'm 5' 9" and 160 lbs and with the stock bench seat I find the cab a nice fit.

There is a good reason a 620 truck rocks! I'm loving how easy it is to work on, parts are cheap, and it's great on gas!