Any other 16 17 18 year old members out there.

[k1500 97]

There aren’t that many OBS chevys in my high school parking lot. I’d say the NBS trucks are more common for the kids our age

There's one in the local high-school lot. I'm home schooled so I'm not there to.

 

[k1500 97]

Yep I'm 16, not too many younger people with a passion for these trucks but I'm grateful for the few

Yessir.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

I was 17 when I got the truck and joined the forum. I'm 30 now though lol so I'm not sure it counts.

 

[k1500 97]

I was 17 when I got the truck and joined the forum. I'm 30 now though lol so I'm not sure it counts.

Why not. Everyone is welcome. Just wanna see how many young ones out there. I'm starting to feel like there's more and more of us.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

Why not. Everyone is welcome. Just wanna see how many young ones out there. I'm starting to feel like there's more and more of us.

Well when I was really little my dad got a lightly used 92 K1500 (only a couple years old at the time) to replace his 84 that got stolen. I grew up riding around in that 92, lots of memories of going camping and hunting with dad and grandpa in that truck. I always knew I wanted one when I was old enough and I got one as my first car. I shopped for months to find just the right one and found it while out of town visiting the family for Christmas. Pure luck and perfect timing. The guys I bought it from were hungover when we met the morning after Christmas and I was able to talk them down a bit and got it under Blue Book.

It was perfect, optioned out exactly as I would have done it if I had a time machine to go back to 1998 and order it new. It's still my DD today, I got it at 62k miles and now it's over 200k, and I have 3x as much money in modifications and major repairs than I originally bought it for.

Now I have it built up exactly the way I imagined it as a kid, and all I do these days is fix all the stupid little things that pop up around this age/mileage and pay too much for gas!

I'm considering buying something newer and smaller to DD so the truck can have a break and get the TLC it needs. I'll never sell it though, it'll always be worth fixing.

Long story short, as long as kids keep seeing these trucks around and growing up with them, some of them will be into them as teenagers.

 

[tybcr783]

There aren’t that many OBS chevys in my high school parking lot. I’d say the NBS trucks are more common for the kids our age

Currently at mine there's about six I believe, I also got a electrical class and three of us in there got OBS's, two Chevys and a GMC

 

[tybcr783]

Also this is a great thread btw
Shout out to @k1500 97 for starting it

 

[Road Trip]

I'm at the other end of the time line but it really encourages me that there are still young guys that are interested in getting their hands dirty and knuckles scraped keeping these trucks going. I have 2 grown sons and neither of them had the slightest interest in my truck, but my 8 year old grandson, whom I am raising, can't get enough of it. He is already talking about me teaching him to drive it and loves riding shotgun every chance he gets. It's funny when we are out on the road and he is sitting up in his booster seat with his arm resting on the window sill it looks to other cars like he is driving because we drive on the right hand side down here. It also gives us older guys some satisfaction in passing on the knowledge that we have acquired during all those years working away in our sheds. You have to remember we didn't have google to find out how to it was supposed to go back together, it was the combined knowledge of a bunch of car guys standing around throwing ideas around until something made sense and gave it a go. Always remember, an old car guy is just a young car gut with lost of experience, so ask all you can while we are still here to pass it on. I hope you all have as much fun as we have.

Greetings to the Next Generation of GMT400 enthusiasts. GrimsterGMC summed up my situation
better than I could have, especially the part about the satisfaction of passing on the hard-won
knowledge about making something reliable enough that a high percentage of the time when your
truck leaves the driveway...it returns under it's own power. :0)

If you find yourself as a teen who's a little off the beaten path because you *choose* to work
on your own stuff, Good! Way back when I was in the same boat, my motivation was three-fold:
1) I was genuinely interested in how stuff worked and why they made it the way they did,
2) I didn't have enough money growing up to pay someone else to fix my stuff, and
3) whatever I happened to be driving, if something similar pulled up next to me at the light and
the driver was chill, great, friendly wave, we're all set! But if they looked over & down their nose
at my budget ride? I simply wanted to be first among equals, if you know what I mean.

For what it's worth, here's a handful of photos from the late '70s when *I* was a teen working
on my first 454, helping a buddy fixing up a used '73 C20 that he had just bought. (Camper Special)

NOTE: Some well-intentioned folks back in the day thought that I wasn't making the best use of
my time & energy. Actually, learning the art of troubleshooting & fixing things in the fewest
number of moves is a super valuable skill set that will set you apart from the others.

Me, working in the engine bay as a teen eventually led to working in raised floor computer rooms (civilian)
and Avionics on the military flightline. Always felt like I was drinking from the fire hose of
technology...and thanks to listening to/watching/questioning my elders I always felt like it gave
me an advantage over my peers who didn't pay any attention to all the amazing repair/upgrade
projects going on all around them.

In summary, if you choose to do for a living what you enjoy most, then you will never 'work' a day in your life.
But be careful, it all goes by very quickly...and only accelerates as you get older. Me? I'm 100%
convinced that there is way more for me to learn than the time left to do so. (!) But still way better
than trudging through a boring existence.

Congratulations -- Make it so!

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

There aren’t that many OBS chevys in my high school parking lot. I’d say the NBS trucks are more common for the kids our age

The NBS might be a little cheaper, and of course they have the LS swap already done LoL.
But for my experience the OBS/400 are better trucks. And I'm not just saying that because I'm on the 400 forum, I felt that way before I knew about this community!

 

[k1500 97]

Greetings to the Next Generation of GMT400 enthusiasts. GrimsterGMC summed up my situation
better than I could have, especially the part about the satisfaction of passing on the hard-won
knowledge about making something reliable enough that a high percentage of the time when your
truck leaves the driveway...it returns under it's own power. :0)

If you find yourself as a teen who's a little off the beaten path because you *choose* to work
on your own stuff, Good! Way back when I was in the same boat, my motivation was three-fold:
1) I was genuinely interested in how stuff worked and why they made it the way they did,
2) I didn't have enough money growing up to pay someone else to fix my stuff, and
3) whatever I happened to be driving, if something similar pulled up next to me at the light and
the driver was chill, great, friendly wave, we're all set! But if they looked over & down their nose
at my budget ride? I simply wanted to be first among equals, if you know what I mean.

For what it's worth, here's a handful of photos from the late '70s when *I* was a teen working
on my first 454, helping a buddy fixing up a used '73 C20 that he had just bought. (Camper Special)

NOTE: Some well-intentioned folks back in the day thought that I wasn't making the best use of
my time & energy. Actually, learning the art of troubleshooting & fixing things in the fewest
number of moves is a super valuable skill set that will set you apart from the others.

Me, working in the engine bay eventually led to working in raised floor computer rooms (civilian)
and Avionics on the military flightline. Always felt like I was drinking from the fire hose of
technology...and thanks to listening to/watching/questioning my elders I always felt like it gave
me an advantage over my peers who didn't pay any attention to all the amazing repair/upgrade
projects going on all around them.

In summary, if you choose to do for a living what you enjoy most, then you will never 'work' a day in your life.
But be careful, it all goes by very quickly...and only accelerates as you get older. Me? I'm 100%
convinced that there is way more for me to learn than the time left to do so. (!) But way better
than trudging through a boring existence.

Congratulations -- Make it so!

That's a awsome post. Thank you