Lost and found usually means lost forever for your high school vehicle.
There are many reasons for that outcome, but one of the biggest is this–life moves on and gets more complicated, so you sell it.
That’s how the first chapter played out for this 1981 GMC High Sierra.
Jerry Sutherland
Brent Moore loved this truck, but when he moved to Alberta, he found out it wouldn’t pass a safety inspection. The truck was lifted past the point where it would qualify for a clean report, so Brent had to sell it.
That was an outcome he never accepted, so he went on a 15-year search for his old truck A buddy of Brent’s found it ten years ago but was kicked off the property, but at least Brent knew it was still around.
He tracked it down about three years ago to an isolated place where it was rotting in the bush. He described it as “100% dog$@#*” when he found it, but Brent knew it was his old truck because of a specific decal in the rear window.
Brent evaluated the truck and learned he needed new floors, cab corners and truck bed sides, but the floor in the bed was fine. There was no parts hunt because these trucks have a massive catalogue of parts, so sourcing the pieces was easy.
He wanted to upgrade the power train in the GMC, so he found a donor 5.3 LS in a 2005 Chevy truck. Brent wanted the reliability of the new tech engine because this truck is going to be a road warrior—not a trailer queen.
He did retain the Muncie 4-speed with the farmer gears, but he swapped the rear end to a highway-friendly 3:42 ratio to handle the 300 horses at the rear wheel.
Brent learned more about his truck when he rolled into a car show and a guy started yelling, “That’s my truck!”. He learned the guy was the original owner and he worked for the dealer that sold it. They gave him a friendly installment plan, and suddenly the kid owned a brand new 1981 Chevy truck.
The first owner explained how he was once stopped by the police in Spokane, Washington with a bunch of girls and his buddies in the back sitting on a picnic bench drinking beer. He couldn’t believe the truck of his misspent youth was still around.
Another guy told him the truck was a rare Sundial version of the ’81 Sierra because of the dual sunroofs, but the original owner explained how he bought the kit and installed it himself. Nevertheless, even the kit forms are rare—right down to the velour red seats.
Brent explained how he did all the work on the restoration, except for the paint because he “knows his limitations”. He did the truck in one year—that’s an amazing feat because this is a mint truck, it gets 17 mpg and it drives like a dream machine.
Brent has a simple plan for his high school truck—put some miles on it. That’s the best plan in the world for an old high school friend.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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