Early last month, I saw this Craigslist ad and called on it right away.

I spoke to a nice-sounding man named James, and asked him about the truck. He told me that he had only had the truck for about two months, bought with making a tow truck in mind, but decided against tearing up such a good truck.

He said he bought it off the original owner who purchased it new in Barstow...it had been sitting for quite a while. It was running, but it had been sitting for at least 8 years and the tanks would need to be cleaned out.

I asked if it was rusty or had damage not shown in the lousy pic, and he said it was a basically rust-free California vehicle that had never been in a wreck. It had a few bumps and scrapes but nothing bad, the paint was faded, interior pretty good. I asked him to send me some additional pics, and he texted me about five or six pics of the things I wanted to see on it. I texted him back, thanking him and that I would be in touch.

The next morning, I was thinking about this truck, and how perfect it would be for my '76 Airstream, also bought off Craigslist, and called James back. I asked a few more questions about the truck, and told him I would take it. I didn't even dicker on the price. I liked what I heard, I liked what I saw, and I knew in my gut that this was a real find.

I sent him the money, and the truck was mine, but how to get it from Barstow to Dallas? I could easily fly out there (I work for an airline), but didn't want to chance damaging the truck before I could really go through things on it. Plus, it has old dry-rotted 16.5" tires on it...wasn't sure what direction to go in there.

I decided to get on uShip and see about a transporter to bring this beast to me. I will spare you all the lengthy details on that, but a month and a half later, my new 1977 F-350 arrived!







David

 

Congrats ! Nice truck .. Now the fun begins

 

Congrats on being that brave to do that, she looks like a beauty.

 

Congrats on the purchase, how's the condition now looking at it in person?
Even the most honest sellers will omit some detail that you don't notice until the truck is home, and being played with.

 

Great looking truck. Glad to hear it worked out; agreed that it's rather brave, especially with all the warnings plastered on Craigslist about sending money. But not everyone out there is looking to scam people.

 

Thanks guys! Red, that's exactly what I did when I got this mystery truck home!

I will post more pics later, but I'm having a little trouble with the sizing of my pics displayed. I will experiment with my Photobucket settings late this evening and show lots more of my new toy.

David

 

How much did you end up paying for shipping? And how long did it take?
I may be moving to Dallas

 

Congrats. That is a nice looking truck.

I did the same thing last month from a post on oldfordcrewcabs. Bought a crew cab from a guy in Seattle sight unseen and had it shipped up to AK. That transaction went very smooth. I sent him a cashiers check and he got the truck and title over to the Seatac port.
Then last week I bought a very nice SC off a craigslist ad in Montana. This one I did have a good friend go look at, so I was not as nervous buying it without looking at it.

 

I ended up paying $1100 to have it shipped. I debated on going to Barstow and driving it back, but just didn't couldn't get away, and didn't think the truck was up to it just yet. I made the right call.

But I actually had contracted with one transporter, actually a broker, and got the bait and switch, so I cancelled and went with someone else. For that one, I used uShip, and they bid on the job. I made the deal on 4/8/14, and it arrived yesterday, so it required lots of patience.

If you move to Dallas, let me know and we will get together.

David

 

Congrats on the nice score. The transportation cost is way cheaper than fixing a truck you don't want to fix. I paid a little more than that to get a desert truck from LA to Vancouver but it was worth it - cab mounts, rad support, floors, cross sill etc...
Eric

 

Some pics of my truck as it was offloaded.









David

 

I was able to drive it home, slowly and carefully.











David

 

really nice David ! It looks like it is all there including the factory A/C .. Sweet Truck

 

Not sure why there are these eight holes drilled on the cowl, and unfortunately there are eight more on the RH side.












David

 

You scored yourself a beautiful truck there!

The underside and frame is cleaner than many 5 year old trucks up in my neck of the woods.

What are your plans for the truck? Full new paint and resto or just fix up and drive as is?

Either way, that is gonna be a nice truck once you get some new tires on it and tidy up a few things....