I had what turned out to be a relatively strange truck purchase about 6 weeks ago and I bet there are other weird, strange, silly or outright goofy truck purchase stories had by other Fte'rs. This is mine, feel free to add yours.

I saw a 79 F350 sandwich truck on kijiji (means village in swahilli) and it was for sale at $700. At the time I was busy arranging a pair of evictions for my landlady Minna and didn't have time to chase it down so I put it on my watch list. I had the money to buy it and I also had $383 left on a grant that reimburses me for tool purchases. Seeing as a motor is an air pump I was going to write it up as a compressor and get some money back on it that way and get the people underwritting the grant off my back. We got our eviction justification and served notice. I now had the time to work on my portable structure shop in order to make room for the truck. Between the time I first seen the truck and the time I was ready for it the price had dropped to $325. The tennants moved out and I had to do the furniture and garbage cleanup so I got delayed a couple of days. As I did the furniture breakdown I kept coming across change in the dresser drawers and in the second suite there was a 2 lb coffee can full of pennies.

The suites are clean, I'm sore and tired, I have including my change can almost 2 coffee cans full of change. Minna drops by to give me a ride to the bank as shes going there to. I grab my crutches (I'm sore) my o2 bottle and the 2 cans of change and off to the bank we go. I go to the change deposit machine, she goes to the teller, she gets done and walks back to me. She sees some guy walk into the bank with a can of change and she starts fawning over me like I'm a borderline invalid. Before I get a chance to open my pie hole she starts talking to the guy with the can of change who is now standing behind me realizing that I'm going to be there for the next hour. She starts telling him a pity story about how the Government isnt covering my o2 anymore but they have enough money to fly all over hells half acre on our nickel. To get out of there he tells her it's the kids change, he'll put $50,60 in thier account, puts the can on the machine and says keep it you need it more than them. In the course of the next hour 4 people throw thier change in the damn can, everytime it happens I get closer to busting my gut. $318. later I'm done, throw the cans in the garbage and head home, get in my truck and head off to buy new truck.

The numbers, $383 + $318 - $325 = $376 ahead. So in theory I got paid $376 to buy the following truck. 79 F350 srw custom cab, 351 c6, ugly as hell, tires are cracked on side walls but it runs like a charm and I get to sell the aluminium to the recycler to help offset the cost of a 24' long 6" I beam for my portable structure shop.

 

tires musta been real ugly that the camera wouldn't focus :P

 

That's an awesome story. And I would like to see some better pics.

 

I'll try it again with the pics, I'm using my phone and it seems like every pic has more glare thanthe last. Those pics were taken 3 weeks ago, the ones I took last night are all glare and you cant see anything. The truck gets broken down today so that I can use it as a flat deck.

 

joy of smart phones. darn things get prints on the lense super easy.

 

Get some more change to buy a better camera.

 

did you take the protective film off the camera lens?

 

Cool story! I have one but its not as interesting.. My dad has a love for dents and I was showing his some super cabs. So we were talking about how awesome it would be to own one considering me and him have never even laid eyes on one.. Anyways the NEXT day I had to take a trip to mobile al to help a friend move and I spotted the old girl, a 351m c6 78 f250 supercab 2wd.. I called him about it and he rushed out of court (hes an attorney ) and he said find the owner!! We drove it home that night lol.. that is one reliable truck!

 

I have the feeling that the lens on my phone is really scratched up bad so that may be the problem. Theres an old toothpaste trick for polishing plastics and taking white heat spots out of table tops that I'm going to try. Theres another year on my phone plan and then I can get another one for free, not paying $350 - 500 for a phone, I'll buy a camera instead. Truck box is mostly broken down, fair amount of metal framing on box, will save work converting to flatdeck/work truck. Lots of aluminium but not much wieght, probably more weight in the stainless steel, quite a bit of salvage and reuseable stuff on it.

 

potato quality photos! ... of a sandvich truck

Are you converting the box into a flat deck? or ripping the box off and building another deck?

It's 2 wheel drive, but is better being built than crushed

edit: try some rubbing compound after the toofpaste trick and/or head to a lens or glasses place and see if they have any lens polish. might be able to re-vive the functionality of your phone. if that doesn't work you might have gook inside the phone which would be a freaking pain to disassemble and repair.

 

Yeah my lens is scratched all to hell, was experimenting on putting camera on selfie mode and kept taking pics of my speakers until I learned how to get a centered shot. Curse of having the phone in the shop, if it's in the pocket it falls out and breaks.

So anyway the truck has a really good metal frame both for a deck and a box and cage work truck, so I'm thing about the box and cage. All the stainless and aluminum is off, got slowed down doing small cleanup job. It snowed up here a month early and there was a lot of tree damage, made $130 for 4 hours work and letting the neighbours put thier branches in my other truck. Tommorrow I take the load to the dump as theres no charge, everyone is doing thier fall trimmings and loading my truck I only live 3 miles from the dump so I can get back and do my metal run, theres not much weight but I'm pricing out a 24' x 6" I beam for my shop project anyway so it may off set the cost. I'm starting to build a gantry crane system to make my life easy, truck is filler project for now. I've got a couple projects on the go and they are starting to get wrapped up, then I can get back to the trucks full time, my new job.

The motor is a 351 and lacks power for pulling a trailer or a heavy load so it's getting pulled. I have a 400 that a jag hole and his friends wrecked because he owes me money. I'm pulling the crank, rods, pistons from the 400 and the torque from this truck and installing the 400 block in it, might bolt on heads and intake for weight. The windshield is new so I'll pull it and put it in my dd and put a chipped window in this truck. Anything I want to keep I'm stripping out and then it gets full insurance including glass, fire and vandalism. A pay me the money you owe me jagwad sign goes in back, the box gets welded shut so that no one can vandalize sign and then I hook up my tow bar and park it in front of his house. It will stay there until the motor is rebuilt. The motor gets a slight over bore, a rise in compression, 262 cam, lifter and spring kit, carb and manifold and hopefully a set of headers. When the motor is done the truck comes home unless he pays me, then it comes home sooner if I'm in a good mood. Motor should take 4 - 6 weeks start to finish, if I'm not paid it goes into my other truck as I have a spare set of 351/400 motor mounts and I rebuild my 390 to above specs.

In the meantime I'll be looking for a dentside van for parts and that will get broken down and my retirement project comes out of retirement.

 

Took the aluminum and stainless steel in to the recycler today. Got .45 a lb for the aluminum and .55 a lb for the stainless, got $190 but put 20 in the truck for gas so I'm $170 ahead. To bad thats the end of the cash up on the truck from now on I guess I'm spending, damn I hate that part. Salvaged one of the cooler rads so I think I'll was it out with varsol a couple of times and blow it out with the compressor and put it on the shelf in case I decide I need a really big trany cooler. Got to keep the propane box and vented door, its rigged up to hold 2 40 lb tanks, someone kept the plumbing from it. I'm on the hunt for a 5th wheel rv for cheap and this gives me 1 more discount option. I'm not as cheap as I sound, I'm just frugal as hell and on a "fixed income".

Truck goes on the back burner for a week or so while I do some more winterising on the shop. There was'nt a lot of insulation in it but just enough to be in the way and I needed it anyway. I also need to start on my gantry system as my landlord and home owner leave for germany in a week. I would be the tennant from hell but I do the property maintenance for thier 3 duplex's and thier glad that the operational costs have gone down since the last property manager got fired. These places were part of the make work program for his brother in law. Been here over 5 years and the neighbours think I own the place, kinda treat it like I do. Going to the auction this weekend as they have some new cameras, no more scratched phone lense, plus they have some EZ Rect shelving up for grabs. My addiction for the last 30 years has been auctions, good place to shop if you walk in with your eyes open and know whats crap and whats not. Also helps to keep your ears open and clean and your card low.

 

looks like your camera has cataracts

 

Workbench and phone don't mix, doh!!!

 

so is she a runner? said it had sat for awhile