Be patient something will come along that's worth buying

 

Don't rush. Decide what type of truck you really want (year, size, modifications, etc) and what you can afford to pay. Wait until a decent truck fitting your requirements comes up. If it isn't in your area, ask someone on this forum to take a look at it for you. We love to look at old trucks, even better if there is no risk of buying it ourselves...

I have desired a 48-50 F-2 since the late 90s. I bought one I could afford in the early 2000s. It had some rough rust repair but was the best I could afford at the time. I finally realized it wasn't what I wanted and sold it. I bought a different F-2 years later out of Minnesota that is almost exactly what I want. The wait was worth it for me.

 

i think 38 said it best: to paraphrase, don't settle for less than something you REALLY want. These projects take a long time, requiring a lot of work and dedication to bring to completion. If you compromise you'll soon start becoming disenchanted with your truck, wishing it was something else, and it will eventually languish and die.

 

I'd bet there is more than several coats of paint under that red. Someone put a band aid on that truck just to sell it. It might be a good project but you'd have to offer a lot less for the asking price.

 

This looks good, in the pictures anyway... maybe too far from you?

1951 FORD F1

 

That is a nice looking truck. I'm actually looking for the 53-55 and 56 bodystyle. I'd love to have a 56 but I'm not dead set on it. The truck I first fell in love with when I was a kid was a 55. I'm not looking to build a truck to trailer to car shows and only bring out of the garage when a couple times a summer. I'm looking to build/buy a driver. I plan to drive it as much as possible around locally. One that's fairly nice as is but I can make improvements on over time while driving it.

 

Good thing about the 53-55 is you can make it a 56 by swapping the cab. That is a nice F1, It's not what you want, but it can be used as a good benchmark for price on a good, solid, driving truck.

 

I would say that it is all about price. The underbody looks pretty clean from those few pictures - surface rust. My F2 came out of Minnesota so it was pretty bad as you can see from the pictures. But, as the second picture shows, everything is repairable with a little bit of elbow grease . . . and good advice from your friends here on FTE.





If it starts and runs OK I would go back to the owner with a low price of $3,500 explaining that to do the truck the way you want you would have to strip off the lipstick red paint and that you can see some spots where the paint was put overtop of rust. If you can get it for under $5K based upon the pix that you provided it might be worth it IMHO.

 

There are folks that will go out of there way to tell a buyer everything about the Item that they are selling, good and bad. Then there are the guys that try to get over and hide things, and then boast to there buddies how much they got over on the guy that they sold it to. Personally, I would not touch that truck. There are some pretty decent trucks around for that price. Best of luck finding the right truck for you, and welcome to the best site for these trucks on the net.

 

Thanks for the advice petemcl. I'm not afraid of some work. It just seems that everyone selling an old truck thinks they're worth more than they are.

 

Thanks for the welcome! This forum is great. There's bound to be some decent trucks around for this price. I'm just having trouble finding them

 

I looked at the Philly/Pittsburg C/L and there are a couple there you might checkout. The blue 55 was pretty straight forward about the condition. Most of the rest were a bit pricey. Not sure how far you want to drive to go look.

 

Are you talking about the blue 54? Look at this thread, I posted some close ups of it.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-question.html

 

We are all enablers, aren't we? Good thing our addiction is trucks, not something more dangerous!

So here are some more for you to consider or at least to compare and contrast. These are basically stock and for the most part not done over:
A 54 F250:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-F-250-Truck-1954-ford-f-250-truck-pickup-54-vintage-old-antique-classic-auto-automobile-/201197734290?forcerrptr=true&hash=item2ed851c992&item=201197734290&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
a 54 F250 V-8 from Illinois
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-F-250-F-Series-Pick-Up-1954-ford-f-250-pick-up-truck-original-rust-free-barn-find-82-k-mi-farm-/141441924767?forcerrptr=true&hash=item20ee987e9f&item=141441924767&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
a 53 F250 dump
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-F-250-black/221574543174?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D26261%26meid%3D3f79f843725d4b699fbedb1e20c75241%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D10942%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D161449082673
a 56 F100... we might have seen this one already:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-F-100-1-2-Ton-SB-1956-ford-f-100-rare-shortbox-1-2-ton-barn-find-hot-rod-rat-rod-truck-w-video-/291267287959?forcerrptr=true&hash=item43d0e21b97&item=291267287959&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

 

Yup, that's the one. Youv'e been pretty busy looking for a truck. I hope you find the one that's right for you. Can't imagine trying to do this without the interweb.