Here's my latest find.

85 F150 Extended Cab with 351 HO /C6. After a quick "once over" the body is good - cab corners, rockers, fender, doors, tailgate.... just the box has the typical rust over the wheel well.

It has A/C, cruise, class III hitch and trailerbrake control.

I figure it's going to be a pig on gas, but the price was right and I don't have any trucks that would really handle a trailer. I'll probably look into upgrading the rear springs and maybe getting a rust free box for it. Of course, my dreams and plans change all the time depending on what I have bought lately : )

I guess this means I will be selling off parts to have cash on hand for the next deal!

 

always something... I quit buying things most of the time because I would run out of space to park them,,, that's pretty sad with a 200 acre farm...

 

I got the truck home lastnight and out in the open so I can look at it. Turns out it already has helper springs and sway bars. The shocks aren't even rusty, so I got on each bumper corner and this is one stiff pig. Should be able to haul a load or pull OK with that suspension and long body. 235 tires and matching spare are all good too. I still have new 16" tires on my bus that would work well too if I had 16" 5x5 rims.

I didn't see an aux tranny cooler tho... I wonder if the '85 factory tow package would have had a tranny cooler? Atleast the radiator is near new. Installed last year with a manufacturer sticker of '03.

Interior could use help - It's tan and the door panels would look a lot better if I painted them. If there somewhere in DM that sells color matched paint that'd work well? -thx

 

Nice find, sounds good!

 

You could check with Eastwood, they have a lot of the special paints like that, www.eastwoodco.com, or maybe check with a local Ford dealer to see if they might have something, back when I was working for the dealers, the replacement parts all came in the same color, and we had to paint them to match.

 

thx - will check Eastwood in a minute. I found the tranny cooler - just not where I expected it was high infront of the A.c cooler. I was cleaning it up and found the bed to be better thatn I thought. I was able to reach in and knock the biggest dents out pretty good. We'll see if the bed psses the testes!

 

OWWW! I meant passes the "tests". I have a couple of family members that are pretty picky about what they will drive and not everyone appreciates all my "good trucks".

 

Are you sure you didn't have it right the first time? I know what you mean about not everone in the household liking your wheels... I can put up with a lot less than perfect, while others are embarrassed to do so... I do have my limits though.

 

Sounds like a good truck. If you ever want to sell the bed and tailgate I'm still in the market for a good one.

 

I knew it needed at least a timing chain, but when I got to the cover I could see it was torn up. I pulled the cover and discovered that the strong dbl roller chain had jump and whipped around, bent the end of the cam and popped the retainer and broke a chunk of the block out.

Yesterday I pulled the engine and found 2 nice holes in the oil pan... I didn't know it had thrown rods because they were hidden by the cross member. LOL. Had I seen the holes, I wouldn't have wasted time on the timing chain.

The tailgate is excellent, but the bed is junk. Typical wheel well and rear corner rot- not to mention they creased it a good one!

 

as long as the price was good enough to not be a problem.. kind of like the 79 I had, they knew the engine had trouble, I pulled the timing cover on it, everything looked fine, but in tryin to turn it over, the front of the crank moved... I gradbbed hold, and realized it had a broken crank, the first I had seen in person. That was a 400... But I bought the truck right, and since I had my 86, didn't need it , so I sold it for more than I bought it for...

 

I did get a good price. The cab and front clip are practically rust free - even underneath. The doors have a surface spots that could probably be fixed with rubbing compound and a tiny dab of touchup paint. The hood is pretty weathered, but no rust.

No problem to put in another engine and have a good (and cheap) truck.