Please welcome our two newest hostages, er........members!

"TheJohn" from Portland
and "Luke77" from Corvallis

Welcome to the clan guys!

 

Welcome to the Chapter guys, from Cave Junction.

 

Welcome all!

 

Welcome to all..........OMG..........another one from Corvallis. Tell us about yourselves and give us an idea of how much ransom we can get! Don't forget to visit the BS pages.

 

Welcome to the chapter guys.

 

Hi guys! So sorry it took so long to post here - I'm on FTE every day it seems like but I missed this thread somehow, my apologies.

I've also been following the BS thread but I haven't posted anything yet, just getting a feel for who everyone is, etc... Guys, I'm not sure I'll be able to post good morning every day! I can hardly remember to brush my teeth every day.

But anyway here I am. My name is Luke, I'm from Kansas originally, but I've lived in Oregon for about the last eight years. Pretty nice out here, don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon. I work for the state as a data analyst and my wife is a grad student at OSU.

As for the trucks - I found FTE forums only recently after I purchased the F250 you see below. I have been wanting an early 80s Ford pickup for about as long as I can remember. I've been looking for just the right one for about the last four years, as I wanted something rather specific and these are not that common anymore still in good shape. Finally came across this one last month for sale out in La Pine and I snatched it up. It's rough around the edges and needs a lot of work but for the age it's in great shape. I plan to do a full restoration but presently I live in an apartment so there are limits as to how far I can go just now. The truck has 160k miles on it, a 460 V8 (which must have been swapped in at some point because the VIN shows it came from the factory with a 351). It was used to haul wood and given that it was out in eastern Oregon was more full of dust than any vehicle I have ever seen in my life. I am in the process now of completely re-doing the interior.

Behind the F250 you can see a red Ranger, that is also ours. It's two wheel drive and I hardly count it as a truck in the real sense but it has been a very handy vehicle for us in many ways. But it was always a disappointment on rougher terrain and I have gotten it stuck in a ditch more times than I care to remember. I'm glad to finally have something a bit bigger and with four wheel drive.

For the longest time I thought I'd never find my dream truck in real life so I'm also posting some photos of a model I built once as "the next best thing." Aside from working on cars, building models is my other hobby (yes, it's RC).

I really gotta change the grill on my full size, I want the stock look, but it came with that aftermarket billet thing. I'm pacing myself though, for the sake of my wallet, so for now it stays on there.


Luke

 

I hope you forgive me for going a bit off topic, but I just had to post one photo of my other pride and joy, a 76 Granada. It's not a truck but it is a Ford! I promise I won't mention it again, but I couldn't resist! I have been working on this one for the past couple years.

 

Welcome Luke! Love the pics of the model! Looks like ya got a good truck from over here in the desert too!

We're a lot more "loose" here in the Chapter, so nothing is ever "off topic"....................lol

 

Just wait until you get the 4 wheel drive stuck!

Be carefull and walk lightly when talking about Ranger's.......Dave packs an AK47.

 

Fixed it for ya.................................lol






























Just kidding Dave.....................lol

 

RABBLE ROUSER!

 

Ha ha! But don't get started on guns unless you really want to get off topic!

I've done a lot of complaining about our Ranger, and my wife has had to put up with a lot of my belly-aching about it, since we bought it from her father, a person of whom I have had some disparaging things to say about his choice of cars (I'll give him one thing, he is a Ford man, but maybe not a very good one). At the time it was the only vehicle we could scrounge up to help us move our stuff from Kansas to Oregon.

However, the truth is it's been a good vehicle and has only gotten me in trouble when I've taken it places it never should have gone. I've used it for off-roading simply because it has the most clearance of the cars we own, and back in my naive days, I used to think: "Hey! This thing is a truck, right? I can go wherever!" But alas two-wheel drive with an empty bed and you definitely can NOT go wherever. That doesn't mean I haven't tried! But I've probably learned to be a better driver because of it. And I've been able to give our local tow companies some good business.

Anyway, we've had some good times with this truck in spite of its shortcomings. One of the first things my friends asked when I bought the F250 was if the Ranger was for sale. But in fact I think I'm going to keep it around for a while longer!

Just so you know I love my Ranger, here are some photos I scrounged up from over the years...



The Ranger is great for carrying large boxes sideways.


It can hold a lot of stuff...


And a lot of models


(Ok, those didn't all come out from the back of my one truck...)


Great for camping on level ground!


Tailgate makes a great secondary kitchen table


You can even drive it in the snow! If you don't mind digging it out of the ditch every few miles...

 

You Ranger bashers beware............I bet I have been places in my 4x4 Ranger that would make a full-size tremble with terror!

 

Are you reminding us you drove it in Eugene?

 

I was talking terrain wise..............not hostile territory!

Yes, it has even survived driving through downtown eugene!