I recently caught wind of a low mile truck for sale and finally got a chance to go look at it Friday. Here's what I found:

1978 F-100 Ranger SWB 2WD
302 Auto 3.25 Posi
Black with Red interior
42K original miles







Sorry about the crappy pics. The interior is almost perfect with the carpet faded a little being the only flaw I see. The bed is perfect, the original paint in the bed isn't even scratched. The body is near perfect, it has a couple of dings and parts of the truck have been painted over the years. The trim looks brand new. It hasn't been started in a while so the tank will need to be cleaned.

Now for the bad part, the original owner installed a spot light(think police car), tie down hooks in the bed(three on each side and three on the tailgate), bed rails,some Ranger emblems on the bed sides, mud flaps, chrome wheels, and fog lights. All of this would have to be removed if I buy it. Some of these add ons are easy to remove but others are not as easy like the spot light. My major concern is the paint. Even though it has been touched up over the years, it needs a complete repaint.

The family of the original owner is wanting $4250 for the truck. If the paint was nicer, I would jump on it but I'm thinking when you figure in the cost to fix paint and issues listed above, I'm going to have too much money in it. What do you think?

 

It is a nice truck but not worth that.

 

I agree with Jon, definitely not worth that much on top of having to put more money into it.

 

I bought a low mileage Silver Anniversary T Bird once . Clean car that had been setting under a carport for 10 + years . Too bad the gaskets were rotted , it blew steam out of just about every water joint before I made the 50 mile trip home .

$2500 would be my limit .

 

What's wrong with the Unity spotlight? The original owner of mine put one in, and I replaced it with one that worked. I don't use it often, but it's nice to have. I don't think I'd do more than $2700

 

Well, I feel that the tie down hooks are factory. 2 of my 79 had those. The rest is work for sure, but look at what it would cost to replace it. I feel the price isn't too far out. I wouldn't buy it cause its a 2wd, Or maybe I would and turn that 302 into a 347 or maybe more and really put on a smoke show or 2 at the car shows coming up this summer..... "yeah, its all original" As I walk away from the olathe corn festival burnout contest with a trophy and a ear to ear grin. I guess the price is a little high, but I paid $3000 for 4x4 trucks that weren't as good as that one.

 

It depends on where you are from. Around here, that's not out of line. Up in the north east U.S., that's cheap. Out west, it's way too high. Look at it, decide on what you want and have to spend and go from there.

 

Nice looking truck with low miles but seems a tad high. If it didn't need a repaint then maybe but a good paint job will cost you a few grand+. I'd say around $2500 would be my limit.

 

I think spot lights have their place but I wouldn't want one on this truck. If it were more of a work truck, then I would leave it but it wouldn't really have a purpose on a cruiser.

 

I'm sure the tie hooks were dealer installed accessories along with most of the other stuff on the truck but I'm not a truck accessory type of guy, I like them clean and simple. I'm right there with you on the 347 though. Around here(TN) SWB 2WD's bring as much or more than a comparable 4WD. Probably because SWB's are hard to find. LWB truck are every where and they bring about half of what a SWB brings.

 

Even though I'm in TN, it's very rare to find a totally rust free truck down here.

 

I was actually thinking $3000 would be my max but I'm not sure they will come down that much. They are attaching value to the truck because of the low miles but in reality, it needs mostly what a higher mile truck would need.

 

My '78 F150, with 71,000 miles, that I just bought had sat so much every gasket in the engine, tranny and transfer case need replaced. I've got fluids leaking out of every where..............

 

Looks like a really nice unmolested truck. I dont think they are way off on price for the shape its in. I know this, you could spend way more on a beater to get it in the shape this one is in already. They all need painting eventually, this one needs almost zero bodywork. Are you talking about the chrome tiedowns on the exterior of the bed? Those look factory to me.

 

Do you like the truck? Will you enjoy it? If YES then buy it! Go get another look in the morning and bring your coffee and your cash. Only you can put your hands on it so take advantage of that and look close at everything. A few days of love now will really pay off, resist all temptation to go hit the road. Go through everything first. If you need a list of things that you should do, just ask. Last thing, clean, detail and post some photos of you smiling next to your really cool ride! There, are you starting to feel a little better?

BTW i really like it, Black/Red