Hey All!

First off, about me - I am 16 years old and I love this style of trucks and racing! I work at Atlanta Motorsports Park as a Corner Marshall. When I'm not at my paying job, I volunteer at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, where for the last 6 years, I work at a tour-guide, historian, curator, and exhibit builder. Between those two, I'm also working on becoming a racing announcer. I have announced at many short tracks in Georgia, and as far out as Huntsville, Alabama. I've been on TV several times along with being on stage at the last 3 years during the Sprint Cup weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But every Tuesday night, I'm a co-host on the 'Racing Through History' show from Racersreunion.com where I have a Georgia Racing History segment

Enough about me, now my truck!
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After 4 months of driving my dad's 2004 Dodge 2500, I wanted MY own truck, that I could say that I bought with MY own money, and plus I didn't really care for the 10 mpg that came with the Dodge. So not far from Atlanta Motor Speedway in McDonough, Georgia, we found this awesome little truck. I've always liked this body-style. Although I'm a fan of ALL Ford trucks, no matter if it's a 1929 Model AA or a 2013 F-150, I like it. But this one has always stuck out in my mind as being the "last real truck". When my dad owned a silt fence company (black, mesh-type fencing you see at construction sites) I remember, at about 2 or 3 years old, him having a black 1996 F-350 four-door, long bed with a Powerstroke, and I still talk about that truck.

At first I didn't really care for it simply because of the color. It's called 'Sapphire Blue', but in some light, it appears to be a dark "blueish-purple", but in more cases, just plain purple. My first thought was "NO", but after looking it over and driving it, I loved it. However, I still wanted to get it repainted - I thought black and silver. However, while driving back to Dawsonville, I got to thinking...when's the last time I saw this paintscheme on a truck. This is my favorite body-style of Ford trucks, and I do know quite a bit about them, but I had never seen this color. When I got home, I attempted to research this color. From the few that I found, I saw a truck with a silver top and bottom with the purple middle and I saw trucks that were just straight purple, some with a silver stripe. I had only found one other online with the same purple/silver/purple, and that was an extended cab F-250.

I have been searching for the past three days on some sort of production numbers on this year of trucks, but I have found nothing. One thing I did find is that on 1995 Mustangs, out of the some odd hundred thousand Mustangs that were produced that year, they only painted a few over 2500 in this color, 'Sapphire Blue'. Based on this, I can only guess that this has to be a rare color on my truck.

The next day, (Thursday) I was curious to know the response from the school parking lot of driving a purple truck. I even brought it around to the auto shop to show off, and to my surprise, everyone loved it! The only sort of negative response I got was from some guy who wasn't a Ford fan, oh well!

So for the specs - it's got a 5.0 (302) with automatic transmission. Although it has 180,000 miles, which sounds high, but for a 17 year old truck, that's an average of about 10,500 miles a year. I have to do a few simple things to it, like get the transmission serviced and a few interior things. In fact, a couple of days ago, it had a terrible sound, like a cricket, but nothing a little WD40 on the idler pulley won't fix! Also, the agricultural teacher at school is going to let me have parts off of his 93' that I will need - drop in bedliner, rear above tire chrome pieces, driver side seat buckle (right now I'm having to use the middle belt looped through my side of the belt and buckled back to the middle buckle - not that safe) and the towhitch.

Oh and did I mention it's got flowmasters? I just love the low rumble it has, almost like a racecar! lol

Enough with words....let these pictures speak for themselves!



When I went to look at it
<a href="http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/Sapphire_Blue_95/media/MyTruck002_zps66c88f6e.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t669/Sapphire_Blue_95/MyTruck002_zps66c88f6e.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo MyTruck002_zps66c88f6e.jpg"/></a>


A very clean interior, I think
<a href="http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/Sapphire_Blue_95/media/MyTruck004_zps59ea48f2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t669/Sapphire_Blue_95/MyTruck004_zps59ea48f2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo MyTruck004_zps59ea48f2.jpg"/></a>


Before a proper cleaning.
<a href="http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/Sapphire_Blue_95/media/MyTruck005_zps2debb20a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t669/Sapphire_Blue_95/MyTruck005_zps2debb20a.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo MyTruck005_zps2debb20a.jpg"/></a>


And my favorite so far, after a fresh wash and wax!
<a href="http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/Sapphire_Blue_95/media/MyTruck007_zps1aae4c03.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t669/Sapphire_Blue_95/MyTruck007_zps1aae4c03.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo MyTruck007_zps1aae4c03.jpg"/></a>


Thanks for looking, and if anyone can help with any way possible of finding out how many of these trucks were painted like this, that would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks again
-Cody

 

Afraid of getting picked at for having an almost purple color truck? Imagine the overload of B.S. is get for driving this:



Back on topic, looks great. Nice little truck. Congrats and welcome to the FTE!

 

Nice looking truck

matt

 

WELCOME TO FTE. Nice truck love the Sapphire Blue.
Craig

 

That is a great looking truck.

 

Your truck looks awesome! I would be honored to drive it. As a matter of fact besides the Royal blue that your truck has my only other favorite is Dodge's Electric blue. Beautiful truck man!

 

I think sapphire blue is a neat color.

It looks like the rear tires are kinda short. Are they a different size? I'd get the same size as the front.

 

Good catch. I can see it now as well. They look to be a different tire as well.

 

Welcome in! I really like that blue, really pops in the sun. Good luck with the truck, and your career. When you do what you have a passion for, it doesn't seem like "work".

 

Welcome to FTE,
Really like the color

 

Welcome to FTE!

 

Thanks everyone for the positive comments! I really love my truck

And yes, the rear tires are smaller. The fronts are 265.50's and the rear's are 31's. I thought size wise, they were about the same, but I guess not. I thought about putting the 31's on the front, but then it would be even more slanted down than it already is. I think I'll keep the 31's until they're used up, then get matching 265.50's. They really fill up the wheel-well nicely. I thought about a leveling kit, but I think equal sized tires will help alot.

-Cody

 

First off,Cody,that is a NICE truck,Congrats.And you scored a shortbed.
I understand what you mean about the color,at first glance it certainly wasn't my favorite color but after a couple minutes looking at the pictures it just seems "right" for it.
Does yours have TractionLock in the differential,it seems like all the ones I'm falling in love with out here are "one-leggers"?
Welcome aboard,and it sounds like you may well have a good start on a great career.If that's your dream and you really want it don't let anybody stand in your way,persist and you'll find a way!

Evan,I really like the color of your truck,matter of fact I almost posted in another thread you were part of that I thought it's a pretty truck.
I'm an old biker and when we say a machine is pretty that's a compliment.
Heck,back in 1990 I wanted to paint my old Super Glide Magenta but lack of funds kept that from happening.
Where did you get the mesh in your grill?

 

They are LUND part number 28080. They have been discontinued for years. I have seen a couple pop up on ebay and random parts websites, but you have to be ready to ****** them up the second you see them. And if you see a site that lists them as in stock, call them to verify that they have them.