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I purchased this truck from the original owner in 2016 and have been upgrading it slowly. Truck is a 1997 f250 hd and had 230000 miles on it when I purchased it. Truck had been sitting for some time and the previous owner had it towed to where I work to get it running. He was moving to Alaska and wanted to sell it before he moved. I purchased the truck from him as it was for $3600. He purchased the truck brand new in pa and installed a snow plow. He moved to az the next year and used it in his small excavating company.
To get truck running I installed two new batteries and it cranked right up and ran good. I did this before I offered to buy it. Wasn’t in the market from a truck but it ran great and was rust free. I installed a new vacuum pump the reason why the truck was parked. Pressure washed all the mold off and installed a new belt. Changed the fluids and filters and went to the dmv for tags. Drove truck for a while and had the left front tire blow out. Luckily it did not damage truck. Installed a new set of Firestone transforce tires.
After driving it for some time and towing my dads bronco to Tennessee I had some things to repair. The exhaust fumes in the cab need to be repaired. I installed the new up pipes from riffraff along with rebuilding the turbo and ebpv delete. Installed a diamond eye down pipe and muffler delete. Truck had some fuel leaks from the fuel bowl replaced it along with the lift pump and fuel lines. Replaced the starter with one from a superduty. A/C compressor locked up so I installed a new ac system. Had a stalling problem that a new icp sensor fixed.
Truck had some clunking from the front end replaced all the spring bushings and front shocks. Also repacked the wheel bearings and turned the rotors. Replaced the front brake calipers and hoses and pads.
With all the mechanical problems taken care of I started on the interior. I replaced the door panels and installed a new stereo. Installed a vinyl floor mat over the factory carpet. And some seat covers from seat covers unlimited. Also installed pillar gauges egt, coolant temp and boost.
Seat covers, Scottsdale from seat covers unlimited Door panels from rock auto Pioneer stereo and new speakers
At this point I was happy with truck but the bed still bothered me. It had big dent in passenger side from po and paint was gone on top from camper shell. I thought about fixing it but it would need a lot of body work. So I started looking at flat beds. I wanted something that looks finished. The cm beds a popular but the dealers around here did not seem interested in selling one? I saw a truck at the shop with one from mid state truck bodies and liked it. I emailed the for a quote for the one I wanted. They where very accommodating and gave me lots of options to choose from. I ordered bed and In two months it was ready for install. The bed was custom built to fit my truck and looks great. I dropped truck off at 9am and it was ready to pick up at 2 the same day.
Now at current day truck has 255000 miles on it and is running good. I am happy with it and it is my daily driver. I posted this to show the reality of ownership of a 20 plus year old truck. I have done all of the work myself other than bed and still have $10000 plus into it. But I have no payment taxes and insurance are cheap. I have been working on modern trucks for the last 10 years. While impressive in the power and ride quality the reliability is lacking and the price of ownership is crazy. I have driven my truck all over and trust it more the most of the new trucks I see at work. I can’t imagine paying $80000 for a pickup truck?
Your truck looks great. I also daily drive mine. Fixing the occasional issue that crops up is much easier then forking out a mortgage payment each month to drive a new one.
Nothing as of right now will probably need new injectors eventually. Truck starts and runs good right now, probably has a few bad glow plugs that I need to replace. Hot idle is a little rough every now and then possibly a injector. I don’t want to start down that path until I have to.
Yep I purchased one for my bronco 10 years ago. The company changed names but the seat covers are quality. They are made to order and took a month to get but are worth every penny. I think the set for my truck was $230.
