Good evening. I have found a 1952 F100 a guy is willing to sell. It is in rough condition. Typical been sitting in a field. All flats, no paint, seats look like a rats nest. I am new to classics and this will be my first true classic, so I am new to all of this. He does have the original title for the truck. I can only assume the truck does not run or drive. What price would be a good price to offer for this truck? Thank you.

 

Well, for starters, there is no such thing as a 1952 F-100, so get a rundown on what it really is you are looking at, possibly a 1952 F-1. Get the vin and have us decode it. Does the vin on the title match the vin on the data plate and on the frame? Which engine, trans, and trim options does it have?

As for pricing, condition, condition, condition, location, and your goals... Share some pictures with us!

Are.you looking to build something stock, something dark side, or something other worldly?

Do note that it is generally considered more cost effective to buy a better truck than fix one up.

I can only imagine that $1000 is too much without more to go off of...

 

My mistake is is a 53 F1. Again new the the classic game. This truck would be a project to span over 6+ years or more.

 

So again, there is no 1953 F-1, so 1953 F-100?

 

Fat fingered it……. 52

 

The 52 was the last year of the F1's, the 53 year was the start of the F100's . all the same 1/2 ton trucks..... can you post some pics?

 

If the title matches the fame and there is minimal rust, it probably would be a fun build.

I too would like to see pictures.

I am a visual kind of guy.

 

What they said, and welcome to the best truck forum online!

 

How much time, $$$ do you have? How much experience doing mechanical, body, rust repair, welding (mig and/or tig) thin sheet metal? How much metal shaping, repair parts fabrication skills do you have? How much storage space, workshop room, friends and family help can you depend on and/or devote? Why do you want to build from a wreck? Today usable replacement parts for F-1's are very difficult and expensive to come by. Trust us when we say it is much more expensive and time consuming to start with a basket case than to buy someone else's mostly completed failed dream. You cannot build for what you can buy for. The reality is that whatever time you think it will take, it will take 3-4 times as long, whatever budget you think it will cost, depending on your skills and dependency on other's labor, will cost 4-10X as much! Are you really ready for that?

 

That is a fact.

If you do an entire frame off restomod build with new, or like new high quality parts it will cost more than an equivalent new truck. This is including the market value of the old truck. This is not including your labor.

If a person can get an old truck in decent shape and they are able to rebuild it with a frame off restoration using most of the original parts, they can save a bunch of money.

A lot depends on how much work a person can do themselves.

As stated above, if a person can find an abandoned project they can save a lot of money. The problem is that you may not know the quality of the workmanship from the PO.

Where you can save the most money, if you decide to do an entire project, is to pay more up front for the best condition truck you can find. It will save you a fortune in the long run.

There is a reason many of the commercial builders use new chassis, new engines, and mainly new parts throughout a build. It is because it saves them a tremendous amount of labor. These component trucks typically cost $125,000 and up, and that is with the customer providing the old truck. Very few original parts are used. Usually it is just the cab, fenders if any are salvageable, radiator support and other miscellaneous parts.

 

AXracer summed it up pretty well. I have obtained two of these trucks that were in rough condition - abandoned and filled with critter nests. The first was a 1951 F2, and the second was a 1949 F3.
But I was fortunate with both because of the time that I began each one. The first one was back in about 2008. I did a complete restoration to it. Parts were much easier to find, and shipping parts was very affordable. Finding a body shop back then was a horror show though. The project took far longer than planned and cost about 1/3 more than what I had budgeted. But it came out very nice. The 1949 F3 was just me being a glutton for punishment. That one was a full restoration also but the times had changed. Parts were getting scarce, and the cost of shipping them had increased significantly in that 10-year span from the first to the second truck. Finding a body shop and professional welders had gotten tougher.
Body shops do not like to do old vehicles, they lose their shirt. They tend to stick to collision work on modern vehicles. Engine rebuilders, machine shops and sandblast companies have exceptionally high labor costs.
In 2023, I can guarantee you that a truck that has been sitting in a field in going to cost almost triple to restore than it would have cost in 2008 unless you do every bit of the work yourself using your own tools and shop. Parts shipping is a huge expense. Many reproduction parts are available through the catalog companies but it will nickle and dime you when those brown boxes appear at your house.

So this is why a few of us are saying it is faster and cheaper to buy a project truck that is further along than one that has been sitting in a field for many years. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from taking on a truck project that needs that much work - but be prepared for the <modern> cost and difficulty of doing so. Things have changed in the past 15 years. A full resto will cost at least $20,000 if you do most of the work yourself.

There is an excellent group of guys on this forum who can help you every step of the way. We can help you find any part you need.
If you want to get a good idea on how much you should spend on a project that you are considering buying, take about 10 clear well-lit pictures of it and post it here. Tell us what state you live in, because that matters a lot as far as regional value.

Good luck and keep us posted on how things go.
Tom

 

I would like welcome Matt to our " almost always " friendly and incredibly helpful corner of the W.W.W. Wow guy's the doom and gloom is amazing . Yes depending on a VERY large number of variables the cost in dollars and time can be huge but there are also many very successful budget build threads on here . This all being said the skills , budget and result expectations of the OP is the driving factor . We would love to know much more about your truck and expectations .

 

It is not all doom and gloom.

It is just that friends do not let friends buy a rust bucket that is beyond reasonable repair.

Pictures will tell a lot more.

There is a tremendous amount of knowledge on this forum and I do not think anyone will guide him in the wrong direction. We just need more info to make an accurate assessment of what he will be up against.

 

Hi Matt, welcome to the forum! You didn't share what part of the world you're in, so it's hard to know just how rough your truck may be, and what it could be worth. A rusted out and dilapidated field rat may not be worth the hassle of moving it, even if it was free. Your view of rough and ours may be totally different, and it could be worth upwards of a grand. If you've always wanted to build a project like this, and have even a little bit of talent, desire and mechanical awareness, you can build it. These trucks are not rocket science.

Contrary to the opinion of others, there is an extreme sense of satisfaction you will have building one yourself, with God given hands, you will never receive buying a done truck, and will be worth every penny and busted knuckle invested if you choose to do so. So yes, please tell us more about your find, your talents/experience, and your general location. Know that you're not alone, we've all been there once (at least) and are willing to help and pass along any knowledge we have. Good luck in your quest.

 

I don't see anyone outright recommending finding a done truck, just a truck that strikes a better balance between essentially title only and "done".