Long distance buying tips

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Mar 2, 2026 | 12:18 PM

#16

EQCMCAT

Laughing Gas

Joined: Nov 2016

Posts: 857

Likes: 63

From: Oxnard

If you do make the purchase or purchase a different truck and have it shipped. Suggest stating in your shipping contract to not load it in the nose on an incline. I purchased a 1979 F100 2wd SWB last July 2025 back in North Carlonia had it enclosed shipped to my residence (West Coast). The shipper loaded it in the nose on an incline. several quarts of ATF leaked out of the C4 tailhousing to the point it struggled to move under it's own power until I added ATF.

Apr 1, 2026 | 07:45 AM

#17

Patpät

Mountain Pass

Joined: Jan 2023

Posts: 245

Likes: 81

From: Germany, Bavaria

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pickupmanx2

The big issue, as like you, I'm an honest person, the first truck I sold to be shipped, to Boston! Was my 1966 F250, and this was way back, like 2003 or 4 I think, I took tons of pictures, showed him every ding and dang and anything I could think of that I would want to know and not be a surprise when it arrived to him, the buyer, Tom, was super pleased when the truck made the journey and he got it, he even said "wow, it's way better than you described it" All that to say, it's hard to tell who you're dealing with long distance, I would definitely engage him in some conversations, yes, big + now is we have face time so you can have him walk around, crawl under, over and everything you want to see. If he's not willing to do that, or have conversations, to me, that's sketch... I have bought and sold probably 60-80 trucks, had at least 10-15 shipped, and I can say to 99.999% that all the buyers were happy. I took the time to take any pictures they wanted and anything I could do to help ease the stress of a no-see-it purchase, again, if the seller is not willing to spend time to put you at ease, I would walk. If any of my buyers had wanted a mechanic to inspect it, I would have facilitated that any way I could.

Yes, get any and all pictures of truck, post them up, you'll get a slew of thoughts and opinions, maybe there is an FTE member close that would be willing to go check it out... if not, definitely face time a walk around, under and over.

Get a feel for the seller, like stated earlier, some are informed, some are clueless about trucks and only know what they are told, and some are just outright liar's, you've got to talk to them and figure out which one your dealing with, unfortunately without the in person meet.

Ask Patpat, for some reason it's not coming up with his un when I type @ he bought a 1979 F250 4x from me he shipped to Germany, I think I did a pretty good job of communicating with/to him about the truck, maybe he could give you some input on what to ask or anything he did to feel comfortable with it, I think I missed showing him the roof on his, or it still had the headliner in and it had a crease in the support IIRC...
@@PatpätP

A darn good job!

With lot of patience!

As you said it needs much communication and pics/vids. With that you get the first feeling about each other, or the seller. Is he willing to and how is he communicating. Willing to take pics of parts and spots you want to see in particular is a thing. As mentioned here not just hot spots on the truck but also title and such. A vid with good sound of the engine running where you can see that it is the engine in that certain truck.

So just as you would expect from an honest gentleman. Sure there will always be some risk left. At least I would say it's also listening to your guts somehow. Of course I also had the advantage being Joe an active member in FTE. Gave me additional better feeling and trust to take that risk as I would've had definitely given him a sad emoticon otherwise!

. And I am glad I did. Truck is exactly like shown and told.
Even saw the roof from the outside but there was no hint for that crease

Headliner could've just been sagged, so no hard proof for a bent support there, too.

At least I had much more worries that all the rest was working out good as there were many folks involved. All the organisation, specially for paying, shipping to the harbor, harbor handling, shipping over the pond,.. but that sure is an international thing.

Side note: Yeah I failed with my username. No international useage as you guys don't have the "a" with the two dots above it. As my username has here at the second "a". Got no notification even when you spelled it correctly though.