just curious how many ppl on here have tracked down an old pickup that say your dad had and sold and then you found it and bought it back. just curious as when i was little my dad had a 78 ford f150 ranger. black and silver with a nice flatbed. he used it for a mechanicing truck and such. had a real built up 400 with dual glasspacks and a 4 speed. you could stomp on that thing anytime and it would smoke the tires it was probably what really got me into ford trucks. anyhow he sold it about two years before i got my license. I tried to talk him into letting me have it but the built up motor was a real deterent for him on that plan. the kid he sold it too still has it and i hope someday to buy it back i was just curious if i was the only one like this or if a bunch of you out there found that long lost truck from your past.

 

I've known a lot of people who tried, but most never came close to finding the exact same vehicle. Course you know the guy who bought it, that makes a big difference. You may try leaving your information with him so if he ever thinks of selling it, you're the first one he calls.

 

well he has offered to sell it for what he paid for it before but i dont have any money and pretty sure half a dozen ppl would kill me if i spent money on another truck lol. someday tho.

 

Just an idea, but I've found sometimes money doesn't talk the loudest, you could always try offering up a swap of some sorts. You'd be surprised what people might be interested that you have. lol, then again I tend to have to do all my builds on scretching a dollar 3092 miles, so I tend to go about things differently.

 

well lol as much possible trading as me and you have discussed im well aware of the power of trade lol. by the way you decided on any plans yet let me know what happens nothing else i might wanna stop by and take a look at your truck next time im home.

 

Hey all, I've got the story for you. About 12 years ago I bought my 64 f100. It was original but in good condition. Around a year later I was getting married and sold the truck for our honeymoon payment. It was an easy decision but I still wished I didn't have to make it. Turns out, the truck stayed in state and actually returned locally about 5 years ago. Every once in a while I would get to talk to the owner about it and he told me he liked it but never got to run it much. Anyway, I told him my honeymoon story and lo and behold he said that for the price I sold it for originally, he'd sell it to me! By then it had been restored. My wife was estatic! And now she says the truck will never leave until everything else is gone. Anyway that's my story...Cheers, Steve.

 

I might, I met a guy intown who is trying to get rid of a BUNCH of stuff, and he seems to be doing it quite inexpensively. I'm going over tomorrow or Sunday to check it out. He even has a '55 bed...but unfourtently its a short bed so I have to keep at it.

 

Set down and pull up a chair.
My first car was a 1953 mercury. I was 15 1/2 and not many tools or a place to work on it. I bought a 56 t'bird engine from a local salvage yard and 3 speed overdrive from the same tbird. Using a tree in the back yard I removed the tired flathead and installed the tbird 312. Not having a welder I couldn't figure out how to mount the engine having side mounts in a engine bay with front mounts from the flathead. I settled on taking a bunch of flat iron and hacksawed it onto pieces and held it together with several pairs of vice grips and off to the welding place on my bike. He welded it together as my vice grips indicated and back home drilled holes and hung the engine off the timing gear cover to the original flathead mounts. I got it going and drove it until I was 17. I sold the car and never saw it again. I was 17 and am now 63. Four years ago I was in a body shop in town and a guy rode a bike into the shop and ask if anyone wanted to buy a old car, and of course they pointed to me. He had no idea the kind of car, just that he had painted a garage and got paid with this old car. He said his landlady was gonna haul it off if he didn't sell it so I dropped by to look at it. It was kinda a shell of a old merc. no glass or chrome left. I opened the hood and there was a old 312 hung from the timing gear cover and 3 speed overdrive trans. It is possible to have a old car show back up. The old merc is my next project after finishing the 55 pickup. I hadn't seen that old car since I was 17 and would have never believed it had survived. It still has my homemade floor shift and real 8 ball gearshift **** I drilled out and threaded.
Know this is long and weird but sometimes strange things do happen. Your talking about vehicles that have been gone 3, 4, 10 years, mine was gone well over 40 years and I wasn't looking for it and it just "showed up" so don't give up hope.
Larry.

 

Larry that is a kick *** story if I have ever read one! I cant imagine how cool it would be to see it after all this time and it still has your touches on it.

My story doesnt go back as far as Larrys and it has to do with step dads motorcycle. He bought a CB750 in the early 80's, it was a 77, and had a motorcycle shop/friend of the family go through it before he rode it to alaska. He and a friend were gone for three months on that trip. Long story short, he married my mom, and I grew up hearing the stories and meeting the friends he made on that one trip. He passed away when I was 14 and mom sold the bike to a family memeber who rode it for a year and off loaded it to someone outside of the family.

Three summers ago I was back in IL fixing up moms house after she passed away when we go to talking about the old bike and what ever happened to it. I managed to run it down in a neighboring town. It ws sitting along side of someones old garage and had been there many many years. I struck a deal and was able to take a part of my stepfather and my growing up years home with me. I took it over to the same guy that always worked on this bike. Of course he ddint recognize me as I walked in but once I got him to focus and listen to my story he started crying, actually I think we both did. He knew this bike so very well and loved my step father very much. he couldn't believe that I had thought enough of it to find it and bring it to him to go through.

A summer later I had the bike back and rode it to IA. I now enjoy riding it in the summers on ocassion and cant help but feel the connection every time I get on the bike.

 

It's in San Diego. It's the two-tone '49 in my Gallery. I sold it to my best friend 15 years ago who later died. The Wife has it I guess. It's in a city called Clairemont and is allegedly parked in front of a certain dive-bar often.

I'm told the (NOS Stainless) grille is crushed and there are dents in the fenders..... My prized Western Bullets are missing their caps. I keep an eye out for it on Craigslist but I have another '49 in the works. I drove it daily for 8 years and when I sold it I really meant to. Now, I'd like to have it back and make it respectable again....

 

awesome im loving the stories keep them coming

 

When I was in high school, my father bought me a 1958 Mercury which
I still have. Then, he said if you get good marks I'll buy you a 1959
Lincoln Continental whow. I did and he did get it, it was only a couple
years old. After I graduated I drove it 5 more years and sold it around
1967 to a local guy which I never saw again. Now 30 years later, I
bumped into this guy. First thing I said to him, where is my Lincoln. He
said that his father put it in storage years ago when he went to law
school but he didnt know where. So I went hunting. I gotta find some
place/ building that was around at that time. I have to find where he
would even likely put it. A lot of questions and talk, a city bus maint.
guy said I heard an old factory has cars and things in there. I went
and there it was, entombed all cob webbed up flat tires hood frozen
up layers of dirt. We got connected and I got it $1000. Still had 1969
inspection sticker. Flat bedded it. Mighty 430 froze. Now helpfull info.
That was 12 ys ago my father still alive, and he said try this (he did
this in model T days) take out thermostat & plug rad hoses and he
kept pouring boiling water in the block kept doing it till the block was
boiling. Thats how you free a stuck motor he said. Yep it turned and
started. Of course all chrome done, no rust, rides like a 747, absolutly
totally quiet. Going on 13yrs since getting it back, I have done with
the Mercury and Lincoln many many weddings and proms and the like.
Sorry this site will not let me attach photos. Even I think this was
a destiny thing it was ment to be.
don't give up Sam

 

I did...sorta.

My dad bought a brand new 1958 F-100 to use for a service truck at his Esso gas station. He kept it until 1963 when he replaced it with one of the very first Jeep Wagoneers at which time he sold the truck to his brother. My dad passed away in 1965 and it broke my heart to have to sell his Jeep but we needed the money and I was still a few years away from a driver's license. After selling the Jeep, I asked my uncle to sell me back the pickup when he was done with it. In December, 1972 he decided to replace the truck with a new Pinto wagon. He forgot about his promise but I caught up to the truck before it was sold and offered him what he wanted for it. After he picked up his new car he brought the '58 to my house, signed the registration, and refused to take any money.

When I finally find 2 chrome headlight doors, I have a N.O.S. chrome grille to go in it. The grille has a small dent in the bottom from shipping. The dent will stay there when the grille goes in. The grille arrived on the day that my uncle passed away.

That's the story of my truck. Now if I could just decide which of the kids to leave it to...

Lou Manglass

 

When I was 16 my first truck was a 1951 ford. The truck had a V-8 flat head motor in it. I got it from a back alley in Fort Wayne Indiana. I spent a year getting the truck road ready and spent every waking minute in the garage fixing the truck up. Everyone wondered if I was ever leaving the garage. My father helped paint the truck fire engine red after many sleepless nights working on the body work and engine repairs. I put chrome rims and chrome side pipes that I ran up thru the running boards up along side the cab, like a semi exhaust. I drove the truck to school every day while in high school. I ended up selling the truck, never getting a chance to get it back. So your stories bring back all those good memories.


I now am fixing up a 1956 Ford that I got just down the street from my house. The project has had its ups and downs but I will get her restored one day. I live in Michigan and the economy is pretty bad here right now. I purchase things when I can and do what I can when I have time. Your stories are great guys and they give me a little push reading them. Thanks Tim

 

I knew this could be a Great thead....let's keep it going!!