I swear! It makes me so mad to see the way people treat things and just toss them aside. If I had a winning lotto ticket I would have a warehouse full of 73-79 Fords. Completely restore them and sell them to people that care about them. Look at this link.

1973 Ford F100 Custom

If I had a place to put this truck It would be mine already. every time something goes wrong with my truck I struggle to scrape the money together to fix it. But, at least I fix it. I have so many things I want to do to my truck and can't afford it. Then to see this just pisses me off!!

 

That's a 1973 F-100 Explorer as well.

It looks like it's been through a flood.

 

I know how you feel, mine is in worse shape than that one.

From what i have seen it's a simple matter of how you were brought up, chances are the guys saving these trucks were taught by their father's how to work on them.

Most likely the abused rigs just didn't have smart owners or owner's with the cash to take it to the mechanic when things broke.

Sadly it's one of the few times you can be a hero is when you save an old truck or car from extinction.

 

Wish I had the time and money, awesome truck - what color is that underneath all that muck. WOW.

 

Looks like it developed the north west green growth.

I know it stinks, but we cant save them all. Atleast that truck is cheap, hopefully someone can pic it up and clean it up.

 

Yup, that poor beastie is up there in the soggy forests of Western Washington. Everson is right up near the Canadian border, and that truck obviously has been sitting out for a couple years, as it's covered in moss. No wonder it has rust problems...it's not been dry for years. I know! We could submit a proposal to the state that there should be a mercy vehicle program, that all old vehicles that people just want to get rid of, should be moved to the desert in central washington, so they won't rust any more than they already have. Have a state run junk yard that's over 10,000 acres, so they can make a revenue, and we can find the parts we need.

 

I don't understand people that get so emotional about trucks like this.

Is everyone going to be mad when I cut up my parts truck and send it for scrap?

Worse yet, my parts truck is a supercab with a factory Ford Canopy on it.

These things just don't sell around here. When I got my 78 supercab 4x4 I almost had to give away my old 77 F250 standard cab 4x4, nobody was interested in it for months, and it had a rust free body with fresh paint!

Alas that $200 truck is priced accordingly, old trucks are hard to sell around here.

 

I have to agree with you, around here these old trucks just do not sell, there are soooo many late model trucks that are so cheap that no one wants an older truck ( except me ).

So enjoy your trucks until they give up the ghost.

 

i gotta agree it makes me sad to see these ol trucks sent to the scrapyard, it really bothers me when i seen one that has a straight body and hardly no cancer on it, i was at the scrap yard taking in a toy and a chebby and a guy drove an old 75 over the scales and parked it in the pile and walked away, i asked him why he did it and he said because it was junk, so i went to the scale master and asked what they paid him and he said $250 for it well nedless to say after taking the chebby and toy across the scales i drove out with a 75 ford and $100 bucks, not bad in my opioin. funny thing was all that was wrong with it minus some heavy cancer on the bed and floor boards gone out of it was that the fuel filter was clogged but luckly i had a spare in the tool box in my truck. some people just make me laugh. bought forgot ended up selling the truck two days latter for $500 so really i got $600 outta it not to bad of a deal and the guy that baught it put a floor board in it and bed on it and as far as i know hes still driving it

 

The problem is that there aren't many people who care about them that much. And I don't mean that they don't love them...I mean they aren't willing to spend the kind of money that you would be asking for one that you have restored.

If there is one thing I have learned over twenty years of working with and appreciating old cars and trucks, it is that things have to die. It's sad, but it's a fact of life. I also understand that you can't keep everything. In 1946 my father bought a green 1933 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron Eight. He got it for a hundred bucks because it ran like crap (burnt valves), and the PO said that valves were not available...he had checked with the local dealer. Well, dad went nosing around and found a guy who had a garage full of all kinds of surplus auto parts that he had bought from dealers for pennies in 1936. He had a whole barrel full of valves for Chrysler marine straight 8s, and he said they should work. Pop borrowed some tools and with the garage owner's help, put the new valves in (at a cost of $16!). He drove and loved that car for two years until he joined the Army and had to sell it. He thought he got a great deal at the time because he sold it to a former Chrysler employee for $500. He didn't think anything else of it until 1973, when he went to Detroit to visit his brother. Driving past the main Chrysler showroom, what did he swear he saw? His old car sitting in the middle! Immediately he stopped and asked a salesman how much they wanted for the car. The grinning reply he got was "More than you can afford to spend, if it were for sale." From that day forward, dad hated green cars because they all reminded him of what he once had.

I've seen many things in junkyards that I have drooled over and said the same thing you just did...but they have been vehicles that you don't see very much. Junkyard within 5 miles of me has an all original 1970 AMC Rebel Machine and a 1970 AMC AMX 390...both complete, but well weathered. I'd love to have them. Would I get my money back from restoring them? Yes, and then some. There's the difference. From a financial standpoint, these trucks are far from a killer investment. In the years 1973-79 Ford made some 1,828,578 F100 styleside pickups. That kinda kills the value. It's a terrible thing to say, but every time one of these gets parted out or crushed, ours appreciate in value. Even high-option or low-production-number variants of these trucks aren't pulling in much money. Most of the guys on here who have four, five, or twenty of them do because they got them on the cheap. Why? Because there was too much wrong with them to make them worthwhile for the PO to fix. They knew that there was no way they would get their money back if they spent the money to fix everything up, so they rode it hard and sold it as a beater.

Most importantly, only collectors spend good money to buy things that have been restored. Guys like us? We don't...because half the fun of owning one of these is either running it as-is for fun or bringing it back from the dead with our own hands.

Every time my mom calls me and I tell her about something else I have done to mine, she asks the same question. "Do you think you'll get that money back if you sell it?" And I give the same simple answer. "I know I won't. But by God it will be one of the nicest out there if I ever do decide to sell it."

 

It's Grabber Green...

 

it all comes down to being a "labor of love". these old trucks may not hold alot of financial value but the love of them over comes the dollar value.at least that is my point of view.

 

yea same here my mom & grandma asks me why don't I sell that old Ford truck & buy me a new one an they get same answer every time NOPE wont sell it & I dont want all the computer crap & these new vehicles wont last like this truck has for 35 years. An same thing that I will have more money in it than what it is worth yea I know an if I would sell it I would go buy another one just like it. Call me crazy or what every but I like older vehicles over newer ones they have style & class & easier to work on.

 

I agree with everyone, we didn't get one, or a dozen of theses in some cases of old dentsides because we plan on getting big fat wallets off of them. We did it because we like / love the truck, and its styling, and for the most part ease of workability.

I know if it was a bear to work on, and there was no help (printed material, this web site, etc) and parts were nonexsistant, we wouldn't mess with them, and we would all be on other websites looking at other projects.

But these trucks were produced in great numbers, and were very popular, and there is a fair abundance of them to this day (thankfully), and for the most part at fairly reasonable prices. Think about it, you can buy a 73-79 dentside for a reasonable price, and be driving an antique vehicle for not alot of cash!

I know it is sad to sometimes see a dentside just being tossed out as junk, when you and I see it a treasure-trove of VERY good original parts. But as Bowtie_Schmowtie said everytime another one goes, it makes ours a little more valuable. Now the downside, is as time goes on, it makes the hunt for those parts more of a challenge, but that sometimes is part of the fun to fixing them up.

I know I like to go to the car & truck shows in Carlisle Pa (carlislevents.com)to look for a few parts, and hope to see some dents there that others have fixed up. My brother and I comment how we now go there to buy, or see what we used to drive there! (shows started there in 1974)

Where I live, there is a guy who has a green 77 4X4, with the factory cap on it. I know he sees mine as he drives by my house when I have it out and they are the only two 77's in the area. He drives it in all kinds of weather as his main mode of transportation. I attempted to make contact with him, to talk about our dents. He does not acknowledge me, and it appears his truck is just a truck, a mode of transportation. I am not sure where he lives, but it is apparent we do not share the same appriciation for the 73-79 dentsides. But that is ok too, who knows maybe somday I might catch him selling it as just an old truck!

Bottom line: as I said in other posts, some dents will be doners, while other will be well taken care of, highly enjoyed, great looking trucks of a by gone era that will stand the test of time.

For some, these trucks bring back great memories, and even struggles of a by gone era. Lastly, we don't usually think about it, but by having and enjoying our dents today, they are making memories that we will look back on twenty years from now and say how we remember how something happened, or we did something in our dentside back in 2010.

 

i remember when i baught my old dent, i begged my teacher to have her husband sell it to me for a entire school year and finally one day she said he was ready to sell it nedless to say i beat her to her house to buy the ol thing, when we pulled up my mom seen it and asked what the hell i was thinking buying an old clunker, she said i could have went an baught a newer nicer truck and i told her oh well its my money im gonna buy it, the guy that sold it to me even said i could have went and baught a newer truck or car and i told him thats alright ill take the ol ford, first thing when i jumoed in it the guy asked if i knew how to drive a stick and needless to say i drove it better than he ever could, it looked like hell when i got it but hey its was something icould work on and have fun and ejoy.the truck is 12 years older than me (77 f150) but id rather have it that way, ive owned i cant count how may newer fuel injected trucks and the ol ford will be the first to fire up and run no matter what. i had vehicles come and go but the ol ford still stays around, its my lucky truck to as its never left me stranded and ive never had to tow it home either, even when to rad blew and the fuel tank had all the crud in it it still made it home. god i love these ol dents,i talk about mine so much that my grandpa was looking for an ol truck to haul trash and other things that he went an baught one to.