More Ford F150...Ol' Blue..the beater F150

[MotoSook]

Sammy's F150 thread made me want to share.

From an e-mail I sent to some of my buddies after I got the truck. Last week I was out of town for a week and left it parked at the airport all week, and on my return Ol' Blue fired right up and off we went. Never a worry crossed my mind during the week. I always worried that after a long and tiring trip that a stripped out BMW would be waiting for me at the airport. No more.

I have put over 3000 miles on it in the last 2 months, and it's gone through a cases of oil. Some of you may recall my thread here about snow tires for Ol' Blue. I never did get around to buying them, but I don't think I need them. There were only a couple of really scary days on the road, but it would have been scary in any vehicle as the roads iced up during rush hour and nothing short of spikes would have helped me if I wasn't careful or lucky.

Here goes:

Some of you may already know this, but about a month ago I purchased a rusty and tired 1994 Ford F150. The previous owner (PO) is a Merlin's mechanic who replaced the suspension, did the brakes, replaced fuel injectors and installed a new water pump and new hoses. I think it has a new radiator too.
The guy originally listed the truck on Craigslist for $2600, but as the rent became overdue he dropped the price every couple of days until eventually his ad caught my attention at $1600. The day I went to see it he offered it up for $900 cash on the spot if I wanted it. This was without me saying anything. My haggling skills are good, but not that good.

Anyhow, I was on my lunch break and didn't have 900 hundos chilling in my jean pockets, so I told the guy I'd look at it over the weekend, and we can talk price then.

I knew the thing would need work. It's a beauty with the rusted out fender flares and chrome wheel arch trim. It's like it has invisible fender flares, trimmed out with chrome. Nothing on the steering wheel (cruise, horn, airbag) works. The rear (it has two) gas tank has a hole the size of my fist in it, but fortunately the side tank is holding fuel. I made the mistake of pumping gas into the rear tank one night after freezing my butt off on a construction site and dazed from fatigue. It was a good thing another patron at the gas station noticed the fuel pouring onto the concrete, or I would have pumped more than the 3 gallons I had already wasted into the tank and out of the tank before I realized what was happening. Worst, I was standing next to the FILLER (!), not sitting in the cab trying to tune in a radio station (any radio station that wasn’t playing alternative “static”) on the tape deck.

The fire that might have resulted from the fuel spill would have been welcome, as the heater doesn't work for dog poop when the outside temp is below 30 degrees. The engine can't generate enough heat when it's so cold out. Even with my OEM cardboard in front of the radiator I can't get the heater to blow air that's warmer than a cool breeze off the west slope of the Rockies on a January morning. The heater coil works fine and the blower works fine, but the coolant just ain't heating up! I suspect the PO didn't put the thermostat back in when he did the water pump and hose work.

The beast gets maybe 12 MPG with a stiff tail wind while I'm drafting a semi-truck. But! It's got cool 15" aluminum mag wheels (think 80's Centerline) and new Cooper all-season tires. The tailgate works and the bed is...well it works. The engine starts up every time, even after sitting for days in the arctic cold we've had recently around here.

Last week the driver's door wouldn't open, because the door and fender overlapped and preventing the door from swinging out. I had to climb out the passenger side for a couple of days until I found time to use to shim the door hinges with a couple of galvanized washers that I had left over from the last time I repaired my fence. But hey! The power windows work, and there's LSD in the rear (it's just a 2WD model).

Not bad for $1000. The $900 offer when I first saw it was apparently a one day deal. So I ended up giving the guy $100 more for not being able to pull the trigger. ($1000 was my haggle target when I saw the ad for $1600. See I have skills) Anyhow, a few dollars at the quarter car wash to vacuum the dirt out
of it and $30 for seat covers and the interior is good as ... usable. I changed the oil, and it looks like I won't ever have to change the oil again as the oil is getting consumed at 1 quart every 500 miles or less, so since I'm always adding new oil, I shouldn't have to change the oil right?

Some of the repairs the PO did will have you envious of the craftsmanship. Not too many of you can use electrical wire to hold down brake lines to the chassis since the bracket for the hard lines have rusted away. Not too many of you can use epoxy to repair a rusted through oil pan and still managed to let the oil seep out (contributing to the disappearing oil act). You would be jealous!

But the truck works, and it has not left me stranded out on the cold country roads on which I've had to drive the past month to and from my construction site. It even powered out of a snow covered deep ditch that I backed into. I would have been stuck for sure if I had driving the BMW to work that day. LSD and 300 lbs of salt and left over cement from my fence repair worked just as well as any electronic differential and traction control.

And the best part of all? It's totally liberating to drive this beater to the store or somewhere that I have to park with the masses. I don't have to park at the far end of the parking lot anymore and worry that when I come out, I'll find some dope parked next to my BMW or the 911 even though there are 500 empty spots in the lot. I can park it wherever I please, and the dope that can't open his car door without dinging the car next to him can just kiss my rust! Bang away you disrespectful SOBs!

So everyone should have a beater! A beater truck is even better! I can't count how many times I procrastinated doing something because I didn't want to have to clean out the wife's SUV or my SUV after using it for less than hauling kids around. Now I can toss tires and rims into the bed and be gone before I can say "fold the seats down and cover the rear with an old blanket so mom's car doesn't smell like old track slicks and brake dust."

I love my beater, and I don't care if my 17 year old niece says I look like a redneck driving around it in and she and the wife refuse to be seen in it. I love "Ol' Blue" as I call it…even though my wife finally figured out why and reminded me that I'm partially color blind and that the truck is actually green!

Every man should have on his bucket list: Own a beater pickup truck.

[motion]

I did it... always wanted a beater truck. In 2003 I picked up a '92 F150 extended cab for $5,000. It was about as beater as I was going to go. LOVED that truck until one trip when I had my BMW 1150GS in the back, driving to Colorado. Even with the big 5.8 V8, that thing was struggling up hills, sucking the petrol. Got back home and traded it on the mother of all trucks, a F350 quad cab long bed 4x4 6.0 PSD.

[MotoSook]

I've had truck envy ever since I bought my beater, Richard. I keep spying F250's on the road and threatening to pull into the Ford dealership everytime we drive by one, but the wife keeps telling me if I buy a new truck or a newer truck I'll lose that liberating feeling of driving a beater truck. Fortunately for me we don't have hills here in the Midwest.

I fall deeper in love with the truck every time I use it. A few weeks ago, the oldest boy and I wanted to build shelves in the garage. Off we went the HomeDipso for lumber and plywood. No more strapping 4'x8' panels on top of my Jeep's roof rack. No more strapping 2x4's on the Jeep's roof rack. 2x4's and full sheets of ply wood disappear into the full size bed of Ol' Blue....with the tailgate UP! And when we got home, we just backed the truck 1/2 way into the garage and the tailgate served as instant saw horses.

The wife will love me 10 times more this spring when out of the blue I offer to go haul gardening stuff for her. No more procrastinating and whining about having to pull the race car trailer out of the yard just to go get a yard of mulch. The $1000 I spend are going to be well worth the wifey points

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by motion

............LOVED that truck until one trip when I had my BMW 1150GS in the back, driving to Colorado. Even with the big 5.8 V8, that thing was struggling up hills, sucking the petrol.

Wasn't the struggling likely caused by thinner air at the higher altitudes, not lack of power?

Soukus, show us pics, man.

[motion]

Maybe, but ultimately, a truck should be able to get up a hill with a motorcycle in the back.

[BLEW911]

This is "Brownie" a 150 I purchased new in '77 with a 400 and 4 speed. Now, 33 years later, still going strong.(3rd motor and 2nd trans and diff.) My sons , aged 38 and 35 still argue over who gets it when I'm finally done with it. I use it now to haul an 8' Lance camper

[creaturecat]

My old Blue, bought in '82.

[Normy]

I had a good ol' truck once too. And one or two panels were blue as well~

HAPPY TRUCK!

N

[Rick Lee]

Subscribing!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Does this count?



Hey, it will haul studs and 4x8 sheets. I needed seats to haul my kids but couldn't afford a crew cab truck. 195k and still going strong.

[vash]

BLEW! my neighbor offered me a blue one just like that...for free. a 1978. i couldnt work out the cali smog issue, so she demoted it to a ranch truck.

[MotoSook]

Finally found some time to dig up pix of Ol' Blue.



The old boy fits right in with the youngsters at the construction site...much better than my DD BMW would have. On this day the snow wasn't bad, but we had some pretty nasty days (blowing snow and freezing rain) during construction that were just what Ol' Blue loved. On the really bad days, I had to park with the tailgate to the wind (else the coolant would never warm up) and run the engine for 1-2 hours every hour to keep the cab warm enough....warmer than outside!

[Danny_Ocean]

[HardDrive]

I'll get a picture of my F150 in the morning. I'll kick the quarter panel to knock out a bit more of the bondo to make her look purdy. 238,000 miles. Always starts. Love that truck.

[pwd72s]

Definitely doesn't look as good these days...another parked outside truck. But still good at hauling stuff...over rough terrain if need be. Bought it new...it's a '77.

[Heel n Toe]

Well, if this is gonna be a Pelicans' fondly remembered pickup trucks thread, I'll have to include a coupla shots of a '51 1/2 ton like the one that my dad bought when I was about 14 or 15... it was to become my drive-to-work-and-other-stuff vehicle... I've mentioned it before.

After lots of sanding and priming, 95% done by me, we had it shot in black and it looked a lot like this, but not as low... stock height... same wheel trim and Ford moons:



Later, after some drunk kid from the next town over did a hit-and-run on it when it was parallel parked on the street the night I used it to take a girl to the homecoming dance, my dad persuaded the kid's dad to pay for body work and a repaint that was similar to this color, but glossy. Again, not lowered and the same wheel treatment as above:



This is what the flathead V-8 that "powered it" looked like:

[onewhippedpuppy]

Souk, I had the same bodystyle (1995) but in a lighter blue. 5.8L 4x4, it drank gas at 10 MPG and was painfully slow, but it couldn't be stopped. Except for u-joints and rebuilding the front hubs I don't recall doing anything to that truck. I do remember having to nearly yell on the highway due to the wind noise, no talking on the phone while driving that one.

[Hard-Deck]

Here's my beater. 1985 C-30 1-ton dually diesel longbed, with an aftermarket 6 speed splitter. I bought it for $2,500 in 2008 and have put another $2,500 in it with a complete new rear-end. It has 107,000 on the odometer. Love it.

[Rufblackbird]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Well, if this is gonna be a Pelicans' fondly remembered pickup trucks thread

I'm not quite sure if it's a beater Ford F-series thread, or a beater truck thread, or a fondly remembered truck thread...hesitant to post my beater truck cuz it's not a Ford

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by Rufblackbird

I'm not quite sure if it's a beater Ford F-series thread, or a beater truck thread, or a fondly remembered truck thread...hesitant to post my beater truck cuz it's not a Ford

Go ahead... we've got a Dodge, a coupla Chebbies, and a 'Yota on here.