A friend mentioned seeing a truck for sale, so I stopped to check it out on my way by this morning.
First glance - *raised eyebrows of promise*
Tires are decent, and even match. Body is... there. I’ve seen worse. I bet that tailgate even (gasp) OPENS! AND closes! I didn’t dare try, though. Don’t care.
Keep in mind, I’m not looking to inspect this thing. Yard use only.
The left side is a bit worse - *furrowed brow of concern*
But hey, the bed isn’t falling off. A quick look underneath says the frame is surprisingly decent:
Yeah, there’s daylight up there, but wait, we’ll come back to that. The frame is decent, that’s the point.
It’s a diesel, which I don’t know a lot about. Things look halfway decent under the hood, of course it needs a battery. And there’s a bit of a rat’s nest of wires next to this battery, but... that’s not a show-stopper. It’s not concours-quality in here but it doesn’t look neglected either.
Old-school belt-driven plow pump. Hoses could use re-routing and one of them needs attention.
Not one, but two cans of starting fluid. Not a great sign.
But then I opened the driver’s door.
*raised eyebrows of disbelief*
*appreciative nod of no-f**ks-given repair*
I mean, the various pieces of scrapwood and possibly firewood (?) don’t even make it all the way to the door, there’s a 6" gap, not to mention the huge pieces of angle-iron left from where the “running board” used to be (it’s there on the other side). But I guess you probably wouldn’t suddenly find yourself on the ground while driving it?
I know I’m being nit-picky, trying to find a running plow truck that doesn’t need to pass inspection but DOES need to run... I bet this thing runs fine, 4wd probably works and the plow, too. But I just can’t... not even for something around the asking price of $1,250 for this piece of Ferd Americana. I’m all set. If someone GAVE this to me, I’d probably take it, and proudly cobble together more of a floor with more intentionally mismatched scrapwood, maybe an old license plate or two for good measure. Not for north of a grand though.