This weekend I made the most impulsive vehicle purchase of my life. Like many folks here, even when I'm not really shopping for cars, I'm still kind of shopping for cars.
On Friday morning, my wife and I were driving to St. Louis. She's driving. I'm scrolling through Craigslist, and I see an ad for a truck that I have always wanted but had pretty much given up. 1995 Ford F-350, 7.3, 5 speed, 4x4, crew cab, flat bed with hydraulic dump, and SRW. The part of the ad that made it impossible to resist - 152,000 miles and bone stock. Even ignoring the dump bed, that combination of features practically never comes up without being completely beat to hell or having a billion miles. I told my wife we needed to go see it. She said, "Sure, set it up." That was a pleasant surprise. So that evening we go see it.
The P.O. used it for a part time tree trimming business and had three other 7.3 Powerstrokes in his driveway. Good sign. Visually, it's rough. Paint is faded, fenders are rusted pretty bad, and he painted the bed red at some point to match the body. The bed is pink now - excellent. Black spots on the bed are the black paint coming through, not rust holes. Vinyl seats and floor are dirty, but it will continue its life as a work truck, so who cares? Other than the fenders, there is almost no rust. I expected the bed floor to be gone, but it's still solid. Test drive went smoothly. Syncros are bad, so downshifting to second requires some finesse. Steering is really loose/vague on center. At his asking price, I'm still happy. It's after bank hours by now and I'm not carrying that kind of cash, so we head home.
Saturday morning, I call and ask him about a couple things I forgot to check out. All sounds good. Make an offer. He accepts and says come get it this afternoon. So I make the 120 mile drive with my dad to go get it. Made it home with zero concerns. Didn't even stop for fuel.
Total time from not even shopping to new truck in the driveway: 30 hours.
I have wanted this specific truck for years. The mulch box has already been removed, and we've already used the hydr. dump three times. Meanwhile my other truck is sitting completely full of tree limbs because I don't want to unload it the hard way. I know that it's silly for me to love an old work truck this much, especially when it hasn't proven itself yet. I don't care. I love it.
