Need advice on a bad vehicle purchase

It's probably all for the best. The older trucks need a lot of maintenance & upkeep. I know i've got at least a hundred hours of labor into my 94 F-150 this year alone.

Once the rust gets ahead of you there's almost no saving the truck.

If the floorboards are rusted out it's likely that it's to a point where stress cracks are developing down on the frame. You know ... you load the truck, hit a hard bump, and it's not very long before the frame breaks.

The Fords aren't all that bad. They hold up all right as long as you take care of em'. It's just that people don't crawl down under the truck to keep an eye on the rust situation often enough.

For whatever it's worth, i know of two Chevys that had the cross members rot out within the first three years of being on the road. I also know of two Toyota trucks where the manufacturer made good on a frame replacement because they failed after three years on the road.

These new box frames and tubular cross members are bad JuJu.