I might be getting a truck of my own!

For anyone who doesn't know, for the last year while I was doing a complete rebuild on my car, my dad allowed me to use his Chevy 1500 v8 pickup. This is how I discovered scrapping. My car is near in completion and thus, I must be returning the truck to my dad.

As a past job/hobby, I bought and sold fire alarm systems on eBay. I repaired, sorted, cleaned, and individually listed each part. I made a pretty hefty profit. However, I ran out of time when we had to move out. Recently, I've been able to list a lot of my old back-stock. I threw up 2 panels, only expecting $150 each, for $400 each or best offer. Someone bought it now for both. :D This is like 1/10 of what I have to list still. I still owe my dad about $1500 from borrowed money, but he said take my time.

Now the good part. I was picking up scrap from a friend's house the other night, and I saw that they've had the same truck sitting in the back yard for over a year...so I asked about it. "Yeah I'm calling a professional junker and selling it to them." I asked what was wrong with it...and I got "Needs a new battery." So I asked to buy it and she seemed surprised, but she said once she finds the title and gets an offer, she will get back to me and sell it to me. Its a purple Ford F150, 380 engine, v8 (pretty sure), stick shift. It has like 170k miles on it but apparently it runs just fine, they just need it gone. I might be able to snag this baby for $400 +/- $100.

So I have the money (I've been riding on less than $50 in the bank for the last month or 2) and I have a lead on a truck. Good deal.

Good deal...once you get it and if all it needs is a battery....do a oil change encase any water got into that oil it will fry the new truck real fast.

Doing the air filter wont be a bad deal either and or other tune up items (spark plugs and so on)

Good idea. Really good idea. Shouldn't be too expensive either. Anyone know what a scrap company would offer for a vehicle in this condition?

Thank you!

Condition doesn't matter to scrap yards. They only care about weight. Maybe I am not understanding your question.

Here...that would go for around 250 to 350 cash.

And your right idaho...condition dose not matter when it comes to "scrap" cars...but I do know scrap yards who own a car lot and or some used car part store some where.

Right, I didn't word that question properly. Thank you.

congratulations CanIScrapIt.....sure sounds like a good deal. Good luck with it.

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Originally Posted by easyrecycle

Here...that would go for around 250 to 350 cash.

And your right idaho...condition dose not matter when it comes to "scrap" cars...but I do know scrap yards who own a car lot and or some used car part store some where.

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Not aware of any local yards that do that, but it would be a definite money maker for them. I've seen trucks come in that would make you cry. I offered to buy one off them before it got crushed. No go "we don't sell scrap".

The engine will probably be a 360 ci. Real common motor for Ford. Older ones sometimes had a 390 ci.

I thought he was buying it to use for scrapping? No? Lol, its late and I'm easily confused!

If you have a load on your truck it will take a lot more distance to come to a complete stop, no tailgating.

Check your shoes and drums, brakes are inexpensive to replace especially if you do your own wrenching. My latest toy is getting new drums and shoes before it goes back to work in the spring.

I'm not able to give all the details of this story, but will give the most important parts.

B.C. is very mountainous, some of the back roads are switchbacks with very steep grades. The truck was a large International diesel with a crane, loaded with some of the largest electric motors you would care to lay your eyes upon. The legal load limit was 14,400 kgs and I was well over that.

Now that were loaded it's time to make the accent, the road is narrow with grades sometimes more than 13 percent and nothing but one long switchback with very few straight stretches and very very rough. Here's were it gets interesting, I'm trying to only apply light pressure to the air brakes but I'm bouncing so much in the seat I was not able to keep steady pressure. Next thing you know we have a fully loaded runaway.

No matter how much brake pedal you applied it was not going to help, and my thoughts were OMG what if someone is coming up, If that did happen we were going to push that other guy right over the bank or down to the highway. Like a bug on the front bumper.

Lost all air pressure the best I could do, was to completely take my foot off the brake, disengage the clutch and pin the throttle to max out the RPM's to build up air then stand on the brake for a few seconds then repeat the procedure.

We made it off the mountain in one piece, when I finally did get the truck stopped chalked the tires leaving the parking brake off so that the brake shoes were not making any contact with the brake drums which were at melting temperature. I've never seen drums white with heat before.

My woman never said a peep or even gave a scream, she sat quite as a church mouse through the whole ordeal.

Perhaps he is considering his options. Keep it, or seeing what it would bring as scrap.

If all it needs to run is battery and he needs a truck....seems like a no brainer.

Dang, that is one crazy story...

I am buying the truck to scrap WITH. I will NOT be scrapping the truck unless it proves to be in worse condition than expected. The only reason I asked what it would be worth as scrap is because she is trying to get an offer from a car scrapper before she contacts me and I want to know how much I will end up paying for it.

Well, I got the truck!

http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/q...1229111532.jpg

Paid $250 for it. It needed some work though:
Battery - $120
Battery terminals - $8
Alternator - $160
Serpentine belt - $25
4 Used tires - $150

Add in the price to get the tires mounted and I'm sitting at about $750 invested. Not bad, especially because I could flip it for about $1600-$2200 at this point.


This is when the nerd side of me kicks in. I LOVE flashing lights, I don't know why. I was given a large, orange rotating light when I was younger and I would like to mount it on the truck. What would be the best way to do this? Magnets? Or would it just be better to screw it in with self-tapping screws and rubber washers?

Also, the back cap is so nice looking, but I feel like it needs to be taken off for efficiency. It's such a shame. This is a shorter bed so already I am going to have problems fitting things like fridges and such. I mean, my old truck was an 8ft bed with a cap, and that was hard to deal with. Do you think I should take the cap off and build up the sides for more room?


Thanks!

yeah take the cap off and build sides

$250!! WOW what a deal

The short bed is still fine, you'll just have to be a bit creative. invest in a few crank straps, you wouldnt believe the stuff i haul in my short box 4 banger sonoma, its just like playing tetris

its not the size that matters, its how you use it :D

Nice find at a great price.

I would flip it and buy a bigger truck myself.

In any other situation, I would probably flip it as well, but the original owner seemed absolutely delighted that I got it running and I would put it to good use. She knows I am going to treat the truck well, also.

So I think taking the cap off would be best. Yeah, I was going to look into getting some ratchet straps once I get a little more cash (I'm broke again...:/). How is it exactly that people build up the sides on their trucks? Do they screw into the bed?

If u wanna do it right get a welder and put some diamond plate and weld the bottom to the side of the beds. cut the plate right above the bed and weld really good hinges on it. and some removable vertical pin holders for support. This will allow you to add on removable sides that arent going any were. And if u use a metal fabricator with his stuff he'll angle the part behind the cab to make it aerodynamic. When i worked at the welding shop with my dad we were doing 3 of these a month and never had and issues with them coming back.

Or get the plywood and bolt it on to the frame and be ghetto :-)but defenitly get ratchet straps in the mean time. worth there weight in gold.

Cool Truck!

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...Battery - $120 ...

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Well you mentioned "used tires" Could've gotten a used battery too for MUCH less.
(I got mine from a scrap place for about $25 and it had the date stamp less than year old....despite the fact I sell them batt.s for $7 or $8 , course mine are old dead ones...;)
:cool:

(running out of time online for now.:mad:
:cool:

man if thats a decent runner you stole that truck for that price!!! Bravo

if you are wanting a bigger truck though i would drive it for a while an throw an ad up on craigslist and see if anyone wants to trade, i traded a 90's model 1/2 chevy for a 1ton about a year ago because the guy needed a smaller truck, just an idea.

otherwise as mentioned above throw some new oil and filters and a tune-up and put it to work, it looks to be a pretty solid truck in the picture.

There should be stake pockets in the bed rails. Get some 2x4s and plywood and slap it together. You will have to cut the 2x4 down to size to get it to fit into the pocket.

In the future, ask your auto store if they have any "used" batteries. I picked up one from Auto Zone for 30 bucks. It was old stock or something, but like new.

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Originally Posted by CanIScrapIt

In any other situation, I would probably flip it as well, but the original owner seemed absolutely delighted that I got it running and I would put it to good use. She knows I am going to treat the truck well, also.

So I think taking the cap off would be best. Yeah, I was going to look into getting some ratchet straps once I get a little more cash (I'm broke again...:/). How is it exactly that people build up the sides on their trucks? Do they screw into the bed?

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about the ratchet straps, i got mine from a dollar store for $2 a piece. theyre just as high of a quality as the ones you get at wal mart for $30 a pack of 4