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What previous owners did

Posted: August 10, 2006, 9:18 pm
by 66camperspecial
The original owner of my 66 had a camper in the back so he welded two 1/4 inch plates where the rear bumper bolts to the frame to lower a bumper for the camper,when I bought it I found a universal step bumper on a GM truck that bolted to the holes in the plates but sat 4 inches lower then where it should be. Well tonight I got the die grinder with a cut off wheel,the air chisle and a couple chisles and a large hammer and removed the plates and I did some tweaking to a factory 67-72 step bumper and now I have a decent step bumper sitting where it belongs. It took about 3 hours to get the bumper on and I have been putting this off for about a year and since it was not too hot due to it raining tonight was the night to tackle that job. Jeff

Posted: August 10, 2006, 9:55 pm
by MadMaxetc
I always hate "fixing" some one elses "fixes"

Good to hear you got it back into shape.

how about pitures? We like the pics :lol:

Posted: August 11, 2006, 10:11 am
by Dan64
On my '64 flareside...

The P.O. installed four rusty chrome wagon wheels. With FIVE locking lug nuts on each wheel.

... And he lost the key.

After trying every other imaginable resource for getting them off, I finally found a metric socket that I could beat onto each nut, and it was a tight enough fit that it would turn the nut. About four hours later, I had the wheels off.

Same P.O. installed a locking gas cap.

... And he lost the key.

Sometime before I got the truck from him, having lost the key to the locking gas cap, he pounded the lock cylinder out of the cap and down into the filler tube. This had two effects: (1) causing a rupture in the tube, which I didn't see until I went to fill the tank and gas ran all over the floor; and (2) blocking the tube, so only fractional amounts of gas actually went into the tank.

Same P.O. made all of his electrical connections with duct tape.

Of course, I didn't care, because I was buying back the truck I'd had when I was a kid. But to this day, I marvel at the amount of damage a P.O. can do. It's amazing some of these people can feed and clothe themselves. :shock:

Dan

Posted: August 11, 2006, 2:58 pm
by Jonas
The previous owner of my 65 F250 did not drive it much and must have parked it inside some where. Plus he took excellent care of it. I am lucky to be the second owner. So I guess all PO stories are not bad. I was very lucky.

Posted: August 11, 2006, 3:28 pm
by FORDBOYpete
Yeah, "Roger That !" :wink:

Seems to me If the PO was just a regular normal sort, especially a 1st time owner chances are great you will get a sweet vehicle, but if the PO was a multiple generation "Wanna Be type PO" then WATCH OUT! This is when "Caveat Emptor" or Buyer Beware can have big teeth that hurt, ya know? :cry::oops::roll:

FBp 8)

Posted: August 11, 2006, 3:39 pm
by Jonas
The guy I got it from must be his eighties. I had the truck for about two years and got a letter from him. He sent me the original sales receipts and some other paperwork. Which was real nice, nowadays not many people would take the time to do that. Would have been alot easier just to circuler file it.

Posted: August 11, 2006, 8:18 pm
by Brion71
Well my dad was the original owner of mine, but he was also a bodyman...you know what they say about a mechanics car. I have already had to fix alot of problems, but slowly but surely things are coming together..

Posted: August 11, 2006, 8:32 pm
by ayatollah of rock&rol
for some unknown reason the p o of my truck cut the dash just to the right of the instrement cluster ,all the way to the passenger side door and removed the whole lower half. i cant figure out why .it cant be rust ,there isnt any rust any where else. it cant be leg room ive sat on the passenger side of plenty of slicks with no knee to dash isues, and im 6'8". so who knows. it looks kinda strange.

Posted: August 20, 2006, 7:37 pm
by DocDave
How about a PO that glued a fender together with caulking. Looks like he just cut it off with a torch and slid the new fender under it, used some caulking and went over it with Bondo.
[albumimg]530[/albumimg]

Posted: August 20, 2006, 8:28 pm
by 66fordtrucknut
I had a sole of a shoe as a cab mount, and a core support of solid bondo on my 65'. My 62' had a sheetmetal screw directly in the middle of my otherwise pristine, radio delete dash. Still scratchin my head on that one!
Charlie

[albumimg]531[/albumimg]

Posted: August 20, 2006, 9:15 pm
by 64 f100
Took one apart that had copper plate for patch panels on the floor, and bondo to hold those in place.

Rich

Posted: August 21, 2006, 9:22 am
by Max
I think Charlie wins. That is downright hilarious, but I can see someone doing something like that back then. Or still in some parts of the country.

Posted: August 21, 2006, 6:57 pm
by Paul Merrell
I have a good one the PO of my truck put a 64-66 long bed on backwards because the wheel base is 58-63 so I put the correct bed on. But now I have done something differant will tell everyone later! When I have pics

Posted: August 22, 2006, 1:27 am
by hungrymonkey
My truck has been almost trouble free. Other than the PO losing the title, the keys, as well as the key to the locking gas cap.

I ended up going to the dmv with the bill of sale and filing a lost title, then going to a locksmith with the door lock cylinder and having new keys made.
I also used a pair of vice grips to get the gas cap off.

The guy I bought my truck from seemed pretty shady. He had lost his liscense for some reason and could no longer drive. So He moved to the town he worked in and could not come get his truck which was at his old apartment. The land lord was going to have it towed to the junkyard. All of that seemed kind of kosher. Except for the fact that he hadnt lived at that address in almost a month, did not have the title, or keys, and could not meet me at the truck to do the deal.

So I had a friend of mine run his name to see if he was wanted, or had been in trouble with the law. Then I went to the DMV in uniform and they told me the current owner based off of the plate number.

It all checked out.

Probably why it was only $150.

Posted: August 22, 2006, 8:27 am
by adrianspeeder
Hacked to hell wiring. Mostly done gettin that straightend out.

Adrianspeeder

Posted: August 22, 2006, 10:27 am
by Mazlem
adrianspeeder wrote:Hacked to hell wiring. Mostly done gettin that straightend out.
I can relate to that. Once my dad fixed the wiring that was blowing fuses tho, things went a lot quicker.

Posted: August 22, 2006, 11:50 am
by adrianspeeder
And as bad as it was, the '88 beater bronco was worse. There was an extra horn install from out of the world. I'm still tryin to figure out what was goin on there, and just simply built a harness and relay assembly from scratch for the air horns I put in proper.

Adrianspeeder

Posted: August 22, 2006, 9:12 pm
by castruck_1964
Now let's see where do start :? :roll:
First found damage to right front fender. turns out PO new a really good sculpter there was at least half a gallon of BONDO :shock: :shock: :shock: in the front of the fender.
Second: indash radio was in stalled in a radio delete dash by a parolled Axe Murderer :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
Third: sent box out to be stripped only to find out both box sides were replaced :!: :!: :!: turns out old ones were removed with a gas axe new ones including wheel wells were brass tacked to old floor and frame :evil:
And lastly: seems PO was pulled over by the cops and his buddy stashed his open beer in the heater box :oops: forgot it and it ended up rolling in cowl opening on the side falling in and plugging the drain :twisted: :evil: had to replace that got used section from Tom :D :D

Posted: August 25, 2006, 9:30 pm
by DocDave
I almost put my foot in it bigtime. Was down to see the PO about some parts that he still had for my truck that hadn't come with it. We sarted talking about things that PO's do to vehicles.... Almost came out with "what bonehead would glue front fenders from one truck onto another using caulking"... luckily he interupted me before I said it to tell me about what a great job his son had done splicing the front fenders together on my truck. He's a pretty rough lookin guy and I think I may have had some real problems getting those parts (and my skin) if I had said it. :shock:
I really thought it was an Old repair from the 70's
Dave

Posted: November 13, 2006, 5:41 pm
by shane amigoni
Its like the more work i do on my 65 longbed the farther behind i get. Last night my buddy and i were finishing the tear down. I found that it was really a manual transmission originally, the previous owner just cut off the cluth pedal and replaced it with a c-6. I found blocks of wood screwed to the underside to mount the stereo(i'm guessing). The shifter an aftermarket hurst was mounted on the side of the hump. The rear cab corners were rusted through and the previous wannabe engineer decided to fix it with all things roofing tar and on the inside great stuff foam. The front cab supports which are rusted through also have the foam and one of the cab support rubber bushings. are made of layers of what i believe to rubber floormat which makes the drivers side 3/4 inch farther forward than the passenger side.
The bed was covered with sheet metal over the original and only 3sides were welded and the other calked. which trapped water between the layers. and i had to cut out both layers. Just need time and beer!!