Semi-Retro Ford Pick-Up

[Matt Harper]

This 1992 F150 Flare-side has been parked outside one of my neighbors homes, pretty much since I moved to the US over 14 years ago. It was clearly being used to tow a boat, run errands and latterly by one of his kids to get to and from school. I walked past this truck whenever I was working from home and my dogs needed their daily constitutional.
When a 'For Sale' card appeared on it I thought I'd take a look - short-bed flare-sides are not all that common and this appeared well cared for.

It turns out this truck is a one-owner, fully serviced and meticulously maintained 302cu in EFI 4x4 auto with 140k miles on it. Being Floridian, the paint has been cooked off the hood, roof and tonneau but is otherwise in remarkable shape for a 22 year-old utility vehicle.

He wanted out of it because he could no longer stomach 13mpg and the cost of insuring it for his kids and he was asking $3500 for it - my number was $2500. After a little bit of teeth-sucking and proclamations of sheaves of accompanying paperwork we settled on $2750

I collected it last night, but work meant I couldn't really figure out if I'd nicked it or bought a pile of schzitt until this lunchtime when I noticed:



It's got about $1000 worth of brand new BFG ATR's on it.



Other than a 'character-dent' in the passenger door and a scab on the hood, it's totally straight panel-wise





It has flawless factory alloys with auto hubs and immaculate chrome



…and is super-clean and unmolested mechanically.

I was going to use this as a beater - lugging crap to the dump, occasionally moving furniture - just an old nail to do grunt work with - but now I'm wondering if I should spend a few bucks on it, get it painted, pull out the bench and put some decent seats in it, take the back half of the exhaust off so the rednecks will like the noise, Put a roof bar and lights on it, maybe lift it 6" and fit a train horn.

I think that would make it a $6-7k truck….

So, I bought it pretty much on a whim - and now I'm not sure what to do with it - suggestions?

[minky monkey]

I like it. Cool piece of kit!

[LaurasOtherHalf]

What a strange bit of design with the pick up bed being narrower than the cab

But still, much V8 goodness!

[Croutons]

Stupid question which I'm sure google would sort quickly, how do US MOT/ roadworthiness tests work? Just wondering hw extreme you could go wihhout having to worry...

[Matt Harper]

Croutons said:

Stupid question which I'm sure google would sort quickly, how do US MOT/ roadworthiness tests work? Just wondering hw extreme you could go wihhout having to worry...

In FL, where I live, no such test exists. There are rules and regs re dimensions, bumper heights, lights etc, but they are pretty lax too. No emmisions/structural test at all. In essence it's a bit of a free-for-all here.

All that said, it's completely rot/rust/damage free underneath…

Edited by Matt Harper on Tuesday 26th August 21:23

[Hitch78]

paint it black, three inch lift, spots with yellow smiley face covers and a straight through exhaust is what this needs! Lovely old thing.

[skyrover]

Needs a roll bar and lights

[Dr G]

That's cool as a cool thing; definitely needs V8 noise

[Roo]

Nice looking truck for the money.

[benny.c]

Nice truck


Reminds me of my old GMC Stepside….

Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 27th August 16:21