On Friday I was on the road with a decent-looking open car hauler before 3:30 pm.
There was both a major divided highway and a major secondary that went the way I was going.
But on the Friday of a beautiful summer’s evening–neither looked appealing traffic-wise.
Angus Sutherland
I decided to split the difference and take a paved road in-between the other roads. It had several cut-overs–but little-to-no traffic. My gamble paid off with a beautiful and uneventful drive north. Unfortunately, it was too good and put me close to the property by 4:30 pm. In all my eagerness I was an hour ahead. I did a drive by and could see where I needed to be but it was way too early. Not far past the property I pulled into a recreation area near a dam where I could take a minute and relax now that I was in the vicinity of the truck.
I listen to the radio while I watched families blow up floating paddle boards and floaties for the nearby beach. I was a little reluctant to go for a walk and check out the beach as my wallet was stuffed with cash. I didn’t think I would get mugged but I never have cash on me, so I have an irrational fear of losing it when I do. So I sat in the truck, listened to the radio and rested quietly for a bit. At 4:55 pm I texted Josh that I was way ahead of schedule and asked if he could meet earlier. He said he could be there by 5:10 pm.
I rolled up the driveway by 5:01 pm. I could see the truck at the back of the property but I didn’t dare approach. I knew he didn’t live there and I feared someone mistaking me for a creep so I sat on my trailer and waited.
I didn’t have to wait long as Josh and his Ford Fusion pulled up right at 5:10 pm. Josh was a nice enough fellow – I pegged him as being a decade younger than me. He related that he had just had a second child and was looking to cut loose projects he wasn’t going to get to (with some pressure from his dad to get this vehicle off his property). We wandered over to the truck.
It showed close to how Josh described in his ad. Josh had done nothing to prepare the truck for my inspection – bad for the inspection but good for price negotiation.
I suspected something was wrong with the driver’s side door as it was never open in any of the pictures of the truck but neither was it quite closed either. I was right to be suspicious as door neither opened nor closed well. Someone had backed into something with the door while it was open and done some major damage to the door–then to the front fender while trying to close it after the incident. This wasn’t ideal.
The passenger door closed but didn’t latch. Not ideal either, but light years ahead of the driver’s side. The bed floor was good, and I was hoping that would be the case as it was going to be used to haul firewood as its central duty if I bought it. Outside chance that – if it could eventually be insured and plated – we could have it graduate to dump runs also. But trekking to the dump was feeling a little pie-in-the-sky at the moment.
The cab floors were rotted out and most of the step-type sills were too, but there were some pictures of this in the ad so I knew as much going in. But the sills weren’t as bad as I expected and the floors were replaced with some heavier gauge steel and some stick welding. All-and-all not a bad job of fixing it for what I imagine was a previous life on a farm. You’d definitely be docked major points at Pebble Beach but utility-wise, the floor was workable. Body wise – other than the rusted sills and the major damage to the driver’s door and the frame, the truck wasn’t in “bad” shape. Well – at the very least – it didn’t look like it was abused anyway. It was just used for a long time then sat for a long time.
Opening the hood revealed the mighty slant six that I knew was there. Josh had failed to put a battery in it (along with failing to drag it out of the back of the property, failed to fill up the one flat tire, clean anything out of the back or do anything else in preparation of my arrival). Fortunately I was prepared for this and brought a battery with me.
The truck had a new “lightweight” Dodge Dakota type starter in it as Josh said he spent some “time” (read: he threw some parts at it) in the fall trying to get the truck going. The truck turned over easily and with some mixed gas (also brought by me) down the yap it started with ease. Even after several attempts it would always start but wouldn’t stay running though and upon further inspection it seemed that the float in the carburetor was stuck. The more gas you poured in the carb the longer it ran but nothing beyond. Josh had also put a new fuel pump in his fall attempt, so gas was shooting out all around the fuel filter through the unclamped dried-out rubber on the carb-side of the filter. The pump was doing its job – the carb was not.
And that was fine – I knew that it ran. I didn’t want to know anything more that would make the price go up. I made a half-hearted attempt to tap open the floats but pretty much let it be. Worst case scenario is that there would be an engine horrible noise that would become apparent after warm up but: a) given it’s a slant six – that’s unlikely, b) if I proved there wasn’t and I teased the truck into an idle somehow – that wouldn’t help my price and c) IF this engine was a POS – I have a rebuilt, no-mile, slant six sitting in my garage on an engine stand that would love to make this engine bay home (don’t ask – car guy equivalent of an illegitimate child). So far as I could see there was no upside to getting this truck running longer/better with Josh around.
Another headache (literally) was there was no exhaust to speak of except for twenty inches beyond the manifold. And, of course, the brake pedal went to the floor with no resistance – although it was a good sign that it would come back up without issue.
There was some hope for the master cylinder at least. All this would have to be factored in.
Angus Sutherland
Follow this MyStar link for Part Three (the final installment) of Once More Unto the Breach.
