It's hard to tell but I am glad I saved this expy.

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

Back in November I bought what would become my fourth daily driver. it started out as "well, if it dies it'll make money from parts, if it lives it'll pay for itself.."

I paid $400 for a 97 xlt with 274k and was told before looking it may not run due to a coolant leak and he was going to call to have her towed off to scrap the next week. I made my first ant only offer (higher than scrap yard was going to give) and scheduled to meet him.. I won't go in to details on the pickup but I did end up spending 5 hours just bodging things to slow the massive coolant leaks to get home. the steering was sloppy, the brakes were soft (new pads/rotors) the tires were bald and the rear end was on the ground. the interior was dismal and very neglected as was the exterior. a true beater. through my time and all of you here helping with advice I have managed to almost completely turn her around and today I got her passed 280k

all I lack is an alignment to fix the cocked steering wheel. installing the ac system then vac/charge to see if it will even work. after that I need some paint work done. that's it really to bring her back to what I would call stage zero. after that I get to enjoy some mods. starting with projector headlights.

so, thanks to all of you who have helped!

feel free to share the story behind your expy.

 

[hooraah]

My story is almost exactly the same as yours. Picked mine up from a family member that had no use for the truck and it had been sitting in the driveway unused for about a year. Paint rough, interior trashed, maintenance neglected, tires bald, 1998, 200k miles. THe one positive is that the engine/trans run pretty strong. They got almost nothing on the trade in and were about to give it up to a dealer when I offered a few hundred dollars as I semi looking for a capable tow vehicle.

Had to jump start it to get it running, spent a few hours vacuuming it, cleaning the filth off the interior, and changing the oil just so I would feel comfortable driving it home across the state.

So far I've put about $200 into it in the form of serpentine belt/pullies, new seats from the junkyard, junkyard Ford factory hitch receiver with 7 pin harness, couple missing trim pieces, fixed a busted AC line and recharged the system, lots more carpet cleaning, and a good overall polish.

Next on the list is replacing the idler arm thats sloppy, transmission fluid, fixing the rust on the roof, STILL more carpet cleaning, and waiting to jump on a good deal on tires. Its still going to be a beater work truck but at least it will be reliable.