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If it wasn't for my mom and 2 brothers being in the painting/decorating business, my first vehicle would have been a pickup instead of a 79 Mustang Indy Pace car with a 302 and 4 speed. I knew they would be borrowing my truck all the time if I bought one. I even talked about a pickup and told them I wasn't buying one because I knew they would constantly borrow it if not bug me all the time to use it. Its strange that none of them at the time owned a pickup. So August 23 of 1987 I bought that first Mustang, sold it March of 1990, drove my brothers 2nd car for several months until he needed it back then I had no running car for several months when I bought a very beat up 82 Carolla for $325. I got into pizza delivery and bought a 2nd, 3rd & 4th Carollas. I started mowing lawns with only a Snapper 21" commercial mower. It weighed right at 100 pounds and was a bear to load into the small trunk of a Carolla. I learned how to lift up the handle and tip it on one front wheel, lift and put it in the trunk. Ugg that was hard for a skinny 150 pound guy. Finally with a promise from my boss at the pizza place to tell the banker I was full time (temporarily until I got the loan) on March 9th 1993 I got a loan of $2650 for a longbed beautiful sky blue metallic SE-5 1986 Mazda B2000. Finally my first pickup. 1994 I got a Wheel Horse 252-H to use in the lawn service and my world opened up. I didn't end up doing snow removal and moved up to the Twin Cities from Rochester, Mn. I was in the town I'm in now less than a month and my B2000 was rear ended overnight after a hit n run. My good insurance allowed me to pay it off and fix the box myself. I find another B2000 and another and another. I ended up owning 6 B2000s and parting them all out. All 6 were 1986 models. The last one had over 200,000 miles on it and ran like a champ. But I hated the nonexistent rear brakes that I could never get to work on any of the 86 models I had. So I parted out the last one I had getting $200 for an engine with over 200,000 miles on it. I had an 85 F150 then sold it. And had 3 Dodge/Plymouth Colts for a while,,,, and NO PICKUP. What a pain it is to always be hauling something, wrenching on something,, mowing grass and NOT having a pickup. My co-workers that I worked with at a Pizza Hut said it didn't look right for me to drive a tiny little Dodge Colt. They thought it just wasn't normal for Boyd not to be driving a pickup. I had an 85 Datsun pickup for a while. What a rusted piece of crap it was. I cut it up and made it into a trailer. I finally got another 83 F150 and have never been without a pickup since. I have owned over 1 dozen 81-93 F150s. All but one had the 300-6 in it. 79 F250 with 351M. Burnt 83 F350 chassis cab 161" wheelbase. Bad motor 85 F350 crew cab dually 6.9 diesel. Still have my 94 F250HD, 93 F150, 04 & 09 Rangers. Along the line I also owned a 91 Mazda MPV, Plymouth K car, 71 F600 with 300-6 engine and many others I can't remember. The F600 was almost as fun to drive as the 79 Mustang Indy Pace car with a 302. But I can never ever imagine "not" owning a pickup as long as I am able to drive. Even if I do get to a point where I can't drive,,,, I might just keep one so I can look at it, sit in it or drive it around the property if the place I live on is big enough. They could even bury me in one. It just would take a much bigger hole in the ground.
I have the bronco... but its not as handy. Frankly thething has sat unused for two years now.. I would LOVE to find a nice 93-95 F150 with a solid body and a bum engine in it to swap the bronco running gear into.
