A warning before you start reading this. I’ve had this truck for 17 years. I’m going to go through as much of my history with it as I can remember, since I’m a visual person and have taken a huge amount of pictures along the way I kept remembering more and more the deeper I dug into my pics.
This entire thing is going to be a TL:DR.
So I joined the USAF out of high school. After tech school I borrowed Mom’s ’86 El Camino. Drove it for about two years and HATED it. Some redneck hack had swapped the TBI on the 4.3 to an Edelbrock carb, did a horrible job of it, hacked the wiring harness in multiple spots that ended up causing me to be stranded a bunch. Other than the drivetrain it was a decent vehicle, but it was such a damn pain in the ass that I’ve stayed away from Chevy’s ever since.
I was spending a lot of time on the FordSix forums and I decided I wanted something with a 300. I spoke with Dad and he helped me to find a F-150. Technically a two-owner vehicle, but it was a guy and then he gave it to his adult daughter, and does that really count? It had 140K something miles on it. Almost the most basic truck you can get, only options are an automatic and air conditioning. At some point the guy painted it from red to white.
I went on leave for Christmas of 2003 and while at home I dropped the El Camino off with mom and picked up my new-to-me truck. Due to a leaky transmission line from the previous owner the transmission crapped out almost immediately, I didn’t even get a chance to drive it back to base from leave. Dad helped me negotiate a discount on the price we paid due to it and we found a good used transmission to put in it. While it was in the shop, just before it was going to be installed, the mechanic working on it somehow knocked it over on the transmission jack and cracked the case. A new transmission was found, installed, and all was good.
I drove it up to DC and started to put my hard earned E2 pay into parts for it. Of course, dual exhaust was first. Actually really helped the truck, the stock exhaust was so restrictive that half the time it wouldn’t even down shift at WOT. Rest was… well, young kid E36 M3. MSD box, “high flow” cat, better wires, at least I didn’t get a K&N Hot Air Kit. Then my gf and I went and watched Reagan’s funeral procession.
Life was good, I drove around, until one day life wasn’t good. Some dependapotamus decided to drive into me while I was waiting to turn at a light.
Got fixed, life was good again. A couple months later, some old guy slid on some ice into my truck. I was going to let it go (because.... look at it,) but he insisted on me getting it fixed. I went and got a couple quotes and emailed them to him. He paid me $134 and change to get it fixed.
I regularly drove back and forth from DC to Tallahassee for leave on my birthday and for Christmas. Saw many things, visited many places along the way. I remember one time when I was visiting my aunt in NC on the way down. I was tootling along in the right lane at about 65MPH, no hurry. I get passed by a car full of young women in the left lane, a couple seconds later they slow down and keep pace with me. Two of them hang out the window on my side and using gestures ask if I smoke pot. I laugh and shake my head, they look sad and get back in the car as the driver pulled away. Never have I wished I was a pothead more.
Somewhere around now I get my first deployment.
Returned from deployment with a buttload of car parts waiting for me, including a sexy new tonneau cover. Due to deployment tolerance, I got kinda drunk off of 2.5 beers and installed the tonneau. When I was sober I redid it. After I settled back in I decided it was high time I towed Susie up to DC so I could work on her. Normal two week leave, I had been out late the night before I left and was mildly hungover as I got on the road. Stopped for food and felt even worse, logy and bleh. So I grabbed a couple energy drinks. Ended up drinking one per hour for the drive and towards the end the only reason why I was staying awake was how badly I had to pee. I got onto base, unhooked the trailer and was in bed and asleep within 30 minutes.
Life was good again. I got pressed into tow-duty for friends a few times. Hooned around in the snow a few times. I even once got woken up in the middle of my sleep schedule when I was on nights to try and pull a friend out of a mudhole on base that their bf had driven into. I almost got stuck getting to them. I got there, looked at it, laughed and went back to my room.
While on the way out to one of our remote radio stations that maintained the long-haul high-fi troposcatter comms I had something run out in front of the truck. Deer, dog, coyote, got knows. I thought I was going to total the truck, but thankfully it wasn’t that bad.
Life continued to be good. Helped more friends move vehicles (yes, that is a Turbo Dodge.) Finally moved off base for my last year of my first enlistment. This was a good thing as Susie had cracked her head and the balancer was FUBAR and I needed a place to work on her. It was also good cause a friend in Australia shipped me a complete low-mileage Australian 250-2V and I needed a place to store it.
I picked up a brand new (to me) wrench.
Somewhere around now my enlistment ended, I went home (I thought for good) and somewhere around Virginia’s border my transmission lines rubbed through and my transmission E36 M3 itself. I nursed it through NC, then I used my AAA Premium account and the 3x100 mile daily tows to get to north Georgia. I wasted a day or two in a hotel while my best friend came up with his F250 and a flatbed trailer and he towed me on home.
I went and got the El Camino again so I had a vehicle and hated life for a while.
Life was not good. The El Camino’s trans started to lose reverse, I had a series of very very crappy jobs and I realized I missed the USAF. So I joined the Reserves.
Life started to get better. I got a dog, I got a better job, I got a gf, I continued to advance in rank in the Reserves. Eventually I cross-trained in the USAF into a new job and had to go TDY to Port Hueneme, California for training. I hadn’t advanced in rank enough for them to want to allow me a rental car, so I talked to my folks and they helped me replace the transmission again. We sprung for a brand new FoMoCo unit. I packed my crap, left the dog with the gf and headed out to California for about 4.5 months. Hurricane Ike was hitting Mississippi so I diverted up 231 around Panama City and got onto I-40 to head west.
Life was good until I got to Arkansas. Here was the very first time the truck ever let me down for any reason that wasn’t ultimately my fault. At about 215k miles, the fuel pump shat itself, AAA again rescued me and took me to a shop, they pulled the original fuel pump out of the tank, slapped a new one in, then I got on the road again. Life was good again except now I had to make up the 8 hours I lost from the time I got stranded on the highway to the time I got back on the road.
Got to Cali, went to school to become a vehicle maintenance technician (a mechanic.)
These training trucks had names of just about everyone that had ever crawled under them carved into the paint. Despite the mileage, no one should want them.
I ordered bits from National Parts Depot while I was in school, replaced the springs and added front and rear sway bars.
Did some neat E36 M3, saw some neat stuff, then it was time to go home. Dad flew out to ride back with me. We went ~1500 miles out of the way, went up the eastern side of California, through Lone Pine and other little spots along US 395. Got up to Carson City and headed East along Hwy 50, “The loneliest road in America”
Stopped in most of the “major” towns along the way for food, lodgings, gas, tourist traps, etc. Saw Silver Springs, Fallon, Austin, Eureka, Ely, all sorts of little places. We saw the Fairview Peak Earthquake Fault and got stuck in the snow halfway up. We checked out the BLM managed park area west of Ely where they dynamited the top of a mountain that contained garnets so that tourists could go rock-hounding. Again, snow prevented us from finding anything, but we had fun wandering up the hill and slipping and sliding down the hill.
Convict Lake, Ca
Fault line and a stuck truck
We learned the lesson from the fault line, so we parked at the road and walked up the garnet hill
Most of 50 is part of the original Lincoln Highway, which was Route 66 before Route 66 was a thing
Wagons East continued, stopped in Panguitch, Utah. Dad was irritated cause he wanted to pick up a small bottle of bourbon, but because rural Utah there was nothing open at 5PM on a weekday.
We kept on into Arizona and the northern end of the Grand Canyon (southern side being snowed in still), saw some of Route 66
Rest of the trip back was fairly standard driving except for the Continental Divide
We got home, life was good.
Light hooning and mudding with friends in the Appalachicola National Forest. Light hauling crap around for projects, normal truck stuff.
Life was good. I spent a year on OJT at Eglin AFB working on vehicles. Because I was out there for a year, I asked Dad if he would watch my dog, by the time I got done at Eglin he had bonded strongly with her so I couldn’t take her back in good conscience. Not long after that, the gf got a job offer in Tampa, so we moved on down. Time rolled on.
shiny happy people in Tampa hit me a few times. I had to fight with insurance as they kept wanting to total my truck and I kept on giving them the finger.
Started going to the local community college, then eventually went on to USF. Joined FSAE. Due to rust from DC, my driver’s side brake hose popped off, and the passenger side was about to do the same. Got a local company to make some braided lines. Somewhere in here I decided it was again time to go get Susie and bring her down.
Time for another dog, again her first ride home was in the truck. Life was definitely good. Third picture is from when I stopped in Crystal River along the way to Tallahassee cause the alternator died. Luna wanted to know what I was doing.
Decided to take care of a valve cover leak and a lifter cover leak. Found a massive carbon buildup that I took care of. For some reason I looked like Fidel Castro.
Another shiny happy person hit me. I learned from last time and left my hitch in so he ate that and I had minor work done to repair.
Time passes, life is good, marriage, eventually I piece together a big brake kit from stock Ford parts. While prepping for that I found some Lightning wheels as the brakes won’t fit in 15” wheels (always the best reason to upgrade something)
Old on the left, new on the right
More dogs, cause why not
Fuel pump died again. Dropped it off at Pep Boys where a good friend worked. He was going to work on it, but he had an emergency and couldn’t do it. Some berkeleying shiny happy person decided to hack into my wiring harness. Its been a while since I remembered this, but I think I had to take it back to them three damn times to fix it. Finally I got tired of wasting my time and pulled the bed myself. Found this berkeleying bullE36 M3. Escalated my complaints to corporate and got my money back.
Then one day, I went to visit my sister and her daughter.
Along the way I noticed my oil pressure was E36 M3. I checked levels and found it was good, The motor was at ~360k miles, so I knew what was going on. I put in motor honey, I babied her, I did everything I could, but I was too late, the pump was done and the new pump I picked up was going to have to work overtime in order to save the engine.
Spoiler, it did not. As we determined here https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/postmortem-inspection-of-a-300/182410/page1/ , the #1 bearing spun and that was that.
I found a used engine on craigslist, I picked it up, sold the trans for recoup, tore it down and rebuilt it at a budget build. Threw a few little performance things in there, cleaned the ports a bit, Chevy rockers to increase the rocker arm ratio, decked the block and bumped compression a hair. Little stuff.
As I was rebuilding the engine, I berkeleyed up. I berkeleyed up bad, and the result ended up messing with my head for a while. I ended up spiraling into depression and had a bad time.
What was the cause? This little guy. These dots are supposed to be lined up. I know that I lined them up. I actually have a picture of me focusing on lining them up. I must’ve pulled the crankshaft at some point to check something and put it back when I wasn’t focused on it.
I got everything bolted on and ready, then swapped the engine. Because of the above issue it took me a solid month to actually get the engine running. I’d done engine swaps before, though never alone. It was a bad time for me while I figured out WTF was going on.
Due to I-275, I had to do some front end work.
Another puppy got a ride home
That brings us about up to now and my threads here
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-lsx-heads-and-which-to-modify/170258/page1/
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/ls-headed-300-brainstorming-problems/178791/page1/
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/lets-talk-electric-fan-shrouds/180503/page1/
That makes me miss my AF days also.
A: thank you for your service Sir. B: thank you for taking in your dogs. C: good luck with your truck. D: please give all of your dogs a good back rub for me.
I really like the OBS style of Ford truck, I'm half assed looking for either that or a bullnose for a work truck but truck prices are dumb at the moment. Love the 300 too.
Also I'm ashamed to say that I still own my first truck and don't have anywhere near the pics and such in the 21 years I've owned it
Excellent thread. Love when there are lots of pics.
Love your truck. Simple and basic. That was my favorite F150 body. Local bakery owner has that body Lightning (first gen). All black. Last I saw only 65K miles. Keeps it mint. I always admire it.
Keep up the good work
Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:I really like the OBS style of Ford truck, I'm half assed looking for either that or a bullnose for a work truck but truck prices are dumb at the moment. Love the 300 too.
Also I'm ashamed to say that I still own my first truck and don't have anywhere near the pics and such in the 21 years I've owned it
Like I mentioned in the beginning, I'm a very visual person. Because of that and a few other issues with my messed up brain I have, what I consider, a crappy memory. I actually didn't realize how much of this I remembered until I was looking through the pictures. It was incredibly interesting to figure out how my brain works.
Stampie (FS) said:That makes me miss my AF days also.
There's definitely something to be said for a nice normal truck in the age of 4 doored, 22 foot long, jacked up brodozers with every gadget plus a pool in the back.
In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :
It has a better turning radius than my wife's crossover SUV.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
I don't doubt it at all.
One reason I've kept my ranger for so many years as my work truck is because it'll fit in places that MEGA TRUCK won't and I can unload stuff from the rack without climbing.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
"Do you smoke pot?"
"No, but I eat Bob Costas!"
Scene fades as Mr_Asa creates another memory with his truck.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Truely a missed opportunity
This is the content I come here for. Thanks for sharing your story. It was a great read. It's obvious that you really care about your truck and have made some great memories with it. Here's to many more!
Nice looking truck. I bounced around between Port Hueneme, Oxnard, and Ventura for a few years when I was going to college down there. There was a really good Vietnamese place I frequented called Pho Saigon. Did you ever eat there?
Love the story and the truck. I owned two regular cab, short bed 1/2 ton Chevy pickups and loved them both (first was a 2WD, V6, 5spd). This thread brings back memories!
thatsnowinnebago (Forum Supporter) said:Nice looking truck. I bounced around between Port Hueneme, Oxnard, and Ventura for a few years when I was going to college down there. There was a really good Vietnamese place I frequented called Pho Saigon. Did you ever eat there?
I wasn't as into pho back then as I am now, but one of the guys going through the course was from Guam and he loved the stuff. He probably took us there at least once.
Know those projects that you hate doing, but just keep putting off and putting off? Finally knocked this one off the list. I traded these injectors to Curtis for a nice (a very nice) bottle of scotch back during the 2020 Challenge and finally worked myself up enough to do the job.
Also pulled the valve cover and checked the valve clearances cause I thought something weird was going on, but it all looked good. That was what I was dreading more than the injectors, I hate oil leaks.
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