I Haven’t Seen My First Truck Since I Sold It 9 Years Ago. Now It’s for Sale
You never expect to wake up one day and see an old friend that you thought was long-gone.
There's something super strange going on. In the past few months, several trucks I used to own have come up for sale on Facebook Marketplace. I haven't been tempted to buy any of them back... until now. What you're looking at here is the first vehicle I ever owned: a 1996 Ford F-250 with the 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel. Lord, give me strength.
To give you an idea of how slick this rig was (and seemingly still is), my car friends from high school still bring it up to this day. I haven't owned it since I was 17, and I've cycled through many trucks since then, but this is the one that stuck. It's what I was known for.
I was fortunate that my parents bought it for me—these were much cheaper back then—and it's what hooked me on 4x4s. My wife and I had just started dating when I got it, so a lot of our early memories together were made in this thing. Like a real dummy, I sold it after a couple of years because I wanted a car. Said car ended up being a broken VW Corrado with the VR6 that overheated every time I drove it. I never said I was a smart kid.
Anywho, I hadn't even seen the Old Body Style Ford since I sold it. A buddy of mine told me he spotted it a year or two ago, about an hour away, but I thought the chances were slim. Then around 5 o'clock this morning, another friend sent me the listing. Sure enough, this is it, about an hour from my house. Some of the identifying markers still remain, telling me this is definitely my old pickup.
First, there's the side-dump exhaust. Not uncommon on an old diesel, I understand, but there's more supporting evidence. Those are the same wheels it's had for years, and I remember polishing them religiously before every local car meet—that back-passenger wheel always had a lil' soot on it from the straight pipe. I also distinctly recall applying that "Old But Sexy" sticker on the back glass because as a pastor's grandson, it felt risqué putting that word in big letters anywhere for people to see. I also added those clear black headlights and cab lights. I bet it even has the blinding HIDs I installed. (Again, not a smart kid.)
There are some new add-ons, like the light bar bolted onto the front bumper and the diamond plate toolbox in the bed. It's also wearing a new set of Mickey Thompson tires; if I remember correctly, it used to have Nittos. Everything else that I can see is remarkably the same. It even has the twin-traction beam front axle still, which is a wonder to me because when I owned it, the toe-out was horrid. I worked all summer at my dad's sawmill so I could swap in a Dana 60 solid axle but I sold it before completing the job.
I'm really not in the market for another truck. In fact, I'm selling my current daily—a '96 F-350 that I bought because I missed the red rider you're looking at here. But I'm afraid that if I look at this listing for five more minutes, I might make a questionable financial decision. I wonder if he'd come down on that price at all...
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