My new (to me) 2002 Ford F-250 w/ 7.3L PSD
I’d been searching for a truck for just over a week before I had found this gem. I’d been watching dealership and private listings online and my father-in-law-to-be was helping me by watching the weekly auctions.
On the night of Sunday 11/02, I search several nearby metro areas on Craig’s List and happened across an unbelievable deal in KC metro.
By Monday 11/03, I was test driving the truck in Lenexa KS and leaving a deposit. I’d read countless pages about choosing and looking over a diesel and had watched several somewhat informative videos before the test drive. I took along a friend who had driven a number of good and bad diesels over the years. While we were no experts, we didn’t seem to find any obvious problems.
By Friday 11/07, I was driving home my new (to me) 2002 Ford F-250 w/ 7.3L PSD, Crew Cab, Long Bed, 4×4, etc. I’m usually one to take things slow, so I really felt like I was jumping the gun on this. It was just such a great deal that I hated to stall one bit. I ended up buying the truck for less than trade-in value. Wade was very friendly, helpful, informative along the way. We covered his maintenance schedule so that I could continue where he left off, then I gave him the bennies and we completed all the private party paperwork. The truck was officially mine. Hoping I didn’t just end up with a giant lemon!
The truck just rolled over to 250K when they were driving it back from the 5K oil change at the dealership this morning. I called the dealership that they always use for service and asked if I could get a copy of service records for the truck so that I know what still needs to be done. They were glad to help, so I drove the truck to the dealership and picked up their records (from 200K to 250K) before heading home. Apparently they changed computer systems a year or two ago and weren’t able to preserve any records before 200K, otherwise they would have given me even more. Glad the folks at Danny Zeck (http://www.dzford.com/) were willing to help.
It seems like the truck only needs a few things. Remove the company lettering on doors and tailgate, replace cracked windshield, remove a ton of labels/stickers from rear window. All in good time.
My body shop friend was awesome. He removed the lettering from the front doors and back tailgate the same day. He said that removal turned out to be more of a PITA than he had expected because he had to heat and peel individual letters, but we were both impressed that there were no noticeable fading effects or other issues after he removed the lettering. We scheduled replacement of the windshield for the following week.
Off to clean out the truck and remove some stickers.