[Artikgrau325is]

I know the feel. I bought what I thought was a decent truck the beginning of this year, drawn to the ad because it said "minimal rust" and seemed to be clean from the photos. I got there and it indeed looked good, but it had 4 flat tires and was sitting in mud, only the most dedicated would spend time looking underneath it for rust. I did a quick glance over and everything seemed fine to my untrained eye, and I have a tendency to take people's words as honesty.

It was delivered to my house a week or so later, and I got to take a look underneath it, the trailing arms were splitting, barely held together by a hack job welder that was either incompetent or drunk. The cab looked good from the inside, but on the bottom it was revealed to be half made out of fiberglass, and cleverly painted over to hide it. The transmission crossmember was torched out and moved 6 inches forward for some reason, the engine mounts were both passenger side brackets, and both were installed on the wrong holes on the front crossmember.

Inside, none of the lights worked, the heater didn't work, and in the process of painting the cab interior white, they decided it would be a good idea to paint all of the wiring too while they were at it. The dash was cut for a stereo, the wiring was hacked up, every fuse was either missing, blown, or the completely wrong rating, etc.

I've spent the past 8 months getting it back into running condition, using parts from my other truck (thankfully I didn't scrap the metal for money). Got an engine, transmission, driveline, interior in. Just got the gauges and heater working (apparently paint isn't a good conductor of electricity, go figure.) Now just need brakes and tires and she's good to go, when funds allow.

It's been one heck of a learning process, and while frustrating, I think it will be worth it in the end. I learned some valuable lessons:

-Shiny paint can hide a lot.
-Don't look at a vehicle at night without adequate lighting.
-Don't take people's words as the honest truth.
-How to properly inspect an old truck.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade right? I may have felt "burned" on this deal, but with some time and elbow grease, I think I'll have a nice work horse in the end. It's just one of those things you get when you buy a vehicle with unknown history. That's one of the reasons why I appreciate my own frame off build so much. I will know every nut, every bolt, every strand of fabric, every ounce of gasoline that went into it. No secrets, no guessing.