paintballdude05

The time has come to replace my trusty 2008 F150 that I purchased from a family member back in 2013. With over 340k KM's ( 215k miles) I was planning on putting some money into it this year to fix up the rusty body as well as take care of some mechanicals. However, after looking over the body a bit closer last weekend it appears as though last winter has really taken a toll on the cab. The rocker panels are in very rough shape and would require a large amount of repairs (which means big $$). This coupled with the mechanical repairs and the rest of the body work required has convinced me to go down a different path.

I'm going to be trying something that has tempted me for some time now and that's purchasing a vehicle from a COPART auction. COPART specializes in auctioning off vehicles that were involved in accidents for insurance companies. If you've had a vehicle written off by your insurance company, there's a chance it went on the block at a COPART Auction.

Anyways, I've been looking around at the listings available here in Canada and it appears as though Alberta is ground zero for trucks (not really surprising considering it's the oil patch). Last week I bid on, and won a Blue 2012 Ford F150 that was up for bid in Edmonton. The truck was involved in a front end collision however the airbags didn't deploy and the rest of the truck looks to be in good shape. I've got a shipper picking up the truck early next week and it should be at my place by the end of next weekend.

Quick Features:
- SuperCrew with a 6.5' box
- 5.0l Coyote V8
- 6 Speed Auto
- 4x4
- XLT Trim with the XTR Package
- 18" Chrome Wheels
- Towing Package















Some close-up's of the damage.







The plan is to fix this truck up to as good as new (if not better). It will be making a trip to the frame rack to ensure everything is still strait. If it isn't, I'll get the shop to bring it back to factory specs. I'm also looking at maybe picking up another truck from COPART to donate parts to this project. I'm hoping to find a higher trim level truck that I could swap a leather interior and centre console shift with.

I'll be updating the thread as I go along, thanks!

paintballdude05

The truck got picked up today by the shipper from the auction yard. He's supposed to head out for my place this evening and should make it here by this weekend. He sent me some pictures of the truck after he picked it up, luckily it's still looking the same as in the auction pictures including the tonneau cover!

paintballdude05

So the truck showed up last night in good shape. I was a bit late getting home but the guys that delivered it had already pulled the truck off the trailer and parked it when I got there. It was a father-son duo which were very nice and professional, I'll be using their services again if I'm grabbing another truck from that area. Here's a picture they sent me when they entered Ontario with it.



I haven't gotten a lot of time to take a thorough look at it, but I did run it for 10 minutes or so and it sounded good. One of the coolant hoses have been compromised though since it was pushed into the engine. It's leaking coolant so that will have to be replaced fairly quickly. Cosmetically, it's pretty much what I expected. The interior is pretty dirty but overall in good shape from what I was able to see. I believe the truck belonged to a contractor since the interior had some deck screws in one of the door pockets and the bed had a few building materials in it. One pleasant surprise is that the bed has a spray-in bed liner. I also found the fog lights and one good headlight that was left in the bed under the tonneau cover along with what remains of the front bumper. The tires and wheels look to be in good shape too with the body having very little to no rust!

There is damage to the passenger front door that I wasn't really expecting, it was hard to see in the photos but the door is creased and closes funny. I believe that the accident pushed both aprons towards the passenger side and this pushed the passenger fender into the door. It looks like somebody then forced the door open and in doing so bent the front part of the door and the fender. The door also seems like it has some worn pins or something since it doesn't close right, this might mean the door hinge area of the cab has moved some, I'll have to look into it to see for sure. The rest of the body (apart from the apparent front end damage and door) is in good shape. The only other damage that I could see is a dent in the rear bumper and a scratch just above it, not a big deal.

The frame doesn't look too bad though from the little bit of time I had to look at it. The drivers side frame horn is definitely bent, but the passenger side looks okay. It will need some new radiator cross members/supports for sure though, those are toast. I probably won't have time to take a closer look at it until Monday evening now since I'm out of town. In the meantime, here are a few pictures I took quickly this morning.















Bent passenger frame horn.

FerdinandF150

How much did that run you?

paintballdude05

I'm in it for somewhere between 30%-40% of a similar used truck on a local dealers lot. That includes the price of the truck, taxes, brokerage fees, auction fees, shipping, etc. I'm hoping to come in at around 50% value of one on a lot when it's all said and done.

DanAustin

Have you made any progress?

paintballdude05

I've been able to get a bit of work done, here's an update!

Earlier this week I met with the owner of a local shop that specializes in Ford trucks. He's mostly a repair shop be he also has a bunch of parts trucks. He has pretty much everything I'll need to fix up my truck up minus a fender and possibly a door (if required). He even has a set of fender aprons/rails that are in the same color as my truck and ready to be removed as well as lower radiator cross member.

When I got home I measured the trucks wheelbase very quickly. I went from the centre of the front wheel to the centre of the rear one on both sides. I know this isn't a very scientific way of doing it, but I ended up getting a measurement of 157.5" on the left side, 157" on the right. This would make sense with the front of the frame being pushed towards the right hand side. Hope this doesn't mean the whole front section of the frame is twisted over, who know's though.

I also took a closer look at the passenger side doors to see what was happening. It appears as though the front door has been pushed back by some distorting of the cab where the hinges mount, I believe the upper mount is to blame. I'm going to have to spend some more time looking into this to see what's going on, hopefully it isn't too bad.

On a good note, it appears as though the passenger side headlight is still in good shape as well as both fog lights, one mounting bracket and both tow hooks. Anyways, here are a few more pictures of the truck.















Damage to the hood's striker mounting location, I believe this is easily repaired vs. replacing the whole hood.



The only real damage to the rear of the truck, it's a fairly easy fix (aka new bumper)

paintballdude05

I was able to get the box cleaned out over the weekend so I can store some parts while I work on the truck. I took out about 150lbs worth of dirt, clay, rusty nails and garbage. I would have liked to wash it out but it was too cold out. It appears as though paint or something else stained the bed purple too, hopefully I can get that out.



Once I was done with that, I pulled the innder fender and fender on the passenger side. The foam near the door really turned this into a pain since it didn't want to let go. The drivers side fender should go a little bit better now that I know where to cut the foam. Here's how far I got before I got snowed out.







Here are a few shots of the front passenger door that's now out of alignment, I'm hoping it will go back into place once the front structure gets moved back to where it was.







Now that I've had a chance to fully access all the damage to the truck, I think I've got a game plan as to how I'm going to get repairs done. I have made a list of all the major parts I'm going to need and the next step is going to be getting the frame inspected by a shop. I have a feeling my frame is pretty tweaked though. If it can't be repaired or the repairs are too expensive, I'll most likely end up doing a complete frame swap on the truck. I have a line on a good frame so that might be the way to go even though it'll be a lot of work. On the plus side, it would give me a chance to go over the whole truck with a fine tooth comb.

DanAustin

Hopefully the frame isn't too bad looks like a real fun project I have always watched some of the wrecked auctions and want to do this someday. Good luck with it. With the bed you can probably clean the crap out of it and paint over the bedliner I would think to get rid of the purple.

paintballdude05

If it could be saved, that would sure save me a lot of time and money, I'll wait and see what the shop says. Before I send it there though, I need to fix the lower rad hose so that it's no longer leaking. That way the truck can move around without the chance of overheating. I'm actually thinking of completely bypassing the radiator so that it can be remove now since it will need to happen in the future. anyways.

As far as the bed goes, I'm not sure if I'd paint it, but I might go and get it touched up with some more LineX by a local shop. It's a fairly low priority though in the grand scheme of things.