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Hey everybody, I decided to join because I've owned my truck for about six months now and I love it more and more each day and I figured this would be a good outlet to talk to other F150 fans.
The truck belonged to one of my best friends since 09/2012 (so about two years ago). It was his first truck, and he honestly didn't take very good care of it. I know he paid $5,000 for it and by the time we met a year and a half ago, it was on its way out. He leased a '14 Focus SE back in December, and parked the truck in his driveway for six months, until I bought it. The thing was a total dump, and it just sat there all winter. He was going to scrap it until I jokingly said I'd give him $1,000 for it. Fortunately, for both of us, he said yes and actually hounded me to buy the damn thing. He knew if I bought it, I'd fix it up and he wouldn't really be "losing it" per se. The first thing I did was replace all the tires, have the spark plugs and wires changed out (the guy said they were original), repaint the front grille surround, restore the headlights of the haze, and scrub the interior of all grime. It runs immaculately now, despite the CEL being on (it has an exhaust leak, which I suspect is the reason). I use it mainly as a weekend truck for going camping or to go play paintball, but recently I've been driving it more and more in lieu of my other car, an '09 Sonata 5spd. It's just cooler and way more comfortable. Which is funny, because when I first bought it I had a serious case of buyer's remorse and couldn't wait to get rid of it. It was so dumpy looking.
From what I know about the car's history, according to CarFax, it was built September '96, lived in Massachusetts with it's first owner for seven years, then lived with another owner in the same state for the next nine, before being sold at auction to a used dealer here in Rhode Island, where my friend bought it. He had it for a year and a half before it became mine. It's been involved in a collision, the details of which weren't clear from the report, and it currently has 136,000 miles. It's a Lariat trim, with all of the power features. The radio head unit doesn't work except for the cassette deck, which can still play an iPod adaptor, so at least I can still listen to my music. It has the 4.6l V8, RWD, and the Supercab body. Somebody along the way installed a Viper alarm, which has the old school progression of different noises (think Dane Cook's car alarm joke). The door actuators are weak, but they still work, as do the auto lamps and power windows.
There are some oddities about it that I haven't been able to figure out, though, despite searching this forum. First of all, why did some models have the diamond grille, while others had the egg crate grille (the one with the horizontal and vertical bars)? Also, was the sliding rear window an option? I actually prefer my solid window, but I was wondering what the story is behind that. Also, my headlamp switch pulls out as if to turn on the fog lamps, but the bumper doesn't have any cutouts for them. There's also no little indicator on the switch of there ever being any. I'm just wondering if fog lamps were standard on Lariat trims, or maybe the truck originally had them and they weren't replaced after the accident.
Anyway, glad to be here. Here are pictures of the truck in after six months in my possession. Not bad for just having turned 18 years old!!
The truck looks great. I just sold my 1997 XLT for a Screw. My 97 also had the pull out switch for fog lamps, but no fog lamps. It is how Ford made the truck, so it's not due to the accident.
10-14-2014, 04:27 PM
New '97 Lariat owner in RI
