bjprk
Registered User
Hi - my name is Bob Johnson and I live in the southern province of the People's Republik of Kalifornia (the PRK) near Los Angeles. I'm the original owner of a 1986 F250 XLT with approximately 200K miles. - "approximately" because the overdrive sending unit had it's problems when it was first installed.
There are a lot of reasons to keep one of these trucks, some rational, and some maybe not-so-rational, but other than the obvious here's a different one: About 10 years ago my girlfriend and I were out of town over an Easter weekend, when we returned to find every vehicle in our condo complex that wasn't equipped with an alarm had been broken into and the radios had been stolen. Now why someone would want the highly-valuable 16 year old OEM radio from an old Ford truck is beyond me, but I'm sure they got at least 5 dollars for it at the swap meet. The real problem of course is that they broke the passenger side vent window and tore (and I do mean tore) out the plastic center section of the dash that houses the radio, clock, etc. The window and radio just required money to fix, but the dash was another problem - LMC Truck didn't have anything so I thought my only hope was a junk yard - maybe....
At that time my office/shop was about 2.5 miles from where I live, so I would frequently walk to work. The street on which my office was located had some very nice landscaping between the sidewalks and the street itself which consisted of hedges about four feet tall and three feed wide. One day some weeks later while walking to work I saw something stuck in the hedge - it was the plastic part from my dash, and it was MY part. It took a little glue to stick the broken tabs back onto the plastic cover, but it went right back in after that. The only thing that was missing was the "chrome" plastic "XLT" that went above the radio - why they broke that off is still a mystery.
I took it as a sign that I should keep the truck, so I did......
BTW, I recognize some names from the old Diesel Stop of many years ago - it's great to see them.
There are a lot of reasons to keep one of these trucks, some rational, and some maybe not-so-rational, but other than the obvious here's a different one: About 10 years ago my girlfriend and I were out of town over an Easter weekend, when we returned to find every vehicle in our condo complex that wasn't equipped with an alarm had been broken into and the radios had been stolen. Now why someone would want the highly-valuable 16 year old OEM radio from an old Ford truck is beyond me, but I'm sure they got at least 5 dollars for it at the swap meet. The real problem of course is that they broke the passenger side vent window and tore (and I do mean tore) out the plastic center section of the dash that houses the radio, clock, etc. The window and radio just required money to fix, but the dash was another problem - LMC Truck didn't have anything so I thought my only hope was a junk yard - maybe....
At that time my office/shop was about 2.5 miles from where I live, so I would frequently walk to work. The street on which my office was located had some very nice landscaping between the sidewalks and the street itself which consisted of hedges about four feet tall and three feed wide. One day some weeks later while walking to work I saw something stuck in the hedge - it was the plastic part from my dash, and it was MY part. It took a little glue to stick the broken tabs back onto the plastic cover, but it went right back in after that. The only thing that was missing was the "chrome" plastic "XLT" that went above the radio - why they broke that off is still a mystery.
I took it as a sign that I should keep the truck, so I did......
BTW, I recognize some names from the old Diesel Stop of many years ago - it's great to see them.
At least you'll hose 'em back by not paying the excessive road taxes, they don't use to repair roads with. 
Welcome, you and your truck should feel at home here.
