Realized that I forgot to update everyone on the 71 IIA 88". It was a beautiful truck. I mean I got there and I couldn't see a dent on the thing. But then I looked underneath. All kinds of patch work frame repairs. One new front horn which was clearly poorly welded on and certainly not lined up. A new rear crossmember, which was the only decently welded piece on the whole frame. Then we went for a drive. He said, "it usually takes her a while to warm up." I said, "even with the choke?" "It has a choke?!" "Yes," I said pulling it out and the engine revving up smartly. "Wow," he said. It steered all over the road. After just a few miles, I felt like I had been driving for hours. It was a constant battle of turning left, then right, then left to stay in my lane. Steering column, relay, ball joints all shot, check. Brakes were ok, surprisingly, and the motor ran fine, but occasionally didn't want to take gas, likely a fuel filter or pump issue. So we get back and he says, "what do you think." This is where I feel bad, because I don't want to be a jerk here, but I finally tell him it needs to be completely gone through with a new frame. For a minute, I don't think he believes me, like maybe I am just trying to talk him down, but that was never my intention. I listed off all the problems and he wanted me to tell him a price, so instead I start naming parts costs. You are looking at $6000 in parts easy, and the labor to do all the work. Finally he asks what is it worth, again I know I'm going to come off like a jerk here, so I finally say $1500. He is blown away and I'm lucky to not get thrown off the property right then. He said it's probably worth more in parts, to which I agreed and said that the pristine body alone was worth a good bit, but he didn't want to part it, understandably.

Before I left, I asked him if he had ever looked in the compartment under the seat. He didn't know it was there. We removed the seat, the aluminum panel, and there was a rusty old jack and lug wrench. The battery having been relocated under the hood many years ago.