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PHOTOGRAPHY BY Ryan Foss Productionscan’t speak for everyone, but for me the phrase “the one that got away” applies to more than one vehicle, as I’ve let a number of cars, trucks, and even old Harleys go that, to this day, I wish I still had possession of. Whether it was due to a financial need (often to purchase another vehicle!) or an offer too good to refuse, my will to hold on has been adversely tested more often than I care to remember.
While I’ve had the opportunity to buy back a couple of those I regrettably let go, the extremely inflated price just doesn’t always allow it to happen. Fortunately, that scenario recently arose for my publisher, Tim Foss, with an old four-wheeled childhood friend of his—and as he’s about to tell in his own words, this is no ordinary old vehicle, either.
“In 1973 my dad purchased this 1972 F-100 Ford 4×4 pickup, and I loved it. Growing up in the country, at the edge of the desert, I enjoyed borrowing my dad’s truck, having lots of fun desert driving the truck every weekend with my friends. I did this for four years, then in 1976 he purchased a new F-150.
“I was fortunate enough to purchase the 1972 Ford from him, but unfortunately for me, I worked off the purchase with ranch labor in the grueling desert sun. Being that I was only 14 at the time, I spent several long hot summer days of work and every weekend to pay for it. Hard labor worked out and I owned the truck throughout high school and spent a lot of time with it in the Yuma sand dunes and desert.
“Looking ahead to college my dad thought it would be a better idea to give up the F-100 and buy a Datsun pickup, so in 1981 I sold it to a friend who owned it for a short time. It was one of the most difficult things I have had to sell and through the years I continued to look for it to buy it back. I moved away from Yuma in 1984 and lost track of the truck, but my quest to find it never ended. It was almost an obsession, and nearly drove my wife crazy, as I was always pointing out a similar truck followed by a list of things I’d point out confirming that it was not the truck at all!
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Ryan Foss Productionscan’t speak for everyone, but for me the phrase “the one that got away” applies to more than one vehicle, as I’ve let a number of cars, trucks, and even old Harleys go that, to this day, I wish I still had possession of. Whether it was due to a financial need (often to purchase another vehicle!) or an offer too good to refuse, my will to hold on has been adversely tested more often than I care to remember.
While I’ve had the opportunity to buy back a couple of those I regrettably let go, the extremely inflated price just doesn’t always allow it to happen. Fortunately, that scenario recently arose for my publisher, Tim Foss, with an old four-wheeled childhood friend of his—and as he’s about to tell in his own words, this is no ordinary old vehicle, either.
“In 1973 my dad purchased this 1972 F-100 Ford 4×4 pickup, and I loved it. Growing up in the country, at the edge of the desert, I enjoyed borrowing my dad’s truck, having lots of fun desert driving the truck every weekend with my friends. I did this for four years, then in 1976 he purchased a new F-150.
“I was fortunate enough to purchase the 1972 Ford from him, but unfortunately for me, I worked off the purchase with ranch labor in the grueling desert sun. Being that I was only 14 at the time, I spent several long hot summer days of work and every weekend to pay for it. Hard labor worked out and I owned the truck throughout high school and spent a lot of time with it in the Yuma sand dunes and desert.
“Looking ahead to college my dad thought it would be a better idea to give up the F-100 and buy a Datsun pickup, so in 1981 I sold it to a friend who owned it for a short time. It was one of the most difficult things I have had to sell and through the years I continued to look for it to buy it back. I moved away from Yuma in 1984 and lost track of the truck, but my quest to find it never ended. It was almost an obsession, and nearly drove my wife crazy, as I was always pointing out a similar truck followed by a list of things I’d point out confirming that it was not the truck at all!
“It wasn’t until seven months later while I was attending the Indy 500 that I received a phone call from a young kid who told me that his grandfather had a truck I might want to buy. Excitingly, I started asking questions about the truck, but the kid didn’t have any answers and his grandfather did not speak English. Through his description I was able to figure out it was my old truck and I immediately called my dad and asked him to go get it for me! My dad had just come in from a long day of work and wasn’t sure if he could make it to the bank in time, but luckily for me my mom always stashed cash around the house and this time it was the proverbial ‘rainy day.’ She sent him with the money to purchase the truck. I picked it up in 2013 and it has been sitting in my backyard ever since.
As Foss summed up in his F-100 family reunion, it is amazing that you can, in fact, rely on your local AutoZone when it comes to putting old relics as such back on the road. Whether it’s OE-quality (or better) branded Duralast parts and accessories or name-brand components most of us are already familiar with, from the radiator to the tailpipe, headlight to taillight, DuralastParts.com has the goods. Part one of our 1972 F-100 revive and drive will prove just that: illustrating just how easy it is to get the F-100’s old trusty V-8 up and running. Next month, we’ll focus in on rebuilding the 4×4’s “unique” drum brakes front and rear, as well as the suspension components, and get the old high school hauler back on the road once and for all. Stay tuned!
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