[AT] Still in the M business

[Cecil Bearden]

Dean:
When looking for a car or truck, I check my state auctions.  They are 
very reliable and relatively late fleet cars and trucks that are well 
maintained for an auction price that is usually a lot less than loan 
value...  The auctions are for the public, but since they are during 
working hours, you are usually only bidding against dealers.

For instance my 89 chevy 1500 cost me 1500 2 years ago at the auction. 
It would not run since someone pulled out the ignition fuse and broke 
off one tab!!!!  I drove it 10K miles and had to rebuild the 
transmission for $400.  It gets 18mpg and has never failed to get me 
there.  I traded for a Machinery enamel paint job on it in December and 
it looks good.  I got an internet seat cover, headliner and floor mat 
and put all new rubber cab seals and window moldings, and it really 
drives good and looks good.  I have about $2500 total in it....

My 95 chevy 1500 was bought last september for $900,it wouldn't run the 
relays were pulled out of it..  It cost $50 for the ignition a/c and 
horn relays. It needed a paint job since the paint was peeling.  I 
stripped it with paint stripper and put a mild sandblast on the inside 
of the bed and again traded for a machinery enamel paint job.  That 
tractor supply truck and trailer paint with the hardener is the same as 
House of Color paint when you add the hardener..   again internet seat 
cover and camo floor mat, a set of tirea and I have a great truck for 
$1500 invested...

At the same sale I bought my wife a 99 caravan with electric locks 
mirrors and everything, for $2500.  I had to put the updated fan belt 
drive kit on it from Oreilly auto parts, but have had no problems and 
she has driven it over 30K miles..  Paint was great, but some $%%hole at 
the auction sale gouged the hood before I got it off the lot...
a year ago I bought Dad a 2002 Ford F250 for $4500  Drove it 70K miles 
so far and had to put a computer in it last month.  However, We have 
only had to spend $700 in parts and labor for the past year...


Just my experience

Cecil in OKla

Dean Vinson wrote:
> I'd decided it was time to sell my 1950 Farmall M, which has few
> particularly critical tasks here in the suburbs, since I've completed most
> of the cleanup and minor repairs and general tinkering that I had in mind
> when I bought the tractor three years ago, and because my 17-year-old son is
> approaching the purchase of his first car and I could use some extra cash to
> help him get something safer and more reliable than he could otherwise
> afford on his own.
> 
> So yesterday I used the tractor to pull out the stump of a dead sassafras
> tree in my back yard (see photo at
> http://www.vinsonfarm.net/photos/M_pulling_stump_Jul09.jpg).  It's not often
> that an actual use for the tractor comes along, and I'd been not getting
> around to dealing with that dead tree for a while, so after cutting the
> trunk down from about five feet up and digging up and cutting the biggest
> roots, I hooked up with a chain.  In hindsight I wish I'd left a few more
> roots... it would have been more fun if the M had known the stump was back
> there.
> 
> With that chore done, I started drafting up the description to put on eBay,
> and was going to take some more photos today to use in the ad.  Got the
> tractor out this morning and went for one more drive around the neighborhood
> to get it up to temperature.  Sounded good, felt good, smelled good... so I
> came home, put the tractor away, put the camera away, and decided to find
> some other way to help my son with a car.  Just too honorable an old machine
> to sell.
> 
> Dean Vinson
> Dayton, Ohio
> www.vinsonfarm.net
> 
> 
> 
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