That is funny about the Sega. That smoke certainly permeates everything from cars to computers!
I have only bought one smoker car. It was the 1997 F-250 Light Duty that I use as my firewood, winter, and the truck you leave at the river access when you go kayaking and such. I actually traded for it and it wouldn’t have been worth it if it had been given to me as a look back. I traded a rifle and a laptop computer for it. The rifle was one of those Albanian SKSes which are pretty rare. They are the least common of all those eastern bloc rifles and usually beat to hell. Mine was also in really good shape which I understand is even rarer. I kinda regret letting that go.
Anyway, the truck was a mess. It had been smoked in and was so dirty. I almost wonder if it had been through a flood. One of my neighbors had seen me cleaning it with a garden hose and the streams of muddy water running out onto my driveway. There were also deposits of sand and rocks forming as well. The radio was already toast and the thing just stunk so I decided to disconnect the battery and pressure wash the interior with a mix of carpet cleaner and laundry detergent. I think this was a good move. That neighbor is like “So, you are pressure washing the interior now.” It was that bad.
I was using a large shop vac to suck up all the water and filled two tubs full of mud, rocks, sand, cigarette butts, fast food wrappers, beer bottle tops and can tabs, shell casings, dead mice, and who knows what else. The thing just reeked of all bad smells before I did this. I let the thing dry out for about a week before I reconnected the battery with the windows cracked and a light bulb inside for heat.
This thing was overall a mess and wasn’t worth what I put into it for sure. I would fix one thing and then something else would break. I replaced the serpentine belt and when I released the tension on it, all the fluid would drain out of the power steering pump and the alternator died soon after. It was also a 1997 light duty and they only made this one year. I have the rare VIN number so the parts are really funky and hard to find for my model. Any mechanic who knows these can see them from a mile away because they use 7 lug wheel rims. It was just a strange deal overall and I don’t know why they did this.
The truck is solid now but still a real beater. I have no doubt that rust will take it out before any mechanical failures. I have kept the cab body rust in check but the bed is a lost cause at this point.
I’m familiar with the truck you own. They look like a regular F150 except for the lug nut count. Kind of an odd duck, for sure.
I owned a 1999 Tacoma for a short while that was similar to your truck regarding the funk. A guy was going to sell it for scrap, but I bought it from him since he had a title and it ran well. 287k miles, needed a radiator, tires, and a belt idler bearing. But it ran great and even the AC worked. I found cupholders in it that I didn’t know existed because they were so full of cheap cigar ashes. The entire interior just blended together in a cigar ash hell. It cleaned up pretty well on the inside with a lot of work. I removed the seat and cleaned it. Removed the carpet and just threw it away. Used liberal amounts of degreaser and Tide. I gave the change that I found in the truck to my son after I cleaned it up with degreaser. It totaled over $19. Which is strange because the guy said he wouldn’t sell it if he couldn’t get $300 for it. He could’ve had $319! I think the main reason he sold it for scrap was because it was so nasty no one would want to give anything for it. It was a good little truck though. Those 4 cylinder, 5 speed Tacoma’s seem to be almost bulletproof. I can only imagine what kind of maintenance he did (or didn’t do) considering the condition of the interior and body.
Yeah, it is that one. I looks like a 1997 F150 but isn’t.
That truck you had sounds a lot like mine. You got it as a mess with just shy of 300,000 miles. I also remember finding a ton of money in all that mud and trash in the shop vac tub when I dumped it out. It was probably also around $20. I always said I would have just driven the thing to the scrap yard right off the bat myself had I known what I was getting myself into. It was a FIX OR REPAIR DAILY!
It is a good old truck now if not beatup and has never left me stranded. The downside is that I could have bought a much nicer truck with all the money I spent making it decent.
I came out pretty good on the old Toyota. Got rear ended and decided I wanted a full size truck. Traded it for a 1995 Silverado. Did some repairs on the Silverado, then sold it for $2900. I had around $300 in the Tacoma purchase price, and another $400 in parts that I had to buy between repairing issues on the Toyota and Chevy. So I actually made money on that old truck. Usually doesn’t work out that way, though.
