Oh, and FWIW, David got it wrong; this one is too old to be a Vortec. It’s just the 160 hp TBI 4.3.

Yeah, these older green ones are way cooler. Always tan inside, and nearly always manual. I’ve seen a few other old Forest Service trucks around town: a couple of XJ Cherokees, a Bronco, a Dakota, and a ginormous F250 with a V10, and they’re all sticks.

I’m up to about twice that, with 4 new tires, and shocks, and a bunch of other bits and pieces... but yeah. When I saw the Craigslist ad, I couldn’t reply fast enough...

It’s actually better on the highway than you’d think. It sort of “planes out” at about 60-65 mph and will cruise at 70 without complaint. It’s loud, and it’s turning over about 3000 RPM, but it’s not terrible.

Looks good up there! Glad you like it. Thanks for taking the time to write about it!

The wiring is probably there. I had a base-model Mazda Protege that had all the wiring in place for basically everything: power windows, locks, etc. I installed Protege ES fog lights in it, and all the wiring was there, both for the dash switch and the lamps. Plug and play.

I learned how to drive in an ‘81 Scrambler 4-speed. Couldn’t agree with you more.

Have two pugs at home. Got a good chuckle out of that...

The Sasquatch package is just a rumor, based on some blurry photos. It probably isn’t real.

Yeah, I’ll probably end up with one of these eventually. My current daily driver is a 1995 Toyota Corolla that I boguht for $500, and it probably has a couple years in it. My plan is to drive it until something major (costs more to fix than I spent on the car) fails, junk it, and look for another dirt-cheap…

BMWs are so strange to me: I’m a car guy of the let’s-see-how-fast-we-can-go-around-this-on-ramp variety; I love manual transmissions and nice neutral handling; and yet, I’ve never warmed to them. I’ve driven several and owned one, and I still don’t “get it.” Sure, they’re nice to drive and handle well, but they have…

...I mean, I love my car, but...

It was funny the first time... the 50th, not so much. I took apart the motor and cleaned up the contacts on the limit switches, and that helped for a while. But in fairness, the car had like 230,000 miles on it when it started happening.

(Not shown: when one motor freaks out and starts going up and down on its own every time you hit a bump...)

I often wonder - do people actually build these things, or do they accidentally crash into the front wall of a Pep Boys and all this stuff just sticks to the truck?

Yep. I do the same: Hydraulic jack still in place and the wheels slid under the car. Still get nervous, and more so the older I get. (When I think about the foolhardy setups I used 30 years ago to get under cars, I’m sometimes amazed I’m still here...)

The original Bronco was around for thirty years and sold very well; this is not a new or unknown nameplate. It’s a reinvention of the exact same formula as the original, and I don’t think Ford will have any trouble at all with brand identity.

Lowered... loud exhaust... Trailblazers plates... yeah, no. This thing has been vaped in and beat on continuously since the current owner bought it after he was promoted to assistant manager at GameStop. And I don’t care how many were built with this particular configuration of options; Subaru wagons are a dime a…

Neutral: I absolutely love my pickup truck. But I also realize that it’s not practical or appropriate for everyday use, so I don’t use it every day.

Wow, it’s been 15 years since I moved away from the Twin Cities. I forgot how rusty cars get there.