My most expensive ride home...

That hurt to read....

 

^^^
I like this plan. I hadn't considered it, but you know, I think it's the best course of action honestly. I brought back a 1957 Buick I purchased in 1975. I still own it almost 50 years later...

Yes: Don't sell it: Bring it back! That's a plan you can achieve with your own time (and money) if you have to. Go for it. My bet is when you're finished, you'll have the exact truck you were aiming for, and if not you'll be able to work your "trade-up" skills to get the perfect truck you want for minimum or no out-of-pocket or loans.

 

Bringing it back is a good plan, but I'd sure be nervous about relying on a vehicle with over 510k on the clock as my daily transportation. Unless there's a comprehensive list of maintenance done, I'd be concerned at that mileage of a potential cascade of issues needing attention, just to keep it running. Good luck going forward.

 

Don’t beat yourself up over something you learned from. Sucks, but it happens. Like others have said, you just need to move forward.
Turn that truck back into one badass rig and let us all see how you have dusted yourself off.
It’s only money man, I have seen a whole lot worse go down.

 

If it's good running and driving then I would put another cab on it... quick solution to the problem. Otherwise you're repairing one of the worst places on a car/truck body to have to repair and it will be expensive to have done and hard to DIY passably. But my guess is unless the guy was really careful and changed major parts often there are drive line and suspension parts beginning to reach the ends of their lives as well. I would seriously evaluate what you want out of this truck.

 

Do you have full insurance and is there a cliff nearby?

Alternatively, could you leave the window down with the keys in it?

I'm not advocating insurance fraud, merely noting how deep of a hole this situation represents.

It's one thing to make a bad mistake, but if it's the result of a personality flaw or something else that inhibits one's ability to take sound decisions, then you've got to stay out of situations which can result in outcomes such as this. Obviously.

Good luck.

 

With the roof that rusty what does the frame look like? Live and learn don't be too hard on yourself. Post some frame pics.

 

I spent most of my money on women, beer, boats, dogs, horses, kids and cars, all the rest I wasted....

 

A lil update My insurance company had me take the truck in for an estimate for the rust above windshield. Considering the mileage I wonder if there going to end up salvaging it out. What happens once the insurance company wants to salvage it. Do I have a choice at that point. I dont know Depending on the numbers i might consider buying back off them. it's not that bad of a truck I'll post some more pics of it and the frame here in a bit if any of you care to see..
But again thanks for the replies guys and gals.

 

You bought it that way, so the insurance company won’t cover the damage. They probably want you to have it looked at so they can decide if they will cover the vehicle or not. They will probably want to have the truck inspected (frame etc) My guess is they probably will refuse to cover it until you get that fixed if the frame is in good shape

 

I read all that thinking you were going to come out with a cool truck....The good thing is the year. If you could sand the crap out of it and give it a garage paint job it would be nice

 

Man between this on the guy on tundras that over paid to have his trans fixed then traded his truck in and bought it back, people are on a roll with great financial decisions this week

https://www.tundras.com/threads/should-i-just-pay-off-my-truck-with-a-personal-loan.130762/

 

I'm not sure why your insurance company would pay you money just because you knowingly purchased a rusty truck.
Who is your insurance company? I'm sure all of the guys that bought trucks with rotted out frames might want in on the action.

 

Here are some pics of the truck if any of you are interested in seeing..

 

I gotta say that the frame looks cleaner than I was expecting.
It doesn't appear that it was just spray bombed with thick undercoating to cover up rust.
Did you get a price to fix the roof yet?

 

Ill take more pics of the frame. The kid i bought it from said it spent a good part of its life in soithern California. I hear that can be a good thing. no nothing on roof yet I'm pretty sure the inspection i went to was just to see if they will even still cover my truck at all.
I switched out the driver side door handle sprayed some brake cleaner on the door latch assembly and oiled the new handle with bike chain lube. Smooth as butter. Also did an oil change and she is burning oil from the looks of the oil. Don't know how much yet. I assume one sign of the engine burning any oil is the oil is black upon changing?

 

Oil that's black is just a sign it's doing its job of picking up contaminants and keeping them from becoming varnish or deposits inside the engine. Nothing wrong with black oil after a change.

 

No, oil just gets black over time. If you measure how much you get out during an oil change you can determine if it's burning oil. The 5vz (V6) holds about 5.5-5.7 qts to include the oil filter's capacity. So for example if you only manage to drain 4.5 qts you could deduce that about a quart was burned since the last oil change.

 

The frame does look cleaner than I expected, cleaner than mine maybe. The California thing depends on whereabouts. Mine has lived it's entire life in California but always within a couple miles from the coast. So it has a good amount of surface rust on the chassis. Nowhere near as extreme as a truck from a part of the country with a real winter and salt on the roads.

 

I don’t think there can be any debate that you overpaid for what you got. So the question is “where do you go from here?”. The frame looks OK so I agree with what others have said, keep it, fix it and enjoy it provided the insurance company will provide coverage. I’m living proof that there can be life after knucklehead decisions. I did nearly the exact same thing you did when I was in my early 20’s but my lapse in good sense was a rust bucket 1960 Ford pickup. A lot of work to resurrect it but it was my DD for years. I’m betting you can do it too. Good luck and keep us posted.