Documentation

The original owner started this record of fuel purchases and oil changes when he bought the truck, which he kept in the glovebox and maintained up until he was forced to enter a nursing home due to poor health. According to the documentation, the truck went into service on September 27, 1971, and his first fuel fill-up was 11 days later, with only 56 miles on the odometer.

He didn't date his fuel logs, but did date the oil changes. Here you can see that on May 23, 1985, he changed the oil and filter....and there was still less than 13,000 miles on the truck. Doing the math, you can see how he'd only average about 100 miles per month on this truck....over 13 years!

The original owner's last log entry isn't dated, by shows the truck has having 16,295 miles at the last fuel-up. As I understand it, he spent several years in a nursing home prior to his death, during which time the truck just sat in the shed. When he died in late 2006 or early 2007, his possessions were sold, and the truck was sold at his estate sale. At the time of these pictures, the odometer still only shows 16,354 miles!

In addition to the notebook log, the glovebox also contained the original operator's manual, warranty card, factory service documentation and...

...this warning decal sent out by the Ford Motor Company in 1981 to all documented owners of pre-'1970 cars and light trucks equipped with an automatic transmission, as a 'safety advisory'. It was supposed to have been placed "..in a conspicuous location.." and often was either discarded to attached to the dash or sun visor.