Having a business partner at all doesn't work in 99% of situations. Having tried it twice I'll never do it again, and most of those I've known who've entered into business partnerships say the same thing. The one exception is lawyers -- their partnerships usually work out fine because they're afraid of each other.

 

Thing is, most people dont have the capital to just up and start a business

 

I wanted to purchase a dry cleaners here in town, as the current owners wanted to retire. Went to the bank, and had a chat, they wanted me to have 80,000 dollars in CASH, before they would even consider a loan.... I told the bank, that if I had that kind of money just laying about, odds are good, I wouldn't NEED a loan..... nor would I need to work.....

 

I had a neighbor back in the 1980's who wanted a new Toyota 4WD pickup but his wife wouldn't go along with it. He started with a single twenty dollar bill, and through creative horse trading he was able to pay cash for his new pickup two years later, and went right from the dealer's lot to the shop where he paid cash to get new wheels and tires and the body/suspension lift he wanted, too.

Do ya want it, or don't ya? That's the only question that matters. Once it's answered in the affirmative, you find a way.

 

I've had two businesses in my life. The first was a body, fender and radiator shop. I learned that I just did not have the brains to actually run a business.

Later I started a home repair business. Again I just couldn't keep it going. Oh I did fine with the actual physical work part of the business, it was the paper work and taxes that would get all bungled up for me.

With the body shop I started it mainly to keep me out of the bars during the layoff time from my roofing job.

Then the roofing job closed down and all I had was the shop. At first I did quite well. But over time alot of folks talked me into letting them get their car fixed and paying me on payments.

Keeping track of that became a mess. So, I hired a gal to do the paper work, like sending out bills to folks who seemed to have forgotten that they were supposed to make their payments EVERY month.

It got to where she was putting in almost as many hours a week as I was.

The real problem with the shop was it was a feast or famine thing. Either I was so busy I was turning jobs away or there simply was nothing to work on.

Of course I decided to get married during that time. Six months later she left and did her very best to bankrupt me. I decided to just give it up so she wouldn't get any more money out of me and sold the shop and all my equipment.

I got a bunch of factory jobs between the shop and the home repair thing. Things would go well for a while then those places would 'downsize' and many closed completely.

I had no control over that so I decided since I was pretty handy at fixing things I would strike out on my own again.

At first I told folks I wouldn't do a job unless they had the cash up front. Then as I made a little money I started buying material with their guarantee that they would pay me back.

Then the state of Illinois required that anyone doing roofing HAD to be insured and bonded.. I'm a darn good roofer, just could not afford that.

There are still several thousands of dollars that folks owe me from both of those gigs.

I've taken dozens of folks to small claims court. Lots of them did not bother to show up for the court date so I 'won' but they still never paid me.

I guess since I won they did have to at least pay the court costs but I never saw a dime of what they actually owed me and I still had to pay my lawyer.

Maybe I'm just not a good judge of character.

 

By 'bulletproofed', what does that mean?

True bulletproofing should include the following:

- Head studs
- EGR cooler delete
- EGR delete
- New engine oil cooler
- The RIGHT coolant (yes that is IMPORTANT, no Ford/Motorcraft Gold Coolant crap). Coolant should be Cat EC-1 specs and MUST be ELC (Extended Life coolant)
- FICM mod
- Appropriate gauges (EGT, Trans Temp, Boost)
- Tuner
- Good Exhaust
- Upgraded HPOP (high-pressure oil pump, this is what operates the injectors)
- When the studs were done, did they have the heads checked by a machine shop for trueness of the gasket surface?
- What head gaskets were used? Victor-Reinz are no-nos. OEM Motorcraft are the best, but not required for bullet-proofing. A lot of guys use the Black Onyx gaskets
-Updated Fuel Pressure Regulator Spring
-Replace the STC fitting, stand pipes, and dummy plugs


The 6.0L isn't necessarily a bad motor. The auto tranny behind it is by far the best automatic on the planet in stock form and is capable of a lot of abuse and exra power without any modifications. The price is excellent, I'm assuming DRW. Is it 4WD? 6.0's tow decently, but they tend to rev more, and if you're used to a Cummins, well, they rev more than a typical V8 diesel. They also get decent fuel economy but nothing like an old 12 valve Cummins so don't bother comparing.

And keep in mind, if you DO get it, don't baby it. A 6.0L loves wide-open throttle whenever possible. That's how it keeps the turbo clean and running smoothly. It WILL NOT bother the transmission so don't worry about that.

Also, be sure to keep the fuel CLEAN.

ALWAYS use full synthetic engine oil. Absolutely no questions asked. The 6.0L Powerstroke (7.3 too) use a HEUI system. HEUI stands for Hydraulic Electric Unit Injection. It means that the injectors are unit injectors (i.e. the injection pump and measuring device are built into EACH INJECTOR), and that they are powered by high-pressure engine oil from the HPOP (High-Pressuse Oil Pump). This is why you need such good engine oil. 6.0 Powerstrokes were notorious for bad injectors but 99% of the time injector failure is caused by using lower grade engine oil. AMSOIL or Rotella T6, or John Deere Plus II full synthetic are all good engine oils. Choosing the right viscosity is extremely important in HEUI engines, as they are even more dependent on engine oil being the right viscosity than a normal engine. Using too thick of an engine oil in the winter time will cause difficult, if not impossible starting, so ALWAYS use the right stuff!

So if you can keep track of all of the above it should be a nice truck. Later years such as the one you are looking at had significantly fewer problems than the earlier ones.

Hope this helps! Any more Q's hit me up by PM or something.

 

looks like we may get a bit of snow in the coming days. not much, but enough to say we got some.

unlike michigan, and denver, co.. guess those people got dumped on... least you should have a white thanksgiving, and christmas!

 

Nothing here yet. Of course, I am barely in Michigan, 'bout 10 miles north of Ohio border. Points north get snow LONG before we do down here though.

 

Down here in the Ozark Mountains we are expecting snow on Saturday/Sunday, which coincidentally is when I have to hit the road again. Ugh.

 

Been snowing on and off today. But, the ground is still to warm for us to get any kind of accumulation. Which really doesn't hurt my feelings.