I've had a few vehicles given to me but the first one I paid money for was my grandfather's old 1988 F-250 which I think I paid $200 for? Might have been $500. Had the 300 i6 and a completely plugged catalytic converter, which had been the case for years, because he always complained that it was a gutless wonder. I "cleared out" the cat and it woke right up!
Truck was a "Custom": Regular cab long-box 2WD with 4.11's in the pot and a C6 auto. Rubber floor with the vinyl bench, it had no options, manual everything. With the 300 in it, top speed was around 130Km/h and it was screaming at highway speed.
The timing gears dramatically failed on me towing a car trailer down the 401 with a Mustang on it. Signed up for the Canadian Tire roadside assistance program to get it home, because it was WAY cheaper than just having it towed.
Sourced a slightly scorched 302HO from a buddy in the local Mustang community (engine had been in a car that caught fire) for a song, went to the wreckers and found the V8 mounting pads for the crossmember, swapped those in, got the flexplate from an auto, swapped that on, and ended up using a harness from a 1986 Mustang and an 1988 Mustang automatic ECM. Truck ran really well! But the 302HO had a very different power delivery profile and was pretty soft down low, luckily the C6 had no lockup, so there was plenty of slip to get it into the powerband. 75% of the work was a collab between a good friend of mine and myself. He owned an engine hoist and a lot of this stuff went much better with two people, particularly when you are doing it in the open in a driveway. The remaining 25% which included the wiring, ECM fitment and the like, I did solely by myself.