Since 1977, the Ford F-Series has been the best-selling pickup line within the United States, and since 1981, it has been the best-selling car general. With a strong 40-year monitor document, clearly there’s a lot to like about this pickup.
The F-Series has a particular place in my circle of relatives’s historical past, too. My dad is a self-taught handyman in addition to an avid outdoorsman, so having a truck round the home to haul provides, {hardware}, and tenting gear has all the time been a necessity. A few his prior Ford pickups had been in this story.
Some of essentially the most iconic pictures of one in all dad’s pickups got here from a set of photographs that had been taken within the early Eighties when my household lived in Richmond, Utah. Included are some photographs of pop’s lifted silver 1979 F-150 4×4. I used to be a toddler using round with a purple BMX bicycle with coaching wheels on it on the time.
This truck got here from the sixth-generation F-Series which debuted precisely 50 years in the past in December 1972 for mannequin 12 months 1973 and ran by 1979. This physique type grew to become recognized to lovers because the “dentside” period due to its attribute physique line. Even although the chassis from the earlier technology was retained, design engineers made some adjustments together with shifting the gas tank to beneath the mattress as a substitute of contained in the cab.
The entrance fascia was reworked in 1978 to include a bigger grille, and the headlights had been moved outward. The form of the headlights was used denote trim ranges, since Ranger, XLT, and Lariat got rectangular headlights whereas the lower-trim Custom had spherical headlights. The following 12 months, all fashions acquired rectangular headlights. That was additionally the final 12 months of the technology earlier than Ford moved to a brand new “Bullnose” period of 1980 and the recognition of the F-Series ramped as much as its present success which has been sustained for over 40 years since.
Dad’s satisfaction and pleasure was a Ranger-trim shortbed regular-cab pickup with purple pin striping that color-coordinated with the material bench on the inside. Power underneath the hood got here from a 351cid Cleveland V8 mated to a four-speed handbook transmission, which was Ford’s largest engine for the technology. Other lower-output powerplants had been supplied together with straight-six variants in 240cid, 260cid, and 300cid in addition to a 302cid V8.
Amenities on dad’s truck had been in any other case comparatively sparse — the truck had no air-con and no passenger sideview mirror, even. However, it was upgraded with off-road gear together with a lifted Rancho suspension, mesh headlight guards, mud flaps, and polished aluminum wheels on 35-inch BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A tires.
Dad doesn’t bear in mind the place this pickup ended up, however it has been off our household’s radar for almost 4 a long time, and sadly (since 17-digit standardized VIN sequences didn’t launch till 1981), we will’t monitor down a Carfax or Autocheck report back to see when it was final noticed any service or registration exercise. Maybe somebody on the market has a clue if it’s nonetheless on the highway.
In 2022, Ford bought a staggering 653,957 F-Series pickups, so its dominance within the market continues. Someday, I might love to purchase a pickup much like the one which my dad owned. According to the listings on ClassicCars.com, there are some options out there. I’m positive a lot of our readers have a household expertise revolving round a particular Ford pickup. (*50*) you? Please share it within the remark sections and tell us your story.
