“Rex” in situ, August, 2012.
When we last left our hero he was young.
Now, not so much. Indeed the years have not been kind, and the big 5-0 has come and gone. Middle Age. Like the Middle Ages it’s named for, it’s a time of toil, dwindling resources, plague and Inquisitions. But our hero, having managed to come through youth with all this digits intact, has managed to find a modicum of stability, punctuated with a wee bit of mild “success” in his chosen career. Time to reward himself, he felt, time for a car to be proud of, something to make the neighbors jealous and their kids’ mouths gape open when he glided by, oozing bling-bling.
For my hard workin’ old man that car was a Cadillac. An ’84 metallic brown Coupe de Ville to be exact. New off the lot, leather seats, fuel computer, a little electric motor that pulled the trunk closed. I can still smell the victory of a life well lived that was that car. Ahhhh. I loved that car more than I did Mork’s girlfriend Mindy.
So what to choose to celebrate orbiting the sun fourish dozen times? A Beemer? Some Mercedes Benz product? Maybe a 345siQRX34 or some such. Was Teutonic in the air that Summer? Perhaps a Caddy of my own? Perhaps one of the CTSCVCS-VX5/2 models.
Nah, those cars are BORING. (i.e. reliable, safe, normal)
How about a rusty-crusty 72’ Ford three quarter ton with bias-ply tires leftover from the Carter Administration era? Will that do?
Day of the find. Some hater got to the tailgate.
You betcha! Now you’re talking my language.
We were out scootering one Sunday in summer 2012, no not Harley’s, and yes, 49cc scooters, when we rounded a bend and I saw him sitting there for sale. Holy Crapsolee Batman, a bumpside Ford! Millenia of powerful evolutionary instinct took over, and I immediately veered off the road to look over the beast. First glance was promisingly tantalizing, no major dents, all the chrome trim, no broken glass, and what looked like original two-tone paint. “By ye gods, can this be my dream truck?” I wondered, and then two things clinched the sale for me, the price, $1,750, and the AC vents hanging under the dash.
This baby has factory AC!
Day of the Find: AC, Glorious AC! Rubs hands together in glee…
It’s going to be mine!!! Now mind you, I’d been acquainted with this rig for all of two minutes. If that. But I’d already decided to buy it. I looked over sheepishly at la esposa, but she had that charming smile she gets when I’m being stupid about cars. She never puts the brakes on any of my automotive failures and lets me run wild; “buy it” is her usual refrain. This is a problem. Usually the spouse performs a significant duty by being the check and balance on car-mania, “No, your’e not buying that piece of junk, we are getting a Honda CR-V in moonlight mica schist taupe”. Alas, I just get carte blanche on absurd old car purchases.
The seat cover was actually rotten and came undone as soon as I started using it.
At this point it was time to get the owner. He ambled down, Baby Boomerish fellow, friendly sort, claimed he was the second owner and the truck had been in his possession for 17 years. He opened the door, out wafted that wonderful, wonderful scent of Old Car™. Is there a finer odor, nay there be not. In our moderne parlance this pickup was a “survivor”, 40 years of fairly mellow treatment had left it dulled and dimmed but still whole, still proud. Let’s take stock:
Paint was original, and was the classic Ford “Wimbledon White” and “Sequoia Brown”. The brown was a faint metallic, and the white creamy. This was a “Sport/Custom” trim level, which meant it was nearly as fancy as the Queen’s Range Rover, including full leather interior, sat nav and radio, adaptive cruise control and a first edition of the Beatles White Album under the seat.
Oh, not really. It really meant that it was sorta kinda nicer than a “Custom” trim level. Maybe. Here’s how that worked back in the day:
“Custom” meant it was not, and was as bare as a stripper pole.
“Sport/Custom” meant it was neither.
“XLT” meant fake plastic woodgrain on the dash.
“Ranger” meant a thin slab of cheap aluminum trim on the tailgate.
Got that?
However, one option that did mean something was “Camper Special”. Not only was this a 3/4-ton F-250 but it also had a few various doodads, including a tranny oil cooler and enormous mirrors that could pick up radio Havana on a good night, to make hauling about a slide in camper a tad easier. Recall the slide in the camper fad of the ’60s/’70s? No? Guess you had to be there.
Someone deeply concerned about fuel economy added this. Epic fail.
Moving on.
The engine was a member of the legendary “FE” family, the pickup 360 cubic inch with a 2bbl carb with 215 horses gross. (Millions of these 360 engines are now fulfilling their ultimate, and best, destiny of being breakwaters for the harbor in Bahia de Caraquez) Backing it up was the good ol’ boy C-6 trans, and it had power steering, brakes, factory trans oil cooler, dual fuel tanks and under-dash, dealer-installed factory AC.
12,000 miles showed on the odometer, probably 112,000.
So it was loaded baby cakes, Top O’ The Line, and you can see why within 120 seconds I decided to buy this sweet sweet hauler before one of you wandered by and snatched it up. (I know how you people are)
And AC!! And it was all there, and a belt was hooked up to it. Could it work? Nah. Owner said it needed the “expansion valve” replaced. What, it doesn’t “need a can of freon” like all the plinkers on Craigslist say?
Time for the test drive. I sat in the seat, crunchy with age, pressed the blade key home to the slot on the dash to the left (!) of the steering wheel, gave it two pumps of the pedal, one to set the choke and an extra to please ye Ford gods, and bam, it fired right up! I mean that beauty fired instantly, hardly even heard the starter grind. Yup, I got a good one.
What the underside of a lifelong resident of FresYes looks like after 40 years. That reddish stuff is what we call “rust” here.
We headed out on the road. I gave it gas and it damn near died, “Got a problem with the accel pump” the owner assured me. Okay, no prob, feather it, and we get going and it’s THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP as we roll, the whole rig shaking as the ancient bias ply tires work to return to round and cast off their flat bottoms after sitting since Y2K actually meant something.
Hilarious. I’m grinning like a fool. I know now where Ross Perot’s “Giant Sucking Sound” went after he lost the election, right under the dash of this F-250. Clearly a main vacuum hose is busily trying to evacuate the Earth’s atmosphere down there. That might account for the drivability issues that are best described as “unwillingly coming back from the dead”. The first stop sign comes up, I press the brake pedal and nothing much happens. Oh, well, it does shudder and jerk from side to side, swaying like a rowboat in a gale, but it doesn’t really slow down much. I press harder and it begins to lose speed, I press with all my weight and it actually shudders to a stop and dies.
But it fires right back up. Dang what a great truck!
We limp back and I start the time-honored traditional, and utterly pointless, horse trading that is buying a car. He asks for $1,750, which means, natch, that I offer a grand even. He of course counters with what he really wanted all along, $1,250, and I agree. Simple, silly, sold!
2nd major fix, new brake booster. Yeah, O’Reilly’s had that in stock.
We shook on it in that “word is my bond” way of men of the car world, a little ritual I always enjoy, and I came back the next day with the cash in hand. First order of business is to coax this dinosaur home, which was about seven miles away. Would it make it? Maybe. Frankly I wasn’t sure, and that’s what makes it all so fun, eh? Who in the world wants to drive a vehicle that they know in their heart of hearts is actually going to get where they set out to go? And be comfortable and safe on the way?
I don’t get some people.
The drive home is similar to wrangling a very unhappy whale down the freeway, but I’m gleeful, like a boy at Christmas who just got both the Red Ryder and the plastic army helmet. Get home and I pop the hood to admire my very own V-8, and notice that the top of the manifold is kinda soaked with gasoline, it’s sitting in puddles and stuff. Uh, that’s not good. Quick exam finds that the vent port for the accelerator pump has gas spewing out of it. Hmm.
I avoid telling this to the wife.
A trip to the local O’Reilly’s for a carb kit is instructive, and I learn the first of many zen-like life lessons with the truck. So here they go:
Rad new radiator.
Life Lesson #1: Parts will be available for the ’72 Ford until right after hell freezes over.
Yeah, they got one, a carb rebuild kit with accelerator pump for a product made decades before the surly kid at the counter was born. In fact, during my entire two years of ownership of the rig I can drive to O’Reilly and get 90% of whatever parts I need right then or later that day. Now that’s crazy, I can’t even get a new battery for my cordless phone made five years ago, but if you need a set of brake shoe springs for a 72’ F-250 front drums, yeah, they got those, $11.95 please. Next customer!
Toss in Dennis Carpenter’s shop and LMC Truck, where they remake all the other parts that O’Reilly’s can’t find on their dusty magical shelves, and you can basically buy every single thing you need to keep a 1972 Ford pickup running until the solar system dies from entropy. This brings me to:
Life Lesson # 2: A monkey with a screwdriver can keep a 72’ Ford running.
Not only can you get every part you need, you can easily install them. Example, I once needed a tiny little spring for the throttle return, it snapped one day when it decided it wanted to die rather than haul my carcass to work again. Within minutes of going to the parts store I had the exact one in hand, and it was installed in seconds. If you can turn a wrench you can eventually fix almost anything on this truck. I’m no uber-smartie mechanic, but not one time did I ever take Rex to anyone to fix anything, did it all myself and it was all remarkably easy. If greasy.
“New” tailgate from Pick-A-Part. Painted with rattle cans in the original colors from O’Reilly. (Yeah, they got those colors, right on the shelf)
Back to our story.
Time for the traditional first oil change, waxing, and naming ceremony. The “oil” that came forth from the crankcase when I, like Moses of old, struck with it my staff, had long ago given up actually being oil and was a living creature made mostly of sludge. The wax job was a bust as it was going to need serious buffer work with compound, decades of living here near “FresYes” will do that to your skin, and the naming was a complete and simple success, I dub thee “Rex”, king of the road.
Now what was to be Rex’s fate? Leave it in survivor condition as I bought it? Driving it occasionally to the dump or feed store? Full bore restoration into some sort of garage queen? No, it was to be my daily driver, commute car, run to the store car, head to dinner and a movie car, and I was going to fix it up, but leave it as original as possible as I sorta like that vibe.
New dash cover, steering wheel, repainted cluster, etc.
After I fixed the accel pump diaphragm, simple, you just lift the carb top off and sing the Hallelujah Chorus three times while waving your magic wand over it, I drove Rex to work the next day. I came rolling into the parking lot, thumpin’ and clankin’, I’d forgot how noisy these old bumpsides were, and I parked, quite deliberately I might add, right next to a coworker’s brand-new Mercedes LXHGTSK35908723.9bis on the one side and a brand new Toyota Tepid on the other. Yeah, it was a little hot in that cab, since it was August in God’s Personal Crock Pot, aka Central California, but that was OK. Oh did I mention that not only was it hot because the AC failed to respond to turning the knob to “On”, but the heater was always on because the valve wouldn’t shut off?
“New” door panel and armrest from Pick-A-Part. O’Reilly rattle can paint job again. We got close, O’Reilly and me.
But good golly I was happy driving Rex about. Beatific. Once I fixed up the few minor problems Rex had, like the Giant Sucking Sound, the lack of brakes, the gas leak on the engine, the brake drum springs all breaking, the wheel cylinders all leaking, the transmission rear seal leaking, the valve cover gaskets leaking, the radiator leaking, the gas tank filler hoses leaking, replaced the bias ply tires with radials, replaced the heater core and control valve, the dash cover, the door panels, the floor mat, fixed the rusty bed, recovered the seat, replaced the tailgate, fixed the gas gauge, and a few minor other things, it was a great truck!
Added 3 point seat belts and headrests. Who wants to use their skull to crack out the back window in a rear-ender?
I fixed the AC, by the way. Did it myself, drove over to O’Reillys and asked for an expansion valve for a 72’ Ford with the under-dash, dealer-installed AC, and sure enough the gal walked back and grabbed it off the shelf for me! I think it was 79 bucks, one of the pricer items I did. Easy install, in fact everything was an easy install because, just like the rest of the ’70s, it was pretty much all hanging out in the open.
Now what to fill that AC system with, since R-12 had long gone the way of the Dodo? Ever heard of “Enviro-Safe”? No? Look it up some night.
Oh yeah! After charging the AC it blew high 40’s temps at idle. This was on a 100+ degree day. Total cost to repair was about 110 smackers.
And I machine polished the holy bejeezus out of that paint, and by golly if it didn’t shine right up! No silly clearcoat to get in the way of bringing the luster back.
Many a Saturday was spent enjoyably prowling the local Pick-A-Part looking for this or that for Rex. That’s how I got the tailpipe, among other things. In the interest of not being a total organ donor I added three-point seatbelts and headrests, and I removed the in-cab bomb, er uh, gas tank, and relied solely on the under-bed tank after replacing all the hoses. Now let me ask a simple question, why would anyone think that the ideal place for a bomb, er, uh, gas tank, was behind the drivers seat? Our ancestors were made of sterner stuff indeed.
Not long before I sold Rex, looking slick eh?
For two years Rex was my faithful chariot, and only twice did he leave me on the side of the road. Once when the aforementioned throttle return spring snapped, luckily that was right in front of the house, and one other time when the coil wire came off (easy fix as well).
Final pic of the engine bay. I like em’ clean. Averaged 7 mpg, by the way. No smog gear other than EGR.
By now, summer 2014, after a helluva lot of work, Rex had become a minor local celebrity, was looking mighty darn good, and running smooth with great AC and fine looks. Of course that meant it was time to sell it because it had now become BORING.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Life Lesson # 3: Son, a man’s gotta know his limitations.
Mine is long-term car commitment. After a bit I just grow bored with my wheels, and have to go looking for the next (weird) thing. More than 20 vehicles have graced the driveway, and you’ll search in vain for rhyme and reason. ’60 Chevy Bel Air? Sure. ’69 VW Baja Bug? Of course. ’77 Toyota Corona Wagon? Why not? ’92 Ford F-250 460 V-8 Supercab long bed? Yeah, OK. 95′ Honda Civic EX coupe, the classic JDM tyte ricer? Cool. Closest I’ve ever come to a “normal” car was the ’08 Honda Accord, yes a cursed plinker-mobile, until you noticed the third pedal on the floorboard.
Last pic I have of Rex. Yeah, I know, I was stupid to sell it.
Rex was an easy sale, as purty as he was by now, his coat shiny and sleek and nose leather all warm and moist. At my wife’s strong urging I sold him for $4,000 instead of giving him away for 1K like I figured was traditional with me. Which, after counting up the receipts for all the things I fixed, meant I actually made a small profit, if you discount gas and running fees. My first and only vehicle I’ve sold that I did not totally lose my shirt on, perhaps the old dog learned a new trick after all.
Been eyeing mid-’60s Caddys now on Craigslist, fine, fine rides, or perhaps a rough WW2 Jeep. Hmm.
My gal taking Rex for a spin.
I’d be sad to sell that truck. I see a similar-vintage Ranger around our neighbourhood during the spring and summer. Great old trucks, aren’t they? If I had the space a truck like Rex would definitely find a home in my driveway. Unfortunately, Ontario winters aren’t kind to older vehicles, and most of those great old Fords rusted away a long time ago. If I owned one I’d store it for the winter and drive it the rest of the year with a big grin on my face. Good story..
I remember a very similar truck my father owned about 30 years ago. That one was different in that it had a white and turquoise paint job, and no A/C. I drove that truck just once, and got 1 of only 2 or 3 parking tickets I’ve gotten so far. And the other think I remember is that that truck rode like a tank. If you hit a bump in the road you were more likely to hear it than feel in that truck. My father didn’t keep it very long as the fuel economy was horrendous….think single digits, loaded or unloaded.
I guess we’re opposites.
I buy vehicles when they’re shiny and smooth running, and get rid of them when they’re dull and running rough.
That process is expensive.
You got this truck when it was dull and rough, and sold it when it was shiny and smooth.
And made money (excluding gas).
You win.
And made money (excluding gas)
Not counting all of his labor. If you did, you’d almost certainly find out that you came out ahead. 🙂
But who’s counting?
Just like my Ranger, its a labor of love. And my labor
is free to me.
Yeah he made money on the deal, now when you factor in the hours put in it may work out that he made pennies per hour but it wasn’t like what he may have done instead of working on it would have made him money. It is not like you are going to get paid for drinking a beer, watching football or surfing the internet.
Cool ol truck, I love it when you can get parts easily, before I changed the hubs on my utility trailer it ate a wheel bearing the rims and hubs came off a 100E Ford Prefect made in the mid to late 50s, I marched into the local Repco and asked for an outer wheel bearing for a 100E prefect from the kid behind the counter he wrote the number down disappeared for a minute or so then came back with a brand new bearing, colour me impressed. Shame you sold that Ford you had it looking great.
Why is it you can get everything for a 40 year old Ford truck, but you can’t get brake lines for 15 year old Ford trucks? It isn’t just brake lines either. There’s a guy suing Ford right now because his F150 needs a control unit that is NLA after only a few years of ownership. I wonder if 40 year old Ford truck parts are available where I live? There haven’t been any on the roads here since the ’80s, so I guess I won’t find out.
How did millions of these engines end up as breakwaters in Ecuador?
Sir, you just stated why I came to hate Ford. 2013 f150, millions on the road, right? Special order $900 alternator, special order backup camera cable….and try buying parts for an f150 heritage. They look at you like you have a third head.
This truck and it’s Chevy equivalent has lots of “aftermarket” parts support, just pick up any pickup truck magazine and you’ll find at least 3 or 4 dealers in N.O.S. type parts.
That’s what I thought too, until I started hanging out at the repair shop my buddy manages. There are so many variations, and so few listings for any given part.
Wasn’t that control unit for a Canadian model with heated seats and no AC, of which there were only about 20 (or less) built with this oddball combination? I thought Ford had a new one built for the owner after he threatened to sue.
These is a company across the river from where I live that can make any type of brake or hydraulic pipe or hose from the old part, and it’s not that expensive to have this done.
Making the new part using the old part as a pattern is an option whenever the old part survives. I’ve seen the old part come off in flakes that turn to particles on Fords no more than 15 years old, and I live south of the Mason-Dixon line.
As for the rare-combination ECU, why doesn’t Ford know better than to manufacture a vehicle that can’t be supported in the first place? They couldn’t make the control unit a universal one with unused terminals? Or figure out how to make the unused features a software routine? Instead, they made 20 control units in order to charge extra for something they anticipated that everyone would pay for? Amateurs? Or charlatans? Buy a Ford! Here’s your sign!
“There haven’t been any on the roads here since the ’80s, so I guess I won’t find out.”
–There are several bumpside Fords in town here still working daily. One guy has a pretty nice gray 69′ with a utility bed used as his plumbing truck. Another old dude has a super ragged out 70′ being used as a junk hauler. A roofing company runs a fairly rough 68′ with a flatbed. Others putter about here and there.
What a great old pickup! And a loaded (relatively speaking) Camper Special to boot. Some people just have all the luck.
Keep them coming, I’m enjoying this series.
Great story! Nothing wrong with moving on from a car when you get bored of it – you only live once!
This is from the era when trucks were still workhorses…..Aside from the dress up chrome and power assists, the truck was primarily a working vehicle while still being easy to work on…….You could go to a dealer and factory order a truck pretty much the way you wanted.
Nowadays, trucks can be ordered with interiors that,rival a Lincoln or Lexus, they are more complex to,maintain and repair…..and try finding a half ton full size pickup with a manual transmission anymore…..A pickup with an automatic is a car to me…The last pickup I owned was a 2000 Chevy Silverado half ton shortbed 2wd stepside with the 4.3 six and 5 speed manual…..I loved that truck..put 146,000.miles on it until I hydroplaned on a rainy interstate and totaled it in a wreck……I probably would still be driving it had that not happened.
I assume we’re still going to hear about your vehicles between the ’51 F-1 and Rex, starting with the Rabbit diesel?
I was hoping for the same thing….
“I assume we’re still going to hear about your vehicles between the ’51 F-1 and Rex, starting with the Rabbit diesel?”
–You really want to hear about that Rabbit?? Like how the guy I got it from literally begged me to buy it from him?
“I was hoping for the same thing….”
–Well, how about a break for a time, and then I’ll spin out some more for y’all?
“I feel like we cheated here, by thumbing to the last page of a good book. From what I can tell, you may have had some ordinary cars in the interim, but certainly no ordinary stories.”
–Ha. Believe it or not I like to read novels backwards. I start at the last chapter, read it, then work my way back. My wife thinks I’m a weirdo for that.
Yes, I want to hear about the Rabbit! For a few years I had an ’84 VW Quantum diesel, and I’d like to see how your experience compared with mine.
+1
Great story. It turned out really nice, good that you started out with a nice, solid truck. Looks like you attached the headrests to the back wall of the cab, that’s how I installed a pair of BMW headrests in my old ’70 C10. I got them for free in the warranty scrap pile at work. I only had 2, and put in shoulder belts out of an Opel Kadette. They were exactly like the lap belts, and had little plastic retainers to clip the buckle to when not in use, along with a plastic slider for the slack. Looked like they were factory installed. This was in the ’70’s, so it was the old 2 belt and buckle setup, but it worked. I had no aux gas tank, so left the in cab gas tank. After my tail gate was stolen, I found a trailer made out of a Chevy truck bed for $65.00 and bought it just for the tailgate, rattle canned it as well.
Parts were cheap and almost always in stock. I had to order a door latch once from LMC, everything else was always on the shelf. It’s not often you can make a profit on an old truck, you did well. It did take me 30 years to buy a new truck and finally sell it, though.
These simple old trucks are so easy to work on it’s actually fun. Some one got a great old truck for 4K. Making a profit after fixing up a old vehicle is rare, you did well.
“Some one got a great old truck for 4K.”
–Funnily enough, I ran into, not literally, the guy I sold Rex to about a year later over at the beach. He had added true dual exhausts and was pleased as punch with the pickup. Made me happy to know Rex was being cared for so well.
As an ardent DYI detailer and waxer myself, I’m in awe of the job you did bringing the finish back. I’d have personally never sold that truck, a stylish and unique garbage dump & odd job truck that didn’t cost a fortune.
“As an ardent DYI detailer and waxer myself, I’m in awe of the job you did bringing the finish back.”
–A fellow detailer and waxer! Represent!
–Used an old school orbital buffer and plain old Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound to restore that paint. Oh and about 8-10 hours of work. The oxidation came off and there was beautiful paint under there, no one could believe it was original.
Public preference for in-cab gas tanks depended on how recently someone had holed a gas tank under the frame.
This turned into a really nice truck under your stewardship. You obviously enjoyed dusting it off.
I really enjoy the heavy dose of self depreciation mixed with social comment of your writing style.
Thank you on both counts.
It is amazing that in this age we live in, it is easier to get parts for older rigs than new ones. LMC has a catalog parts for my first gen Ranger, and I have even bought some things for it from Dearborn Classics. If you own a rig thats old and popular enough to have catalogs of restoration parts published for it, keep it!
What a great truck. You immediately brought to mind the very first repair required by my very first car – the accel pump diaphragm in the carb of my 67 Galaxie 390. You are lucky yours started for you to get it home.
I had an old truck for a time – another Ford. But mine wasn’t one of those sissy trucks with the IFS and an automatic. But yours surely made for a more pleasant driving experience that didn’t wear you out from fighting with it.
I feel like we cheated here, by thumbing to the last page of a good book. From what I can tell, you may have had some ordinary cars in the interim, but certainly no ordinary stories.
I was wondering why A/C was so important in what looked like a beater truck. Then I read that you are near Fresno! That’s where I remember picking what tasted like stewed tomatoes, right off the vine, where the sun had cooked them. Next step: sun-dried!
I wouldn’t have been able to sell Rex, all nice and pretty and a real looker, but that’s an individual preference/personality thing. Another real looker you must keep, though, is your wife. Letting you have your car fun AND insisting that you make a bit of profit on the deal makes her a keeper. I hope you took her out to dinner and a movie on some of that profit.
What’s a nice place in Fresno now, anyway? It’s been SO long!
“What’s a nice place in Fresno now, anyway? It’s been SO long!”
–Uh, all depends I guess. Me? I like places that are distinctly low rent, and even frequent fast food. Nowadays, though, there are a lot of the higher end nicer joints in FresYes, but a lot of the old time local owned places have closed up.
“Another real looker you must keep, though, is your wife. Letting you have your car fun AND insisting that you make a bit of profit on the deal makes her a keeper. I hope you took her out to dinner and a movie on some of that profit.”
–Got her a nice fancy phone as well. She’s purty, not sure why she hangs out with me, seeing as how I look like the unfortunate love child of a horse and a ferret.
+1 on the wife; any woman who can produce that smile while driving a 40+ year old truck is a keeper for sure.
Great story with a sad ending. Right after Slicks I would love to have a Bumpside around 1972. Yet there comes a point where one can have too many vehicles especially when you NEVER get rid of them. Hard to do when they treat you well.
Just last weekend, after several months of looking, I found a locally offered FE 2bbl intake to replace my leaky one that wouldn’t seal the newly rebuilt 390 in my 65 F100. Met the guy at the local auto parts store where I arrived first. Next I see a 65 coming up the road which had to be him. Yep, he was in a 65 Camper Special that he bought 20 years ago for $100. He to had a nice 390 in it while still in original paint. Talked trucks for 55 minutes and intake for 5 minutes. Got home and wife asked what took so long as it was only 10 minutes away. Well you know how things go between car guys…
I had a ’65 F250 Camper Special. It was a neat truck and you could change the oil without jacking it up. Simple and easy to work on. These trucks come with pretty big brakes, compared to an F100. F250s are substantially heavier duty than the lighter models. Have you read “The Ford F Series Owner’s Bible?” All about early (50s thru 80s)Ford trucks.
Here’s a picture of my old truck. I loved the front fender bulges and the long skirt like rear bed areas.
“After a bit I just grow bored with my wheels, and have to go looking for the next (weird) thing”
We have to be related! Some of my biggest mistakes were selling my “interesting” rides off out of boredom.
I think O’Reillys is the true and deserved successor to the “old school” parts store. A few weeks back I went to one and asked for an oil filter for a Honda ATC 350x. They had 2 in stock.
To anyone who reads this please don’t use Enviro-Safe. Hydrocarbons are not a safe alternative refrigerant. I am surprised that they are still selling it and implying it is legal and safe to use for automotive systems that were not designed for flammable refrigerants. I’m surprised that they are still in business and not in jail. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/enviro-safe-refrigerants-agrees-halt-sales-unapproved-flammable-hydrocarbon-refrigerants A R12 system properly converted to R134a is not only safe it will perform better than what has been shown here.
–Hydrocarbons as a refrigerant in automotive applications can certainly be debated. That debate is even raging around HFO-1234yf as it replaces R-134a given that it contains hydrocarbon elements. Daimler is dead set against using it for that reason, but the other OEMs are using it now.
The bigger question is really about the safety of driving any of these old cars and trucks. They have no modern safety equipment or design, no crumple zones, air bags, traction control, etc. In an accident you risk injury, perhaps fatal injury, that would probably not happen in a modern vehicle. Those of us who drive these sorts of vehicles have at some point weighed that risk and decided to roll the dice and accept it.
I also ride motorcycles and scooters, serious risk. But I’m willing to accept that risk for the fun of riding.
While I removed Rex’s in-cab gas tank, as that was a risk I did not want to take, I figured having 16 ounces of a hydrocarbon dispersed throughout the AC system was an acceptable risk for me.
Others mileage may and will vary.
Sure it is a calculated risk to drive an older vehicle but to increase the risk on purpose is another matter. Frankly I’m surprised it is legal to ship that junk packaged as refridgerant to a CA address. I’d much rather have that fuel tank behind me than hydrocarbons in my AC system, but to each his own.
Either way people should know that it is illegal to use that stuff and it is illegal becuase it is dangerous. You can see the aftermath on youtube of someone who was trying to prove using propane or butane, i forget which in an automotive AC system.
(Another) great story Heath! After last week Fseries, now you got us one more very cool truck. I absolutely love old trucks, not only for being old but also for (what I see as) some kind of “no frills” way to be.
I know I may be old fashioned but I’m not into driving something electronically and mechanically as complex as a jet fighter.
I dream about buying some 70’s or 80’s truck and doing just what you did to your Rex ( but if possible keeping it for longer ! )
Besides being (IMHO) one of the best looking trucks ever, I love how these generation F series have such a long and square hood and almost vertical windshield.
And please keep writing your COALs!
Great story! That’s a dream truck! But, I liked the look when you bought it, rather than when you sold it. Especially disliked those 90s full wheel covers, nor did I care for the “jewish chrome” on the back bumper. Kinda liked the dented tailgate, too. Gave it an air of authenticity, and I know that rattle can couldn’t have matched perfectly. But hey, that’s me. Unfortunate that it had a 360; for the horrible gas economy they’re famous for, a 429 would be sweeter! Still…what a great truck. And what a great story!
Beautiful old truck and a great story. Love all the work you put into it, and those colors really worked well together.
Great story! My new(er) F 250, Clementine, proved her worth last weekend towing the Airstream to our farm property. An effortless and enjoyable tow, and early-eighties stem to stern!
What a great-looking truck, even in “solid but rough” original form but especially once you’d worked your magic. All the little issues fixed and even working A/C? That’s something special on a 40+ year old vehicle. I don’t know that I could have sold it at that point, but I kind of have the opposite problem (an unwillingness to sell a vehicle I’m bored/tired of as long as it runs and doesn’t need expensive repairs.) Glad to hear it went to someone who appreciates it and is taking good care of it!
Have I seen this truck on Fordification.com or 67-72 F100 Fixem Your Way facebook page? I know I’ve seen it somewhere. I frequent those pages often. I have a 71 F250 CS myself.
Wow, that’s a sweet ride! Never seen it before.
I have the inverse colored version of your truck and got the opportunity to purchase mine in a very similar situation. It’s my dream truck and as many times as it’s gotten me stranded, it has been the best!