(first posted 1/6/2013) If you were born after a certain time, you think of the Ranger only as Ford’s (lost, lamented) compact truck. But from 1965 through 1970, Ford crowned its toniest full-sized trucks with the Ranger name. You could get no truck more tricked out than Ford’s Ranger. (In 1971, a seasonal special truck with extra goodies was christened Explorer. That ought to break the minds of Gen-Y readers who know that name only because of Mom’s old SUV.)
I found this Ford F-100 Ranger way out on the east side of Fishers, Indiana, an upper-middle-class Indianapolis suburb. I’m there a few times a week, and I occasionally see a restored and pampered older car pulling out of one of the many vinyl villages that line the town’s main roads. So I was surprised (but delighted) when I came upon this survivor.
And what a survivor! Most 40-plus-year-old unrestored trucks wish they still looked this good. Sure, there’s rust and faded paint. But except for a couple AWOL wheel covers and a missing trim strip, all the bits are still present.
I could tell from the grille that this Ranger was from the late 60s: The 1967, 1968 and 1969 Ford trucks have similar grilles. From some internet sleuthing I learned that the 1969 grille has a groove along the middlemost horizontal slat that is always painted red on Rangers. Groove = 1969; now, you know.
This Ranger carries the same Pure White and Candy Apple Red color scheme and trim as the one Ford advertised in its 1969 truck brochure, one of the many ways it’s the archetypal ’69 Ranger.
Of course, Ranger was just a trim level that offered greater comfort and style over the lesser standard and Custom F-100s. In addition to all the extra bright trim outside, you got a little wood grain and chrome on the dash, color-keyed textured vinyl upholstery and a spiffy Ranger badge on the glove box door. Nice details if you’re a truck fan; lipstick on the pig if you’re not. Because no matter what the brochure says about a car-like ride, this truck is very much a truck.
All of the interior goodies are present on this Ranger, but that vinyl seat could use a serious cleaning. You’ll have to trust me on everything east of the gauge panel–when I shot this I had not yet begun heeding Herr Niedermeyer’s advice for successful interior photography, namely shooting from the passenger-side window with the camera close to the glass. The sunset sure cast a wicked glare.
Dig that storage compartment on the side of the bed–I wonder why that option disappeared in later years. It seems mighty useful.
This Ranger hung out in this very spot for about a week before it moved on, and it had no license plate. Was it temporarily not running? Here’s hoping it moved from this spot under its own power, and is out playing on the country roads that lurk not far from this lot.
In regards to the first paragraph, dare we also bring up that Durango, before being the name of a Dodge SUV, was a trim package on a Chevy pickup in years past? Anyway, in the past 15 years have seen a few Ford F-100 Rangers looking rather like this one.
Chevy also briefly had a Caravan in the full-size G van lineup.
Here is my ’72 Sport Custom. This was second from the bottom model for ’72; Custom, Sport Custom, Explorer and Explorer XLT.
Mine is a 80k mile original 390 FE, C6 auto and increased GVRW option. Has some rust, but many years in Central GA have kept it preserved pretty well.
[img]http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/684121/fullsize/img_1536.jpg[/img]
first attempt to link photo didn’t work. This is ‘Sanford’ as dubbed by my wife…
I have a 1969 F100 just like this one as well. Red and white two tone, custom cab ranger, everything is stock and in great condition as well, especially the chrome. I’m currently restoring it as well! Here in central ga as well
growing up in brooklyn, new york in the 1960s, i didn’t see any pick ups . vans were common place.the only time i saw them was our vacation in the catskil mtns.
Nice use of available hubcaps, left front and right rear, pretty much has it covered.
These were awesome pickups. The first vehicle I ever drove was my dad’s ’70 F-100 Custom; I was about 9 or 10.
His had a serious issue that I don’t know was rampant or not….yes, it rusted, but most of it was underneath. The body fell in on the frame to the point he could not shift it out of first gear one day due to the linkage being in a bind. He jacked up the body, stuck a few 2×4’s in to shim it up, and went pickup shopping. He was offered $500 by the dealer (in 1986) and didn’t even argue.
His pickup was the same color as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXatUGIi9g
My grandfather had a ’70 painted the same color! My grandmother called it The Pumpkin, which always left me scratching my head. I never knew why, but in ’72 he traded it on an orange-over-white Dodge Power Wagon, which he drove until 1978 when he traded it on a new 4×4 Bronco.
I’d like to know how many Ford pickups were trashed in filming this segment. And just like some of Rockford’s Firebirds, Bronson’s truck has the amazing power of self-healing. After pushing the big Plymouth off the road the left headlight bezel and grille were mashed up. In the ensuing scene everything was back to normal. How cool is that?
I counted three when watching this. So I figure that needs to be doubled.
Interesting to check the other versions of the F-100 around the world like the Brazilian version in Brazil who use the 1957-60 cab and squared headlights!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifhp97/6879518195/in/set-72157624263017284
Also, I spotted on Ebay, this vintage 1969 F-100 ad from Argentina.
Here another 1969 F-100 from Australia, converted as an ambulance for emergency duty. http://www.flickr.com/photos/59573446@N02/6068811946/
As always Stephane, your links are fascinating!
The Ranger actually lasted as the top trim level right through 1981 or ’82. I’d never been clear on this, but it seems the Explorer was actually a lower priced trim package rather than a separate model…
http://www.fordification.com/tech/explorer.htm
Thanks for pointing that out. I’m seeing conflicting info out there about this — some insist that the Explorer was the top trim, others (like this) don’t.
Yeah, I was also unaware that Ranger was a trim until my dad bought his 74 Bronco Ranger in about 1996. Fancy houndstooth and white stripes were all I could pick out as “Ranger”, someone else probably knows all the particulars better than me.
Seems then the Ranger trim was also available on the 1st-gen Bronco (as well as the first years of the 2nd-gen Bronco, there one pic of a 1978-79 Bronco XLT Ranger http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/b/bronco.php ) and even the Ranchero
I believe it had multi color tape stripes by th e late 70s.
“Dig that storage compartment on the side of the bed–I wonder why that option disappeared in later years.”
Might be because, given the lack of rustproofing in those days, the compartments themselves disappeared? 🙂
But seriously, I’ve always liked these, and Nissan currently offers them on the Titan.
I’m still waiting for the Ranger Brougham. I mean, come on – a vinyl seat with a cloth pattern? Where’s the crushed velour!
Lots of woodgrain, though. 🙂
The Fords of that era are among my favorite trucks, and a Ranger was a rare sight among the Customs I usually saw as a kid. Here’s hoping that old Ranger is rambling its way down a back road somewhere.
About 20 years ago, I walked a couple of miles to the light rail station in San Jose for my commute to work. One of the businesses near the station (Tamien, just south of downtown) had an Edsel parked in front of it most days. Sure enough, it was a Ranger. No pictures, alas, but a real CC. (According to Wikipedia, Ranger was the base trim level for Edsels. They also offered a Pacer.)
Glad to see you contributing more, JG, but you have simply GOT to stop poaching my hunting grounds. 🙂 I thought that this truck looked familiar, and checked the ever-growing JPC photo archive, and saw that I had shot that same truck about a year ago. I had a decent interior shot. This one even had air, which must have been pretty rare in a pickup back then. Got your back, Jim.
I met the owner as he was coming out of a store. He told me that he used it as a running-around vehicle, and used it for work sometimes. I think I recall that he did some remodeling or handyman work. He said that it is a horrible pig on gas, but that last winter during a bad cold snap, it was the only vehicle at his house that started. I hope that he hasn’t given up on it. However, with that kind of rust, it will not be on the road forever.
These, along with the 1961-66 series, are my favorite Ford pickups. I got some TV time with one of these recently when I watched the old movie Mr. Majestyk. Charles Bronson took one of these on a chase scene over some really rough country. I remember that footage from that movie was used in a Ford truck commercial in the 70s.
A nice writeup on a great truck.
A better shot of that great dash with the a/c unit, just like the one in the brochure shot.
The YouTube clip Jason Shafer posted up above is the car chase scene from that movie. Pretty awesome stuff, has to be one of the only Charles Bronson movies I’ve never seen… I gotta find the whole thing somewhere. In fact, I’d never even heard of it before. Written by Elmore Leonard too, who wrote lots of great stuff (Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, 3:10 to Yuma) – I dunno how I missed this one!
JPC — here’s how I see it playing out.
You and I keep competing for the, let’s face it, relatively small set of Curbside Classics that still lurk here in central Indiana, aka the Land of Terminal Rust. It is a never-ending race to see which of us can post about each car first. And when we’ve exhausted all but last old car still on the road here, we will have a RUMBLE TO THE FINISH to see which of us gets to write about it. We’ll broadcast it live on pay-per-view. Proceeds from the show will go to fund this Web site for the next five years.
Are you in?
I’m definitely in. It’s easy for those guys in the Pacific Northwest to be so civilized about this – the cars last forever out there. Here in the heartland, the stakes are so much higher. We will just bash each others’ heads in with corncobs or something. Maybe we could get a whole reality series out of this. If Honey Boo Boo and the Amish Mafia have shows, surely a couple of competitive Curbside Classic car bloggers can bring the ratings.
I learned about early rusting when I went to college in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1957-1958. One guy from Detroit had a ’57 Ford Custom 4-door sedan that was already showing surface rust on the rear gravel pan. He said he expected it to be totally rusted out in a couple of years. There were plenty of rusted-out older cars around town. But at the same time, another kid from Chicago had a nice ’47 Ford 4-door that didn’t have any rust on it.
Oddly enough, when we were there this summer I didn’t see a rust hole on anything, but then I didn’t see anything older than mid-1990’s either.
Yeah when I got older (in my 20s) and started noticing old trucks I quickly realized how much name “recycling” was going on with all the automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler). I haven’t noticed that recycling at the same level with the Japanese but I’m sure someone will point it out to me.
Re the trim levels:
Rangers were the top trim until the ’71 Ranger XLT. This morphed into the XLT Lariat in ’79 or so. This nomenclature spanned two decades, until at least ’96, and the final year of the real American pickup, the twin-I-beamed, 300 six, good ol truck.
As for the Explorer, it was seasonal trim package on these pickups. It was offered for a few months each Spring quarter, as a way to spur sales after cold, dark mid-west winters.
This scheme was not unlike Ford’s “White Sale”
packages for cars, except they flogged that one slightly earlier in the model year, during the doldrums of winter.
AFIK this package held on to about ’89 or so, right up to the point where they borrowed the nameplate for that SUV formerly known as Bronco II.
Ok, good enough. I tweaked the text above to reflect this.
Ranger XLT was available in 1970 also, I had one for a couple years.
The range was
Custom
Sport Custom
Ranger
Ranger XLT
The complete 1970 brochure is at;
https://sites.google.com/site/1970fseriessalesbrochure/
Great looking trucks and Ford offered them in lots of excellent color combinations, like this red/white two-tone – which has aged very gracefully. I love what the little bit of woodgrain and chrome does to the dashboard on the Ranger model. Simple, compact and stylish.
I saw a 1970 F-100 Sport Custom yesterday, which I had actually seen before and taken pictures of a month ago (included below). The “Sport” model was a new one for me, I hadn’t noticed that one before… where does it fall in the Custom/Ranger/Explorer hierarchy? This is also the earliest Ranger I’ve ever seen, I didn’t know that it went all the way back to 1965. I’ve seen lots of late 70’s Rangers and I figured that was where it originated.
http://www.fordification.com/index.htm
Refer to the gospel above-The Sport Custom was sort of budget XLT, with a few bright upgrades such as padded door panels, and a color keyed hose-out mat instead of a stinky old black one.
Thanks, that’s a great site… added it to my bookmarks.
+1
+2
I like the ’67-’69 Ford trucks quite a bit even though my dream truck is a ’68 396 Chevy. Other than the tacked-on A/C unit, these Fords had a more aesthetic instrument panel IMO.
I’d love to hook this guy up with his two missing wheelcovers 🙂
Actually…it reminds me of this ’78ish C-20 I spotted for sale in front of a plumbing supply store in Durham, NC. It had been fixed up pretty nicely & was completely original & unrealistically priced at $4,000. One of its hubcaps was missing though and it started bothering me as it was on my way to work. I had enough one day & brought an NOS cap I had laying around with me & on my way home one day, I hopped out of my truck, ran over, popped it on, & sped off.
I don’t know why doing that was so much fun but I sit here & smile thinking about it…wondering what the seller thought when he spotted it– “where did THAT come from?” The truck sat there several more weeks & I got a kick out of seeing “my” hubcap on it. It really looked nice!
That is awesome!
I have three hubcaps from my lamented, lost 2003 base Toyota Matrix. There’s a base ’03 that parks at the CVS nearest me and it’s got a couple missing ones — I think I’m gonna put mine on it!
“Hubcap Fairy?” 😀
The thing about hubcaps is that you lose one and while searching for that one, you will find 50 more on the side of the road, but not the one you lost, that vanishes into the twilight zone.
Had a friend in high school who had a ’68 Chevy 3/4 ton 2wd w/ 396. Fun truck, but hardly a dream…there’s a reason Ford keeps outselling them all…Energizer Bunny comes to mind when I think of Ford trucks…
It’s aesthetics man. If they were the crappiest trucks ever built they’d still be on my bucket list.
Haha, what an awesome thing to do. You rock Junqueboi!
My uncle had a ’71 Ranger XLT brand new. It was black with a red interior, and I remember thinking it was the nicest pickup I’d ever seen. Knowing my uncle it probably had the biggest engine available, and I do know it had air conditioning. It turned a lot of heads at the time. My Dad suggested they just call it a Lincoln and be done with it. I’d love to have it today!
I had a 73 model with toolboxes on the back instead of a regular bed. Started having trouble filling it with fuel and found rust had caused a shift of the bed so I was pumping uphill. Liked it and it was a sweet 302. There is a 69 model on FM3083 a few miles east of Conroe if any of you East Texas guys are interested. At Patton Motors. Don’t know how much.
My dad had a 76 F-250 Ranger, it was also a Camper Special, up until a few years ago when he upgraded to a 93 F-250. That old 76 had all of what passed for luxury in a truck, it had cloth seats in front, a headliner instead of just bare steel, matching green carpet, fake wood and plastic chrome both of which were peeling, full door panels, plus lots of extra chrome trim on the outside.
While the GM trucks of that era (’67-’72) are my all-time favorite style, the Fords seemed more luxurious and “car like” ahead of GM and far ahead of Dodge. Rust, however seemed to be worse on the Fords, even here on the West coast. The other thing I notice when I occasionally see an F-250 is that it is not jacked way up in the air. Somehow, Ford was able to do a 3/4 ton frame and suspension yet still be able to slide right in, not pull yourself up in order to enter the cab.
Dodges are by far the worst on rust, and maybe you are referring to the ’77 and later Ford trucks, when the chassis was redesigned to lower them, and fit the 400, because prior to ’77 all the 4WD trucks were tall, and today they are called by dumbbells as “Highboy’s” A term I hate…
Ah, the time when truck were just that – trucks. Todays trucks are luxury cars with a bed instead of a trunk, it seems. Go to the local big 3 dealer lot, and it’ll probably be an unsuccessful search to find a basic single cab, long bed, no options truck.
I feel like most of todays truck buyers buy them because they want a big, fairly luxurious vehicle, and you can’t buy a ’76 olds 88 anymore. So, people buy a truck that, while still fairly affordable, offers big size and luxurious accomodations, and has a ‘manlyness’ instead of that ‘soccer mom’ feel that a SUV in a similar price range has.
Yes, I think you’re right – people do use their trucks as luxury transportation now. Back then, trucks were hardly that. Nobody drove a truck unless they had a good reason to (I like to think that was due to a little more common sense than can be found today, but then today’s trucks are more like cars than ever before).
We had a 1969 Sport Custom F100 in our extended family for almost 40 years. My uncle bought it “new” at an insurance auction – it had been stolen off of a dealer’s lot and stripped of parts and abandoned. I could never figure out why the radiator hoses never fit right – turns out my uncle installed a 3/4T radiator in it, which had larger openings on it! He hauled a massive camper on the back, desite the fact that it was a half-ton with a 302 and the wimpy C4 trans and 15″ wheels.
Then my grandfather got it in the late 1970s, replacing a 1955 Chevy 2nd series half ton short box with the large back window (that I really wish that I had today, but it was beat and rusted when my uncle sold it and I was too young to buy it). It did farm duty, hauling bales of straw and so on.
Our family inherited the truck in the early 1980s when my grandfather bought a new K20 4×4 Chevy (with the most gutless 305 4V that I’ve ever driven). All three of us kids used it in high school – my sister redesigned the RF fender on a utility pole, and my brother got it sliding sideways in the high school parking lot (no snow or ice to blame either) hitting a curb which wiped out the wheels, tires, and front end which I helped my brother fix (king pins, etc – he badly bent the front radius arms which is darn hard to do on that twin I-beam suspension).
Then my dad kept it for dump runs for another 20 years after the kids were out of the house, selling it just a few years ago. It was good basic transportation, but it needed a lot of maintenance as did all cars of that era.
Do I miss it? Not as much as I miss the possibility of buying an equivalent vehicle in today’s market. You would have to special-order it, as no dealers would ever order such a stripped-down vehicle (by today’s standards) and have it sitting around, unless they specialize in fleet and commercial sales.
Your answer today is a retired plant truck. That’s what I am driving and you have to settle for used. Drivers door was about to fall off and the rest of the truck except for the paint job (chem plant section of town) seemed like a new truck.
I have one just like this, but in a little bit better of condition. It was my truck back in high school, and I managed to track it down and buy it back. I’m working on restoring it as we speak!
My Dad had bought a new ’75 Chevy Stepside short bed truck, which I drove a lot. Very smooth riding, quiet, even had a/c. The 350 V8 really guzzled gas. Nice inside, but cramped. Twenty years later I bought my first old truck a ’66 F250 Camper Special. This truck had a much more spacious cabin with better ergonomics, well at least better steering wheel placement. V8/auto, power brakes, but Armstrong steering. I fixed some things and had it re painted. I think that those were some good looking old trucks.
I kept it at 60 mph. in the slow lane and everybody just went around me. Never had a problem with people tail gating me, they saw an old truck and just went around it.
These basic old trucks can be used for actual work,and even daily driven. The lack of any amenities and the rough noisy ride and poor fuel economy are best left for occasional use. That old Ford truck is what turned me into a Ford guy. I bought a new F150 XL base truck in 2007 and have never regretted it. My Dad kept his Chevy until his dying day in 2006.
The cheapest way to get into the vintage collectible vehicle game is with an old truck. Everyone loves old trucks and you will constantly be talking to people everywhere. Kept in decent running condition an old truck will always have some value to someone who needs to haul a dirty load.
“These basic old trucks can be used for actual work,and even daily driven. The lack of any amenities and the rough noisy ride and poor fuel economy…”.
Perfect.
“The lack of any amenities and the rough noisy ride and poor fuel economy are best left for occasional use.”
This is the best part of an original truck as they were a truck. Drove, handled, and rode like a truck. The roar of the wind and the somewhat rougher ride is what I wanted in my 65. Today’s trucks are more cars than trucks and there are those who take trucks, like ours, put them on a Crown Vic suspension, install a Triton engine with 5 speed and call their truck a 66. Frankenstein for sure as it is definitely not a 66 anymore.
I had a ’68 F250 Camper Special 2WD with the 360FE. Couldn’t kill the engine or the truck despite the extensive rust. Love the FE’s even though I’m now a Mopar fan, one of Ford’s actual “Better Ideas”.
CC-in-scale has a ’69, but it’s a SWB and pretty plain.
Nice to see this survivor .
Many years back at the City I was issued a truck, it was a 1979 (maybe ’78) F150 and it also had a ‘RANGER’ badge on it .
Near total stripper, it had a 302 C-6 and long bed .
Nothing else .
-Nate
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/coal-requiem-for-a-truck/
Mine, written up here in 2012. Gone now, but not forgotten.
I saw a nearly identical Ranger at a grocery store parking lot near us a few years ago. From the store entrance it looked great, so I wandered over to check it out. Up close…not so much. The paint looked nice, but it covered a lumpy Bondo job with cracks in it, plus the bottoms of the doors were uneven. I didn’t see the owner, so I wasn’t able to find out anything about the truck’s history. Oh well. Maybe someone else can do better by an old truck.