I go back to my alma mater for Homecoming every couple-three years. I had a great, life-building experience at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, an engineering school on the outskirts of Terre Haute, Indiana, and I like to visit and remember. I usually park in the student lot next to my old dorm, in part because I like its location, but also because I like to see what the kids are driving these days.
This is always the highlight of Homecoming weekend: the bonfire on Friday night. It’s enormous. The school has to file an environmental-impact statement on it with the EPA, and contact the Terre Haute airport so landing planes can be rerouted around it. When it lights, it gets hot fast, pushing the crowd back. If it rains, even a downpour, the heat evaporates the raindrops well overhead for a 100-yard radius.
Normally I head home after the bonfire, my sons sleeping in the back seat. But my girlfriend’s son is a freshman in high school this year, and is already thinking about college. So we got a hotel room and rose the next morning so I could show him the campus in daylight. He’s seen his older brother’s Indiana University experience; I wanted him to see what the small-school experience might be like. We came upon this truck first thing.
Here’s an unusual shot: me at work, photographing a curbside classic. My girlfriend brought her DSLR along for the weekend. And then immediately after shooting that shot, my camera’s battery died, and I borrowed Margaret’s camera to finish the shoot. But this gives a pretty good idea of what engineering students drive today: nicer, newer cars than mine, in many cases. Check out especially that WRX next to the truck!
But back to this truck: it means business. During my 1970s kidhood, when I visited my grandparents in rural southwestern Michigan, trucks like this tended to stay on or around the farms. The row of roof-mounted lights were always a sign that this truck worked for a living. The farmers usually had an F-150 with some fancy-dancy trim – maybe a little woodgrain Di-Noc on the tailgate and a chrome side strip, maybe an extravagant AM-FM radio in the dash – for taking the wife into town for Saturday dinner at the Beef and Brew.
From afar, I figured that this belonged to someone who lived nearby, because any drive of more than an hour in this thing has got to be punishing. But the license plates and the mud flaps bear witness: someone drove this all the way from Montana. That’s a nearly 24-hour trip to Terre Haute! And oh my goodness, the gas this thing had to guzzle. I’ll bet the trip’s fuel costs rivaled Rose-Hulman’s shockingly steep tuition — $41,865 this year. Ok, maybe not, but the drive still had to put a serious dent in the wallet. The frequent fuel stops were probably a blessing for the driver’s saddle-sore bottom.
Zooming in on some of the details, it’s apparent that this truck started its life in Minnesota. I have to tip my hat to the owner(s) for keeping this truck alive and whole for 45 years in big snow country.
Not that this is a showroom-fresh creampuff. That’s some well-earned patina right there. When it comes to patina, I can normally take it or leave it; what really blows my skirt up is that lightly-driven classic that shows the slightest signs of use but is all original. But this truck’s body integrity is impressive, and I bow deeply to it.
Black vinyl seats, manual transmission, four-wheel drive. Now that, my friends, is a truck that will put hair on your chest.
A very nice rig and no , it isn’t ‘ punishing ‘ to drive this across America .
I grew up with the 1940’s versions of this typ of old Farm Trucks and my Shop Truck is similar : 1969 Chevy C/10 step side .
Basic and easy to keep running forever apart from the tin worm , this rig Henry would be proud of .
-Nate
These weren’t too bad on the highway. If you had a load that helped take the bite out of the ride. Of course when they had a few years wear they would develop the wanderlust steering which made things challenging. I think they were more brutal driving in town with the high effort steering and manual transmissions. And I grew up in Alaska where many had the snowplow package, which just added to the steering effort. Fine trucks overall. Though I have never owned one, I had experience with many back in the day.
You’re right ~ . the F250 rides hard because it’s made for hard work .
My ’69 C/10 is a light duty short bed , it has the wimpy coil springs on all four corners , I added Bilstein HD gas shocks and good radial LT tires , it rides O.K. (I prefer a firm ride) and handles far better than I expected ~ I’ve driven it on a few Road Rallies and had much fun .
It also has ‘ Saginaw Squish ‘ power steering and a TH350 slush box , I’m old and crippled so I need these things now , it took me a long time to find a so equipped base model truck .
250 CID InLine 6 Banger of course , I have a 292 and a TH350C (lockup torque converter) tranny I plan to install sooner than later .
It looked very pretty when I bought it but the cowl was completely rusted out , I had to replace the cab when I had it re painted , I’d managed to rip the cab right off the frame on a mountain back roads road rally thanx to the rusted pinchwelds in the floor .
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BTW : THANK YOU to all who posted photos and added stories about their old Fords .
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-Nate
Back when trucks really were trucks. Now they’re just as “plastic-ly” as cars.
Trucks are still trucks…
Agreed. They just have more comfortable seating, more horsepower, and more amenities.
And have much higher prices.
And last much longer at much higher efficiencies.
I’ll give you the higher prices. For the cost of a new F250, I could have purchased roughly 42 copies of my 1986 Dodge.
Of course, I wouldn’t develop hemorrhoids going over bumps, could go over 55MPH without dumping fuel in by the barrel, could tow about 4 times what I can now, and could have air conditioning, more than one speaker for the radio, cruise control, and heated seats if I desired.
I like older trucks. I don’t have any concern over bouncing across rough fields with a 29-year-old Dodge, and can fix it pretty easily. But, would I drive it from Montana to Indiana? Ain’t gonna happen!
Sweet looking truck. I love the patina. I’ve always loved this generation Ford F series trucks. My dad had a Ford F150 before I was born. Sadly, he got into a wreck and had to sell it. So I couldn’t really enjoy it when I was a boy.
Patina, that’s rust my friend and lots and lots of it.
A wonderful survivor. Thanks for posting this, it’s one of my favorites.
” And oh my goodness, the gas this thing had to guzzle.”
I’m guessing 10-12 MPG. And, yes, with a 10 grand GVW rating, driving one of these empty is pretty rough.
Given that gas is cheaper than it was back then, it’s not really that big of a deal, right?
Gas is about $2/gal here now. A 24-hour trip at 60 mph at 10 mpg would cost upwards of $300 in gas one way. My Ford Focus would cost me just about $85 for the same trip. Feels like a big deal to me!
Reality check.
The ’67-’72 Ford Styleside beds, with a bed seam immediately above the character line, rusted IMMEDIATELY upon delivery in the Northeast and anywhere salt was used.
I’m talking 2-3 winters tops until repair/replacement was needed. I think there was even a factory recall.
IIRC the ’70-72s were worst of all. In the southern Vermont town in which I lived at the time, most of these beds had been replaced by 1974 with the ’73-’79 style.
I’ve never lived in Minnesota so I’m unsure about salt use…but as I got more into old cars and started reading Hemmings, I’d see ads for sheet metal from “dry Montana”, and I’ll guess a combination of meticulous care and Montana’s climate kept this 250 solid.
With all this said, didn’t Ford use a 4WD variation of its Twin-I-Beam suspension on these trucks, which would have given them a better ride than their GM counterparts?
My uncle bought a 1971 F100 new….and the bed started rusting within 2 or 3 years as well…..The snowbelt in the Western Pennsylvania mountains with the generous use of roadsalt took its toll on that truck very quickly.
I believe the I beam type 4X4 front axles were and 80s addition to the Ford trucks. The twin beams were introduced on the 2wd trucks in ’65. “Works like a truck, drives like a car.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-Traction_Beam
I’m not an expert on the details, but I’m pretty sure that the Twin Traction Beam (TTB) 4WD variation of Twin IBeam was on 1/2 ton (and later small Ranger and Explorer) only. F250 and 350 stayed with solid axles. The bigger trucks only went to IFS when they switched to control arm suspension, and even now I think 350’s are still sold axle.
I doubt that it’s meticulous care. Here (NW Wyoming), this truck would be average, just like any other one. I’ve seen trucks of this generation in the junkyards- some have that light surface rust like this one, but that’s it.
Being in a desert really preserves things. We have bad paint fade, but rusting is a non-issue.
I’d guess that the move from Minnesota to Montana occurred pretty early in this F-250’s life.
I should add that there are still enough 1967-76 Ford pickups doing their daily chores here in western Washington that they don’t seem sufficiently rare to photograph as CC’s.
My father bought a ’70 F-100 new. By the late ’70s, it was growing moss in the front fenders, right behind the wheel well. By 1985, the body had fallen in on the frame due to rust, but the body – particularly the bed – still looked fine.
Of course, we lived in extreme southern Illinois, about 20 miles from the Kentucky state line. Your mileage will vary. Speaking of mileage, his had the 240 straight six and never surpassed 15 mpg.
Corrosion by road salt will have many variables, such as type of salt (calcium chloride, sodium chloride, or magnesium chloride), application rate, jurisdiction, and frequency of exposure. Plus, not all anti-icing chemicals contain salts – some states use beet juice, which is purple sugar water that smells like dirty feet but corrodes nothing.
Now *that* is a cool old truck. Credit to the owner for keeping it on the road and for driving a Spartan rig like that all the way from Montana! 24 hours…wow.
What a find! All of the period-correct details are there along with the patina. Note the dealer’s name on the cowl (a few rural dealers still put their badges there instead of the tailgate) and the truck’s gross weight. A number of states required the GVW posted on all pickups even if they were never used as commercial vehicles.
Here in Illinois pickups were required to have the GVW along with the owner’s name and town on the vehicle until the early 1970s.
You could always tell one of these that really worked for a living, because it was an F-250. I always liked this generation, but as some have said, you sure don’t see many of them in rust country any more.
A fair number of F-250s ended up in suburban driveways during the height of the pickup camper boom. I had a great uncle who owned a 390-powered ’70 F-250 Ranger XLT Camper Special for nearly 30 years. Bought it brand new when he was living in California and when he retired back to Illinois in the ’80s it still looked like it had been in California all its life. Sadly it was totaled in a wreck in the late ’90s.
That’s a good point, and in non-rusty areas, some of them are still hanging around. This ’72 Camper Special was a resident of the very suburban neighborhood where I lived in Durham, NC. Photo is from about 5 years ago (moved away more than 3 years ago) but it was in very solid shape for its age.
Bought mine from a guy in Van Nuys who used it as a vacation vehicle. Very little rust and reasonably well cared for. Still chugging along on a stock FE 360 and a C6 transmission.
oooooo, the side storage panel option!
I have such fond memories of our old 69 Ford F250. Dad brought it home, brand new, when I was in fifth grade. It had a 360 and the four speed with granny gear. It did not have power steering or power brakes (!) and they were relatively small drum brakes. It had a Frigette hang on air conditioner, which worked amazingly well. It was two toned, burnt orange and white. It was solid as a tank. The only unsettling thing about it (besides the brakes) was the gas sloshing behind the front seat.
It was used as a personal vehicle until he got his Gran Torino wagon in late 73, then it did some heavy work as a mobile paint spray rig with a huge gas compressor and an airless sprayer. In 1980, his business partnership broke up, we went in business together and I became the custodian of the F250, which by then was totally clapped out. We found a 390 engine, had it rebuilt and dropped it in. What a difference in torque! We had the kingpins done and some other mechanical work done, and I bought some Kem Transport Enamel and gave it a repaint with an airless sprayer.
The truck served us well until the early 90s. I had finally figured out how to get the bolts out to change the starter with various socket extensions put together, and had done head gaskets once and manifold gaskets at least one other time. Dad passed in late 94, and I sold the truck to a subcontractor who milked a couple of more years out of it.
That was my “Truck of a Lifetime”, and I still smile when I see one of that era.
Nice find Jim. I particularly like the Montana mudflaps and the very businesslike shift levers.
Even when I was in Engineering school most students with cars had vastly better ones than I. One guy had a Porsche 914, the exchange students had brand new Honda Accords. Thank goodness one fellow had a very nicely cared for Dodge Dart. Us Focus drivers are even more outclassed these days it seems.
And tuition! I remember being concerned when mine went over $1,500 per semester..
This was back in the days when trucks were trucks….You could order a pickup pretty much the way you wanted….Anything from a basic work truck with rubber floormats to trucks with the deluxe interior…..You had your choice of engine and transmission , axle ratio and suspension options.
Nowadays, it is difficult to even get a manual transmission in a pickup.
I factory ordered a 2000 Silverado 2WD shortbed stepside pickup with V6 and 5 speed manual……The stepside bed is no longer produced in 2015 and automatic transmissions are standard.
My Dad bought two 1965 Ford F100 shortbed stepsides from Gov’t surplus back in the 1970’s.
6 cylinder 3 speed manual….He later converted one to a 4 speed with granny gear…….Those trucks served him for many years…hauling dirt, gravel…etc…..and paint inside the bed got scratched from use, but that was what a truck was for…
Nowadays, people are driving around in $40,000 pickups that never see anything hauled in the bed for fear of denting something…..which defeats the whole purpose of what a truck is for…..
Ah yes… the bumpside Fords!! My favorite of the Ford trucks… so much so I have two. I was lucky though, my 71 F250 that I brought from Missouri to Florida was originally an Arizona truck so my bed sides were in tact… the floor not so much. Mine carried a large slide in camper and had a GVWR designation on the door as well. The camper was evident by the beat up roof and the cancer in the corner of the bed floor.
My 2WD 71 Camper Special has a 390-V8 with a C6 auto and a 3.54 Dana gear so gas mileage is not great, but 12-14 mpg is really all you can expect on a good day for these trucks (I got 14 on a trip from FL to TN last spring).
For anyone wanting more info on the bumpside generation of Ford trucks, visit Fordification.com or FIXEM YOUR WAY67-72 F100 on Facebook. Great group of guys on both with some fantastic trucks.
I’d call that great MPG for an old truck like that.
Agreed. With my old Dodge with a 360 4bbl and a 4 speed, I’m lucky to break 10MPG. That’s pretty good!
I drove my ’66 F100 several times from the Bay Area to Eugene, pulling a trailer, back in 1993. I enjoyed those trips, mostly. But there’s no way I would do that now….too noisy. But then an F100 2WD does ride a whole lot better than an F250 4×4, which has an absolutely punishing ride. There might as well not be any springs at all.
Nice to see that old ’70 still on the road and better yet, still doing long road trips. My white ’70 C10 at one point had surface rust patina similar to this, although quite a bit less. Same ’70’s era white spoke wheels. Armstrong steering, manual drum brakes, rubber floor mat and 3 on tree later converted to 4 on floor with Hurst floor shifter with long chrome lever bearing the name. It did have the custom trim and instrument package so it got chrome front bumper, bright trim around the windshield and back glass, and cloth and vinyl seat along with little fake wood inserts and fancy embossed design in the panels as well. The 200 hp (gross) 307 V8 combined with the 3:73 axle ratio was good for about 12 MPG around town and 15 MPG on the highway IF kept at 55 MPH. It happily tolerated long drives even when way overloaded. It did need regular U joint and center bearing replacements, that’s where the excess weight took it’s toll. Overload springs, 11 inch clutch and 140 WT oil in the rear end were all done to allow it to carry the extra weight and survive. It did several 1000 miles trouble free trips pulling 30 ft 5th wheel travel trailers along with the bed loaded with tools and motorcycle. At about 7 MPG. Great find!
That hitch and cup holder replete with plastic with plastic travel mug really blows my skirt up. Love it!
I usually do a couple of trips a year to Montana and there’s plenty of rigs like this still in daily use. The dry climate really protects old cars, I always have my eyes peeled for gems hidden in farm fields.
There are still quite a few of these running around my town 150’s and 250’s). Most have similar patina from salt air and dripping surfboards. I had a summer job in 1975 that included almost daily driving of an F150 of this generation; 2wd, inline 6 and 3 on the tree. I have some great memories of places I went in that truck … certainly as a more softly sprung 1/2 ton and 2wd it was quite tolerable for long distances. And I was just 18.
I always remember this F-150 model as the one stopped at the train crossing in an eerie scene in the Close Encounters of the Third Kind where everything in the truck goes haywire as the UFO hovers above it.
I believe that’s the next generation ’73-’79 “dentside” truck rather than a ’67-’72 “bumpside” style.
Derp.
Ford and Dodge 3/4-ton 4x4s with the high body, solid front axle and multi-leaf springs have always impressed me as rugged trucks; that’s what a 4×4 is about. The GM trucks seem carlike in comparison with their lower slung bodies.
Someone once told me the Fords were the more rugged and durable trucks of the three as you see more Fords used with the petroleum and construction companies. Any truth in that?
In the 1980’s my Uncle told me that for fleet use the Fords were more predictable, if one pickup needed a repair they all needed it.
GM pickups varied more, some might need a given repair quite soon and others would never need it.
If you had to look after a bunch of trucks then it was easier to be predictable.
Beats me how true that is, then or now. I’ve never owned more than one pickup at a time 🙂
I learned to drive on a truck just like this! My father had a ’67 F250 4×4, with stick shift and manual steering. Like this truck, his came from Montana; however his was purchased from a junkyard way back in 1988. He’s had it ever since, having driven it from Montana to Ohio and back several times. It’s the truck he proposed to my mother in a few years later, and I credit it as the vehicle that sparked my obsession with the automobile. It’s a beast and a half, used mostly as a farm truck now a days. I don’t see him getting rid of it anytime soon! I’ve got plenty more stories of this old truck, if the good readers here are interested in an article eventually. Thanks for triggering the memories.
Yup. Learned to drive on a ’67 Chevy C/20 4×4 farm truck. 4-speed with the granny gear, no power steering or brakes. By the early ’80’s the bed was replaced with a home-fabricated 2×8 flatbed. The muffler had been lost back in the late 70’s and never replaced since my dad only used it to plow snow and haul rocks, gravel, topsoil or salt for the driveway (probably a big contributor to it’s early loss of the bed). It was dark torquoise inside and out with a white cab top lined with yellow lights across the front. A big, honest hardworking rig. Dad sold it to a buddy in ’84 when he replaced it with a Bronco II and a dump trailer. His back couldn’t handle rowing that big shifter and wrestling with the wheel while plowing any more. The plow rig on the front had no power pivot either, so he got sick of having to get out to manually pivot that big Fisher plow. The family friend who bought it restored it and painted it bright red with a varnished wooden stake bed, and as of the early 2000’s it was still in light service advertising his excavation business. I’d kill to have that truck today. A couple years ago when I started teaching my partner (a lifelong Brooklyn boy without a license before we moved out of the city) to drive I laughed uncontrollably when he struggled to wrestle an automatic equipped Camry into a parking spot. Learning to drive ona vehicle like these trucks was a lesson that can probably never be duplicated in today’s world.
That’s a real truck if I’ve ever seen one. What a great old beast. It’s got the look that says “Yep, I’m a truck. Deal with it.” The Fords of that generation have always been a favorite since I was a kid. A friend of our family had two – first a ’67 and then a ’71. He had a farm and did maintenance in an oilfield, so they got their share of use. They’ve always brought a smile to my face, and I wouldn’t mind one for a weekend driver. I’d find something to haul around in it.
I also learned to drive with the 1970 4×4 f-250 Crew Cab on the farm. Nearly a 60:1 crawl ration in first low and 2000lbs didn’t even start the springs bending. Great tough truck but the headliner had dents and hair all over it from people hitting the roof on even small bumps. They are still a daily sight in my part of the west.
One of the things about these trucks that is great is that they were built for, and bought by men. With today’s trucks that is just not the case anymore. I don’t mean to belittle anyone’s modern ride but I’d compare it to the barber shop vs. a unisex hair salon. One is a man’s domain and the other one isn’t. Both get the job done though.
I’m completely in love with this thing. Dream truck.
Great find, truck, post, pictures, text – just awesome. I like that this truck looks toothless. And no obvious dents – just rust and patina from use. As honest a truck as a pair of worn, denim overalls. It deserves to be frozen in time just like this.
S
Apparently I cannot edit my comment; oh well.
The black F-series in my original comment was photographed in Portland, OR which is impressive in my opinion and I hope the driver(s) had fun while going across the country.
Most embossed Montana plates are no longer road legal including the ones on this truck since the state had a plate recall in 2006. However, the police do not seem to care since this not the first time I have seen someone using embossed plates this decade. This truck sure is nice looking as well as a practical way to move a dorm room across several states. Judging by the drips on the asphalt it is already marking its territory. If you ever visit Montana you will notice how the parking lots are covered in splotches of various fluids as vehicles mark their territory and in general the vehicles are rough around the edges. Looks like this F-250 is going to need another quartet of tires eventually. Those Montana Mudflaps are pretty sweet, I would like to get an Oregon pair someday.
https://dojmt.gov/driving/license-plates/#standardplates