Aged daily drivers are few and far between here in Indiana. Our winters are hard on cars. So it’s a real event for a carspotter like me to find one parked curbside. This 1967 Ford F-250 was parked on a street in my subdivision one late-winter day a few years ago. It is the only curbside classic I’ve ever found in my own neighborhood.
My little subdivision of ranch homes was built in the 1950s and 1960s; its glory years are long behind it. Most of my neighbors are of modest, middle-class means, so you’d think you’d find more curbside classics serving as practical daily transportation here. But instead, my neighbors mostly go for used Kias, very used Hondas and FWD GM A-bodies, and trucks from the last 15 years. It’s never surprising to see a truck parked by the curb in my neighborhood. It is, however, surprising to see one from the year I was born.
I got fooled by one of these recently I spotted what I thought was a late 60s F100 at a curb shot some pics read a badge and and rego label and, Lo something Id never seen a 72 Ford Ranger, Aussie built F utes never came to NZ I knew them from OZ but the Ranger was new to me and it looked just like that black on except for the wheelbase, pics will hit the cohort when my computer revives.
Ranger was a trim level on Ford pickups back in the day.
I got fooled by this one. When I wrote and submitted this, the article said “F-100” everywhere. When it published, it said “F-250” everywhere. Apparently someone in the editorial chain is a better F-spotter than I!
Well, I guess we are having 3/4 ton pickup day today. The eight lug wheels and the size of the hubs on the rear are indicative of one of the heavier-duty haulers. My BIL, a farmer, has long been a diehard F-250 guy. He has always maintained that there is a huge difference in the durability of an F-250 over an F-150 or F-100.
This is a very nice looking old truck. It seems that most of these were red, white or that dusty drab olive green. Black looks good on this one. Does this mean that you are becoming our resident 1967-72 Ford pickup expert? You could do worse. 🙂
Heh, this so-called expert thought this was an F-100 .
They usually have these little labels on the sides . . . . 🙂
Yeah, well…. This photo is from 2010, and I took it with a film camera, and when I blew it up the badge was too blurry to read! I was just picking through my archives on Saturday and thought this would be a good one to write up.
I changed it. The instant give-away is the rear axle: the 3/4 tonners have full-floating rear axles, and their inner extension protrudes out through the center of the rear wheel. The half-tonners have regular passenger-car rear axles.
Also, those bigger eight-lug nut 16″ wheels. F-100s used five-lug passenger car wheels.
That’s why the F-250 couldn’t use regular hub caps; had to have special deep-dish ones, or none at all.
I have to earn my keep somehow 🙂
Glad you’re keeping an eagle eye!
F250 with full floating axle must have been doing some work in its day. Twin I Beam makes it bearable to ride around in. Maybe 390 2WD.
That’s my guess as well. My best friend’s dad used to own this exact same truck, and my best friend used it for his lawn-mowing business. When my friend went fishing with his dad, I was the substitute mower/driver since I was the only other person old enough to drive (there were three of us – two on the mowers and one on the string trimmer and man could we crank out the yards – it was far more profitable than any minimum-wage job at the time).
We only kept a couple gallons of gas in the truck, maximum (hey, why put our profits in the tank instead of in our pockets?), and since the gas tank was inside the cab, you could actually hear the sucking sound when the tank went dry. Upon hearing that sound, we would immediately pull over before the engine stalled out and dump a gallon in from the lawn mower gas tanks in the back. And we dumped the grass over an embankment at the end of the day, and got that darn truck stuck in the sand every, single, night – sometimes it took us an hour to get it out (it didn’t have posi of course). Good memories!
So many 60’s and 70’s long wide box pickups in our area had auxiliary fuel tanks installed, and this one looks like it does also. The body looks pretty solid for an Indiana rig.
There are so many of these still on the streets here….just saw a pristine ’67 F-100 that some guy must have bought from an oldtimer who babied it; now it’s his work truck. Never too late to get back to work!
I have an old black F250 parked out at the curb too, alright it not quite THAT old, but the paint is almost as bad. Wonder how long until the neighbors complain. Good thing I drive it to work every day….
It was there for a week and then it was gone. I assume somebody bought it; it was for sale. And in my neighborhood, this old truck isn’t bad enough to be complaint-worthy.
I had a 1969 F250 2wd. 360 2bbl. 4speed. It was white and it had a snow plow and a flashing yellow light on the roof. I was sold! It was 1984, I was just starting high school. I bought the truck for $550. My father taught me how to drive a “stick” on the way home from the previous owners house with a popping carburetor a slipping clutch and no muffler! A broken left engine mount also added to the fun. When you hit the gas the engine would lurch up and pull on the throttle linkage causing even more acceleration. Good times.
I eventually restored the truck adding lots of new sheetmetal (gallons of bondo) and a Rangoon red paint job in lacquer that tinted the side of my friends moms house red from overspray..
This truck got me through my youth, paid for itself many times over with plow money and dump runs. always made it home and I miss it now having sold it to a NYC fireman who loved it because it was red. (picture from interweb-not same truck)
Looks like the F100 I bought for my Son as a first truck. I agree with JPC. It was no match for a teen boy. I think when you go to 250 or the Chev/GMC/Dodge equivalents you trade gas money for ruggedness.
I know that I haven’t been able to do serious damage to any 3/4 or 1 ton that I owned except for that one time. 2 cords of firewood can collapse the front end on a one ton cube van.
My dad put one of those lighted visors on his ’90 Ranger. It was completely impractical. Cut mileage, created wind noise, made it hard to see stoplights, and required drilling into the cab. As a kid I loved them anyway.
In the ’74 film “Mr. Majestyk” starring Charles Bronson, an F-series like this one gets some serious off-road air in the chase scene. Ford used that sequence in their TV advertising for later models.
Of course the most famous Ford pickup of all times is Uncle Jesse’s white F100 from Dukes Of Hazzard.
Uncle Jesse had one cool truck! The Sanford & Son F-1 is pretty famous, too! Woody Harrelson had a pretty cool F-250 in “The Cowboy Way”.
Nice truck. Wouldn’t throw that one away either.