Hooniverse Truck Thursday: 1980-86 Ford F-350
The Ford F-Series full-sized pickup has been the best selling truck for 34 years straight. At some point in the 1990s, it became a “lifestyle” vehicle driven by suburban men with nothing heavier than a Pottery Barn loveseat and a case of Two Buck Chuck to lug around. Before that transition, these trucks were work trucks. The specimen you see here is the seventh iteration which was produced between 1980 and 1986. And because it belongs to a fire department, it is still in impeccable shape.
When not saving damsels in distress or liberating felines from trees, firefighters do two things, and two things only– eat prodigious amounts of pasta and wash their rigs. After more than a quarter of a century of daily washes, I’m surprised there’s no exposed sheet metal.
That this old truck is still in operation is a testament to the frugality of the Columbia (California Gold Country) Fire District. Many districts and departments seem to replace their support vehicles every few years. To those familiar with the sequence of California exempt plates (which are displayed on vehicles belonging to the state and municipalities), approximately 800,000 cars, trucks, and vans have been purchased or leased by public entities since this F-350 was registered.
To give you an idea of the evolution of the F-Series. This is the new F-350 used by the same fire district. It looks like a spaceship in comparison.
If you don’t know YouTube’s Saabkyle04, get ready to spend some quality time with your computer monitor and chair. He has shot and edited videos of over 1,300 cars. In each video, he takes around ten minutes to give the viewer a comprehensive tour of a vehicle’s interior and exterior. This is his video of a 7th generation F-150:
Images source: Jim Yu
Related posts:
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday – A 1969 Ford Brush Fire Truck
- Hooniverse (Belated) Truck Thursday: A Ford Truck That Will Fulfill All Your Automotive Fantasies
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday: Two 1959 Ford Wreckers scheduled for Russo & Steele Collector Car Auction in January
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday: Whitby Morrison ice cream truck lives outside of jolly old England
- Hooniverse Truck Thursday: A 1924 Ford Model TT Firetruck Edition
My rather odd dually FC Jeep (in storage) originally hauled around a water tank. My grandfather purchased it from a fire department back home. It was in amazing shape, and has traveled under 4k miles in its life. Of course, it spent its life in the middle of nowhere in southern IN… not a lot of action for fire departments in farm country.
Pics or it doesn't exist.
Just kidding, but I still want to see pics.
Well, I hope this works…
<img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4036/4387444638_880668d780.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1000209">
We need to know more about this vehicle. Kindly ask pops to dig it out, dust it off, put some air in the tires, and give us a video tour.
It's mine… but the title is a bit of a mess. We moved it to a different barn this past summer. We aired up the tires and they actually held air, but they're cracked pretty badly. The rear drums were frozen solid – we slid it out of the barn and then used a backhoe to free up the drums. It's a strange little beast. The title and picture of the emblem are at home, but it's a '56 or '57, I believe. It has dual wheels in the rear, which didn't seem to be a factory option, but given that it was used in commercial duties by a fire department, I guess it isn't a surprising addition. It has a flatbed, and originally had a water tank mounted in the back. It's in a barn 4 hours from where I live, so it may be some time before I make a video tour of it. It's sitting in tight quarters in the corner of a newer pole barn next to my old Monte Carlo, so if I pull it out (a pretty big pain in the ass), it will be to get it back on the road…
This olelongrooffan didn't need to see that image. I distinctly remember that beauty from the comments section of the FC170 I did from Denver last summer. Beautiful truck Sir and thanks for saving it.
http://hooniverse.com/2011/08/04/hooniverse-truck…
See my comment above… it's been moved, but I don't have the wrenching skills or cashola to get it back on the road right now. At least it doesn't have all of that stuff piled all over it anymore. Given how badly the brakes were frozen, I'm not optimistic on the drivetrain's condition. It's still in good shape though, and it has a nice, safe place to rest until it can be brought back to life. Also, you have a very good memory.
Cool shit like that truck tends to stick in my mind. I remember a rusty FC-150 I saw in the woods in Mississippi while cruising down the highway and that was 5 years ago. Color? Did I say rust? Nice truck and if you ever sell it drop me a note first would ya?
Given how much you like them, I will give you first dibs on the FC should I ever decide to part with it. If I ever get rid of it, I'm going to be picky about where it goes, but I do know that you would appreciate it.
I've never seen another FC in the flesh yet. I'll probably drive off the road upon my first sighting "in the wild".
Sweet! Finally a car/truck that I won't have to buy from a junkyard. But I will bring a trailer to pick it up. My email is my intensedebate name at america's online server. Keep in touch my man.
Ford can lay claim to the best selling single truck line for 34 years, but for almost all of those 34 years GM has sold more full size pick-up trucks. GM just has to split sales between Chevy and GMC. The generation of F-series after this one that stayed inproduction until 1996 looks almost EXACTLY the same, just a different grill and headlight treatment.
And different front fenders, instruments panels, and interiors. They got a restyle for 1987, and again for '92. The first trucks with port fuel injection (when GM was still on TBI), and rear ABS. I love my '95.
Different bed sides and tail lights too.
I worked in warranty/ cottomer service for Arvin Meritor for a short time in their WABCO anti lock brake division. We would get calls from fire departments all across the USA on how to figure out what was wrong with their 20 year old truck with 5000 miles on it.
I didn't like the older ABS systems because they weren't as user friendly to diagnose as the newer systems…most of the time it was either a rusty tone wheel or wheel sensor causing the problem.
I always think that the 1980+ F-Series; thus:-
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/1985f250.JPG" width="300/">
Had a headlamp treatment inspired by:-
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Ford_Fiesta_MK1_front_20071023.jpg/640px-Ford_Fiesta_MK1_front_20071023.jpg" width="300/">
Possibly perhaps maybe? I'd say there was a 6% possibility of this being the case.
Wheel covers were similar for sure.
<img src="http://www.productioncars.com/send_file.php/ford_fiesta_tan_eyuro_1978.jpg">
<img src="http://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/tmp/102/1029.520.390">
Mustangs too!
<img src="http://www.mustang.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/1983_Mustang_GT_01.jpg" width="600">
Those Ghia wheels were all over the world! Have a Cortina.
<img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4037/4466474805_a76c84038d.jpg" width=450>
not as good as your example, but Club Wagons had them too:
<img src="http://www.cardcow.com/images/set333/card00918_fr.jpg" width="500">
That Fiesta is like the Mona Lisa. No matter what angle I look at it from, it is staring me in the eyes.
I don't think a lot of the people at pottery barn or trader joe's have F-150s, those people have Subarus and german cars. I think the big trucks are bought by the same people who always had them, it's just that we rearranged the economy so that most of those people don't do heavy manual work anymore. The size and image of toughness needs to be visually amplified as a symbol now because it is no longer present in the people or their trucks, not being needed.
The problem I think is that they don't even have niche products for actual work anymore, and those who want to do manual work as their leisure (chopping their own wood, fixing their own lake house) are obliged to buy old trucks. For now, we have a healthy stock of 20 plus year old trucks to work with, but in another decade or two, there's going to be a huge gap in the national used car stock. Only then will small, actually tough trucks necessarily come back into play.
I say, bring back the Toyota T100!
At over $22,000 for the base-model no-options lowest rung on the F150 ladder, I think you're right.
I had an '80 F-100, had been in the family since new, and it was never well-liked.
Regardless, I can't help but think about the 'eyebrow' of the instrument cluster and the indicator lights.
Let's see.
Parking brake, high beam, L & R turn signals, 4×4 (which mine didn't have, but if the light was right, you could see it), seat belt warning, and possibly 'emissions'. It bugs me I can't remember one of them.
I know it wasn't oil pressure or the charging indicator. Those were in the actual 'cluster'.
Off to craigslist… again.
My dad had an '85 F-150, first truck he ever bought new, which featured no equipment outside of a radio, a heater and 4WD. He kept it for over 20 years, and it was a work truck. The tailgate was usually off, I don't think that the bed ever didn't have straw, shovels or other farm necessities in there, half of its life was spent in a field, and it perpetually smelled of barley. Before I bought my car (for $20 from my sister in law), it was what I would drive.
Above the gauges was a bank of lights which indicated different things, high beams, turn signals, 4×4 and what have you. In my dad's truck, all of the little panels between the lights and the driver fell off, which was most annoying when it came to the high beams, the bulb for which which pointed DIRECTLY AT YOUR EYES! I solved this problem by ripping off the side of a kleenex box and shoving it in the hole where the little panel fell off. That piece of cardboard remained in the dashboard until he traded it in on a Ranger several years later.
It also had a very distinctive whine when you turned at full lock, so I always knew when my dad got home. And he was too cheap to have a tachometer, but Ford was too cheap to have a different gauge cluster for people too cheap for a tachometer, so smack in the middle of the gauge cluster was a giant starburst that had no purpose.
Yes, of course, I miss that truck. Here IS a picture!
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Am8BM.jpg" alt="" width="500" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />
I own and operate a small commercial fishing business in Alaska, and the truck I use to launch and tow my boats is a very ratty, lifted '80 F-250 Ranger. Its got a plethora of problems that bring much pain to my and my crew. Most severe of which is an atrocious radiator leak and a useless carb.
Ah, so that's where you've been the last couple of months. You've been gasp WORKING!?!?!?!
I have a 1993 and a 1994 F150 and I love them both.
I do not see the difference between the grille and headlights on the featured F350 and mine, but I believe you when you say there is a difference.
I plan to drive my pickups until I am too old to drive. I might even get another one, just because I like em.
maybe I should be looking for a 1995 model. . . .
Nice truck. But I think the market for F-150s and 350s has always been quite different, though they look quite similar. No one buys a F-350 just because they like the way it looks, or they're trying to compensate for emotional inadequacies.
One of the departments around here still has an old M715 in service.
<img src="http://www.efpd.org/images/ops-images/2438.jpg" width="300">
Not frontline service, but it does still get used.
Image from Eureka Fire Protection District's website, epfd.org.