A day of Ford truck history lessons for me

[hillcountryflt]

Yesterday I learned a couple of things about Ford trucks - that there was a Mercury "version" of the Ford truck and that FoMoCo has not been putting manual transmissions in F100s for several years (I think). One lesson was cool (Mercury pickup) and one sucked (lack of manual transmission options).

[hazelnut]

Also ford stopped making F100s in 1983-4.

[fastEdsel]

Today is a special day here too, am heading out with my youngest son to make a deal on a couple 68 Mercury truck cabs and NOS 67 trim still in the package, just come pick it up! I have 3 Mercury trucks here, a 49, 59 and a 67 4X4 Ranger. The 67 is going through the shop and hopefully will be finished, some time. I have to confess that I lost interest in Ford pickups after 1979 when the first what we call here the 1980 sway back Ford was introduced with their less than re-enforced frame. A lot of them got bent in this area and GM and Dodge trucks got a big boost. And to this day I cant figure out why I would buy a truck that will twist off the spark plugs in the cylinder head when the time comes to change them. A friend of mine who now owns a Dodge took his F150 to the local dealer for a tune up. He damned near had a heart attack when he was presented with a $2800 bill just to change the plugs! Yep, both cylinder heads had to be removed to get the broken pieces out. Hopefully all you out there have had better luck with the newer Fords.

[Stealth69]

They also made a unibody from 61 to 63 and in 1980 they switched to blade fuses and metric bolts those 1980s really have some flex my father has a 1980 f250 I watched him put a dent in his cab about halfway up his window, he would of broke it but he had a slider full of plexiglass.

[1969_Fords_Forever]

I'll give you that the 1980 and 1981 trucks were weak, but i would put the 1982-1986 models up against anything as far as strength is concerned.