Options

[Joe Kriston]

How do you know what options are specific to your truck?....Radio,wheelcovers,mirrors,a/c etc. ...Ch!@#y had theirs inside the glove box door...What about Ford?

[68F250]

Only thing I know of is thru Ford and what used to be called the "History 999 report". To get your free report you need to call or write Ford and supply them with your VIN, name and mailing address. Mention that you are interested in their "VIN report" provided by their "Customer Assistance Center" or "Technical Research Center." I don't have the current contact info but I'm sure Keith or the other members here do, attached is the report I got back in 2000. Yeah, not a whole lot of info but better than nothing. I've heard that some reports are not 100% accurate but mine was right on.

Barry

[Joe Kriston]

Thanks,Barry...Although people aren't usually as anal about numbers matching with trucks as they are with,say,muscle cars,I think it's a good thing to know what your truck came with...Especially if you have a real highly optioned one and don't know much about it's history...

Like factory air conditioning...I have never seen a '67-'72 Ford truck in AZ that had true factory a/c,where the control was there with the heater...My guess is because a/c was such a necessity out here,and dealers were already well-equipped to install aftermarket a/c units long before Ford offered it in their trucks,that even when Ford started offering a/c as an option,they just delivered most of their trucks here without a/c and let the dealers keep installing them...So I wonder if the window sticker,or whatever, would consider a dealer item like a/c an 'option'...

[willowbilly3]

I think there were both dealer installed and factory installed a/c with the controls incorporated with the heater controls. They still look like an afterthought though. I have had several and don't even bother pulling them anymore. They are bulky and cumbersome and they don't bring much due to the heavy shipping weight.
You might look in the seatback springs for the factory line setting sheet. I know mine is still there on the 69 crewcab. I haven't bothered reading it yet.

[bryantracing460]

Here's a link to the website where you can request a sheet like Barry's. http://www.customersaskford.com/Kate/Ka ... eSite=Ford

[Joe Kriston]

Thanks,Bryant....

When the guy reupholstered my seat,he covered the back,too....so I can't tell if the factory sheet is in there or not...

BTW,I looked at a '72 Ranger recently,and we couldn't get the seatback to lean forward...The owner's manual was in the glovebox,and I checked with it and it didn't say anything about the seatback being able to lean forward....and it was the original seat....My original '70 S/C seat leans forward...What's up with that?

[willowbilly3]

I'm pretty sure the 74 I had new didn't lean foreward either. It gad a loop with a bolt that went over the stop which had to be removed. I think my 72 might have had that too.

[FORDification]

The post-'72 trucks that I remember looking at had seats with a catch on it that simply had to be lifted to fold the seat forward. You might try looking for the hook down by the hinge area on the driver's side to see if it has this catch...if so, I'd bet the seat has been replaced at some point with a later version.

[Joe Kriston]

Keith,

On the '72 I was looking at,the upholstery matched exactly the one's in the magazine ads you have here,the one with three different types of fabric on the seat....It's hard to imagine somebody going to the trouble to upholster a non-original seat exactly like original,especially as complex as the XLT's were...The manual gave instructions on moving the whole seat forward and backward,but said nothing about a latch or anything to access behind the seat....And I looked all over and couldn't find a latch or move it forward....

[FORDification]

ah, OK. Just a thought.

[ak-1970-360]

I just filled out the form. IM anctious to see what they say may learn something new

[bumpside-smitty]

Keith,

On the '72 I was looking at,the upholstery matched exactly the one's in the magazine ads you have here,the one with three different types of fabric on the seat....It's hard to imagine somebody going to the trouble to upholster a non-original seat exactly like original,especially as complex as the XLT's were...The manual gave instructions on moving the whole seat forward and backward,but said nothing about a latch or anything to access behind the seat....And I looked all over and couldn't find a latch or move it forward....

my 70 seat will lean forward but my 72 seat will not it is bolted together in the backof the seat. It may be a 72 thing or a optional deal.
Smitty

[sdranch71]

The seats on my 71 Custom and 72 Sport Custom both tilt forward. Just a thought, maybe cloth seats on Rangers/XLTs didn't tilt?

Jim

[FORDification]

I wonder if it has something to do with '72 being the first year that the behind-the-seat storage compartment not being available. Since Ford wouldn't have had two different front seat versions (one that folded forward for use with the behind-the-seat storage compartment and one that didn't fold forward for trucks without the storage compartment), they just had 'one size fits all'. But when they dropped the storage compartment option for the '72 year, they probably figured there was no reason for anyone to need access to the area behind the seat, so they just made it a solid seat. (Sound reasonable? I'm good at hypothesizin'!)

[Joe Kriston]

I love obssessing over the minutest of details...The '72 Ranger XLT seat also had the "chrome" swivel brace,or whatever it's called,whereas the Sport Custom was painted black(like a Rolling Stone's song)...So it's possible that Ford made a specific seat unique to the XLT...