Ok, here we go again...I just bought another '67!

[Faithful Old Road Dog]

Joe's right. I met a car collector that had among his stable a late 60's bowtie wagon with a 409, 4spd and posi. The previous owner ordered it to pull his boat.

[FORDification]

Well, I've been thinking about this all day, and right now all I can say is I'm not going to make a decision about what to do with it until I can compare the factory numbers and see what they say. I called the seller this morning and left a message on his machine, asking him if he'd take a look at the VIN data tag and give me all the codes from it. (He works in the shop about 50 yards away, so he can just read them off to me from his cell phone.) However, he wouldn't have gotten the message until he got home tonight, so if he calls back it won't be until tomorrow.

If this thing IS a factory SWB F250 CS, then I'm gonna actually be kinda pissed, 'cause like willowbilly said, it would be a shame to part it out to finish my F100 project, which is why I bought it in the first place. It would be kinda cool to fix this one up, but I've already got a years worth of work into the F100's rolling chassis, so I'd be pretty much starting over from scratch. I sure can't afford (or justify) TWO pickup projects, especially with a little one on the way. It's gotta be one or the other.

Of course, if I decide to switch gears and turn towards redoing the F250, since it's in great shape, I can always sell the F100 chassis to someone else who's doing a resto-mod....and then use the funds to do the same thing to the F250.

So can anyone give me any specifics on just how the F250 frame differs from the F100 frame? We've all heard that it's supposed to be beefier, but that's ALL I've heard. Is it made from thicker steel? Is it reinforced somewhere? Other than the VIN stamped on the frame, if I had a bare frame, how would I distinguish the F250 frame from an F100 frame?

[Joe Kriston]

I don't know the answer to your question,Keith,but it seems like part of the fun of owning the truck you just bought is solving the mystery as to it's origin...I would try to find what the original colors were of the bed and front end....I mean,what are the odds of having two trucks to build one, that happen to be the same two-tone color?...Though,on my '70,the factory painted the whole truck white,then painted the gold over the white to make it two-tone....I also think that if the CS frame was beefier,I can't imagine Ford specially making a 3/4 ton shortbed frame for one or a handful of buyers...in other words,if there was any frame tweaking it could have been done at the factory....

I wonder if there's some kind of title search that could be done on the vehicle to find out who owned it originally....

[FORDification]

I don't know the answer to your question,Keith,but it seems like part of the fun of owning the truck you just bought is solving the mystery as to it's origin...I would try to find what the original colors were of the bed and front end....I mean,what are the odds of having two trucks to build one, that happen to be the same two-tone color?...

My thoughts exactly. Granted, I didn't dig out a magnifying glass and really scope it out, but it sure looked like all the paint matched exactly, from the outside and inside of the cab, the firewall, bottomside of the hood, etc. I didn't look between the cab and box to see if that matched....but if somebody DID cobble this one together, then he might have painted that area before installing the box.

I just got a call from my buddy with the trailer who gave me the go-ahead to use it on Friday, so I'm taking Friday off work (vacation day) and we'll go pick it up and find out for sure.

[NM5K]

Thats weird....I don't think they made a short WB f-250...Or at least I've
never seen one, and my brochures don't list them. Only the one WB length
for the F-250's...Something is very weird.....They did make a f-250 stepside,
but it was a LWB version. Not sure what to think of that, but when I first
saw the picture, I thought it was a F-100, not a 250, just from first glance..
My hunch, is someone threw it together from parts...But if it's all original, thats one rare bird...If it is original, it would sorta be a shame to hack it up.
That probably has some collector value, if it is original. I know I've never seen a short F-250 before...One note...In 67, they made both F-100 and F-250 CS's.... I was trying to see the wheels, hubs, etc...The F-250's normally had 8 lug 16+ inch wheels, and also the full float dana 60's with the hubs on the rear wheels. I couldn't tell for sure if that one had those...The tires look sorta small to be a F-250, but might just be an illusion, or wide profiles...
I'd be curious to the VIN plate on the door...That could tell a lot...Does the door plate say F25????????
It's hard to judge from the stance, being it's not on wheels...
MK

[67f100]

The angle of the photo makes it hard to tell but it sure looks like a long bed to me. I will be checkin' back for updates this weekend. I have been real lucky with the old fords I bought-67,67 and a 68 and they are all free of rust and assorted road rash.....

[FORDification]

I'm sure you've all heard the old saying that says "It's better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you're a fool than to open it and remove all doubt". Well, this is one of those times I really should have kept my mouth shut for a little while.

Gary called back today with the numbers on the VIN data plate....the VIN on the title, the VIN tag AND the frame all match. He then told me that the wheelbase as reported on the tag was 131", which obviously is a LWB. So I told him that something was wrong then, that the wheelbase listed would be incorrectly on the tag. He asked me what I meant, and I said "Well it should say 115" instead, being that it's a shortbox." He replied, "huh?? This IS a longbox. It's the standard 8-foot box."

Oh. whoops!

I don't know what happened. I'm guessing that with the front clip removed it just LOOKED shorter when I first saw it, and once my mind registered it as a SWB I never stepped back to check that out. Gary laughed, and suggested that it might have been because the car was parked next to a couple full-size cars, and added to the fact that the front clip was removed, it just appeared shorter. OK...yes, I'm embarrassed!

So anyway...what I bought was a VERY nice '67 F250 LWB Camper Special project truck. It's still WELL worth the money, since the cab itself IS a '67 and in perfect shape, and will save me tons of time since I don't have to continue with the rust repair on the '68 cab, plus I won't have to keep explaining to people why my '67 has the '68-up heater controls. Plus I have a what could almost be described as an NOS bed to either sell or use on a different project. (Of course, since I saw this truck as a SWB when it wasn't, it's also not out of the realm of possibility that there is also rust on the bed and/or cab that I didn't see!)

And just so we all understand each other, we are NEVER to speak of this little SNAFU again, OK?

[granitestate68]

Talk about what?

[68F250]

I was wondering what you guys were talking about, just looking at the bed you can see it's a long wheelbase.

That's nice looking rubber on there, what tires and wheels are they?

[bluef250]

He who never does anything never makes ANY mistakes.

[71Ford100]

So are you going to restore the 250 or stay with the 100

[flyboy2610]

That is a nice truck you found there, Keith. Good luck with your 'projects', both the truck and the little one.
If you are planning on using the inner fenders off your new '67 to go on your old '67, I would be interested in buying the reproduction inner fenders, particulary the left one if you want to sell them.
Let me know. I could come after them Saturday, even.

[FORDification]

I'll be continuing with the F100, using the cab and many of the other parts from the F250. If the cab is in as good a shape as I recall, then it can conceivably be installed onto my rolling chassis within a month...after welding up a couple screw holes here and there and smoothing those out and undercoating the bottom. The box will probably get stuffed back into a dark corner of the shop and held onto until I either need it or the money I could get for it. I'm going to need to take a complete inventory of what parts I'll be getting and how they compare to what I've got before I make any decisions on selling anything. Heck, I might decide to go ahead and save all the extras I've got, and maybe put the F250 together after I get done with the F100.

All arrangements have been made to haul this truck home late Friday afternoon. I'll be in the shop all day Saturday taking inventory and taking pictures, so there will be another update page with closeups. While I'm checking it out very closely, I'm sure I'll then begin formulating a plan of attack. Tentatively, I'll probably remove the box and set it aside, then disconnect the cab and gently roll it back onto the frame so I have access to the bottom side, so I can undercoat it. Then I'll have my father-in-law come over with his hoist truck and we'll get the new cab set on my completed F100 chassis...and go from there.

[Joe Kriston]

That's actually kind of funny,although,I admit I was hoping for a more interesting solution to this unusual truck ministry....It's amazing how you can train your mind to look for details like the difference in the dash knobs between a'67 and a '68 and then miss a little detail like the bed length....But,what the heck,we've all done it....I still think you got a great deal....Good luck with it....

[ak-1970-360]

oh man if you didnt live so far away i would love to have that bed. i cant find a good one up here in Alaska. the demon rust has got them all.