Minneapolis Street Sighting: Ford F-100 Custom

For almost forty years, the Ford F-Series has been the best selling vehicle in America. Offered in a multitude of bodystyles, cab and bed lengths, and engine sizes, this truck has made farming, hunting, and just country living in general fairly easy. But, there's another side to America's best-selling vehicle. If the farming, and ranching side aren't to your taste, there are also multiple luxurious versions to choose from. Rewind roughly thirty-five years, and the Ford truck lineup was totally different. Sure, there were luxury editions, and there were plain-Jane farm-boy/working-class ones, too. But back then, another bodystyle was a common fixture in the pickup industry--the stepside. Or in Ford-speak, Flareside, as it was known in its later years. I posted a 1957 example awhile back, and while this one is quite newer, it appears that it does indeed share the same bed. How's that for a trip?











I like the Ford F-Series, I really do. There are some generations that just irk me for whatever reason. To be quite blunt, I never really liked many of the 1967 to 1979 trucks. For whatever reason, the general styling kind of bored me; they show up in countless movies being either driven by bad guys, or just as generic background vehicles that get wrecked. Back home in Kansas, I used to see these things all the time, in various states of disrepair. Now, though, it seems that these trucks are getting harder and harder to find. I can't remember the last time I saw a relatively straight example. Minnesota poses even more of a threat than Kansas. Unlike Kansas' relatively non-harsh climate, Minnesota has snow, ice, salt, and tons and tons of accumulation in the winter, making it tough for older vehicles to survive.
Somehow, this old Effie seems to have weathered the storm-- for now. Caked in factory brown paint with stock spoked wheels, this truck looks about as period-correct as can get. However, I'm still not quite sure about the bed. Is it stock? Is it a retrofit? Whatever the case is, it looks fairly decent on this one. I don't know if I've seen any other stepsides--excuse me--Flaresides with this bed, but perhaps I just haven't been paying attention. I quite like this bodystyle even if the bed does look a little funky.
I hope to find more of these to compare examples, but alas, this is probably the only one I will find in this state. Sad, but I guess that's what happens when you live in rust-hell like I do.