This bright red F100 wearing Coca Cola livery was hard to miss, sitting in the parking lot of the Oregon Electric Station restaurant, which of course is in the former Oregon Electric Railway station, a line that served the Willamette Valley back in the days when we had such things as quick and reliable regional and interurban electric railways. And Coca Cola; something to have while you’re waiting for the next train to take you to Corvallis or Portland.
Back to the F100: it’s a bit of a puzzle as the grille says “1963” but the style of the bed says “1964”. So one of those two items was changed somewhere along the line.
The ’63 used the rear beds from the previous generation, as a stop-gap until the new bed could be tooled up for ’64. This all happened because the all-new ’61 pickups had a “unibody”, where the cab and bed were one integrated unit which was cheaper to build turned out to be structurally deficient, so this was the solution. We covered this in more detail here.
But this has the bed from a ’64-up version. Looks a lot better, obviously. That’s a part of the Eugene Amtrak station in the background, by the way. The two rail lines converged here, but then the Oregon Electric Railway followed the Willamette River up the valley, via Corvallis.
The tracks were still used as a spur line for the BN until the early 1990s. The right of way would have made a better route for a higher speed passenger service, but that never happened, and now the right of way no longer exists continuously.
Speaking of Coke, when we lived in Iowa City (1960-1965), there was a graduate married student apartment building a block away.
There was a Coca Cola vending machine like this in the basement hallway; you slid the kind of soda pop you wanted to the part on the left, where there were two little arms that opened to release the bottle after you dropped the 10 cents into the machine. My older brother was a natural con, and if we were desperate, we’d go over with a bottle opener and a couple of straws, and…bend over and suck on a Coke, and hope no one came along. Which they never did.
The interior has of course been redone. Looks like its had a drive line upgrade too, as that shift lever is much more further back than the stock one for the optional 4-speed transmission.
And that’s Skinner Butte in the background, from where I’ve shot quite a few outtakes over the years.
Looks like it’s sitting a little lower than stock, no?
Maybe a wee bit. It would be easier to tell if my camera was lower down. That new bed from ’64 has a pretty low rear wheel opening, unlike the old bed, as on the green truck.
A nice looking little truck .
I like the green one better .
-Nate
Just sold with the temporary reg and the plates on the seat?
A Coke and a smile is just what you need on a sunny day in Oregon…
The VIN would tell you. It could be a 64 with a 63 grille or a 63 with a replacement bed. both items are bolt on. Perhaps an accident required replacement of either the grille or bed.
I also notice the bed is a shade brighter. Maybe tinworm or an accident worked on the original bed and it was replaced.
I was working on a live production that included a b-roll video of the performer arriving in Las Vegas “in the 80s”. The shot was of the performer getting out of a circa 1995 stretched Town Car limo. I pointed this out to the powers that be, and was told, “nobody cares but you.” Us car folk are a strange lot.
Apparently some people in the industry care…. I’ve been watching the new reboot of Quantum Leap, and so far, +/- a model year or two, they are doing a FINE job of nailing the “background cars”.
In the episode I watched last night, which was set in an insane asylum in 1954, the show’s protagonist ended up hiding in, and nearly bleeding out in, a ’51 Kaiser.
It would have been much easier for the producers to find a ’53 Chevy, but I’m guessing that the folks who do this show are car guys.
So far, in all the episodes I’ve watched, in which the years vary widely, I’ve not caught them yet in an error. My wife thinks I’m nuts when I point this out. So maybe “[we] car folk are a strange lot.” 😉
The grille lacks the black painted highlights, and the hub caps are 1964, so my money is on a 64 truck with a 63 grille.
JP those are 10 1/4″ hub caps, on the truck in question, which were used on the 65/66 Regular Cab F-100 with outie wheels. Outies introduced by Ford in early 66. I have the same ones in stainless on my 65 Custom Cab F-100 which should actually have the 9 1/2″ hub cap (build date) for the innie wheel. Only my truck came with outies so I had to go with them. As for the bed it is obvious that while correct the tailgate is not. That gate was used on the 67-72 model years.
My opinion is that it’s a ’63. But I’m cheating… the temporary registration on the seat says “Year: 1963”.
One never knows…My ’83 Ranger I rolled, had the frame straightened, and I put the cab and bed on from a parts truck. This was 1996, and it still drives like a new ’83 Ford.
It’s a ‘63.
In addition to what Eric703 saw on the temporary registration, I also saw the VIN in the same photo: F10JD410175. That translates to a conventional series with a 223 inline six, built in Dallas in May 1963 (production of the ‘64s started in August).
I also found this ad for it: https://peachtreeclassiccars.com/vehicles/1963-ford-f100-styleside/
Apparently the six was replaced with a 302 V8 at some point.
My paternal Grandfather had a 1963 F100 red short bed stepside which he used as a Foreman for PennDot. When he retired, he gave the truck to my Dad in 1968.
I remember that it had solidified blacktop wedged into the inside of the front bumpers from where the tires splashed it up ….He used the truck out where the crews were doing road work.
The truck rusted apart by 1971 and was taken off the road.
There was a government surplus program where you would receive a catalog in the mail every so often with listings of vehicles and equipment that the government wished to sell.
It was a sealed bid program where you could submit a bid and the highest bidder wins the item.
In 1972, my Dad bidded on a former US Air Force 1965 F100 shortbed stepside and won it.
In 1974 he bidded on another identical model truck and won that as well.
He drove the first one until it wore out and then saved the parts from it for the 2nd one which he drove into the early 1990’s.
The only vehicle my father bought new- ever- was when i was a little kid. a 64 Ford. i remember going along to the dealership & him discussing his preferences for the rear mirrors during a test ride. Sales guy wanted to give him the big dual arm ones best intended for seeing when pulling a trailer. Dad wanted the little round ones seen in this vehicle. He got the round ones.
His 64 also had a brush guard. big heavy duty welded steel structure impressively riveted to the front bumper. As a result, I cant differentiate between 63 and 64 grilles. Neither look like the ride we had, when all your eyes focused on was the brush guard. That option did come in handy. the truck was bought in Oakland CA and right around then, parents had purchased a piece of Oregon scrub desert – for camping and as a get-away from the “rat race”. Certainly that untrammeled hunk of land was full of shrubs that the brush guard admirably kept out of the more delicate grille.
I remember the sound of the fuel sloshing around in the tank mounted right behind the seatback when on bumpy roads or terrain. Red vinyl interior upholstery with cloth inserts for 2. middle was all plastic. but the exterior contrasting white/cream paint that was also visible on the metal surfaces inside the cab. 3 sp column shift, throttle knob in the dash, and the optional tool storage locker in the lower section of the box, passenger side. while it may have worked well in Cali, was not so great once we relocated to New York, with winter road salt to chew it and the Box support structure all up.
We had an aluminum camper cap on the back , no pass thru window to the cab. In opposition to what might be done in 21st Century, We used that enclosed bed as a passenger space when we drove it across country. Blankets & sleeping bags laid down inside, pulling a 55 Mercury wagon with a tow bar. our 2 Dalmatians and other possessions inside the tow. The male dog liked to sit in the Merc driver seat and watch out the windshield. Must have been an odd image for cars passing us, being little bleary from the road- seeing what appeared to be a dog driving an old car.
Lars ;
Was it an V8 or i6 ? automatic or manual ? .
That sounds like a nice cross country trip to me, I’ve always loved sight seeing and still drive older & slower vehicles often when I travel America’s back roads .
-Nate
It was definitely a 3 sp standard. with a v8. melieve my dad told me that it was the 292 y block. that conversation was around 74- out in the garage when he had to take a cylinder head off. thinking about it more for first time in decades, truck possibly had a dash mounted pull for overdrive … does that make any sense? I never drove it. we did have other early 60s fords with overdrive.
on that cross country trip, i was just the target age for the secret sam toys available on 64/65 and got the full briefcase secret agent set with its gun & accessories. and did take some photos of the truck, dalmatians and towed Mercury en route with the included spy camera.
https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/toys-games/secret-sam-spy-toys/
Cool ;
Overdrives were pretty common back then .
Pulling the overdrive control out locked it _out_ .
I well remember Secret Sam, I never had any of hose spy toys but a school chum had the “Sixth Finger” toys, IIRC he also had a tiny camera, that’s the one thing I wanted above all else .
-Nate