Hi from NYC !

[SPEIRMOOR]

Great info Gary, thanks. Time to beat the bushes and see what pops up .

[ArdWrknTrk]

F-100 likely to have car pattern wheel lugs and no power brakes.
Not sure why you want less truck?

[SPEIRMOOR]

Someone had a lead on one for sale and I had never considered an F100. All things considered I'm gonna stick to my guns and look for my original configuration
1980-86 F150 Styleside Shortbed,4x4,Automatic & A/C

[SPEIRMOOR]

So as regards the '80-'86 F-150. Is a shortbed with 2 Gas tanks the same length as one with only one tank. Do Longbeds follow the same metric.
I'm guess I'm correct but never hurts to confirm.

[Gary Lewis]

All short beds are the same length and all long beds are the same length.  The beds themselves.  Regardless of the # of tanks.

[SPEIRMOOR]

Great Gary, Thanks again 👍

[FuzzFace2]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

F-100 likely to have car pattern wheel lugs and no power brakes.
Not sure why you want less truck?

Don't be so quick there sparky
The F100 came with both wheel bolt patterns and with or with out power brakes, I had 1 of each both 81's and the same GVWR of 4700 IIRC

Now what was funny the large pattern (5x5.5) was the non-power brakes, short bed flare side.
The small pattern (5x4.5) was the power brakes, style side long bed.

They also used different kingpin sizes, 5.5 had the larger pins.
Everything, beams out to the wheel hub, in the front suspension will swap as a whole but parts WILL NOT swap between them as I found out the hard way
Dave ---

[ArdWrknTrk]

Dave, I didn't mean necessarily together.

Just that with an F100 you could have car hubs.
And that you were more likely to have non-assisted brakes in the lighter F-100.

I haven't seen a SBSS up here in decades.
Not much call for a work vehicle that can't fit sheet goods.

[FuzzFace2]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Dave, I didn't mean necessarily together.

Just that with an F100 you could have car hubs.
And that you were more likely to have non-assisted brakes in the lighter F-100.

I haven't seen a SBSS up here in decades.
Not much call for a work vehicle that can't fit sheet goods.

It was strange that the short bed had the large pattern wheels and non-power brakes and the long bed just the other way around.

Funny you say that about the bed and fitting sheet goods.
I told my wife if I ever got a pick up it had to be a long bed for the same reason and what did I end up with ........ a short bed truck
Dave ----

[ArdWrknTrk]

Being in the building trades it is pretty important to me.
Especially back in the day when there were no hot shot deliveries, there were bigger minimums that were often a week out and no boom trucks, so you might have to dump a 36' straight truck and then have to bump tons of material by hand (back around the house, for example)

[SPEIRMOOR]

Why is there both Styleside and Flareside bed variations? I'm guessing it was construction based ?

[Gary Lewis]

SPEIRMOOR wrote

Why is there both Styleside and Flareside bed variations? I'm guessing it was construction based ?

Are you asking why Ford had Stylesides and Flareside?  Because people would buy them.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Traditionally we have beds that fit between the wheel wells.
They could be made in a press brake and you only needed a stamping die big enough for the fender around the wheel.

A mechanical die press 8' long was very, very expensive and the number of reject parts would be high.

With a step in front of the wheel farmers could stand high enough to shovel out the bed.
And there are no wheel wells (nor the inside corners) for dirt or horse poop to get caught in.

But the family farm was getting rarer post WWII.
Vehicles in general became more stylized in the jet and rocket ages.
Flowing body lines were the future, and form took a front seat to function.

Huge hydraulic presses sat idle after the war.
Millions of young men weren't going back to the farms they were born on.
By the '60's we had styleside pickups, and ute's like the Ranchero that took a Torino's body lines all the way to the tail lights.

[SPEIRMOOR]

Never knew that, thanks for the background 👍👍