Howdy from Fort Worth

[Randy]

I picked up an '84 F-150 short bed last summer, 28 years [corrected, originally said 18 years] since I traded in my last bullnose, a 1980 F-100 flairside, for some other long forgotten vehicle. But I never forgot about my F-100.



I didn't plan to buy the 84 last summer, but I kept running into a friend from my hometime at happy hour at Railhead BBQ in Fort Worth. One day last April (2108) he was sitting at one of Railhead's outdoor picnic tables when I arrived. I joined him and we started talking about our hometown. He pointed to the parking lot; about 50 feet from where we sat was his high school truck, a '67 F-100. He told me how it had been in non-running condition in a barn all these years but recently he'd completely rebuilt it. He now has quite a truck.

Of course I mentioned my regret at ever selling my '80 F-100. He told me about another guy from our hometown who had an '84 he was trying to sell because he'd married a German girl and moved to Germany with her. At that time, the truck had been sitting behind a popular German restaurant in central Texas.

Fast forward 3 months, the truck was sitting in another friend's hangar outside of Grandview, Texas. So I am again a bullnose owner. Now the truck is in my garage and in good running condition. I'll post more about what I've done to the truck on a project thread.

In the meantime, howdy.

[Gary Lewis]

Howdy, y'all!  Glad you joined us, and glad you back into these trucks.  

We have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map) and I'd be happy to add you if you'd like.

C5?  That's rare.  I'd often wondered if that wouldn't be a good tranny to have.

[1986F150Six]

Neat story. Welcome to the forum!  

[Randy]

Yes, go ahead and add me to the map. I'm in north east Tarrant County.

[Randy]

Gary Lewis wrote

C5?  That's rare.  I'd often wondered if that wouldn't be a good tranny to have.

I'd never heard of it until I decoded the door tag. I figured it was rare when my Google search only turn up uses of the C5 on some ford cars. Never the F150.

Will be needing to do something about the tranny. Not sure if I want to rebuild or replace. My daily driver has a stick and I enjoy it but for this truck I'll stay with an automatic. I figure that I'll probably just rebuild.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, see what you think.  NE Tarrant County would be Grapevineish, so that's where I put you.  Can move you (on the map) if you want, but we aren't in this for precision as we don't want people showing up on our doorsteps uninvited.

[Gary Lewis]

Ford's Master Parts Catalog, which most of our documentation comes from, shows the C5 was used in these trucks for several years, including '84.  (Taken from Driveline/Transmissions/Automatic Transmissions and the Application tab.)

[Ford F834]

Welcome! Beautiful short bed pickup, thanks for sharing the back story.

[grumpin]

Welcome!

[Randy]

Gary Lewis wrote

Ok, see what you think.  NE Tarrant County would be Grapevineish, so that's where I put you.  Can move you (on the map) if you want, but we aren't in this for precision as we don't want people showing up on our doorsteps uninvited.

Grapevineish is about right.

[Randy]

Ford F834 wrote

Welcome! Beautiful short bed pickup

Thanks. The camera helps my truck lot better than it does in person.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Welcome to the forum!  

The camera is doing just fine

I've always liked that color combo.

[Rembrant]

Randy wrote

I picked up an '84 F-150 short bed last summer, 28 years [corrected, originally said 18 years] since I traded in my last bullnose, a 1980 F-100 flairside, for some other long forgotten vehicle. But I never forgot about my F-100.

Great story Randy, and welcome aboard! The colors on that 1980 Flareside were gorgeous! Very similar story for myself. I had a 1980 Flareside years ago and sold it in 1994 or 1995. For 20 years it was always in the back of my mind, and a couple years ago I picked up another Flareside, this time a 1984.

[Randy]

Thanks. I've been reading through your project thread. I have had thoughts about converting mine to a flareside, motivated partly by nostalgia and partly by the fact that my short bed needs a good amount of body work. Somewhere along the line it was rear ended and each bedside was crunched in 0.5 to 1.0 inch at the bottom. I'm not sure how much trouble and cost will be involved in fixing it but I suspect it will be cheaper and easier to do a swap if I can get my hands on a decent bed, swb or flareside.