1956 F100 Ford Truck Original Paint Colors
Most industry followers apperceive the Ford F-150 has bedeviled sales of all cartage in the U.S. for decades; back 1984, it has surpassed alike things as all-over as the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord as the best accepted four-wheeled apparatus on the alley today.
But alike barter admirers may not apperceive the intricacies of how the aboriginal 1948 Ford F-1 launched the Ford F-Series that eventually developed into the avant-garde auto that dominates the U.S. market.
"Ford has [produced trucks] the longest, back the canicule of the Archetypal T, and alien a V8 agent afore both Chevrolet and Dodge," said Pete Fisher, the car specialist for RM Sotheby's. "There is absolutely a beneficiary abject for best Chevy pickups as well, while Dodge examples were not as accepted until the 1970s … but the Ford F-Series is about an American institution."
The aboriginal F-Series trucks were the 1948 F-1, F-2, and F-3. These were the snub-nosed trucks Ford Motor Co. developed as its aboriginal all-new cartage afterwards World War II; they were an basic allotment of jumpstarting Ford's success in the U.S.
Consumers admired them for added than their affable flathead V8 or flathead inline-six engines. These were the aboriginal assignment cartage developed with any absolute anticipation against autogenous niceties; they gave consumers article with the accessibility and functionality of a agriculture agent but with an autogenous abundance heretofore associated alone with commuter cars. Ford reportedly spent $1 actor at the time to advance the trucks to accord buyers added for their money, acceptable the benumbed acquaintance for both disciplinarian and passenger. A aggregation columnist absolution from the time accustomed the ancient ones as "designed to assure active allowance comfort."
It worked. Back the F-1 debuted in 1948, Ford has awash added than 26 actor trucks worldwide.
Early examples bulk aloof over $1,200 for the abject archetypal that debuted in 1948. They had rounded, advanced fenders over their rear tires; the headlights sat alike with the blow of the advanced of the grill, and the windshield was a collapsed console of glass. Each F-1 had a single, continued bank bench in the cab. (The 1951 archetypal year saw a restyle, absorption primarily on a new large-bar grille, which became a administration affair for Ford through the blow of the decade in two consecutive platforms. In 1953, the F-1 became the F-100, which acquired into the avant-garde F-Series trucks we accept today. Ford launched the avant-garde F-100 in 1977 and the F-150 in 1984.)
You're absurd to acquisition them at Gooding & Co. or Bonhams these days. Yet. They're not absolutely the dejected dent specimens those bargain houses sell. But pockets of archetypal cars tend to accept acceptance afterwards years of admiring in obscurity. The time to buy one is afore they accretion absolute drive on the bargain market.
"We've noticed that collectors with almost beyond American collections activate to add a few pickups for cornball purposes already they've acquired the key cars in their garage," Fisher said.
Several factors abide to accord to F-Series adherence on the bargain market: The cartage bulk little compared to abounding added archetypal cars. They're mechanically accessible to advance and repair-no computerized accoutrement required. And back you do charge to adjustment them, it's accessible to get parts, back they are American-made trucks. Nothing charge be alien from overseas, which cuts bottomward on the bulk and time appropriate to fix or restore one.
Prices for high-quality examples accept remained adequately steady, with a slight, advancement tilt, over the accomplished bristles years. In 2012, A 1948 Ford F-1 half-ton auto that Hagerty classifies as in "Excellent" action was account $18,700 on average; now the aforementioned is account an boilerplate of $24,400.
RM Sotheby's awash a absolutely adequate 1953 Ford F-100 Auto for $38,500 in 2014; it awash addition adequate 1954 Ford F-100 Auto in adorable colors for $33,000 that aforementioned year.
Or, try the catalogs at Mecum and Barrett-Jackson bargain houses. Hemmings lists them from $6,950 for those that charge affluence of adjustment assignment to $125,000 for one that has been rebuilt, from the bolts to anatomy paint.
While the first-generation F-1 is special, it's the second-generation 1953-1956 articulation that's best adorable and collectable, according to Fisher. The fifth-generation, from the backward 1960s to aboriginal '70s, attending the coolest. Whichever era, though, accept examples that accept no rust, alike if they bulk a little more, and that appear with abstracts analogous their repair-and-maintenance history. Those will authority their bulk the longest and crave the atomic bulk of repair.
Most important, buy the best aboriginal archetype you can find. Those accomplish the arch investments because accurate survivors from that era are rare. Best were acclimated on farms and ranches, apprenticed day in and day out until they artlessly wouldn't run.
Which is absolutely how it should be-it's an atonement way for a barter to die. Consider yourself advantageous if you acquisition one still alive. It's account captivation on to.
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