I'll second what BlueBruiser said about not having as touching a story about his Bull Nose adventure, but I am quickly falling in love with these things. I just got into my first Bull Nose about a month ago. Before that, I was driving a 2000 F-150 for the last two years. That truck was the first "nice" truck I had purchased in years since my wife and I spent 3 years cleaning up a financial mess and getting out of debt. In the really lean years, I drove several cars that I was able to pick up off CL for under a grand, nurse them along for 10-15,000 miles then sell them to a junk yard when they needed a repair costing more than the truck was worth. My first and favorite one of that bunch was an 84 Bronco II.

Anyway, once we were in a better financial position, I decided to spend a little money and bought the 2000. It was a good truck, never needed much, but it just lacked the character I wanted in a car. I actually missed driving that old Bronco II even though it didn't have AC (which in a Phoenix summer is almost unbearable). Then the late model truck needed a bunch of work (intake gasket, valve cover gaskets, radiator, etc.) I did all the work thinking I'd get another 50,000 miles out of it, but after wrenching and fighting with the overly complicated engine set way too far back in the engine bay I realized that I wanted to simplify. I wanted a truck I could easily work on. One where if something isn't working, it could easily be traced back to one of a handful of mechanical components...not some meddling computer pulling the strings.

While searching old trucks I kept seeing bull noses with an inline 6 and manual trans (I was really hoping to get a stick as well). A little research and a conversation with a mechanic friend of mine and I learned the legend of the bulletproof inline 6. I tracked down a really clean one with working AC (again, it's Phoenix...it was 112 yesterday) and brought her home.

Of course no 30 year old truck from CL is going to be problem free out of the gate. She royally failed emissions the first time through, so I decided to do the Duraspark II swap that I had been contemplating anyway. My favorite part about that (aside from passing emissions and the serious increase in performance) is that I was able to find a donor 83 that was running but in terrible shape for $500. Towed it home on a U-Haul trailer, harvested the Duraspark setup, carb and a few other goodies, then sold it to pick a part for $400. I was pretty proud of myself for pulling that one off

Anyway, she has since passed emissions and is running great. I just finished pulling the old wiring harness out last night and it's amazing the difference between the spaghetti mess I pulled out of there and the clean look it now has (pics below)




Feedback wiring harness





Clean Duraspark II

Anyway, I just have a handful of minor things to button up before I can just drive her and take care of her like the rugged old truck she is. My oldest son (5) has been helping me and loves that truck. He actually pulled his first couple parts off the parts truck all by himself last week (gotta be proud). I'm hoping we'll keep this thing in the family and maybe it'll be his in 11 years or so.

 

I never EVER wanted a bullnose but someone decided my beloved 80-86 trucks needed a dumb nickname.

I was given my 82 F100 FlareSide by my uncle in 1998. It had a 300 that had been run 800 miles with the thermostat backwards and a Srod with no third gear. Over the years it grew from a 2wd on 31's with a very built 300, which moved me 2100 miles shortly after high school to a reg cab long bed on a shortened factory 460 ex cab F250 chassis which stayed stock for years and then grew into the 44 shod beast in my sig.

My 81 F100 Flare I bought in 03. It started as a lowered 2wd on 275/60's. I pulled the 302 for my 300 and converted it to 4x4.
The 300 developed a rattle and I pulled it for a 351W that was a big mistake. I discovered a couple very bad spots in the frame in 05 that combined with the pooched 351w spelled death for the truck.
I happened across an 86 6.9 F250 Lariat Explorer 4x4 that needed a body. The 81 donated its cab, and; unlike the 460 truck, I swapped the entire dash and wiring harness, even the A/C went into the 81 cab.

I'm currently looking for another F150 short bed with a 300 to build as most of my goodies for the 300 have come back into my possession 10 years later...

 

Didn't know people referred to these as a bullnose till now, never heard that one. Anyways, first post so here goes.

Back around '95/96 (not real sure because I would've only been around 5 or 6 myself) my brother bought an '85 f250 6.9 diesel manual 4x4. I couldn't specifically what I liked about it so much, but I liked it all, the way it looked, ran, smelled, the lights in the dash above the gauge cluster. Pretty much if he liked/did something, I liked/tried to do the same thing haha. I remember one year he took me and my sister up in the mountains a ways to cut down a Christmas tree, think we spun out somewhere and he had to get out to lock the hubs, (which I also thought was pretty cool) I just remember thinking: what a badass truck.

Fast forward a couple years and the '85 was getting tired and eventually got parked in the line up of other old trucks and equipment that we didn't use anymore. Had to move and farm somewhere and in the meantime someone came and hauled it away for scrap after we'd left.

Then come around '04/05 my brother had a new '03 6.0 he figured he had to sell to free up some cash, so he went back to what he knew.

Flew down to Iowa? and picked up an '86 practically identical to his old '85 and drove it back to Canada. Turns out it would have been cheaper to keep the 6.0 because in the following 1.5-2 years just about everything but the body got rebuilt. (with me usually helping) However this worked out in my favour because come '06 I was finally old enough to get my license and I bought it off him. He lived about 20 miles from us and after driving it away for the first time as my own I managed to run out of fuel about a mile short of home haha, and thus continued my tradition of running out of fuel in things (but those are different stories...)

Soon after buying it, I quit school and it was me and my truck and a duffle bag of clothes out on the road. Went working road construction running equipment and then started a welding apprenticeship. Everywhere I went I got compliments about it. "Man this truck is awesome" "What engine is in that thing!!?" "Don't see many if these runnin around" Etc..

One time shortly after meeting a new friend we were driving around town and decided to pick up his sister and another one of our friends'. No room for four of us, so made them sit on the toolbox behind the back window. He looked over and said "man this thing has some pretty good grunt hey?" I said yeah it's not too bad. I was rolling slowly in first when I punched it and made the two in the back slide right off the toolbox onto their butts, he thought that was pretty funny. Me and him use to cruise in that truck almost every weekend. Lots of good memories.

So there you have it, my 1986 f-250 XLT Lariat, 6.9 diesel, 4 speed manual, 4x4. (I call it my first truck even though technically I owned a '79 chevy k2500 when I was 15 but we'll just ignore that minor flaw...) Nearly 20 years of love for this fine body style. I still have it and it runs like a top but I haven't had it plated on the road for about five years now. I keep it in the garage with intentions to restore it to stock one of these days and cruise the town once again.

 

Back when I was in high school I wanted an F-250. At that time (late '70s) the "highboys" looked more truck-like than the Chevy's my dad had, and Dodge hadn't started making a decent truck yet. Then in '80 Ford came out with that awful looking new style with the ridiculous IFS, and I knew I'd never get a newer Ford truck.


Fast forward a few more years, I was graduating from college in '85 and my dad bought me a new truck for a graduation present (I've got a great dad!). It was an '85 F-250, 351, NP435 4 speed. Yes it had the awful leaf spring TTB, but I put 183,000 miles on that truck over the next 13 years, and it's still my favorite of the trucks I've had.


I sold it after it stranded me twice and I had a wife and 2 kids so we couldn't fit in the standard cab (I replaced it with a '95 F-150 SuperCab).


I said before that I didn't like the change in '80. To tell the truth, there's probably only been one Ford styling change in my lifetime that I thought was an improvement (in '92). But there have been functional changes that I see as improvements. My pipe dream truck right now would be an F-250 SuperCab short box (meaning it would have to be a '96 - '97 I think), with an F-350 front axle (I still don't like the leaf spring TTB) and a front clip and box from about an '85.





(the Model A behind the F-250 was my first Ford, and the car I learned to drive in)

 

LOL, I feel the same way.....

I've had many trucks over the years, and nearly every one of them had Ford on it. When the 1980 models first came out, I didn't like them much. Thought they looked too much like a chevy....
In 95, I purchased a used 94 F150 with 300, 5 speed, and 3.55 rear axle. That thing was a heck of a work horse, though not really able to haul a lot of weight in the bed. My former wife ended up totalling it in 96, and after having paid on it for over a year, the payoff was still higher than the "market value", so I basically ended up getting nothing but the toolbox and bed mat I had installed.
In Sept 97, I had saved up enough cash to buy a truck outright, and the search began. After looking at just about every Ford truck I could find nearby, I got a bit disgusted. They were all either way overpriced, or in rather poor condition (some were both). I was looking more for a 75-79 F150. Didn't care what it had for engine/trans, as I planned to build a nice 390 and mate it to a T19, and drop into place.
I happened to drive by a small car lot, and they had a couple F150's, so I stopped in. One was an 89, and I really hate the flat nose on them. It was priced too high for my taste. The other, was an 80 F150, 300/C6. I looked it over, and realized it was in better shape than almost anything else I had seen. Asked what he wanted for it, and was told $1900. I decided to think it over, and told him I might be back the next day (was nearly his closing time).
Talked it over with the wife, and decided that I would go back, and see if I could get it for $1700 or less. I told her that if I could get it for that price, I would buy it.
Next day, I went back. Looked it over even better, and when he came out I asked again what he wanted for it. He quoted me $1695. I knew it was going home with me, and so did the wife. She started to get in the car and leave, but I made her stay, so I had a bit better bargaining power. Hard to talk someone down, when you don't have a way to leave.......
I managed to talk him down to $1550. Handed over the cash, and went about my way. That was Oct 2, 1997. I still have that same truck.
The 300 went well over 150K miles before developing a rattle in the piston skirt/wrist pin area, and the C6 made over 100K before an internal seal failed, requiring a full rebuild. The trans rebuild has been the single most expensive repair, at $450 installed. Otherwise, this truck has been one of the most reliable vehicles I have ever owned. I certainly got my money's worth out of it.
I am currently swapping a Cummins 6BT turbo diesel and 5 speed manual trans into it. If the 300/C6 managed to live over 16 years of the time I've owned this truck, I expect the diesel/5 speed to make it at least that long, but wouldn't be surprised to see it last twice that, even if I don't.......


And I still don't refer to the truck as a "bullnose"........
Nor will I ever call it a "fummins". Both are rather silly, in my opinion.
They don't call a dodge with a cummins a "dummins", after all.

 

Started with my dad. He bought a base model 85 F250 4x4 with the 300 I6/auto in the late 80s for a few thousand. He built a monster out of it. Tore out the 300, dropped in a massively built 351, built the truck frame off, replaced body panels as needed due to rust, put anther 351 in it etc...I grew up in a monster truck styled 250 that would roast all four 33s he says. Roll bars and lights, pipe bumpers, 33s, loud exhaust....she was fun and fast. Loved riding in it because it stuck out from all other trucks. Loved how the dash had the light boxes with the signals up top, how it said "F O R D" in plain letters across the gate, the recessed headlights/signals...everything. I loved all the aftermarket gauges and switches it had, the CB radio, dashboard mounted cell phone, giant digital clock hanging from the ceiling, etc. To this day I have always been a bullnose fan. That truck made me love Ford.

 

OK....here goes.
When I discharged the USAF after Desert Storm, I took a job at a stone crusher quarry in Cleveland,Ohio that also owned a salt transport trucking company.
They had 4 1980's F250's & F350's that were equipped with salt piler rigs that would shoot road salt (fed by tri-axle dump trucks) up into salt domes for the local municipalities to use as required.
Those F Series trucks were serious beasts !
Some diesels and some gas....but all of them performed way above and beyond in grueling conditions !
Imagine....(Lake Erie) cold temps, salt everywhere and running 24 hours a day for weeks non stop through the November to March winter months.
We also used them in the salt mines under Lake Erie as service trucks to rescue the Mack tractors that had broken down in the salt mine,carrying tools, semi tires, compressors etc.
That cinched it for Me.
The Fords required less repairs than the Mack's did !
Now mind you....Mack Trucks are serious vehicles and I have a lot of respect and experience wrenching on them, but....those 80's Fords got the job done ! "I drove Dodge, Chevy (junk), and AM Gen (cough) M's in the military that fell short!"
After being stateside and searching for a few years, I finally found a decent '84 F150 302 4x4 Automatic Long Bed Dual Tank out of South Carolina that a foolish,arogant seller let go way too cheap, that I have started a long overdue restoration on.
I do believe that Henry would be proud of the Bullnose F Series.
Trust Me when I say......This Bullnose will represent !
Have You Driven' a Lately ?

 

I actually didn't want a bullnose. I just wanted a truck like my dad's (87 F150). My current F150 used to sit down the street from where I used to live. I was about 10 years old when I first saw it, and I didn't like it because it didn't have the blue oval in the grille like my dad's truck.

Fast forward five years. I'm driving down my old street with my mom, and we see the truck sitting in the front yard with a For Sale sign. I stopped and looked at it, but wasn't really interested because it was obviously worn out. Later that day I found out that my parents had bought the truck for $400, and off my dad and I went to go pick it up. After mowing quite a few lawns, I paid my parents back and the truck was mine. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but over time I started to see the truck in a more positive light, and now I wouldn't really want any other F-Series truck.

Shortly after I bought it in 2008:





And how it sits as of July, 2015.

 

I inherited my 1980 f150 2wd from my great grandfather. He bought it brand new in early 1980. I grew up riding in this truck going fishing with my grandfather. When he passed I was glad I got to keep the truck and am planning many fishing trips with my kids in it

 

Should You ever decide to let her go.....I would welcome an offer.

 

I got one because that's what all the cool kids are building.

 

My bullnose journey started when my dad had a 1986 f250 XL SCLB with the 6.9 idi and a 4 speed manual. He got tired of it after about 5 years and 100k miles. He then sold it to my uncle that is putting the diesel in his 79- but that is a different story.

So last year, when I started looking for my first truck, I had come across a 1984 f150 with a brand new 302, rebuilt C6 auto, an 87 bed, and more rust than truck that had been sitting for 3 years (In northern Ohio with all that salt.). So I paid $900 and $40 in food to my cousins to haul it about 45 miles back to my house, in the middle of the winter. When I got it home, i started on changing the basic stuff, like: spark plugs, coil, coil wiring, fuel pump, battery cables, battery, starter solenoid, and air cleaner. The 302 finally started and sputtered out after about 15 seconds of cranking. I hit the key again, and it started right up and ran like a champ.

About 2 weeks later, I towed it over to my uncle's 7 acres of land to drive it around because I am not old enough to drive it on the road. From then i drove it there about every 2 weeks until about 3 weeks ago, i decided it was time to tear her apart.

I got the engine hoist, air tools, sockets, and screwdrivers and i pulled my front clip off with having to take only the radiator and 5 bolts out for the whole thing to lift right out. Then on the cab, i cut one of the front mounts out and tried to pull the cab up with the engine hoist. It lifted up very easily with the rear cab mounts pulling out of the crossmember (i have to weld a piece of plate there now) and the front driver side mount just ripping out because of rust. That brings me pretty much up to my current state.

If anybody has a core support that they are selling please let me know.

Pics coming soon!

 

I've always been a ford fan, inherited that from my maternal grandfather. But my dad has always been a Chevy fan. Growing up, my dad used to always take me and my brother hunting. We hunted with hounds, so hunting truck was a requirement. As much as my dad preferred Chevys, the first hunting truck a remember him having (and the toughest of the bunch) was a 1983 F150 long bed with a straight 6 and C6 combo.

I loved that truck, and made many, many memories growing up with it. I learned to drive in that truck, and I was mad as heck when my dad sold it to buy a Chevy.

Fast forward some years later, and had a Jeep wrangler that I wanted to be rid of, and someone offered to trade me a 1985 Bronco with a 351 and C6. I took it in a heartbeat. Had the truck for a couple months when I realized it wasn't feasible for me to use as a hunting truck.

So I traded it for a 1984 F150 with a Straight 6 and Granny low 4-speed. Drove that truck an hour and a half home, and the rear end went out in my driveway. I kept it for a few months until I had to sell it due to financial reasons.

Now, after taking a detour through two toyota pickups, I'm back looking for a Bull nose to pickup and keep for a while hopefully.

Can't beat the way an old ford drives.

 

I got mine in 1988. It is a 1981 F100 XLT that my Dad bought new in December of 1980. He gave it to me in 1988 when he bought a new 1988 F150.

I have kept the truck all these years. I built a 351W performance type engine for it to replace the 302 it came with. Still have the 302. Am slowly upgrading it ane plan on repainting it soon.

It is still in great shape, except for the paint. I really enjoy driving often.

 

When I took over my family's commercial fishing business in 2008, I also inherited a 1980 F-250 used for launching boats. At the time I was already a Ford guy, and was on my first car, a 1989 Tempo AWD. That F-250 with its 302 is one of the most durable machines I've ever owned, and continues to impress me with the amount of weight it can drag up the beaches here in Alaska.

I liked it so much I pounced on the opportunities to buy a light duty '81 F-150 and just recently another F-250. I honestly prefer the later 1987-1991 models, but the Bullnose trucks are certainly my go to for tough work. They're much more versatile than the newer models and seem just as comfortable on the beach or in the mud as they are towing on a freeway.