Has anyone ever found out about Ford trying to come up with a new version of its C-series tilt-cab trucks in the mid-'60s, using the cab from their E-series vans of the period?
James K. Wagner explains this in his history of Ford trucks,
Ford Trucks Since 1905, on page 330 (the last page of the 1964 chapter). A photograph of the E-cab C-series is seen, with the following caption above it:
After having dominated the tilt cab market since entering it in 1957, Ford became concerned that it had lost ground during 1962-63 to such competitors as the International CO Loadstar (later Cargostar), Mack MB and White Compact. Consequently, a new compact tilt cab vehicle was built in 1964 which employed the Econoline Pickup cab mounted on a C-600-size forward control chassis. The company's intent in making such a model was to have offered it in 550-750 series and to have employed Ford I-6 and FT-series V-8 gas engines and English Ford and small Cummins diesels. After thoroughly investigating the marketing aspects of revising the Ford tilt cab formulation, management decided not to pursue the concept further. Interestingly, Dodge either learned of Ford's effort or, working independently, developed a similar design of its own, and placed it on the market in early 1966 as the L-600 and L-700 models.
~Ben