Gentlemen: The whole point of this thread was to show off the two *BASIC* styles of trim moulding the 1980 - 1986 Bullnose trucks used. This was not supposed to be a pissing match about all the different color combinations and paint schemes and tape stripes and small variations of trim mouldings that could be had.

Some people prefer a two-tone truck, and nothing else is going to matter. Some people only like a solid color. Some people like chrome, some people hate it. Some people like exterior moulding, some people think any trim moulding is too much. Others like tape stripes to accent their vehicle; and some hate tape stripes. A lot of people will only own a black vehicle, and others will drive anything but a black vehicle. I think you get the idea.

I obviously can't post EVERY variation of trim moulding, tape stripe color, and color combination that Ford ever came out with for the 1980 - 1986 model years. What I can do is try to represent the *two* distinct styles of trim moulding fairly. If you paid attention, you will notice that I chose both examples in a solid color and in the same color. I didn't include a two-tone vehicle in this poll because that would further confuse the overall look of the trim moulding on the truck. For example, some think the "Lower" style looks good if its a two-tone truck, but wouldn't want it if the truck was all one color. Others may think the "Upper" style only looks good if the truck is one solid color.

The top chrome trim that is shown in Greyf100's picture is what you would get if your truck was two-tone. The reason for it was to separate the two colors. Later years deleted the top trim and instead used an upper tape stripe to separate the two colors, but still retained the "Lower" moulding pictured. To add a two-tone truck to the poll would further change the look of the trim moulding on the truck. Again, you are going to have some people who think the top trim looks better with the two-tone trucks, and others who think the upper tape stripe looks better than the top trim separating the two colors. That is why I didn't include a picture of a two-tone truck in the poll.

It has been pointed out to me the difference between the 1980 - 1981 "Lower" style moulding and the 1982 - 1986 "lower" style moulding. I can see that it is slightly different, but any IDIOT can see that it is still pretty much the same style of moulding. If you look at it from the side, the truck looks the same. And you could also get the "Lower" style without the black vinyl trim insert on a few years, but again, it is the exact same style of moulding as all the rest of the "Lower" moulding from 1980 - 1986. And that is why I "limited" my choices for the "Lower" style.

If you had a dream last night that God himself told you to go and buy a Bullnose truck the very next day, and you found two trucks that looked the same except for the two *BASIC* styles of trim moulding pictured in the poll, and both trucks were a solid color and in the same color, which style would you choose?

 

Here's two more:





(The last picture has aftermarket moulding around the wheel wells.)

 

I don't think anyone is having a pissing match, but rather a discussion brought on by your poll. Nothing wrong with that, right?

You could get a solid color truck with both upper and lower trim on it:

These fenders are off a '82 F-150, all original, the truck died the same year it was born after getting run over by a piece of farm equipment.

Agreed that it's a basic black insert, but if you're missing a piece of trim of a 80-81 there's no way you're going to replace it with the 82-86. Side by side there is a huge difference in how far out the black insert comes.

I still don't think this poll is jacked up... lots of good information coming down the pike for all of us to use!

 

Yes, this is because the lower trim was standard on the following...

1: On deluxe and Combination and Victoria Tu-Tones
2: Ranger Lariat or XLT Lariat, with or without tu-tone.

The Upper Moulding was standard on...

1: Combination or Deluxe Tu-tone 1980-1984
2: Ranger Lariat or XLT Lariat 1980-1984

These mouldings were also optional on all trim lines where it wasn't standard. Mouldings could also be deleted when standard. Example the upper moulding is deleted with the victoria Tu-Tone on the Ranger XLT.

Well you could replace it, but up close it will look very odd and crappy... The cut off date is 4/81. Before 4/81 took the larger insert "Rhombus" for 1980-1981, and after 4/81 took the 1981-1986 smaller insert style.

I agree, and possibly another thread and poll started on each and every trim piece for the sticky, perhaps?

I think we are going away from the original point of the thread, where Lariat 85 wants help in choosing which two mouldings he would like best on his truck...

 

Of course there is nothing wrong with that.

I am not going to argue with 81-F-150-Explorer on the early 1980s Bullnose trucks.

I guess with Ford, exceptions are the normal. I may be wrong when it comes to the top moulding on the "Lower" package, but it seems to be there more often than not when the truck is two-tone.

But once again, it is still the same style as the "Lower" moulding I pictured without the top piece.

It wouldn't make much sense to add another option with the exact same moulding as the 1982 - 1986 "Lower" moulding, but with an added piece at the top. That would only further confuse people and unfairly "split up" the votes for the 1982 - 1986 "Lower" style moulding.

I think so, too. Thank you, Chump!

 

Wow, yall take your trim moldings very seriously! LOL

I chose the upper. Lower is too far from wheel wells. Chop out the excess fenders to turn bigger tires and lower may look better.

 

While I abstained from voting due to the ..... rhetoric that was flowing initially, I would like to see a sticky on what the various trim packages were, when the date cutoffs were, etc. Not a discussion but a document, although it might take a bit of discussion to get the facts in the document.

The reason for the document is twofold: First, my father's '81 (don't know the manu date as I sit here but know where to get it) has badly dinged trim. My plan is to swap the '82 Lariat cab, fenders, and bed across since his cab is rusted in the corners and the bed is a total loss - hence my checking w/the OK DMV on how to legally go about that. But, I would like to know why his has one set of trim and the '82 has another as I might retrofit the '82 w/Dad's trim.

Second, these trucks will one day be more collectable like the earlier trucks are today. There'll be serious restorers that want to put theirs back "factory" and they'll need to know what that was. Now's the time to document that since some of you have memories of the trucks, many of us have documentation on them, and many of our trucks are "correct".

 

Actually, my mind was made up before I started this poll. I never cared much for the 1980 - 1986 "Lower" style moulding. Those wheel arches are too high and always looked stupid to me the way they connect to the moulding. My Canyon Red 1985 F150 Lariat has the "Upper" moulding and the aluminum wheel lip mouldings, and that is what I *personally* think looks better. I hardly ever see this moulding, even on the 1985 - 1986 models. I never knew if it was because this moulding was rare, or because it just wasn't that popular. I can clearly see that it's not very popular on this poll, but most people in my area, even the ones who don't even like Ford, seem to really like the way it looks on my truck.

I have two 1985 F-Series sales brochures, and the earlier printing promotes the "New for 1985" upper trim moulding on every truck with moulding throughout the catalog. The other catalog is the later printing and it completely ignores the "New for 1985" upper trim moulding. The entire catalog from front to back is *exactly* like the earlier printing except the same trucks were pictured with the "Lower" style trim moulding instead. Very strange.

In fact, when I went to Ford to try to get new pieces of the 1985 - 1986 "Upper" moulding for my truck, the Ford parts man, who had been working there since the late 1970s, told me the moulding I had wasn't even from Ford! I had to go back with my original sales brochure to prove him wrong. He did some searching and finally came up with all the original part numbers, and told me he had *never* seen that style of moulding before!

The 1985 - 1986 "Upper" moulding is obsolete and nobody reproduces it. Unlike the earlier "lower" moulding, it doesn't uses rivets and holes in the body. It is held on with 3M double stick tape, just like all the later F-Series mouldings were. I actually located and put together a complete NOS set to put on my truck when I get it repainted in the Fall.

 

I believe this was done on purpose to mimic the 1977-1979 racetrack moulding that followed the simular lower bodyline on those trucks. The racetrack trim were very popular at the time. The 1980-1986 lower mouldings were too large to give the same effect, In my opinion as it did with the 1977-1979. It looks good on a deluxe or victoria tu-tone, in my opinion, but on a solid color truck the moulding looks odd, I have to agree.

The way the brochure changed, suggests it wasn't popular. The way the wheel arch changed for 1987 and how the moulding changed could be a factor that people didn't like the way the lower moulding looked either on the 1980-1986. But this is conjecture...


I agree, the moulding is extremely rare, and looking forward to seeing you finished product.

 

Yes, it does look odd. If not for the cutout around the keyhole, I would have sworn that first truck I saw it on, as it came off the transport, had been to some cheapo "trim" shop.
I think part of the reason it wasn't very popular, was the way it was mostly black with a small chrome insert. Exactly opposite of the Ranger/Ranger XLT upper trim from the 73-79 trucks. It was just too "different" at the time, plus it looked too similar to the stick on trim that was always falling off the lower sides of GM trucks of the same timeframe.

*personally* I don't like it. It is unique and rare. If I bought a truck that came with it, and it was in good shape and all there, I wouldn't remove it. Loose or missing pieces, I'd pull the rest off rather than replacing the missing parts.

As for the lower molding and how it compares to the "racetrack" trim on the 77-79, I didn't really care that either, *unless* the truck was tu tone. Without the tu tone, both look way out of place to me. Granted, GM used a similar style trim for their two tone trucks in the mid 70's, but it didn't "miss" the wheel arches by ~2". I guess the wheel arches just need the trim right on the lip, or it looks odd to me. My truck is a solid color, with no moldings except the wheel lips. I've thought about doing a combo or deluxe tu tone in red/white, and just using a tape stripe at the paint break lines. I did that back in the early 80's on my Courier, which was never offered with any tu tone options.

That pic was taken before the striping was added, but you can see what I'm talking about.

Anyone notice the mirrors? Guess what they came from......

 

You need to go back and re-read what 81-F-150-Explorer said, Wulff. He wrote that the "Lower" style moulding "looks odd" on a truck with a solid color.

I don't know why you and others think that the 85 - 86 "Upper" trim looks like a cheap "parts store add-on," and the "Lower" trim doesn't? To me, the "Lower" style looks cheaper as it is so thin, and the wheel well pieces are much too high to even look like they belong on the 1980 - 1986 trucks. In fact, I never even liked the Bullnose generation of trucks because all the ones I ever saw had the stupid looking "Lower" trim that connected to the wheel well trim that was mounted too high. It wasn't until my father brought home his 1985 pickup, with the "Upper" trim moulding (which is the truck I now own) that I thought this generation could look good.

That's incorrect. If you pay attention, you can clearly see that the trim is black vinyl/chrome/black vinyl, and the chrome strip in the middle is much wider than the black areas. And why do you think it has to look the same as the older generation 73-79? I have never seen a GM truck with lower moulding that looks similar to the Ford's upper moulding before.

And for the record, my 1985 F150 still has all of the moulding on the truck. None of it has ever fallen off.

I can go along with that. That is why I didn't post a picture of a tu-tone truck with the "Lower" moulding in this poll. If I did, a person might would vote for it because it looks good on a tu-tone truck, but not on a solid color. I wanted to know what people in here thought of *both* styles of trim on a solid color vehicle.


Even though I never liked the Ford Courier, that one is pretty cool. I think the white should have come a little further down on the truck between the wheel wells, though. I haven't seen a Courier in years. I also haven't seen a Chevrolet Luv in years either. Whatever happened to all of them?

 

That's the trim package that mine came with in 1985. And my color was Raven Black. I just don't know if I can justify adding that trim back when I paint mine again. I had it removed when I repainted it the first time, because I thought it would look better without the trim.

 

Running short on time, so a short answer will have to do....

I think the 85/86 upper molding looks odd, so does the lower molding on a solid color, much like the "racetrack" style 77-79 did on a solid color. Both look ok when combined with a 2 tone, though. Still not my cup of tea, so to speak.

There was some narrow stick-on molding used on mid 80's GM trucks, and that stuff was prone to falling off, like everything else GM made......

As for the paint on that courier, the white stopped at the top and bottom on a body line. The lower body line had a "kickout" with another body line just below it, that blended into the wheel lips. I didn't think it would look good with the red and white meeting at the wheel openings, especially with the lip moldings. The styling is very similar to the 80-86 F series, even though the courier/mazda truck came out with it first (77). Where the 80-86 F series has the recessed lower area, it was raised on the mazda built courier.

That truck started life in Wimbledon White, but those are both GM colors. Chevy truck white and trans am red. Was a special red used only 1 or 2 years, and only on certain T/A models. Cost me a bundle, but it was beautiful in life. Even that fancy 35mm camera I used to take that photo, couldn't do the color combo justice......

The courier and luv both fell victims to rust, and replacement parts were harder to come by. Kinda like all other japaneese built vehicles from the late 70's/early 80's. My 83 RX7 is a bit rare, being a rust-free car. It lived most of it's life in north Texas, which explains the lack of rust in the places that they "all" have rust in......

 

I bet you or your body man almost cried when they saw how many little holes in the body that had to be filled by removing all those rivets!

 

Actually, they were all glue on.