I'd soo rock one on my 78 4x4

 

We could always create a bulk order for Australian bullbars and ship it to the States! I'm an honest guy.

 

man these trucks are just a thing of beauty no matter what country they are in. are your reverse lights amber in color? I just wonder though how much exactly is different in the aussie and u.s. trucks

 

Yeah the reverse are amber: its the same light at the blinkers. Our dashes are black plastic with silver outline. They're designed to switch from left to right, so the glove box is the same size as the instrument cluster (which are the same as what was used in Datsun pickup/ute and possible the Datsun 1200 (little *****box on wheels). In the '70s Australia had just F100 Customs and F100 XLT customs (like mine with all the chrom moulding). Rarely seen are crew cabs and the occasional F250 and even F350 with dual rear wheels. Most of these trucks were used by tradies (tradesmen) or ended up in the bush (country) so those that remain are generally pretty banged up and rusted out. Not sure about US trucks, but the Aussie trucks generally rustout in the firewall, gutters, top of the windscreen, bottom of the doors, and the trays are generally rooted (fcuked).
Ford sold a *****load in Victoria, which is where 80% are now found that are for sale, but on the rare occasion you can find one like mine that was not (too) *******ised and lived its life in a dry environment like Broken Hill (this is a town in the outback that is as dry as a nun lol).
Back in the '70s the NSW police used F100s as paddywagons, and the NSW Ambulance service converted them in to ambos too.
For about 18 months here in Sydney, VW combie vans are very popular with many being restored: you can't go anywhere without seeing one. The late '70s F100 hasn't been revived despite its characteristic looks hopwever I think the standard 302s might be a turn off in terms of the cost of fuel here (about $1.56 per litre). Still, you wouldn't catch me in a damn combie!

 

Here's some stuff on the use of F100 by New South Wales police:
Police Trucks Gallery

There is general info about Aussie F series here: http://www.fseries.info/

 

Nice looking truck mate. My missus is from nsw and when she moved to WA she brought both.her F trucks with her. Seems that they're a lot cheaper over east.

 

I'd agree the WA trucks are more expenses. Their condition seems better due to the dryer climate. Show us your truck(s)!

Nothing like a great sort driving an F100 - presuming your missus is a good one!

 

Here's a build thread on my 77 F150. For a WA truck its rusty as hell. I do have a pretty good cab for it though. In some of the pics you can see my other money pits, a 81 bronco and a 78 falcon.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...0#post12676100


As for them being cheaper over east, she's got a 78 F100 custom with no rust, paid about five grand for it. And for less than a grand she picked up a 77 in OK condition. Both are 4x4 and I'm trying to talk her into building one of them up into a big lifted beast lol.

 

Australian dash faciers are quite expensive. I was recently quoted $350.00 for one of the two side of the dash. The reason for the high price is that wreckers exploit the fact that many faciers get easily cracked. The ones below that I just installed are really brittle but at least original. They'd be classed as 'very good' condition, but far from mint. Here are my old left and right faciers, the right had been cut up by the original owner for **** knows what reason:



Here's the left side: those six holes contained some guages for stuff like amps, gear box temp, and some other crap:



Here's the new left side (requiring a swivel ash tray yet to arrive, this sits under the Ford sign):


The right side, with stock '77 steering wheel which I find much better to use when there is now power steering:

 

Hey Uncle Jesse, post some pics of your girl's truck!

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/a...0&ref=gnr-prev

Here's the link to her album, I don't have any other pics of her 79 or any pics of her 78 handy. I'll try get some of all our trucks combined in the next few days, it'd be pretty cool.

 

Can't wait to see them!

 

Jim, I thought the dash and cluster in our F100's were from Cortinas of the same era? I think I read that on the Australian Ford Forums somewhere and that the clusters out of the GT Cortinas were the go because they had the tacho as standard.

I think that applied to my '79 anyhow.

 

Yes you are dead right, my mistake.

 

Cool truck!! I also dig that crazy push bumper, reminds me from something outta Mad Max! I think it would be interesting driveing from the right side. Please post some more pics.