Just measured the bed on my 79 on a whim and I came up short. My vin says long bed, I have two gas flaps. But the inside of the bed only measure 6 foot and 10.25 inches, 8' is past the middle of the tailgate. What's the deal? Now looking at some pictures online, it looks like other long beds are longer from the very front of the bed and the start of the wheel well. Any ideas? It's a crew cab 79 f250 2wd style side. Is this normal? I think I remeber reading that short beds were 6' 6" but I thought long beds were actually 8'. For comparison, the top of the bed is 65 inches wide and the bed of my Chevy measures out to 8 foot.

Eta: decoded the vin again realized it does not specify bed length. But I have found another abnormality. My body code is DDD which decode to a ranger crew cab with red interior. I do have a red interior but the cowl badging and the glovebox both say custom. I also seem to be lacking any ranger trim. I'm really confused. Starting to think I was in the sun for to long today.

 

You have a std shortbed.

 

BODY code: DDD: DD = Red all Vinyl Ranger XLT or Lariat (lower pic).

D - the 3rd digit of the BODY code, refers to Styleside Crew Cab, but it could be a Custom, Ranger, or Ranger XLT (upper pic).

Short Styleside bed is 6 1/2' - Long Styleside bed is 8'

Note: You can order a copy of your 1979 F250 Crew Cab's original build sheet from martiauto.com

 

I bet ya tell all the ladies ya have a long bed....

 

I thought it was a short bed. Had multiple people tell it was a long bed so I just believed em. I don't know which I would rather have.

 

Thank you very much. Problem is the truck has custom cowl and custom glove box badging. I have no dent trim, no headliner trim, and a plastic trim piece that kind of outlines the dash contours. I have regular door panels. The truck is a crew cab and I do have red vinyl interior.
Another wierd thing is I have two small tape on pin stripes above the dent going down both side of the truck. One 1/8" stripe and below that a 1/16" stripe. What is wrong here?

 

The truck is also 36 years old. I have a '75 F-250 with a '79 grill, married t-case and 2 1/2 ton Rockwell top loaders in it.

Don't get confused. Somewhere along the way, parts were swapped out on your truck with what could be found in decent shape.

You have a short bed truck. All my long beds can fit a full sheet of plywood on the bed floor with room to spare to close my tail gate.

 

My dad owns a 97 4 door long bed 1 ton Chevy. We have talked about how my truck is a little more maneuverable. We chalked it up to the ford having a smaller cab. Most stuff I do with my truck it's either small enough to fit in the bed or so big I have to use my trailer. Whenever I need to get lumber there's so much other stuff it all gets put in the trailer. I'm gonna build a flatbed for it sense my bed is kinda down on its luck. I might make it a long bed just for having the bigger one lol.

 

Thinking about it now, my truck doesn't have original carpet, the drivers side window regulator was removed and reinstalled, the back left windows been busted and replaced, and the same door was once removed, it has had a sunroof installed, the headliner shows signs of being dropped before, the bed does not sit on the frame square (barely noticeable), has aftermarket wheels, and is missing the rear fuel cell. Has damage to the front left grill she'll and fender, a dent on the back right door (no rust just a small crease), the back left quarter panel has a dent, the windshield is cracked and chipped, front of the hood has lots of paint chips, twin exhaust with flow masters, nv4500 trans (po didn't replace transmission pan).

Gone through hell and came out the other side. it's in loving hands now though. Quite a history.

Does this mean I can put ranger trim on?

 

If the VIN stamped on the Warranty Plate matches the VIN on the registration/title, the DDD BODY code is correct. So your truck is either a Ranger XLT or a Lariat.

But if the VIN's do not match: People replaced damaged left doors with used doors. 99.9% of the time, they failed to install the original Warranty Plates on the replaced doors.

1977/79 Ranger XLT's and 1978/79 Lariats came with Race Track (R/T) body side mouldings, upper and lower tailgate finish panels. The upper R/T mouldings have a black vinyl insert.

There's no tape stripe that matches your description for a Crew Cab, so it was installed by a previous owner.

Tape stripes of various widths/styles available from auto parts stores.

If the VIN's match, the only way to solve this dilemma is to order a copy of your trucks original build sheet from martiauto.com

As the member in post 7 said, your truck is 36 years old and people love to swap parts around.

I HATE SWAPS! Most people don't record what the parts came from. So down the road, subsequent owners are stuck with a Frankenstein Monster with parts swapped from gawd only knows what.

Some of them waltz into the Ford dealers parts dept., lay a bunch of greasy parts on the counter and say: "What do these parts fit?"

 

Hey, I'm 6'10"!!

 

Climb on in!

The vin on the door matches everywhere else. White, f250, Dana 60 rear, 2wd, crew cab, 400. It also matches on the registration.

The tape is very well executed. It wraps round the back of the cab about an inch on both sides, matches the interior color perfectly and is very in every way on both sides. Something else about the tape, it doesn't match up very well. On the right side the hood sits up a little high, on the left side the back door sits on the frame and a little angle. But if I adjusted the hood perfectly, and readjusted the doors or the bed the lines would match up perfectly. Like when the striping was applied all the body panels were in perfect harmony. I peeled a smalle part up and underneath it was a brilliant shade of white. The whole truck is the same shade of faded chalky white. Seems like the tape has been there for a very long time.

 

What color is the stripe? Is there also a stripe on the hood?

I have parts catalog pics of these stripes along with the part numbers, so as soon as I know...

 

The stripes are red. The same red as the interior. No hood stripe, just two on both sides above the dent.

 

It WAS very popular up until maybe 15 years ago to add aftermarket pinstripes to a vehicle. I still have rolls and rolls of about every color and configuration you could imagine. It was almost unusual for a customer NOT to want a pinstripe on a brand new car which in turn protected that little bit of original paint under the stripe from fading over the years. Not saying your stripes are original or not but a GOOD pinstriper can lay down some nice ,straight, factory looking curves and lines. Gary