Hi, I purchased this truck a month ago. According to the VIN and title, it's a 1973. I'm starting to have my doubts. I purchased 1973 tail lights, and they do not fit. I was told the bed is not from a '73. One reason is because of the gas door. Looking around the truck, I noticed a part under the dash that has a date of November 1977. The grille is stamped 6-77. According to a VIN search, the truck should have a 240 engine, but it currently has a 302. The only VIN I can find on the truck is on the drivers door, but it was painted over and I can't make out the numbers. I will include pictures of my truck. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Bed, cab and engine swaps are real common, remember, these trucks are now heading past 40 years old and a lot can happen in 40 years.
Most state DMV's go by the frame VIN. The one on the door isn't a true VIN plate, Ford calls it a warranty plate. Doors are too easy to change and to be a legal VIN plate it must be attached to a permanent part of the vehicle.
The frame is stamped with the VIN number in two places, one visible and one hidden. Both are on the top right (passenger) frame rail. The visible one is in the engine compartment, it can be anywhere between the radiator support and firewall, but is most commonly found in line with the alternator. The hidden VIN is under the cab, usually 10"-12" behind the front cab mount. Find the frame VIN and check that it agrees with what's on the title.
Look at the last six digits of the VIN, a '73 model year should fall between Q00,001 and S60,000.

 

That's a sweet looking' truck. What mikeo0o0o0 says is spot on. I purchased a '76 F-150 whose doors had been swapped so the VIN on the warranty plate did not match the VIN on the frame. I'm in Georgia where titles are not required for vehicles produced prior to 1985. All I had was a Bill of Sale and the PO's registration card. Fortunately, the solution for me was fairly easy. The tag office gave me a form that was to be filled out by local law enforcement after eyeballing the frame. I had the front clip removed and had wire brushed the VIN for easy recognition when the sheriff's deputy came to my home.
So if you find a discrepancy between the paperwork and the frame VIN, talk to your local authorities about what can be done to rectify the situation. They have access to databases that provide surprisingly detailed VIN histories.

 

Thanks for the reply. I tried to find one in the engine compartment, but I couldn't find anything.

 

That's not uncommon. The VIN will be covered with years of dirt, grime and grease. Usually you'll need to get some degreaser and a stiff wire brush and start scrubbing. The number might be lightly stamped or, on rare occasions, not stamped at all.
BTW, welcome to FTE. Lots of good, knowledgeable people here more than willing to help if you need it.
Here's what the engine compartment VIN looks like:

 

Thanks! Can you pinpoint anymore the location of the VIN in the engine compartment? Where on the frame is it? Thanks again.

 

?? Like I said, it should be on the top right (passenger side) frame rail. It can be anywhere between the firewall and radiator support, but is most commonly found about inline with the alternator.
If you look at the picture I posted above you can see the front of the spring mount to the left of the picture. This should give you some kind of reference for locating yours.

 

From year to year Ford made minor "engineering" changes to the cab, nothing that affected interchangeability, they were just minor differences.
The '73-'74 cabs had an oval rubber plug in the middle of the cowl on the firewall. This was deleted on the '75 and up models.
Look and see if your truck has this plug. If it does, it could be the original cab, if the plug isn't there then the cab has been swapped.
There's nothing wrong with a cab swap, it's just not the original cab.

 

Maybe look here for the frame stamped #? And look for the Safety Certification sticker on the B pillar by the door striker to have a vi# also.

The one on the door should be a raised/stamped # on a alum plate that is riveted on. Get some light weight sand paper wrap it around a piece of 2x4 or any flat surface item and see if you can carefully sand the paint off the raised/stamped part.

If you pull out the roof liner completely you might see a date stamped in the lip under it, near the center of the cab??

73-76 bed should have a exposed filler neck and a 77-79 has a gas flap. Older tail lights have a metal back and 77-79 have plastic ones, but for the most part they should work.

You might have a "buck" tag in the engine compartment and it might have some #'s on it for you too?

 

Thanks! This helped a bit. While mine is missing the rubber plug, it does have the hole for it, so the cab is from '73-'74. The bed was definitely a replacement.

 

Stylesides: 1973/76's have exposed fuel caps, 1977/79's have fuel doors.

The grille frame on your truck was used 1973/77. The amber parking lamps were used on 1976's from serial number C50,001 and 1977's. Serial number is the last 6 digits of the VIN

Styleside tail lamps:

1973, 1974 before serial number T80,001 have metal bodies, the individual lenses attach to these bodies with Philips head screws. The socket with wiring is swaged into the metal body.

Rich: 1974 from serial number T80,001, 1975/79 have a one piece molded tail lamp body/lens, the individual socket with wires twists into the body.

These tail lamps and sockets are also the same as: 1975/91 Econoline & 1978/79 Bronco.