Lol, I missed it the first time! That was def a big thing back then! I still got em. Might need to rethink that !

 

Yep! That makes me think about the champ 500s I used to have on mine then. I wish I still had those wheels!

 

SCFlareside, I think if you do everything on your list the truck will look overwhelmed by accessories. There was a bullnose bronco running around my area that had so many lights and add-ons that it was hard to recognize it as a bullnose. Quite frankly it looked terrible. I think you need to pick and choose...

I also notice that your accessories fall into conflicting truck themes. To me, the bully bar, roll bar, whip antenna and extra lights would compliment the lifted 4x4 look. They belong on an outdoor sport truck. The Tonneau cover, clear light lenses, tinted headlight covers, and tinted windows suggest more of a street truck look. Many accessories look fine on either theme, but I think all of it together would look weird.

I am definitely the odd one out here, but my favorite accessory on the list is the Lund sport visor. That is the most period looking custom truck mod you can have. But that is my taste and bias. I don't like bully bars or brush guards because it obscures the stock grille which I think is the best part of the whole body style. This is a hard one for me because there are a lot of deer and elk collisions in my area and I actually should have one. I just hate how they look.

As far as chrome vs. black accessories, this is one of my pet peeves. If you are going to go with black, everything should be blacked out... grille, windshield trim, mirrors, door handles, bumpers, rims etc., If you go with chrome, everything should be chromed or polished aluminum. Mix and match chrome and blacked out parts just looks lazy and sloppy to me. The only thing that looks good chromed on a blacked out truck is ~maybe the emblems. Nothing else. I think the same is kind of true with the lights. If you are going with clear, or clear + smoked lenses they all need to be that way all around.

 

I mostly agree with having stuff match, but roll bars would be a huge exception. Back in the '70s there were essentially no chromed rollbars. The only ones around were wimpy bolt-together things that they didn't even call roll bars because they didn't expect them to hold the weight of the truck. When chrome rollbars started coming out later I thought they looked gaudy.


And the blacked-out look wasn't really around in the '80s from my memory. It probably was just starting to show up. But again with my '70s into the '80 bias, I don't think the blacked-out look is right for a vintage look.

 

Only reason I was going to go black was because I thought a black pushbar/grill guard would look good on mine as I thought a chrome one would be too much chrome up front. But I found a chrome one installed it and it doesn't look too bad so I will be going with a polished rollbar/bed bar just haven't settled on if I want chrome or stainless steel.

As far as the pushbar/rollbar and auxiliary lights goes, they are an offroad theme but I do not believe a truck has to be lifted to make use of this look. My '82 is stock height but I am running the white wagon wheels with 31x10.50-15 BFG ATs out back and the front is the Discount tire version which is about ready to be replaced themselves.

I like the look on this style but I do agree that you should pick a theme and stick with it and not mix and match. Its like I can find the Lund visors all day long on ebay but I refuse to use them as visors are more of a street truck thing than a "off road" thing. Then I also don't like the thought of putting holes in my roof as theres the potential for creating leaks.

 

A couple of other 80' mods, Sparkomatic AM FM cassette, dual wiper blades.

 

I think more people did it to their cars in the 90's but I always thought it was a trend set in the 80's. Look up images of the "A-Team" van or the black car from the Night Rider TV show... doesn't get any more 80's than that! And then of course Ford's blacked out XLS from 82/83....

 

I seem to see the visors on both off road and street trucks, but that may vary by region. I like the hat brim look, and they actually do provide driving comfort. I agree about putting holes in the cab. It can fester rust and visor rattle is a common complaint. When I do mine I'm going to see about welding in stainless fasteners from the inside.

 

Sounds like a plan. Same thing goes with the roll bar/bed bar I am looking at. I will be doing my home work to ensure that the bars will bolt through the wood of my bed and not overlap the trim strips. That way if I ever change my mind, just replace the boards that have holes in them vs replacing the strips.

For me I have always done things that can be reversed easily incase I ever change my mind down the road. Big reason why I try to use holes already present for mounting aftermarket items.

 

Thanks for all the great discussion on this guys! Some of it gave me flashbacks, had completely forgotten about half of it...


Ford F834, great points and I was starting to settle on the same thing: I want the truck to be well thought through, and not over the top. Agree on the mix of chrome vs blacked out also!


I think that I'll end up with the lund visor, some KC lights without looking like im compensating. Going back and forth on clear corners, I like them but may avoid it since they weren't really "period". More to come -

 

KC has some LED lights that look like the old daylighters but are a special RFT LED lighting system.

I opted out of this and went with dual Apollo 6" 100w halogen road lights for myself. I did it mainly because there was no way to ensure the LED lights would provide the lighting I was wanting for the price I was paying compared to Halogen.

Another thing to think about if you are going for a 4x4 offroad look another period accessory would be the Cobra 29 CB radio. They are still made and they look the same for the most part. Down side is they don't make the vintage looking radio with weather anymore so have to go with the modern LX digital model 29.

 

Class of '87 here. I always loved those Lund visors over the windshield. I'd still mount one! Clear lenses didn't come around until the 90's. Rancho shocks and red boots, a MUST! Find an old Pioneer/Kenwood deck with old school dials and glue Budweiser bottle caps on the *****. That was all the rage back in the day around her. Dual wipers, hated them, but yeah that's period correct!

SS trim eyebrows over the windows.

 

I would wait and see which Lund sport visor you end up with to help you decide on the lights. If you get one with the built in clearance lights they will almost surely be amber. If the visor lights are amber then the turn signal and marker lights should be also. If you end up with the Lund visor without lights then I think the clear turn and marker lights would be fine. The turn signal lenses are stock 80-81 after all. They are more "white" than glassy clear. It just removes the bold orange color from the theme and looks clean to me. But I agree, the aftermarket clear lense styleside tail lights look very out of place on our trucks and are not period looking.

And yeah, if you are doing the Lund sport visor I forgot about the little chrome side window visors. They would compliment each other. In fact I may have some if you want them.

 

Class of 1985 here. I agree with most of the suggestions so far. I definitely agree with sticking to a “theme” on your truck, if it’s a 4X4, then only put on off road stuff.

A few things I thought of that I don’t think was mentioned yet.

1. Bug shield. I didn’t have one back in the day, but maybe it was more of an “old guy” thing. It has to be flat and vertical across the front of your hood.
2. Aluminum diamond plate side steps.
3. Gun rack in back window.
4. Window tint was getting very common
5. Wheels: don’t forget the old white “wagon wheels”
6. Tires: If not 4X4, rear tires larger in back (70s up front, 60s in rear, or 60s and 50s, etc) white letters out
7. Dual exhaust: As far as I can remember no trucks came from factory with dual exhaust. People were still installing glass packs, but “turbo mufflers” getting more common.
8. Astroturf was popular. Some guys built a bed deck cover and then covered with black astroturf.
9. A couple bumper stickers on rear bumper or glass glass stating your interests. Favorite radio station, “Gilley’s”, STP, Mallory ignition, etc.
10. Slapper bars, “traction bars” in yellow of course. Ha
11. Engine mods: Holley 4 barrel, headers, cam with a lope. Big yellow Accel coil. Lol
12. Stereo: don’t forget the equalizer under the dash.
13. Gauges: Tach. (Sun or Mallory tach.) “Three pack” of extra gauges under dash

 

^My gosh, reading this list took me back to high school.

Especially the STP sticker and yellow traction bars.