Are these common down south? A Texas only thing? An aftermarket part? Something he had custom chromed? I haven't seen one up here in BC Canada, did I just not notice all these years?

I was looking through posts here and noticed a chrome vent window frame in Skeeters thread: https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...55c7ad30cf.jpg

thread source: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-dually-2.html

 

I have not seen it either in the mid west.

 

I'm going to say it's not OEM. All the trucks I've seen over the years have been black.
I looked it up in the Ford parts catalog and it does show a "bright finish" frame for the Econoline van but not the F series truck. For the F series it just shows two part numbers for r and two for left; One pair is for 73-77 before s/n Y80,000 and the other pair is for 77-79 from s.n Y80,000. It doesn't say anything about finish. The Econoline lists "bright finish" and "paint to match".

 

Couldn't someone just strip the paint and polish it?

 

They're made from steel. You'd need to clearcoat it to keep it from rusting.

 

I wonder why none of the F series ever got them. Bumpsides have them blacked out too.

 

...always liked that look better than the black so I had mine chromed. It required drilling out the mounting rivets for the pivot/brackets and re-riveting them on after the chrome was done...

 

I have one NOS, it's black.

 

I've got two NOS, 1 right, 1 left, both are black . I bought them probably a decade ago for the Pumpkin...maybe one of these days it'll be far enough along to actually install them .

 

I was wandering around my favorite junkyard several years ago, spotted this frame, tag said Crenshaw Motors on it. I had sold this frame to this yard in 1984!

Yard used to buy all sorts of jazz: grille frames/inserts, door panels, instrument cluster bezels, fan shrouds, steering wheels, vent frames and etc. They sold the parts to several parts jobbers from Mexico.

 

A couple of years ago I bought a NOS front crossmember for the styleside bed from Green Sales. When I got it it still had the original dealer tag on it. In 1977 I bought a new '77 F250 Ranger XLT from JD Ball Ford in Miami. According to the tag on that crossmember, it was sitting in the parts department when I picked up my new truck.
Funny how this stuff goes around. I wonder how many other stops that part has made on it's journey to my garage.

 

In 1985, while driving to the Pate swap meet in Dallas, stopped by several Ford dealers, one in Floydada TX

Walking thru the parts dept looking for obsolete parts, I spotted an A-5310 (Model A) front spring on a rack. The parts tag had a shipping date on it: August 1928!!!

 

Sometimes being a pack-rat is a good thing!

Okay, Hijack over

 

I'm still wondering how many people have chromed theirs on these 70s trucks, anyone have more pics?

 

There was someone on FTE proposing a kit that deleted the vent window entirely. He was looking for a minimum number of buyers prior to committing to manufacture. Anyone know what happened to that?