This is driving me nuts. The seat in my '78 F-250 Ranger regular cab appears to be stock. It is the right color, material, pattern. But it doesn't have a mechanism that I can find to flip it forward. This isn't my first truck, I know where the lever SHOULD be. And the internet tells me the folding seat was the only seat in regular and supercab trucks. I suppose it's possible somebody swapped in a seat from a crew cab... but, why?

I haven't yet hunkered down for a closer look under the seat. My knees aren't huge fans of that idea these days. Is there any way to tell if it's a crew cab seat? The back has a ton of play in it, like it should flip forward. I can't imagine a fixed seat would do that.

 

It should have the release handle and the rod connecting the 2 handles together. But it looks like you COULD get a none folder in a 73-77, and yes same for a Crew Cab front seat. Super cab had a split folder and the fold button was a lever on the back side upper corner of the seat. And 78/79 Bronco could get a split folder front seat as well.

So sounds like yes you have a CC front or a CC rear seat in there. Does your seat have a cardboard backed panel on it? IMO that is a sure sign that it is a front CC seat. CC rear seat did not have sliders attached and just had riser plates on top of fixed mounts.

 

This first pic shows the lack of cardboard panel... but the springs appear fine.



Tried getting a decent close-up behind the seat.




Then more of an overview to compare the back support/hinge.




I almost think they swapped the VIN plate onto an earlier cab. There's a ton of stuff that doesn't make sense for this truck. Narrow body moulding, round headlights, fixed seatback. But you can see the original cream paint under the green and the seat is exactly correct in every other way. So if they did frankenstein things together, they were particular about sourcing the parts.

 

As far as the vin....what is the vin on the paper title? Does it match the frame vin's, and the Dvr door jam and the B pillar sticker? It might do you better to get the frame vins to match the rest of the truck. Frame vins and paper title vins matter, the rest can be easily swapped over as you can tell.

At least you can get repop dvr door jam and B pillars plates/stickers. from Marti Auto if need be. https://www.martiauto.com/tags.cfm

 

The narrow moldings were standard on the Ranger. Round headlights were standard on the 1978 trucks. You had to go to the Ranger Lariat for the rectangular headlights in 1978.

I doubt a red seat would come in a creme truck with what looks like a tan or brown dash.

 

I always thought that the square headlights did start on the 78 model trucks. The base and Custom package trucks came with the round headlights in 78 and the Rangers, Ranger XLT, and Lariat trucks came with the square headlights. Or did I just reword what you said?

Red seat more common with red truck, red or black dash pad.

 

I don't think that's red. Reddish, yes. But more brown in person. Which works with what is listed for the info on the data plate. Saddle and tan interior. Which would definitely go with the original paint. Looking forward to restoring that.

I can't find anything in the literature I've seen that says round headlights were available in '78 except for Custom trim trucks. The one brochure even specifically listed "rectangular headlights" as a new feature for the Ranger and up. I understand this is a contentious topic though. And since it's a fairly trivial alteration, I can easily believe it was born with rectangular lights and was swapped later. Which is fine by me since I prefer the round lights. I'll swap in an older grille later to match the lights. The current grille is pretty rough.

I keep forgetting to look at the frame VIN. The data plate matches the title. And the VIN decodes to exactly what the truck is. So they probably just needed a new seat and somehow managed to find a CC with the right color combo. The thing about stuff this old is that there's been plenty of time for shenanigans. It's just frustrating because I want to use that space behind the seat. I'd rather not have to buy a whole new seat. Although, that wouldn't be much more expensive than repairing the existing one.

 

You folks are right. Square headlights on Ranger & above trucks in 1978. I thought it was Lariat only. I personally like the square lights, they go better with the square pattern in the grill.

Yeah, so much gets swapped on these trucks over the years. They are closing in on 50 years old. Most of the fun now is building it how you want it!