I'm hoping some of you with more knowledge can help me here. So I just bought a 78 F100 Flareside to restore. PO had begun some body work and bought some interior based on the new color scheme he had chosen, so I had planned to just use all of that. But upon getting my Marti Report it says that my particular Paint/Trim code is one of only 270 that year. Maybe that is not particularly rare, but I have not been able to find a picture of this paint/trim on another 78 F100, so maybe more rare than I realized? I also am not sure exactly what some of the trim information means, so if you can help me understand what it SHOULD look like (in lieu of pictures) that would help as well.

Paint color is "A - Raven Black"
Interior is "BD3 - Red Vinyl Ranger Bench Seat / Flareside"

Then the rest of the info from the report says:
Your vehicle was equipped with the following features: For the 1978 F-100 Regular Pickup Truck
- Flareside
- White Tape Stripes
- Ammeter and Oil Pressure Gauges
- Power Steering
- L78x15-C Raised White Letter Tires
- Free Wheeling Package A
- Painted Low Mount Western Mirrors
- Air Conditioner
- AM/FM Stereo Radio
- White Styled Steel Wheels
- Ranger Package

So I've seen some photos of Free Wheeling packages, and some of those are colorful stripes while others are a solid color. But this also mentions "White Tape Stripes." Is that different from the Free Wheeling Package stripes?
Any help deciphering or pointing me to good photos is greatly appreciated. If this is actually a pretty rare vehicle or if I love the color combo, I may pivot and put this thing back to all original.

 

I've never seen a step side with the free wheeling package but from what you have there it was obviously different.

i've seen quite a few fleet sides including the '79 f250 4x4 my dad bought new and I still own. and all of them had the black/silver/red interior. black bumpers and a couple different stripe options, none were white. I can see why the stripe options may be different, but the interior makes no sense. maybe someone has some brochure pictures.

 

Here's what the 1978 Light Truck Buying Guide shows for the Free Wheeling package & the Ranger package. Note that the contents of the Free Wheeling package changed for 1979, some different items.

Flairside Free Wheeling did not get the multi color stripes, they got single color pinstripes instead.

The Ranger interior was upgraded from the base Custom interior. Different headliner, seat upholstery, door panels, I think color keyed sun visors. I suspect the Ranger interior may have superseded the Free Wheeling interior upgrades, when both were ordered on the same truck. Just a guess on my part. Note that the Free Wheeling option for the Ranger is a good bit of money less than the FW option for the Custom. Could be a discount for the interior change.

There were a few Flairside FW trucks in this area back in the 80's. Nice looking trucks, but the pinstriping was a bit much for my taste.

Sounds like you have a cool truck, nicely optioned. Black & red would look great!

 

 

So apparently on the step side since it didn't have the graphics it could have a regular interior. seems odd but a lot of things were.

I see the textured black top option in print quite often, but I have never seen one anywhere but the brochure. for good reason they look hideous.

 

Dad bought one new. A '76 F-150 Ranger 2-wheeler with the black textured roof on red. Didn't actualy look that bad. That truck was the only one I have seen since. He bought it off the lot, no special order.

 

My truck is a Free Wheeling Flareside with Gold Stripes.

 

I've seen those, I didn't know that was a version of the free wheeling package. so completely different then.