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I've had my '50 Ford "fresh barn find" F-3 for a month or so now. I still do not know what "Bonus Built" means, but see it all over when discussing these trucks. What are "Bonus Built" trucks? Everything from 1948-50? Some special upgrades? I'm sure there are a bunch of you that can answer this in no time...
"Bonus Built" was a monicker (sp?) that Ford used to advertise their vehicles. It's king of like "Built Tough" in the recent years' ads.
Any Ford truck from 1948-1952 is a "Bonus Built" truck. They were dubbed "Bonus Built" because they had more features than any other brand truck on the market. There were also other monickers like the 1 Million Dollar cab. It had to do something with Ford spending a million dollars to redesign the cab.
Check out the ads from the era and you'll see what I'm talking about.
The million dollar cab refers to the 53 (54 & 55 too), because Ford claims to have spent that on development. They did ergonomic studies and marketing research, which had heretofore only been done on cars.
Hi Randy Jack
5'4" ....Really? Was that the "average height" of an American man in the late 40's?
I'm no Giant at 6' even, but I'm cramped in the cab.
Good Info.
thanks
Reamer
I am 6' 2" and 250+lbs, let's just say I'm big boned, and I don't have any trouble with my '49. The steering wheel does seem to grow a little every year, but that discussion was raised last year and this seemed like a common problem with this trucks. I am still doing research on the cause of this phenomenon
All these years I've been blaming my wife for "shrinking" my clothes in the wash, now I find that my truck is part of the conspiracy too??? Dang! You just can't hide from it