Tin worm has worked it's way around my windshield frame. I ran across a 75 high boy f150 cab. Are these cabs identical accept for the extra doors? Will I be able to cut and patch the quad cab with the high boy?

 

You are correct. All the 4wd long beds were stretched by the owner or a body shop or an aftermarket company but not by Ford.

 

Other major difference would be in the 4wds. The 73-77.5 to 78/79 to be exact = "highboy" vs. "lowboy" trucks. Suspension is the difference here, most notable is the front. I think most, if not all of the general highboy vs. lowboy stuff applies here though.


1st an F-150 isn't a highboy. That would be a 73-77.5 F-250 or 350 4wd only. But to answer your question - YES, the cabs are the same, aside from holes for body mounts to frame as the highboy vs 2wd were different spots. Doors (front), cab corners, window surround, etc. is all the same.

The crew cabs were made by pulling 2 std. cabs off the assembly line & grafting them together.

 

Another difference is the width of the frame rails. Up to 77.5 it was 34" wide and after that ford widen it to 37". I have a writeup on how they went about making the crewcabs. I'll have to post it later when I get home from work.

 

That's great information thanks! Do you know much about the frames? Any thoughts on which frame would be better or easier to use. The crew cab f800 frame appears to be in much better shape but wheel base is too long. Will all the 4x4 gear from the f600 swap right on to the f800?

Jim

 

I hope I am doing this correctly never actually wrote on a forum page before.
I have a 1978 crew cab short bed 2wd with a small lift. I am in the process of a motor swap. The truck I purchased for the new motor has a factor ac. But after looking at the factory box under the hood I am considering an after market ac. I like the idea of staying original but???? Any suggestion ?? Thanks

 

Vintage Air makes a nice one that goes under the dash. There are a couple others also but I cant think of the names off hand.

EDIT: I remember a couple more. Classic Auto Air and Old Air Products

http://www.oldairproducts.com/catalog/
http://www.vintageair.com/
http://www.classicautoair.com/

 

If any of the newbies on here wondered how crewcabs were made, here ya go.

Ontario Canada was the factory that produced all of the early Crews. All were essentially "hand made" and there really wasn't any deep, dark, or mysterious secret as to how they were made. By the way, my 1970 F-250 Highboy is this same way also. You will find this is the case with all of the "Bumps" and with all of the "Dents" which are Crew Cabs. That means all were "hand-made" until production of them ceased in 1979. I will explain how to tell about the "hand-made" portion in a few moments, but first, here's what was required to make one.

Two cabs were used, with the back of one and the front part of the other. It appears there was a "special" roof panel made and this was attached to the top of the cab after the modifications were completed so there was a one piece roof installed. The front part of the rear doors were literally "cut-off" from the vent window forward and the front edge was modified and used to complete the front edge of the doors after welding and shaping. The interior door panel was cut off on the front portion so it would now fit against the door with its front edge matching the doors front edge. Here is one of the "chintzy" things you will find. They tack welded a small piece of angle iron on the front edge of the rear door to make a slot for the door panel to slide into as they had cut off the front edge with the screw holes. The door panel front edge just "floats" inside the groove made with the angle iron. The rest of the screws on the top, bottom and back edge are fastened to the door to hold the panel in place. If you hear a faint rattle, simply tap the angle iron with a small hammer and "tighten" it against the door panel when it's in place.

Now, here's where it gets fun! The window crank on the front doors is close to the front edge of the door. This part was cut off on the rear doors so there wasn't a place anymore for the window crank. By taking a passenger side door window regulator and turning it around backwards and then installing it into the Driver's side rear door, the window crank became usable and now was located to the rear edge of the rear door and worked perfectly! Then using a window regulator from the Driver's side door, installing it backward in the passenger side rear door, it worked perfectly too, and the crank again was now positioned close to the rear edge of the door. The passenger door glass was used in the passenger side rear door and the driver's side glass was then used in the driver's side rear door. Drilling a new hole for the window crank's stub shaft in the interior door panel was all that was necessary to complete the rear doors. Kinda "chintzy" in my opinion but very workable even though the workmanship leaves quite a bit to be desired when you actually look over one of these rear doors.

The rear door inside handle for opening remained the same, but they did not enclose it with an arm rest as was the case with the front door. Instead, they used a plastic window frame type looking piece from the inside of a standard van's inside door handle to finish it off.

Because of the removal of the vent window from the rear door, the subsequent removal of some of the floor and roof to make it match resulted in the loss of considerable foot room, in my opinion, and the rear passengers get the feeling they are up against the front seat. When production of Crew Cabs was started again in the mid 80's, the new Crews of that era were built with more foot room and that has continued ever since their re-introduction. Seats were easy as the only modification to the front seat was a little upholstery added to enclose the back of the seat for appearance sake. The rear seat was simply mounted in with stationary brackets and became non-adjustable, although both seats are capable of being tilted forward to stow stuff around the gas tank in the rear and who knows what function the tilting front seat now serves?

As you can see, the only real "new" piece of sheet metal needed was the one piece longer roof. Wiring was simply "spliced" with an extension piece where required and the truck received cosmetic sheet metal finishing and painting.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! The rear door sills are nothing more than front door sills that have been cut off, (shortened) to finish the floor to the door opening.

For those of you that are interested in just what this cost, well the full retail price for the "Crew Cab Option" in the 1970 model year was $773.00 as indicated by the Original Invoice from my 1970 Crew Cab Highboy. To us who bought these in those days, it was a "Hell of a Price!" Another reason for the low numbers of production. With "good wages" being about $120 a week, this was a fortune in those times!

As you can see, there was considerable "hand work" involved in the making of the crew cabs. The rear doors are the real item of "scarcity" and anyone finding one or a set of rear doors for any of these early crews if in good useable condition finds a part that will generally be salable at a fairly good price! Although you could make a new one from a regular door, it is a great deal of work and would be quite expensive, but NOT impossible to do if you really needed one!

When you get the opportunity, if interested, take the time to really check out the rear doors of these trucks. Hard to believe they are so simple, yet functional. The other thing I find of interest is the poor quality of workmanship you will find present in some doors when compared to each other even or to others on other trucks. It is very apparent there was good and bad rear door fabricators at the Ontario plant. Good thing the front doors were mass produced and made so well, otherwise without a good door to start with, some of the rear doors might have fell off before the trucks were sold. Oh, that also reminds me, the regular hinges from the front doors were used on the rear doors also. Hope those of you that took the time to read all this found it interesting. Didn't mean to bore you folks for quite this long!

 

Hi everybody, I have been trying to register and log into the site. I have gone through the entire process a couple times, asked to re-send the activation email with no response. I finally got a hold of the site moderator, he replied and said that my account was now active but still wont let me log in. I'm curious if anyone else has had the same issue or not?

Thanks
Eric

 

Pitcrew ,

Your essay was almost as awesome as your profile picture! Very interesting, feel free to keep going do you know of any literature available on crew cab history? Do you happen to know if the frames from the f800 crew and f600 4x4 are the same? Also I didn't receive a title with my 600 so I'm not sure of the year at this point. I did notice the other day that the lower fender extensions and the seams at the top rear of the fender are welded closed. Is this an indication of a specific year? If the 600 is pre 75.5 are the axles narrower than the 800 which is a 78?

Thanks !!!

 

Sorry, what I posted is only for the light duty trucks F250 & F350 crew cabs. I don't know anything about the medium duty trucks F600 and up. If the truck has the door plate then it might have it on there. I know there is a website that you could enter the vin number and get all the details about the truck, it would be a Marti report. Not sure if an OASIS report from ford would help since the truck is that old.

Go to Old Ford Crew Cab Community, Pre 1980 Ford Crew Cab owners community and information source. and you might be able to get more info.

 

Pulled this moldy 1975 out of the woods this week.

 

Where did you find that? Doesn't look too rusty at all for being in the woods!

 

Great find!

 

Awesome find