I bought a 65 F100 4X4, (SIGHT UNSEEN).The bed looks like it was from a different year. i has round tail light, tail gate with pins. The truck came from AZ. Any body with a guess on whats going on.

thanks

 

sounds like the bed is from a 57-60 model

 

They came from the factory that way from 61 to 63 but I thought all from 64 to 66 had a bed designed for it instead of the earler bed. Jeff

 

There is a 64 F100 4x4 on Ebay that has the 57-60 bed on it. It appears to be stock.

 

I'm sure someone will expand on this, I think the 4x4 used the 60 bed all the way to 66?

 

Sam you are correct, the old beds were used on the 4X4s for the entire series run.

John

 

joe, thanks for your reply, won't to restore the truck. are you saying that ford used that bed from the factory?

thanks

 

That is the factory bed used on all 61 to 65 F100 4x4s and all 61 to 66 F250 4x4s (ordered in the styleside version). The 66 F100s came in the regular 64 to 66 styleside bed. If you are restoring to original, that is the correct bed. The regular styleside bed can be used on your truck, but will need some modifications to the wheel well openings to accomodate the shorter 120 inch wheelbase the have.

 

why did they use different beds for the 61-66 4wd?

 

The only truck to use the new bed is the 66 F100 4x4 in short bed ans long bed. F250s still used the old bed in 66.

All other four wheel drives carried the wheelbase of the 59 60 units, and used the 57 to 60 bed as a carry over.

Ford put all the eggs in the uni basket for 61 and did not tool up for a new bed. Only after the failure of the uni did ford tool up a new bed for 64 on the 81 models.

Garbz

 

In 1961, Ford introduced the unibody truck and the flareside in both long and shortboxes. The unibody 4x4 did not work in 1961 after very limited production, so it was scrapped. To the best of my knowledge, the 57-60 styleside box was not available on 1961 4x2s, but was used on 4x4s. Customers wanted the styleside option in 1962 for non-unibody trucks, so Ford brought back the 57-60 styleside box for 1962 and 1963 in both 4x4s and 4x2s. By 1963, customers wanted the styleside option more than the flareside so Ford designed the 64-66 styleside box. Since the 4x4s have a 120 inch wheelbase, the new 64-66 box would not fit as it was designed for the 129 inch wheelbase. Ford may have thought the unibody concept would go over better than it did and that it would be able to handle the demands of customers' use. Ford apparently did not see a need for designing a matching styleside box and felt customers would continue to desire the flareside.

 

thanks alot for the info it always puzzled me why they did that

 

so round tail lights are right on a 65 4x4 120 wheel base.

 

Yes, the round tail lights are original. So is the tailgate with the chains instead of the hinged arms. It takes a while to warm up to the look of that bed. I'm often asked why I put the wrong year bed on my truck. When I tell them its factory, they give me an odd look.

 

I get the same question and look. Personally I like the shape of the wheel wells better and the look of the rear end with the round tail lights, but the lines of the side just don't match.