4 DOOR PICKUP CABS

[AGTECHBEAST]

WHERE WAS THE 4 DOOR PICKUP CABS MADE THAT WAS INSTALLED FROM 1967 THRU 1972. WHAT PART OF THE U.S. IS MORE LIKELY TO FIND ONE? I'M FROM TEXAS AND DO NOT SEE HARDLY ANY.

[papabug71]

Welcome to FORDification. It appears your CAPS LOCK is on. I have a 1968 crew cab F-250 parts truck that was built in Ontario, Canada & some how made it's way to S.E. Oklahoma.

Im willing to bet they were built at more than one plant, but i'll let the crew cab guys give you a for-sure answer.

Have a look at this thread for some nice crew cab pics: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 16&t=36334

[Calfdemon]

All the crew cabs from 67-72 were special order and were hand made. They did not have an assembly line for crew cabs in that era. All of the crew cab orders were sent to the plant in Ontario, Canada where they were put together and then shipped to the dealer that ordered the crew.

Here is some info on how the crews were built. This was originally posted by "MotorDog" over at OldFordCrewCabs.com. GREAT information and figured I would keep it alive by posting it here as well with credit to the OP of course. You can find the original post here: http://www.oldfordcrewcabs.com/phpBB3/v ... f=3&t=1399

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!

[papabug71]

And that shows how much I know about the crew cabs. . . .

[AGTECHBEAST]

Thanks for reminding me about the capital letters I usually leave it locked on.
Also, thanks for the great information. I was able to view some great photos as well.

[papabug71]

No problem! We have to use caps lock at work. I always catch myself having to go back & re type everything. .

Good luck on getting a crew cab. I would love to have one. They're just a little out of my range.

I do have one, but it's just a parts truck. It's waaay too far gone to save. Ex MKT railroad hi-railer!

[1972hiboy]

Mine was made in Canada too. There is a few running around here in CALI. Just depends how far you want to travel. I found mine right here in town. ( couldnt believe it) but youd be suprised whats hiding in a drive way under a tarp, in a garage, in a field ect ect.

[smokey3215]

mine was made in canada to for the u p rail road. I bought mine out of kansas city and had it shipped but it seams like there are alot around the west coast.

[Calfdemon]

Hey Papabug... I am not sure that any crew cab is "too far gone" to try and save. But some need more work than others . But out of everything on that truck, take those rear doors off and put them somewhere to keep them from rotting away!! Those rear doors are the hardest thing to find for a crew and yours look great!! The only way to get a replacement rear door is to find one on an old crew as a donor (EXTREMELY hard to do), or have one made! They just dont exist and were never "produced". They were all hand made to start with out of front doors. I know a couple of CC owners that have been looking for rear doors for a long time with no luck, so the ones that you have are definately worth saving and keeping out of the elements!!

[trukcrazy]

I agree that none of them are too far gone. Take a look on the H.A.M.B. and see what those guys are building with. Good luck with your search.

[eggman918]

Here in California the most common crew's are on the big Bumps, my cab came off a F-600 from the oil fields.Found it at pick a part and paid $500.00 for it in'95.