Candyapple Red is quite a color on this 1979 Ford F-250 Ranger XLT 4×4 pickup, especially in the sunshine. This is just on the cusp of the “highboy” era but by 1979, it wouldn’t have officially been known as a highboy, although the seller refers to it in their eBay listing seen here. It’s located in Lakewood, Washington, there is no reserve, and the current bid price is $8,100.

The sixth-generation F-Series pickups are sometimes called “dentside” due to the indentation along the sides of the cab and bed on the Styleside trucks. The perfect stance is hard to define since it varies with everyone’s personal taste, but this truck comes close to it for me. It has just enough factory height and a nice-sized wheel and tire combo, not huge mud tires sticking outside the wheel wells, and a 12″ lift. That’s been done to death since TV reality shows have been in existence, in my opinion, but to each his/her own. Memories come flooding back for me when I see an F-250 with a somewhat similar design as our ’69 F-250, especially when it has a built-in toolbox on the right side of the box. We kept a jack in there and short 2×8 pieces of wood to put under the camper jacks whenever we stopped at a campground for the evening.

This truck appears to be in nice shape and if it truly is original, it’s incredible. The seller says the red paint looks good and I agree, it has just enough wear and not-perfect areas that you wouldn’t be parking six blocks away from every store, and maybe it could be buffed or otherwise taken up a level or two with some work. The good part is they say there is no rust, the two best words in all of vehicle’dom. They show a few underside photos and there’s heavy surface rust but appears solid.

The seat, I believe, would have been a nice cloth material for a top-trim Ranger XLT, but vinyl was a no-cost option. In any case, this wouldn’t have been an original vinyl pattern from Ford in 1979 from what I know about these trucks. The interior isn’t perfect, as with the exterior, but looks nice enough for most of us. The bed looks good – although it’s obviously been repainted right over whatever was there. Just add a roll of foam or some carpet and a sleeping bag or two and you’d be set for a weekend of offroad fishing adventures.

They say the engine is now a 429-cu.in. OHV V8, having been added two decades ago by a previous owner. The 429 was made from 1968 through 1973 and we don’t know what year it is or anything about it other than it runs and drives well but could use some tweaking due to the truck not being used that often and from sitting. It’s backed by an automatic and transfer case sending power to all four wheels as needed. Any thoughts on this ’79 Dentside 4×4?