In 1961, Ford redesigned its trucks to go with “unibody” or unit-body construction. That turned out to be an engineering mishap as the bodies couldn’t twist or give enough under heavy loads, sometimes causing doors to not function properly. A year later, Ford begin to offer separate cab and bed models again whose appearance looked a bit strange, so they were named “wrongbeds” by buyers. This 1963 Ford F100 is one of those “wrongbeds” and looks to have at least been partially restored. In good running condition, the pickup is available in Napa County, California, and here on craigslist for $10,900 OBO. Thanks for the cool tip, MattR!
Not long after the unibody Ford trucks hit the market, reports surfaced that over-loading the bed in some cases would cause the frame to react such that the doors didn’t fit properly (won’t open or close). Though unsubstantiated, the story goes that some people reportedly fell out of the cabs after doors popped open at will. Assumptions were that the single-wall design of the unibody truck’s bed area contributed to the problem that a double-wall bed design would provide more rigidity.
To solve the problem, Ford developed an alternate “styleside” bed for production in the 1962 model year, utilizing the basic design and appearance of the 1957 to 60 truck beds. However, since the 1961 F100 had longer wheelbases, the 1957-60 bed wouldn’t fit the new chassis, so the ‘new’ bed received a few tweaks. This set-up has since been called the “wrongbed” by Ford truck fans because the character line of the bed doesn’t match up with the line of the cab.
The seller refers to the tailgate on this truck saying that only 300 were made, but I’ve not been able to verify that. The pickup is in rust-free condition and the white over blue paint looks to have been more recently applied. The pickup has 123,000 miles and its 292 cubic inch V& is said to run well although there is no mention if it’s ever been cracked open. Standard fare in the day was a “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission and this one has the overdrive option and a factory tow package. This looks like a turnkey truck which is currently titled and registered, so you could put it to work right away or (better) take it to Cars & Coffee and show them when a truck was a truck, not a rolling living room.
This is where Curbside Classics said “Ford pulls a Studebaker,” referring to the Champ pickup utilizing their bed sourced from Dodge. At least this one fits a little better.
The trucks weren’t “Unibody “ there’s a full frame underneath. Ford hoped to save $ by eliminating the separation and additional welding necessary. It was a good concept but in reality under engineered.
Reading the full ad I believe the seller is referring to the overdrive transmission being one of 300.
I’d think it was more about style, the next logical step after full-width smooth bed sides. If anything the additional variations on the assembly line (even before “wrongbeds” there were Flaresides and chassis-cabs that needed rear cab corners rendering them different from the “unibody” Styleside.
Ford expected some problems with frame flex just not as much as they got, the ’61 4wds reverted to Flareside (stepside) only and had the wrongbed by the start of ’62, a year or so before it was offered on 2wds like this.
Full size Ranchero
This is really a sharp-looking truck and probably is a lot of fun to drive with the V8. I’ve always been a fan of converting the column shifts to a floor shift with Hurst Mastershift or similar conversion – the OD makes it a lot livable on the highway.
Although folks generically refer to the trucks as ‘unibodies’, as PaulG notes, ‘unibody’ has the connotation of there not being a separate frame, which this truck obviously has. The correct term is ‘unitized body’ – one piece cab and bed – which obviously gets shortened to ‘unibody’ by lots of us.
I like old Ford Trucks, but have not had much experince with the 60 era trucks. This was all new to me, there is always something you don’t know, enjoyed the info.
I saw a few trucks like this but always thought someone just put a bed from an older truck on them. I never heard of a Wrong bed factory truck before. Very interesting. I had a 65 Ford F-100 in the same color as this one. It had a 352 V8 with three speed on the column and overdrive. When in overdrive two things happened. 1) It freewheeled when letting off the gas. 2) It would shift an extra gear in second when you let off the gas and then reapplied the gas. Got very good gas mileage for a V8 truck of those years. I really like the twin I-beam models like my 65, when properly aligned they were great handling trucks that didn’t wear tires out like most people think.
God Bless America
It’s definitely not a unibody. The cab and bed bolt onto the frame separately. Does all Ford trucks follow 4 yrs from 60-64 with everything matching up like cab and bed? GM were certain yrs and Fords were others. Haven’t Googled that today.
I’ve always loved the smooth look of the 60s Ford Unibodies. I always thought “Unibody” (when referring to this particular generation of F trucks) was the literal definition when considering that pickups built before and since have a separate cab and bed. This example looks to have been a lot of truck for 10k.
My cousin Greg just bought a 1962 “wrong body” F-100 and he researched and they put on 1959 boxes for the body on frame because they didn’t have beds for 1962 body on frame pickups because of how the loads messed up the uni-bodies.