There’s something about an orange Ford pickup that gets to me. We had one brand new in 1969 to drag around a big Winnebago pickup camper and I’ve loved them ever since. This orange survivor 1975 Ford F-100 4×4 is located in beautiful Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana – originally Fort Benjamin Harrison, Montana, now known as Fort Harrison, MT – just three miles west of the capital city of Helena. It can be found here on eBay with bids of only $2,900 so far and no reserve! There is only a day left so it’s selling to the high bidder.
The seller says that this beauty is a survivor that has had some work done on it in the past including a repaint, and it looks great from twenty-feet. It’ll need some work on the body (don’t we all) and it’s great for driving on short runs but it isn’t a fully-sorted cross-country truck by any means. Still, $2,900 seems like a good price for this much truck to me. It’s been used as a tough truck it looks like, from looking under the topper. The seller has provided a great YouTube video of this truck and you can see what condition it’s in and hear it start instantly and hear that great exhaust note.
From this angle I’d say $12,900 would be a steal for a truck that looked this nice, especially a 4×4 with an Explorer package such as is on this truck. This truck has God, guns, and Old Glory written all over it, perfect for Montana. You can see a rare early NRA bumper sticker on the other side from a waving-flag sticker. I would have a hard time changing anything about this truck other than to get the mechanicals 100% up to speed and then drive it as it looks now, but that’s just me. Of course, a full restoration would be great, too.
I love the blanket seat cover and the 4-speed floor shifter is a welcome sight for those of us who like to shift for ourselves. There is a crack on the top of the padded dash and things look used but pretty clean otherwise. This truck has one of the coolest features that I never knew existed before now, and I immediately went online and ordered one this morning after seeing this next photo:
A cowboy hat holder that’s attached to the headliner! I wear a nice Stetson straw hat in the summer when I’m out for photos (it’s “straw hat season” in the summer, as they say here in the Midwest) and I just keep it lying on the seat. Invariably, when my wife gets in, she tosses it into the backseat! Arrghh.. not anymore. Speaking of the seat, the original seat is in the back, the one shown in the cab is a replacement due to it wearing out from use. This truck was used to move irrigation systems around with lots of getting in and out of the driver’s seat over the decades.
The engine looks great but it also needs some work in order to be a reliable puller for this truck. This is a replacement 360 cubic-inch V8 as the original was replaced around 64,000 miles ago. You can hear it run in the YouTube video and it sounds great. They say that it could use a little sorting, even though they had a shop go through the heads and rebuild the carb and it starts like a charm in any weather and it sure sounds great with those glasspacks. Would you restore this truck or keep it maintained and drive it as it looks now?
Some pictures of the floors would be nice; I’d like to know how soon I’d need to plan on repairing or replacing them. I like this one a lot! If it wasn’t so far away, and I didn’t have to worry about the ravages of Michigan road salt, I’d probably be a bidder.
Yeah…now that’s a cool truck there.Just a truck with no fancy accessories.
Beautiful old truck…orange is an awesome colour on these old F150s. I must say, that chrome rear step bumper is the cleanest, ding free bumper I’ve ever seen on an unrestored truck this old. The glasspacks sound great…a little more lope to that idle would nail it.
I’all always have a soft spot in my heart for one of these. I ordered one in the fall of ‘74, knowing that it would be the spring of ‘75 before it could get delivered. Mine was an XLT with the regular and deluxe paint job in the same orange (with white) as this one. Mine was a 360 with 4-speed manual similar to this one. Mine went through final assembly in San Jose and somehow ended up with the CARB engine. I never saw so many vacuum lines. About 6-8 mpg. Ended up changing the carb, removing all that emissions gear and re- curving the advance. Also put in a Torque Master camshaft. Ran really good after that. Guy I sold it to in ‘79 still has it. I often wish I’d hung onto it.
Good find for a flipper. These were great trucks. For a Ford that is
This seller flips a lot of vehicles on ebay. Current bid amount is probably about the limit without looking closer as I’m sure there is a lot more rust than is shown. Looking at the hammered bed would indicate a lot of very hard, rough use. The statement that snow melting from boots caused the floor rust is comical!
With the full width rubber mat rather than carpet, that explanation isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. If there is any moisture trapped between the underside of the mat and the floor pan, the factory jute won’t dry out. This happened on a low mileage 1970 Nova I had, it had a rubber mat instead of carpet. It was completely rust free, except for the driver and passenger foot wells.
Steve R
Great looking truck!! Big block Ford and 4×4 to boot!!
When I was a kid my family purchased a brand new brown 85 F-150. I remember thinking at the time how outdated and dumpy this generation looked in comparison. Time has been kind to these though. I like this one a lot.
Cool truck in decent condition. Looking at the Marti report is interesting. The vehicle looks to have been ordered with work in mind: 4 wheel drive, V8, 4 speed, heavy duty shocks, 6.50×16 tires, full gauges. But then the Explorer A trim package, which included quite a few upgrades, was added. Another example of back in the day when a vehicle could be ordered in a zillion combinations.
Re: the 6.50×16 tires. During this same time period the owner of the small ma and pa oil producing company my dad worked for ordered their pickups with this tire. I don’t remember hearing why. Maybe these were considered a heavier-duty tire/wheel, or keeping them constant with older pickups, or ???.
Good ebay ad.
Thanks Scotty, I too like this generation of Ford pickups.
I get a chuckle out of the Jeep J10 above, for twice the price, and then this, the best truck known to man. It makes you want to shake the Jeep bidders, “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING”? I know Jeep lovers have a dedicated following, but here’s a REAL truck, a better truck, ready to go, without doing a thing to it, probably for years, FOR HALF THE PRICE, sorry for yelling, it’s just, I just don’t get it. Even for twice, or even 3 times the price, this truck would be worth it. I guess that’s the way it is, some get a good deal, others get burned.
You’ve got to be crazy not to snatch this truck! Is this price correct? I have a ‘77 Highboy in rough shape and people want to buy it all the time, I use it to plow snow and it’s a great yard truck in the summer! Someone buy this classic F100!
No pics of the floor pans and body mounts is scary. It does look clean in the other usually rusty areas for this era of truck so hopefully the next owner doesn’t get an unwelcome surprise.
Cool old truck. Looks like the pics of floors and cab mounts are in the Photobucket album listed down by the video.
A lot of the information is nice, what the seller thinks is a good story for the buyers, but not necessarily the actual 44 year old history of the truck.
I’d buy anything orange haha….did ya know the windshield is the same from 1967 all the way to 1979 ?
Winning bid $4710.
Not to be a nitpicker, but it is Fort Harrison, outside Helena, not Fort Henry, which was in West Virginia on the Ohio River, that Grant took.
You’re right, mtshootist1. That was a typo, thanks for being a nitpicker… ha. I explained the history of the town too much even for myself and then typed the wrong part of William Henry Harrison’s name for the final version.