UPDATE 2/11/2022 – This old farm truck sold for $6,600 with 53 bids! The new owner moved it to Hudson, New York where they got it street-ready and cleaned it up. It’s ready to cruise now and has a cool look to it. If you’d love to have it, you can find it here on eBay where it’s bid up to $8,159 and is ending soon.
FROM 12/30/2021 – These great old pickups are still out there, folks. Just when a person thinks that every barn, garage, storage unit, and every other hiding place has been scoured and discovered, this 1959 Ford F-100 Styleside shortbed pickup shows up. The familiar seller has this one listed here on eBay in Hays, Kansas, the current bid price is $3,875, and there is no reserve.
The third-generation Ford F-100 was made for four model years, 1957 through 1960. Two box or bed styles were offered, a Flareside which a lot of people, myself included, generically call a stepside. There was also a new Styleside box such as on this truck. This is the short-bed version which is more than a little popular in today’s market for non-working-trucks. As in, vintage pickups that are more for the fun and hobby of owning rather than hauling sheets of plywood or a half-ton of concrete blocks. A year earlier, in 1958, Ford became the first major American pickup manufacturer to offer factory-built 4WD.
This Styleside box was quite a revolution, it gave people the opportunity to buy a nicely-designed modern-looking truck without having to pay a premium for a Chevrolet Cameo or Dodge Sweptside with either fiberglass styling cues or grafted-on station wagon rear fenders. Admittedly, both the Chevy and Dodge offerings are very cool and valuable trucks today. Do any of you Ford, Dodge, or Chevy truck owners cross-shop or do you take what you can get depending on which manufacture you prefer?
Hey, is that the 1974 Ford Culligan Van in the background that we recently saw here on Barn Finds? Cool. This seller must have found the motherlode of hidden Fords. There is a bit of rust on this F-100 but not as much as I would expect to see if this truck would have been in a state that uses much more road salt than Kansas must use in the winters. The bottom of the bed itself looks solid as does the underside, appearing to just have a heavy coating of surface rust but nothing that looks too alarming.
The 1957 F-100 had single headlights and then Ford went with dual headlights for the rest of the third-generation pickups. Then, they went back to single headlights again in 1961. I love to see the design changes from this era compared to today when a lot of vehicles, even pickups, changed or were noticeably updated every single year. The interior looks much nicer than expected here, without any glaring issues that I can see other than the seat not being original.
The engine is Ford’s 223 cubic-inch Mileage Maker inline-six which would have had around 126 horsepower. This one runs like a charm and it has spent the last 27 years on a Kansas farm. Hagerty is at $9,000 for a #4 fair condition truck so this could end up being a bargain. I would love to own a pickup like this one, have any of you owned a third-generation Ford pickup?
Playing creepy violin music,,,what dusty memory THIS time, Howard? Glad you asked, this was my new Tonka truck that got flattened on it’s maiden voyage down my parents driveway. We used to push our Tonka trucks down the driveway, almost making it to the street, and a “watcher” was suppose to be “watching” for cars. My brother was “watching”, got distracted just as I gave the brand new Tonka truck a mighty push. Being new, perhaps, it rolled much better, into the street, and a Buick Roadmasher came along and flattened it, while we all stood aghast, me especially. I don’t think I ever forgave my brother for that.
Otherwise, nice truck, good price, buy now, etc,,,
In my case Howard, mine survives even to today. Its light green paint exhibits multiple scratches and dings. I suppose I could claim it has ‘patina,’ but actually it is simply well-used. Maybe I should restore it? ??
Funny what things pop to mind when one sees an old vehicle.
Several of this Tonka model in attic. Oldest is blue pickup. Also white tow truck, red fire engine and orange Allied Van Lines tractor trailer. My kids only got access to less treasured attic finds. Less maintenance than full scale versions!
My neighbors and myself did destruction derbies with my Tonka toys in our basement.
Howard you stopped me dead with that story – I had the exact same “maiden voyage” disaster, only with a white Tonka van (milk truck, I think). Little old lady in a 1950 Plymouth flattened it and never stopped. I don’t think she even heard/felt the thump. To be taught my lesson: no new truck.
One of the cleanest designs from Ford until the next generation not so hot looking trucks.
Love the headache rack. Great story Howard, I hope it was not Christmas day.
My dad had a 1960 pickup. It drove great and I remember the simple clean dash and key to start on left.
The Y block v8 engine was easy to maintain .
I have had a lot of pick ups, but mostly Ford F-100’s fifty-three to fifty six and a few same era Chevrolet’s. The fifty seven to sixty Fords are some what over looked, but I think they are very desirable and are gaining in popularity. I have also seen some Chrysler products that I like. So, yes I would certainly cross over for the right truck. There is no doubt that the most popular are the most expensive , the C-10’s are certainly right now the top of the food chain. If you want one , you have to pay to play.
Having my share of pickups in the last few years, it is amazing to me how popular they have become. I am not exactly sure why, lots of reasons I can speculate, also I can only guess how long it will last.
It’s a shame, the rust through on the fenders, back of the bed and rear bumper take a bit away from an otherwise super rad, solid, original truck. Not to mention the weird touch up spots. Still a fantastic find regardless! I’d try and remove those touch up spots, maybe repaint the bumpers, ditch the huge wheel covers and white walls, reupholster the seat, clean it up and drive.
I had never noticed on these before; the front of the bed behind the cab has 3 raised panels that look like the tailgates from the prior generation. Ford using the same stamping for that piece? Smart.
GB
Had one of these I got from my girlfriend’s dad, want to say paid $150.xx for it back about 1975. It was chalk white with the oxidation, but someone had swapped the engine and trans and slipped in a late 60’s
T-bird 390 and c6. I could be putting at 30mph and stab the gas and lite
the rears up, of course rear tires were pretty thin that made breaking them loose fairly easy, but it still made the truck a pretty good sleeper.
I already commented on this truck, but after reading some of the comments, I thought I should give it a second look. Wish I wouldn’t have. I think this might be a pretty solid truck. It certainly has rust, but not in the really bad places. The bid is now between four and five K. If it stays under six, I would consider it well bought. Now I need to “Forget About It ” or I might be making a trip to Kansas.
No DSO number? Could it have been originally special delivery or military use? Interesting.
My dad bought a 1960 new with a long wide bed, and later a 1958 with a short wide bed. Both great trucks. I wish I had them today.
My sleeper was a 57 short bed step side. A tad ratty with the usual northeast rust, but still solid and presentable. Someone had dropped a 429 police interceptor into it. Not the cleanest install but … Wow!
I remember once running on a secondary highway in the late evening out in Pa next to a later model Chevy pickup. Neither of us was letting up. That 429 seemed to have endless top end, it just seemed to have more acceleration no matter what I asked of it. That left one Chevy looking at old ford taillights!
Unfortunately no real room for much of the kind of things we needed making our weekend runs escaping the city. Especially when it rained, which also meant getting wet inside the cab. There was some rust. Ha.
Miss that truck. A great runner.
Auction update, this F-100 sold for $6,600.
It looks top-heavy and awkward…kind of like a pregnant rollerskate.
Looks like all he did was clearcoat the patina and scrape the body filler out from the rear corners (there is no link posted for the new auction but the title on ebay is “1959 Ford F-100”).
I drove a 58 like this to high school and college, only with a column shift. Going from first to neutral the tranny would ring like a bell. Made many trips from Cincinnati to Atlanta and back. My buddies would all hop in the bed, and we’d parallel park at the drive in, usually with a tub of beer. Wonder we never were thrown out.
I noticed there are no pictures of the step inside the door. Probably rusted out like mine were.
That is hysterical.
I owned a very similar in all aspects 1960. Bought it for $500 in 1998 and it was my daily for a number of years and then it became a lodge truck, hauling firewood and buckets of pine cones.
Sold it about 5 years ago for a gross $5,000, smh but it was in twice the shape this featured old crusty critter and they want over $8,000.
Guess I’ll be Howard for a moment and just be befuddled and moderately irritated and nauseated.
we traded several old Ford and Chevrolet trucks way back when you could pick them up for a few hundred. Friend had a white shortbed “59 just like this and we replaced the six cylinder with a warmed over 302 and auto. Ran well but the king pin front ends made it scary to drive at speed!
RJ
You just needed new king pins.
When I first got my 57 I had a hard time keeping it on the road. Especially when I goosed the throttle. Had new king pins put in and springs rebuilt and it was a whole different beast. I was able to push the 429 under the hood as hard as I wanted.
This truck doesn’t cruise. I wanders from side-to-side down the road. Every seam sends you upwards towards colored carboad on the ceiling. Bumps make it look as though your flooring and lifting your foot from the gas pedal. You are of course but it’s the bumps that make it happen. The brakes always pull to the left or right, and if you see a car pull out in front of you a block up you’ll need to start panic braking now to have any hope of slowing down from 37 mph. All while your prepared for the left rear lockup and the hard pull to the ditch or on coming traffic. No this truck doesn’t cruise, and your Ford Tonka truck rides much better.
My sister flattened my ’59 Tonka dump
truck while falling out of the top bunk
in our bedroom just after Christmas in
1960. She wasn’t hurt too bad but my
truck was totaled. My understanding
grandparents replaced it with another
truck AND a huge battery powered ’53
Corvette roadster with working lights
and everything! She commandeered
it to drive her Barbie dolls around. I’d
want to play with it and she drained the
batteries! When I did play with it, I’d hum
the theme song to Route 66. Ah the
good times!
I learned how to drive in a 59 Ford Truck, light blue in color, three speed on the tree, with a V8. Dad retired from the Air Force in 66 and bought his retirement home. I was less than 15 years old when he bought the truck. He used it to haul dirt to raise the back yard 2 feet and make it level. Every day after work my dad and I would get a couple of loads of dirt. I remember one time he told me to turn the truck around. I did. When I got out of the truck, he told me next time do it with all 4 wheels on the ground! I eventually got good enough to drive it by myself that I would get a load of dirt every day after school. He kept the truck for a couple of years, rebuilt the engine, and then sold it. I keep looking for a 1959 Ford with a 3-speed and V8. This is the closest so far.