My favorite old truck body style!

[Power Hungry]

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved the old Ford C-Series body style. It would always crack me up as when looking at it from the front, it always seems to make a frowny face. -> <- You know the truck. They were used as firetrucks, garbage trucks, Roadway (Orange and Blue) delivery trucks, and many other applications.

Well, a couple years ago I was looking for one such monster and realized that they're getting harder to find. I mean, they stopped making them in 1990 (after an impressive 34 year run, I might add), so finding one in good condition after at least 25 years they stopped being made was getting tough.

One of the things that I realized was that many firetrucks came on the C-Series chassis, and that firetrucks are usually very well maintained... At least better than normal road trucks. Plus, they don't usually accumulate much mileage, just a fair amount of engine hours.

Thanks to govdeals.com, I was able to locate one on auction about 2 hours from my house that was in pretty good shape. This is "Penny". She is a 1979 FMC Pumper with minimal rust, 427 Big Block Ford engine, and a 5 Spd. Manual. I was pretty much the only bid on it and picked it up pretty cheap. It needed a little work, but that was fine. I had no problem handling that. As you can see from the photos, I did an in-frame overhaul and then added a few mods to perk things up a bit. And don't laugh about the tach on the dash. It was a temporary fix while I sent the factory tach out to be rebuilt.

Everything on the truck works (lights, pump, siren) and it's a blast to drive around town. It works well for Home Depot trips as the hose bed up top will hold 12 ft lengths of lumber or pipe without any issue. I redid the flooring, the headliner, and will be repainting the cob (inside and out) soon.

This is the first of 3 trucks I know own. I'll post up the others shortly.

I hope you enjoy the photos.