Ford "Unibody" Pickup trucks

[cooldude]

Way back in 1961, Ford came out with some unusual trucks that caught the misnomer of "unibody" trucks, which they really werent. But they were  sort of a one piece unit, body wise.


http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/02/looking-back-1961-1963-ford-f100-unibody-pickups.html


They had a few problems, and the experiment was discontinued after the 63 model year.

Does anybody have any stories about these trucks, or have any first hand knowledge of them?

[crj1968]

Like any other old truck-they drive like trucks.

My buddy has a 62 short-bed. It was really a cool truck.

The thing cool about old ford and chevy pickups is you can buy a bolt in aftermarket front end. Not so much with the Dodges. 

[cooldude]

The thing is, not all of the 61-63 model pickups were the "unibody" design. So, a standard 1962 would just be a regular truck.

The unibody trucks didnt have a headache panel, and the bed and the cab were one piece, with no sepperation between the cab and the bed. So if some really heavy load were to shift forward, it would actually hit the back of the cab below the rear window. And we all know what happens if you flex tempered glass, even a milimeter.

Also, a heavy load was said to cause the doors to act funny, because of the body flex issue. Sometimes the doors would fly open on a curve or crossing a railroad track. Other times, the doors would jam and the people couldnt get out.

And the design also caused seams in the bed and along the bed sides, to crack due to body flex. All in all, there were a lot of negative things said about them, but I was just wondering how true those things were.

I think the production numbers are roughly...

1961...23,ooo trucks built, and about 10,000 of them were the unibody types.
1962...about 29000 trucks built, and about 10,000 of them were unibodies.
1963...about 25,000 or so trucks built, and only about 5400 were unibody types, and they were phased out after the 63 model year.

Those are rough figures.

But like I said, I only have seen one side of the debate, and was lookng to see if anybody had first hand knowledge of one of the unibody trucks, which werent unibodies at all. Thats just what they have commonly became known as. They had full frames, it was the single piece cab/bed construction that was the issue.

[Charger_Fan]

My Dad had a white '61 F250 when I was born...I learned to drive in that truck at age 9. It was our farm truck & hauled plenty of heavy loads...never had a problem with doors flying open, or not opening due to body flex. I don't recall it having any cracked body seams, however the bottom of the bed looked like a washboard, due to all the loads of rocks, coal, firewood & other stuff.
Maybe the cracked body seam thing happens in the rust belt, after the cab & body mounts rust through? We lived in northern Arizona at the time & ours wasn't rusty, just a bit beat up.

In 1977, the engine was on it's last leg. Dad took it to a shop for a repair quote...I forget what the amount was, but it was more than he wanted to spend. So he sold the truck to a mechanic at the shop, a couple months later, I saw it cruising around town...but now it was converted to a trailer. It looked ridiculous as a trailer.

But like I said, I only have seen one side of the debate, and was lookng to see if anybody had first hand knowledge of one of the unibody trucks, which werent unibodies at all. Thats just what they have commonly became known as. They had full frames, it was the single piece cab/bed construction that was the issue.

They are actually more commonly referred to as "unicab" to Ford truck guys. The bed & cab are one piece, hence unicab. I rarely hear them referred to as "unibody", unless it's some misinformed Ebay seller.

[Kern Dog]

I was at a country bar in the 90s and I started talking with this one guy...He said he competed in Truck Demo derbys. He liked using those Ford trucks because he thought they took more abuse than other models.

[Mike DC]

         
You'd think the problems with the design would have been obvious to Ford at the drawing board stage.  If not then, it still should have come out in their own internal testing. 

The one-piece thing can work tolerably well for light-duty suburbanites.  But it has to be designed with that in mind from the ground up.  You can't just weld together the halves of a traditional truck and call it good. 

   

[440]

I quite like watching the bed and body flexing on a truck that is working.

[Kern Dog]

I like watching the buttocks of a woman working.....ON the stripper pole.

[odcics2]

I don't think about Ford products.