Car of the Week: 1969 Ford F-100 pickup

Ray May, Jr., of Vanceburg, Ky., suffered a bad case of seller’s remorse, but he eventually cured it with a stunning 1969 Ford F-100 pickup truck.

After turning 16 years of age and successfully acquiring a driver’s license, May’s parents gifted him with the family’s 1977 Ford F-150 Styleside shortbox pickup truck. After graduating from high school in 1998, he sold the pickup to a classmate during what he refers to as his “young and dumb years.” That 1977 Ford F-150 held a special place in May’s heart from the memories he made with it during his ownership and his parents’ ownership periods. The reality that he had let it go festered for years. Once into adulthood, May made a plan to acquire another classic Ford F-Series pickup as a replacement for the truck he let get away.

The nearly perfect, meticulously restored 1969 F-100 Ranger Styleside featured here was purchased by May to help lessen the pain and loss of that 1977 F-150. May bought the ’69 F-100 in 2011, and over the course of more than a decade, he has continued to invest the time and resources to restore it to best-in-class standards. He and John Murphy from Murphy Restoration in Maysville, Ky., teamed up to produce a show-winning restoration that has resulted in recognition by the AACA and classic Ford truck community, both of which have acknowledged May’s 1969 Ford F-100 Ranger Styleside shortbox pickup as one of the best restored examples of its kind.

Once May starts talking about his truck, his passion and determination to continuously make it the best it can be quickly becomes evident. When I met May at the 2021 AACA Central Spring Nationals in Auburn, Ind., we discussed plans to capture his stunning pickup in photos. I called him a couple weeks after the show to arrange the photo shoot. May said, “There’s a problem with the truck and it’s going to be a little while before you can do the photo shoot. It’s at the body shop having the spare tire mounted to the inside of the driver’s side box. A judge at the Auburn show told me it should be mounted there, and after doing some research, he was right.” It’s this type of attention to detail and sense of urgency to make the ’69 Ford F-100 right that sets May and his pickup apart from others. His passion for the truck has set him on a mission to do whatever is necessary to make his truck absolutely correct.

About a month later, May called to say he was happy with the relocation of the spare tire and it was ready for the photo shoot.

A family member initially found the ’69 Ford F-100 Ranger Styleside for sale and told May about it, and he soon tracked down the seller and worked out a deal to buy it. Soon after purchasing the truck and discovering it was originally sold by Lane’s Ford Sales, he began researching its history at the local Mt. Sterling, Ky., public library. Like many dealerships from the ’60s, Lane’s Ford Sales had since gone out of business. May continued his due diligence and thoroughly researched the truck’s production history, how it was originally assembled and, most importantly, how to restore it to factory-correct standards.

More than 50 years after the 1967-1972 generation of Ford F-Series truck was introduced, it remains an example of Ford’s leadership in truck design, performance and ingenuity. In 2023, Ford’s F-Series celebrates 75 year of F-Series production, and for the last 46 of those years, it’s been America’s best-selling truck. In fact, it’s been America’s best-selling vehicle for the last 41 years! The F-Series has been the number-one-selling truck for many of its 75 years — not just the last 46 of them — including in 1969, when the Ford F-Series outsold Chevrolet trucks by more than 100,000 units (around 504,000 Fords to 390,000 Chevrolets).

The 1967-’72 generation of Ford F-Series truck is known today as the “Bumpside” for its full-length convex rocket body feature high on the body side of its cab. This body feature extended to the box on the Styleside version, which was flush with the cab.

In 1969, Ford Motor Co. advertised that the F-100 “works like a truck and rides like a car.” It was an appeal to the Baby Boomers who had come of age and wanted dual-purpose trucks that could perform hard labor and also more mundane daily chores. May’s F-100 Ranger is one of those dual-purpose 1969 Ford trucks that can perform hard labor and look good doing it.

With the modern-looking Styleside shortbox and top-of-the-line Ranger trim, May’s 1969 F-100 adds several creature comforts and plenty of eye candy on an already well-equipped and good-looking truck. The standard features of the 1969 F-100 included an interior color-coordinated to the exterior with a padded instrument panel, energy-absorbing sun visors and armrests with paddle-type door latch handles and seat belts. Also standard were interior door lock buttons, a dome lamp, all-weather ventilation including a heater with a three-speed fan, a glove box and ash tray, a hardboard headliner, a black floor mat, windshield washers, two-speed wipers, rearview mirrors, backup lamps, turn signals and a four-way emergency flasher.

The next-step-up Custom cab for 1969 F-Series added a deep-foam seat cushion and foam padding in the seat back, woven plastic seat trim, a color-coordinated floor mat, an upgraded instrument cluster, horn ring, lighter, bright-metal headliner retainer and door cover plate moldings. The 1969 Ford pickup with the Custom cab option also added in place of the standard model’s painted parts a bright aluminum grille, chrome-plated front bumper and bright windshield molding and taillamp bezels.

To all the features of the standard and Custom cab, the Ranger series added pleated vinyl upholstery with a cloth-like pattern, woodgrain inserts in the instrument cluster, a bright-metal instrument panel molding, pleated vinyl door trim with a simulated woodgrain insert and bright molding, door courtesy lamp switches and wall-to-wall carpeting. On the outside, the 1969 Ranger Flareside (stepside) and Styleside trucks had their own bright aluminum grille with a central Ranger emblem, full wheel covers, rocker trim plus trim for the front wheel openings, roof drip rails and rear window plus a Ranger badge on the glove box door. Styleside Rangers, such as May’s truck, also had a cargo area lamp, a chrome-plated tailgate release handle, rocker panel extensions, rear wheel opening lip trim, tailgate moldings and a “Ranger” script on the upper rear corner of the box sides.

Mechanically, Ray’s 1969 Ford F-100 is further fitted with the optional C6 Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission and Ford’s 9-inch limited-slip rear differential with 3.25:1 gears. Under the hood is the relatively short-lived 360-cid V-8 Ford engine, which was rebuilt for May by Randy McDowell of Power Tech Racing Engines in Ashland, Ky.

In 1968, Ford introduced the 361/360 engine in its F-Series truck lineup and phased it out after the 1976 model year. The actual displacement of the engine was 360.8 cubic inches (5.9 L). It had the bore of a 390-cid V-8 (4.05 inches) and used the 352-cid V-8’s 3.5-in. rotating assembly. The 360 engine was constructed with heavy-duty internal components to meet the rigorous demands of commercial and other work truck use. Ford utilized a standard 352/390 camshaft from its passenger car platform along with tweaked adjustment of the carburetor and distributor, which allowed the 360 engine to gain performance characteristics like that of the 352 and 390 car engines.

The two-barrel 360 of 1968 and 1969 is rated at 215 bhp at 4,100 rpm and 375 lb-ft of torque at 2,600 rpm. The 360 used the same block, heads and other external components of a 390, making them visually indistinguishable from each other, unless the stroke is measured.

The 360 is a member of the Ford FE engine family built between 1958 and 1976. The FE was introduced to replace the short-lived Y-Block engine, which American cars and trucks were outgrowing as displacement and performance needs and demands grew. The FE engine was designed with room to be significantly expanded and manufactured both as a top-oiler and side-oiler, and in displacements between 332 and 428 cubic inches.

“FE” derives from “Ford-Edsel,” and versions of the FE line designed for use in medium- and heavy-trucks and school buses from 1964 through 1978 were known as “FT” for “Ford-Truck.” They primarily differed by having steel (instead of nodular iron) crankshafts, larger crank snouts, smaller ports and valves, different distributor shafts, different water pumps and a greater use of iron for its parts.

A long list of companies and knowledgeable and highly skilled craftsman have had a role in the truck’s nearly decade-long restoration. Every project needs a leader, and John Murphy became May’s mentor and friend during the restoration. The block-sanding process to prepare the body for paint application was time-consuming and extensive. With Murphy offering his guidance, May helped prepare the body for the Candy Apple Red paint application. Murphy did all the wet color sanding and polishing of the paint finish to make it look like glass.

Phil Smith, one-time owner of Kelly’s Auto Body & Trim Shop of Covington, Ky., handled the interior work including restoring the door panels and reupholstering the bench seat, which retains its original foam pad.

May replaced all the tinted glass. He acquired a Ford glass-etching kit from Third Gen Automotive of McMinnville, Tenn., to accurately replicate the markings of the original glass; it was a small touch that reflects May’s attention to detail. Close examination of the headlamps reveals the FOMOCO script surrounded by headlamp panels with black backgrounds — a detail only found on the 1969 Ranger models. This important detail is commonly overlooked during the restoration process. It’s just one of many examples where May has gone the extra mile to make his truck the best it can be. He’s a hands-on person and completed most of the disassembly and assembly work himself during the restoration process.

Since the completion of its restoration, the Ford F-100 has been driven less than 1,000 miles. The miles it’s acquired have come from being driven in parades, other local events and a handful of shows each year. For May, the restoration has brought numerous challenges, but with that comes reward. The truck was awarded Best in Class at the Grand National F-100 Show in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Also in 2022, the truck received a first-place award at the Antique Automobile Club of America Grand National in Virginia Beach, Va. With justifiable pride, May says, “The truck has set the standard and become the benchmark for 1969 Ford F-100 restorations.” 

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