What made you do it?

[LM14]

I just read the story of Lance's addiction to slicks. I'm sure everyone had a similar situation happen to them.

I grew up in Atlantic, Iowa. Across the street from me was a short bed, 390 (he said) 4 speed (car not truck) powered slick. It was kind of a rootbeer bottom and cream colored top 2 tone and had the first bed cover I ever saw. Cragar SS wheels with wide tires all the way around (I think they were N50 on the rear and G60 on the front). Stock height. It sounded nasty, looked nasty and I always wanted that truck. I would walk across the street every time he worked on it, checked the oil or stood in one place too long.

The thought of that truck is burned into my memory. I think his name was Gary and he always took the time to humor a dumb kid. Now I'm a dumb adult with an addiction to old trucks. Maybe my next project truck will be a tribute to that memory.

What is your attachment to these neat old trucks?

SPark

[Kid]

my first Slick was a short wide 64 with a 302 and 4 spd in about 1977 . It was pretty sweet. I had issues with twisting engine mounts until I took it to a guy and told him I was tired of having it fixed and I wanted them beefed up and he used some close to 1/2 in plate and made the mounts for me, never twisted one again. My ex wife sold it after we split up just to tick me off.

[rickairmedic]

I was into muscle cars and stumbled upon a sad looking 64 longbed one day and I liked the looks of it more than the chebby trucks of the same year . I drug it home and hopped onto AOhell looking for information on 64 ford trucks . I landed at the Yahoo group and they let me in and the rest is history . The 64 got Stolen along with most of my tools when I moved into my current house " they were still at the old house across the river " . Captain Carstop " who remembers him " turned me onto an evilbay auction for a 63 longbed BBW uni for sale in my area and I won it for $55.00 cost me more to have it hauled to my house . The new house got in the way of playing with truccks and by the time I was ready to play again I stumbled onto the 62 short uni I am building now .


I still miss the Yahoo chat room where we could actually talk instead of typing and I still type with 2 to 4 fingers .


Rick

[Paul Merrell]

Well my great uncle had a 63 custom cab 292 and a three speed, I loved to ride in it as a kid. Well his oldest son inherited it or took it over and drove it. So my uncle bought another one, I can remember the day this old 64 pulled in his driveway. It had different colored fenders and was in bad shape or so I thought, but I was a kid what did I know. Well he stripped it down and had my father paint it forest green. He loved that truck more than the first truck. I never got to drive the 64 truck but I have drove the 63 many times. I can remember the 63 being loaded down with wood that the bumper on the rear would drag in the mud. I thought that truck was toughest and strongest thing ever. Well that admiration for those truck made me want one. And the things my truck has done is awesome, ah the memories.

[36truck]

When I was in my teens we had a small resort or a river by us. They had a 63 long Uni in red. Never saw a Uni before had to check it out. Didn't think a lot about it Till I saw PHIL on the Torino site Talking about his white short Uni. After I saw this site in short order it was all over. 8 Slicks later I'm in trouble.

[DV65CustomCab]

I used to keep an old truck around to haul parts and tow my dune buggy with. The first was a '66 Chevy that I never really liked. Sold it and bought this for $200:

It was twice the truck the Chevy was; always worked, cost me nothing to own but was hopelessly rusty. I got rid of the dune buggy and then the truck. Many, many years later when I decided I needed another truck and the Ranger I bought was a flaming disappointment I sought out another. Didn't particularly want the same exact truck, just a 61-66. Wound up with another '65 long bed Custom Cab with a 352 3 speed combo. I guess that's the truck I'm supposed to have!

[slick4x4]

At 15 years old my first truck was a 61 short UNI.
But I wanted a 4x4 SO MUCH !.......

Fast forward 30 years........
I was on medication... And found my dream machine on eBay
I put in a wild bid ( the medication )

Then found this site looking for info

One of the best things I ever did

[Macon ACE]

My Dad had a '59 F100 when I was kid. I grew up loving and working on old cars and trucks. I've wanted a '56 for as long as I can remember. But nice ones were always too expensive. I drove modern trucks as daily drivers for years, then switched back to cars in the late 90's. But sometimes you just need a truck, right? So I decided to find one that I could put on my classic car insurance. I found the '64 on ebay. It was only a few hours away and affordable. And I liked that it was a mostly original V8 truck. I didn't know anything about "slicks" until I found this site.

[ironminer]

well my great grandpa bought a uni of the lot in '61. It had been in the family since then, I had been looking for a project truck or car and they just gave it to me, so I figured hot damn its time to get serious! It was to rusted for my skills to bring to life so I bought a fairly rust free (63) truck for 400 bucks. And that's my story

[Uncle Skip]

You see, it was like this.
I graduated from high school in Albany, Georgia in 1963 and a schoolmate of mine's dad had a 61 short Uni he used for his electrical contracting business. After overloading it and springing the doors where they were hard to open and shut, he gave Danny the truck to drive and drive it we did. Camping on the Kinchafoonee creek, drinking PBR's on the weekend at 4-corners, Panama City Beach on the weekends, Atlanta Raceway to see Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts and Tiny Lund, you name it we drove to it in that old truck.
Dan dropped out of school in '62 to work for his dad, bought a '58 Thunderbird and gave me the Uni. I drove it for about a year before a Sgt. at Turner offered me a couple of hundred bucks for it. I sold it only because I was going off to college and the Colonel had already informed me I could not have a vehicle for my freshman year.
He was right, but I flunked out of school after 3 tries anyway, went home and to work and buy a car and since then I've had everything from a '62 Galaxy 406 to a '64 GTO to my favorite '67 S-code GT Mustang fastback.
But I never forgot that old '61 Uni. I just loved the lines even then.
Fast forward to 1998 when I was prowling around an old warehouse looking for a hot rod project in south Houston and I found an old worn out '63 short flair side in a big collection of rust buckets. It was butt ugly - the PO had rattle canned the interior with burgandy metallic spray paint and the bed was so rusty I literally tore the sheet metal off of it. I still have pictures.
I stared at that old truck for about an hour and suddenly common sense hit me in the face and I decided I'd wait for a better candidate for a project.
But driving away from the warehouse, Chuck Berry came on the radio singing "Nadine, honey is that you?" and that was it, I turned around and went back.
It was like Karma. That old truck was talking to me.
When I got back, I was told that there was an added bonus (read bait being dangled in front of me which I took), the owner had tried to start a restoration at one time and had a big honking pile of new Dennis Carpenter parts in big boxes. Door seals, window and windshield rubbers, complete window kits..... all kinds of things and after doing a quick inventory I realized I was looking at at least a thousand dollars worth of parts.
Well, we all do what we can to justify the ingnorance and stupidity of our actions and those new parts were my justification. And I've never been sorry I bought her.
I paid the man his $500.00 and towed her home.
Later that year, or maybe early '99 (I think) I was surfing the web for information when I found the Excite "61-66 Ford Truck" site Kid and Lance had jokingly (unknown to me at the time - I thought it was legit) started and I became member #13.
We all started talking about ideas, asking technical questions, advice, and actually got answers and the group just kept growing.
The rest is history.
This has been best and most knowledgeable group of people I've ever been associated with and I still have my original "Nadine". The "ain't for salest" truck in America.
Thanks to Kid, Lance, and everybody else for all the smiles and the miles. Keep on truckin'.

[The Big M]

I grew up in a small town (village, technically, being less than 400 people at the time) and I remember there being two spots where wrecked cars and trucks would end up. Sort of a staging area where stuff would sit and wait to be permanently hauled off. And if you ever wrecked your car you could be sure everyone in town would hear about it and come check out the carnage before dropping in to "Coffee Row" to discuss it.

One of the first times I remember seeing a slick was in one of those spots. I distinctly recall standing beside it and surveying the damage to the front end. The sheetmetal was twisted and smashed beyond repair but previously it was a beautiful glossy black '66, and if memory serves it was also a shortbed AND a Mercury. It was fairly uncommon to see a restored Slick in those days, so that one sticks out for me.

I remember that my uncle had a red and white longbed uni sitting in the weeds at his farm, and it was the first I remember seeing. I also remember asking my dad what "unibody" meant.

I guess to a certain extent it's in my blood as well. Dad had a black and white longbed '64 that I've only seen in photos. He said it was great for bringing groceries home in the winter, as you could set your milk jug in the cab step to keep it cold.

[ken_b]

To be honest, these trucks weren't even on my radar until I bought the one in my avatar. At the time I had a couple of vintage VWs, a 68 sedan and a 72 panel van.

But on one of our cold winter days just before Christmas 2005 a friend and I drove out of town a ways to check out what was for sale at a collector car dealership, that was the closest thing we could find to car show in a Minnesota winter.

In a warehouse so crowded with cars you could barely walk between them I spotted the uni and it was love at first sight. I made offer right then and there and a couple days later the truck came to live at our house. (The VWs had to go to make room for the truck in both my garage and my wallet )

Even though I drive my 63 Falcon convertible a LOT more than the truck, the truck just "speaks to me" every time I walk past it in the garage. The truck really needs some work to be a comfortable daily driver.

[Toyz]

I'm taking the Fifth on this one! Of course, that's bound to lead to the sixth, seventh, etc.
Paul

[Johnny Canuck]

Where do I start.. I was hauled home from the hospital, after being born, in a 1952 Mercury 2 ton? is that early enough?
I had had an array of Ford (and other)trucks by the time I decided at age 42 I could finally make space in my life for fixing up a hotrodded truck.
I live(d) in a town where one weekend in July (which this year has just past, actually) literally thousands of hotrods converge, so I had the bug.
What I wanted was a shortbox bumpside Mercury, preferably with a 302.
I preferred the Bumpside styling over all trucks except the '40-'41 Ford, and those were price-wise out of reach. And besides I'd already sold one of those, after 8 frustrating years of not being able to turn a screw on it, because I was raising a family at the time, and money for that sort of thing did not exist.

I searched and searched and searched in the summer of 2002, and to this day I have seen exactly One -count em- ONE of those trucks in my entire lifetime. as a contrast, I found 2-1957 Meteor Rancheros in that time, and Ford of Canada only ever made a handful over a hundred of them, but there was NO bumpside short Mercury to be seen.
It never, ever ever occurred to me at the time, that you could cut a longbox down to a shorty like Foodstick did with his '64. That would take a Wizard and a Magician IMO. I'd previously done bodywork and paint on my old mans '66 D100 in high school, the truck I learned to drive in, and it had turned out orange peeled. That was my last ever serious attempt at body work.
It did occur to me that If I could find a flareside shorty farmer wagon bumpside I might be able to jimmy-rig a styleside shortbox from a Ford on there and change the endgate, but I couldn't even find a styleside shortbox from a Ford. It never fizzed on me that I could import one from the States.

Anyway back to topic. Mercury Styleside shortboxes were, and still are, in short supply in Western Canada. After a months-long search, I found a '64 Merc longbox, with no engine and a fairly unrusty body. It wasn't a Bump, but it Was a Merc. I wasn't interested in a Ford, Fords were too common, and Mercs are exclusively Canadian. Belly-button Chevs (67-72 C-10s) are common as house flies around here, so I wasn't interested in stuff that every one else had. The '64 was a longbox, but that was all I could find that summer. Besides, I'd never seen one of them fixed up. I was going to scrap my trusty old '78 F100, best truck I ever owned, because the body was rusting off it. So I had the basic running gear I wanted to use for the '64. I joined this club less than a week after I got that Merc, on Remembrance day, 2002. And I am still working on it.
In fact I am getting off here to go work on it now.

PS
About 2-3 years later I finally saw that elusive '68 shorty, a Mercury Ranger.
Not for sale.
Still never seen another.

[Gritsngumbo]

I bought my first Slick in the spring of 2007. A 1964 F100 short style side. Bought it off a car lot here in Monroe. It had been on the side street side of the lot for several months, starting off in the $4,000 range (with a sign on the window that it was listed on e-bay).
I had decided that when I closed on a little deal I was working on I was going to buy that truck with the idea of driving it to the dump and Home Depot runs, etc. Think the price was down to about $1,200.
I offered them $1,000 and the lot owner said the lowest she could go was $`1,100, but she would throw in a new battery and a tank of gas. I agreed on that with the proviso that I could drive it home. They couldn't find the keys so had to call a locksmith to make keys (I later found the keys under the seat). I did drive it home (a couple of miles) but that was one scary ride as the brakes were almost non-existent. Picked up the new battery and used the gas chit to fill up my 81 Suburban ($80) so I can out right where I wanted to be originally.
Turns out the truck was sold originally in Monroe at what was then Rivers Ford and has the dealer installed rear bumper with Rivers Ford Monroe LA etched in the steel.
As I got into cleaning it out and spiffing it up I discovered it was a pretty original old truck. I got on the internet and found this site and joined in August. FYI: This is the longest I have belonged to any group.
As I learned more about these trucks and mine in particular, I decided I wanted power steering and air conditioning. Also found out that's not an easy do with the truck's 223 I-6 engine. So I starting looking into a V-8 and was told by many that the original Y-Blocks were difficult to find, so I was going with the 302/AOD combo. Even went so far as to buy a complete Lincoln with the said engine/tranny combo with less than 15,000 miles. Pulled it, cleaned it up and painted it, then lost it to an unscrupulous machine shop (where I had taken it to get some broken bolts drilled out) who went out of business. I had already pretty much soured on the 302 as I had since learned that the Y-Blocks were in fact available, though more expensive to build than the other engines. So, I started collecting Y-Block engines from various sources. About that time Greg Davidson suggested that I "stop screwing with that pretty liittle truck" and buy me another truck to hot rod. So that advice led me to purchase my next Slick, a 63 Long Uni with a 292 Y-Block and three Stromberg 97 (large logo) deuces on an Edelbrock FM573 manifold. I think I actually bought the manifold and carbs and he threw in the truck . Another scary ride home with almost no brakes although this time is was an 80 mile trip home on the interstate.
Next came the purchase of a 63 F100 Crew Cab and my obsession with Slicks was off and running.
In addition to the aforementioned trucks, I also own a 1966 F100 Ranger (bought from the original owners family), a 63 F100 Long Flareside, and a 63 F100 BBW Long Uni.
Here's a link to a post with pictures of my collection as it sits today: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30489

[66fordtrucknut]

When I was a kid my cousin and I would drive his grandfathers 65' F-250 around the farm, it even had tomato plants growing in the bed, fast fwd 20 yrs later found a 66' longbed bought it and drove it for a couple of yrs. sold it before I got married. Couple yrs. later my neighbor had a 66' F-250 camper special behind his barn, told him if he ever sold it let me know, he said give me 300 dollars you can have it. I had lost contact with my cousin over the years and lo and behold a shortbed 65' comes rolling in my drive way, He eyeballed my 66' and said Wow you have one too! Pretty cool how these grow on you. Then I bought my uni in 06', it's a driver and I swore I would never disable it until I have another one to drive. Love all these stories.
Charlie

[Gritsngumbo]

Where do I start.. I was hauled home from the hospital, after being born, in a 1952 Mercury 2 ton? is that early enough?

Well, that's pretty cool.

[Johnny Canuck]

haha Gerald yeah, everyone gets to be cool once in their life, That was mine.

[sgettin]

styleing(sp?).
wanted an old 4x4. liked the 60/66 chevy's. thought the same vintage dodges were so ugly they were attractive. but the 61/66 fords are imo way out in front. not sure what style you would call the slick look (art nouveau?) but when i saw a 4x4 flare/stepside with large opening fenders that was what i wanted.