Rare Gem: 1979 F-150 Free Wheeling Gets First Wash in 17 Years, Hides Sad Tranny News (2024)

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Photo: YouTube/Detail Dane

Among the many variants of the F-badged Fords, there was one that ditched the pickup's overall-dressed apparel in favor of a highly colorful guise. Remember the Free Wheeling Trucking from the late seventies and early eighties? The rainbow dash workhorses with an appearance package are a rarity nowadays—the chromatic guise was only offered for five years, between 1977 and 1981, and survivors from that period are a nice find, regardless of their condition.

But an F-150 Ranger Free Wheeling pickup with all the chips and scars of a survivor that’s been off the road for 17 years and has only 45,000 miles on it will surely get a ‘Wait a Minute!’ from a truck enthusiast. Speak of the devil – a car detailer and vlogger from Traverse City, Michigan, stumbled upon such a legend almost by mistake and entirely by chance.

Detail Dane is the YouTube call sign of Dane Shemwell. He went to a customer in Southern Michigan to grab a Ford that had sat in the woods since Ronald Reagan’s second swearing-in to office (that would be around 40 years). It was not an F-series truck but a 1970 Ford Torino that was so deeply connected to its environment that it was impossible to pull out from its den.

However, the owner of that glorious representative of the muscle car line of Fords also has a Ford truck that she plans to bring back on the road. The F-150 Ranger was parked after the clutch gave up on life, and it was never repaired. Now Leslie (she’s the owner; see her in the video below) plans to thin the herd, sell the Torino, and spend the cash to restore the pickup.

Whether that’s a good choice or simply a nostalgic impulse is secondary right now – after all, it’s better to let the Torino get a new home than to let all the cars sit and die. Since the Torino project had to be postponed, the detailer brought back the Ranger to his shop. It gave it a thorough detailing through and through. I’d say it came out pretty nice, and the Ford’s patina is even more sparkling against the bright side stripes.

Fortunate coincidence, this example wears the same livery as the truck from the Ford brochure of 1979, but the wheels aren’t original. They’re not bad-looking, though, and I think it looks even better with the fat tires. The F-series of Ford trucks came in four different trim levels that year – Custom, Ranger, Ranger XLT, and Ranger Lariat – with either a short bed (6.75 feet / 2,057 mm) or an eight-foot-long bed (2,438 mm).

The smaller F-100 and F-150 had a Regular or a Super Cab, while the larger F-250 and F-350 added a Crew Cab. Regardless of accommodation size, two body styles were offered – the narrow-bed Flareside and the full-width Styleside.

In 1979, the F-150 was the number one choice for light truck buyers, with 400,000 units sold, followed closely by its smaller brother, the F-100 (almost 226,000 vehicles). Even farther down the line was the F-250, with just under 190,000, while the big F-350 moved no more than 73,000 units.

Ford Motor Company offered five motors for its truck that year, ranging from a 300-cubic-inch (4.9-liter) inline-six to the behemoth 460 V8 (7.5 liters). The famous 351 V8 (5.8-liter) was the go-to powerplant for F-150 pickup truckers (over one-third of them ordered that engine), while the small Six powered some 71,000 of them.

This truck getting a spa treatment in the video below is one of those six-cylinder examples. It carries a four-speed manual to send the 114 horsepower and 223 lb-ft of torque (116 PS, 302 Nm) to all four wheels. It's not a lot of performance, but it was a reliable fuel-saving plant that got the job done. Unfortunately, the detailer only cleaned the engine, so we don’t know if it still runs.

Nonetheless, this Free Wheeling Styleside looks the part. The optional appearance package added chromatic tape stripes on the hood, sides, and roof, a sport steering wheel, a push bar and fog lamps, a GT bar, nice-looking wheels (either forged aluminum or styled steel), a rear step bumper, the handling package, a blackout grille, and unique interior trim.

The items could be ordered separately on any F-150. The Free Wheeling package wasn’t exclusive to pickup trucks; it could be added to Broncos, Econoline vans, Couriers, and even Ford Pinto Cruising Wagons.