Slick 60's

There is going to be an upcoming feature in Vintage Truck Magazine of the Ranger package offered in the 65/66 Ford pickups. Loren Hoekema from Vintage Truck is looking to talk to someone from this forum about these pickups. Is there anyone willing to talk to Loren over the phone to give him more info? Thanks,Ira.

Red66 wrote:There is going to be an upcoming feature in Vintage Truck Magazine of the Ranger package offered in the 65/66 Ford pickups. Loren Hoekema from Vintage Truck is looking to talk to someone from this forum about these pickups. Is there anyone willing to talk to Loren over the phone to give him more info? Thanks,Ira.

I guess I could give it a shot, seeing as how my '66 Ranger is still in many pieces so I know something about what goes into them...

Can I get your phone number to give to Loren Hoekema? Ira.

Red66 wrote:Can I get your phone number to give to Loren Hoekema? Ira.

PM sent...

I can probably help with info, too. The XL package was introduced in 1964 and there are a few of those trucks around. We've come up with about 5 from 1964. Then they officially named it the Ranger package for 1965.

Would the XL Package have been around in late 1963?

Would you by any chance have a picture of one of those 1964 XL Package pickups?

The 1964 Models would have been released in the fall of 1963, if you look at a 1964 Shop manual, it will have a breakdown of the Consecutive Unit Numbers, the list starts with August/63.............

Red66 wrote:Would the XL Package have been around in late 1963?

Red66 wrote:Would you by any chance have a picture of one of those 1964 XL Package pickups?

Here's a link to one that sold at auction. I have others if you want to see more but this is by far the nicest one. Fairly original looking but obviously repainted and tailgate is the newer 1967-1972 style.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/SC0518-32572 ... 00-pickup/

None of the six that I've got in my list were built before January 1964. Here's the first 3 and you can see they were very close as far as the VIN number. Less than 100 trucks between the first and last. Just 10 units between the second two that sold through Oklahoma City sales office and the first thru the Des Moines, IA sales office. All special order trucks.

F10CK494764 128 BM F100 F81 A 12 05000 135 3800 45 0179
F10CK494831 114 M F100 E81 A 12 05000 135 3800 65 0149
F10CK494841 128 JM F100 E81 A 12 05000 135 3800 65 0173

Oh, yes they did mistype the engine in the ad - they wrote 232 but it is a 223.

I'll post pictures of another one. This one was found in a junk yard in Oklahoma.









Also the original dealership notification of the package being available in November 1963. The artists rendition shows seats that are not the same as the trucks I've seen and the console in that drawing looks like maybe the one from the earlier 1961-63 Ford Falcon/Mercury Comet - shorter with a die cast metal top. Like this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124806612953?h ... SwiEhg6jS5





The last picture is an early factory photo. The console looks like the one used in the trucks but the seats don't seem quite the same. I think the seats to use were up in the air until the last minute and may have been changed during production as well. Certainly not the 1964.5 mustang seats in any of them so far.

I see there are two threads running - link to the other one so you can see pictures I post to that thread. Also the bulletin mentioned by fire704 is the same as above.

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=38808

THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ISSUE OF VINTAGE TRUCK HAS A NICE FEATURE ON A 1966 RANGER PICKUP.