1985 upper side molding

[Ford F834]

Amazing. I am surprised at you, Gary.

You are fully aware that Ford went through some trouble and expense to change their 1985 sales brochures mid-year to completely remove that trim molding, AND it was no where to be found in the 1986 brochure.

You have been a member of FTE for how many years now? I think I can speak for both of us when I say that very few 1985 trucks have come through FTE over the years had that earlier style molding. And how many 1986 trucks have you seen at FTE that had that molding? I have been a member there a few years longer than you have and I have seen exactly ZERO. How many 1986 trucks have you ever seen in person that had it? I have seen ZERO, and there are still plenty of these trucks on the road and in the junk yards here in the South East.

As you know, there are countless examples of base level trucks "dressed up" with dealer-installed accessories such as air conditioning, stripes, and wheel well trim. Some even had complete trim packages that were region and dealer specific. "Gold" and "Texas Lariat" editions come to mind.

Tell me, how hard would it have been for a dealer or a previous owner to "dress up" an XL trim level truck with the pressure sensitive [stick on] molding?

But some one comes up with *one* example of a 1986 model - a low-level XL model with rubber floors, no A/C, and a manual transmission - that has it, and you immediately say that is "good enough" to change your mind and your website?

The truck in the first pictures is a full XLT extended cab. It had all the options... this one makes perfect sense for it to have the trim.

It was the truck that Gary's core support came from that was odd in that it was a base model with the trim. Two separate trucks here.

I get what you are saying, I am a scientist and I don't like n=1 (or 2) sample size either. I will pay attention in the future when these trucks come into the junkyards. One thing that makes me think it was offered longer is the sheer number that you see. I've run across this trim quite often in the junkyards and with online picture surfing. Why would there be so many if it was only offered for the first couple of months in 1985? I can't explain the disappearance from the brochures, but perhaps there was a supply problem that was later resolved?

🤷‍♂️

 

[Gary Lewis]

Amazing. I am surprised at you, Gary.

You are fully aware that Ford went through some trouble and expense to change their 1985 sales brochures mid-year to completely remove that trim molding, AND it was no where to be found in the 1986 brochure.

You have been a member of FTE for how many years now? I think I can speak for both of us when I say that very few 1985 trucks have come through FTE over the years had that earlier style molding. And how many 1986 trucks have you seen at FTE that had that molding? I have been a member there a few years longer than you have and I have seen exactly ZERO. How many 1986 trucks have you ever seen in person that had it? I have seen ZERO, and there are still plenty of these trucks on the road and in the junk yards here in the South East.

As you know, there are countless examples of base level trucks "dressed up" with dealer-installed accessories such as air conditioning, stripes, and wheel well trim. Some even had complete trim packages that were region and dealer specific. "Gold" and "Texas Lariat" editions come to mind.

Tell me, how hard would it have been for a dealer or a previous owner to "dress up" an XL trim level truck with the pressure sensitive [stick on] molding?

But some one comes up with *one* example of a 1986 model - a low-level XL model with rubber floors, no A/C, and a manual transmission - that has it, and you immediately say that is "good enough" to change your mind and your website?

Rick - You don't know what I had planned to say about the trim. The current blurb on the FAQ's says:

Trim: Early 1985 trucks had an upper body molding option that appears to have been used on only a few trucks and may have been discontinued for late 1985 trucks, as described in this thread on FTE, and pictured on the Upper Moulding/Regular Cab tab on my Exterior Trim & Moulding page. The latest usage I'm aware of is the 1985 F150 Survivor, which was built in 5/85 at the Ontario plant.

I was thinking of adding the following to that:

However, there are/were two 1986 trucks in a salvage in AZ that had that trim. So it appears it may have been used into the 1986 production year.

I believe that because we have a report from Jonathan, whom I know personally and trust implicitly, who has found two 1986 trucks with that trim. Yes, it is possible that someone put that trim on, but I think it unlikely that both trucks had it added. In fact, without finding a build sheet and figuring out how to decode it, we can't be sure any of these trucks came from the factory with or without that trim - unless you know the person that ordered the truck or the truck has been in the family since new.

And while I agree that Ford went to great lengths to pull that trim from the 1985 brochure, I would guess that they had a supply of it on hand. And, like the amber turn signals and slide door locks, Ford wasn't about to throw anything away. So, they probably consolidated the trim to a couple of plants, just like it appears they did on the turn signals and door locks. In fact, the Twin Cities plant was one of the last to use the slide locks, as we've documented here, and the truck that Jonathan provided the pic of the certification label was made at that plant. So my guess is that Ford used the Twin Cities plant, and maybe one other, as a catchall, and that they used up all of the things that had been discontinued on trucks that weren't someone's special order.

The bottom line is that there is now a reasonable doubt that the first statement is true. So I plan to modify the statement in some way to accommodate the new information. But I'm open to suggestions on how to word the modification.

 

[LARIAT 85]

Rick - You don't know what I had planned to say about the trim. The current blurb on the FAQ's says:

Trim: Early 1985 trucks had an upper body molding option that appears to have been used on only a few trucks and may have been discontinued for late 1985 trucks, as described in this thread on FTE, and pictured on the Upper Moulding/Regular Cab tab on my Exterior Trim & Moulding page. The latest usage I'm aware of is the 1985 F150 Survivor, which was built in 5/85 at the Ontario plant.

I was thinking of adding the following to that:

However, there are/were two 1986 trucks in a salvage in AZ that had that trim. So it appears it may have been used into the 1986 production year.

I believe that because we have a report from Jonathan, whom I know personally and trust implicitly, who has found two 1986 trucks with that trim. Yes, it is possible that someone put that trim on, but I think it unlikely that both trucks had it added. In fact, without finding a build sheet and figuring out how to decode it, we can't be sure any of these trucks came from the factory with or without that trim - unless you know the person that ordered the truck or the truck has been in the family since new.

And while I agree that Ford went to great lengths to pull that trim from the 1985 brochure, I would guess that they had a supply of it on hand. And, like the amber turn signals and slide door locks, Ford wasn't about to throw anything away. So, they probably consolidated the trim to a couple of plants, just like it appears they did on the turn signals and door locks. In fact, the Twin Cities plant was one of the last to use the slide locks, as we've documented here, and the truck that Jonathan provided the pic of the certification label was made at that plant. So my guess is that Ford used the Twin Cities plant, and maybe one other, as a catchall, and that they used up all of the things that had been discontinued on trucks that weren't someone's special order.

The bottom line is that there is now a reasonable doubt that the first statement is true. So I plan to modify the statement in some way to accommodate the new information. But I'm open to suggestions on how to word the modification.

That's fair. Buy why do you think it is "unlikely" that two 1986 trucks could have had the "pressure sensitive" molding added on? Is it unlikely that more than one truck had dealer A/C added? Or dealer stripes?

All I am saying is that this is a real mystery. Jonathan's idea about possibly being a supply problem that was later resolved is certainly possible Your idea that it was regulated to only a few plants is certainly possible as well.

For what it's worth, Lucille was made in The Twin Cities plant.

It literally took me YEARS to put together an entire NOS set for my restoration. I checked Ebay daily for years. In all that time, I NEVER saw a 1986 model that had it. And *most* 1985 model trucks had the other style.

I just did a Google search for "1986 Ford F150," and not one single truck came up with the early 1985 "pressure sensitive" molding. NONE.

 

[LARIAT 85]

Gary, I decided to take a run to the prescott yard today, and the truck that your core support came from is gone... *however*...

1) There was a 1986 truck there with the molding. Unfortunately the certification label had been removed, but I photographed the VIN plate and the 10th digit is "G" which is the 1986 model year. We don't know the manufactur date but by the VIN it's an '86...

2) Although the core support truck is gone, I did have a batch of certification label pictures that I took because we were trying to figure out when Ford added the spring code (?) or something like that? Maybe you will remember. All I know is I photographed all the bullnose certification labels I could find, and there is only one truck label from the Prescott yard that had white paint 133" wb and manual trans, so this has to be it. Sorry, no body molding picture proof to go with it but I really remember it being odd for having the XLT molding while lacking AC and having a rubber floor and other plain Jane options:

I discovered something interesting today, perhaps another piece of the puzzle concerning the early 1985 "pressure sensitive" trim molding. I noticed that the picture posted from Ford F834 is of a plain white 1986 F250 with the very rare upper molding. I did a search on google and did find a *few* 1986 F250s with that molding - but get this: ALL of them were on F250s with a single paint color. And ALL of the 1986 F250 models I found with tu-tone paint had the much more common lower 1981 - 1984 molding and upper tape stripe. (Still, the vast majority of F250s I found used the lower molding - whether it had tu-tone paint or not.)

As I pointed out on a recent post, when the early 1985 models came out with tu-tone paint, Ford initially used the upper "pressure sensitive" trim molding at the top and under the sidemarker light to separate the two colors. A tri-color tape stripe was used at the bottom and around the wheel wells to separate the two colors. Then, they suddenly reversed it and replaced the upper molding with a tri-color tape stripe and replaced the lower tri-color tape stripe with the 1981 - 1984 lower trim molding.

Why did Ford do that?

When Ford suddenly dropped the exclusive 1985 upper trim molding half-way through the model year, they also dropped the lower tri-color tape stripe along the bottom and around the wheel wells. Then, they added a tri-color tape at the top to replace the upper molding and re-introduced the older 1981 - 1984 lower trim molding . It seems to me it would be way easier and cheaper to keep the existing bottom stripe and add the matching top stripe, like they did for the 1984/1985 Bronco II:

Instead, they brought back the older and and dated-looking 1981 - 1984 lower trim molding with all those rivets to replace the lower tri-color tape stripe. That doesn't make any sense at all.

So, perhaps the reason why the exclusive early 1985 "pressure sensitive" upper molding was suddenly dropped was because of a problem with the lower tri-color tape stripe that was used on the tu-tone models?

[Ford F834]

I discovered something interesting today, perhaps another piece of the puzzle concerning the early 1985 "pressure sensitive" trim molding. I noticed that the picture posted from Ford F834 is of a plain white 1986 F250 with the very rare upper molding. I did a search on google and did find a *few* 1986 F250s with that molding - but get this: ALL of them were on F250s with a single paint color. And ALL of the 1986 F250 models I found with tu-tone paint had the much more common lower 1981 - 1984 molding and upper tape stripe. (Still, the vast majority of F250s I found used the lower molding - whether it had tu-tone paint or not.)

As I pointed out on a recent post, when the early 1985 models came out with tu-tone paint, Ford initially used the upper "pressure sensitive" trim molding at the top and under the sidemarker light to separate the two colors. A tri-color tape stripe was used at the bottom and around the wheel wells to separate the two colors. Then, they suddenly reversed it and replaced the upper molding with a tri-color tape stripe and replaced the lower tri-color tape stripe with the 1981 - 1984 lower trim molding.

Why did Ford do that?

When Ford suddenly dropped the exclusive 1985 upper trim molding half-way through the model year, they also dropped the lower tri-color tape stripe along the bottom and around the wheel wells. Then, they added a tri-color tape at the top to replace the upper molding and re-introduced the older 1981 - 1984 lower trim molding . It seems to me it would be way easier and cheaper to keep the existing bottom stripe and add the matching top stripe, like they did for the 1984/1985 Bronco II:

Instead, they brought back the older and and dated-looking 1981 - 1984 lower trim molding with all those rivets to replace the lower tri-color tape stripe. That doesn't make any sense at all.

So, perhaps the reason why the exclusive early 1985 "pressure sensitive" upper molding was suddenly dropped was because of a problem with the lower tri-color tape stripe that was used on the tu-tone models?

There was a guy who posted a pic of his 1986 short bed F150 on Facebook that had the molding... and it was a solid color...

[LARIAT 85]

There was a guy who posted a pic of his 1986 short bed F150 on Facebook that had the molding... and it was a solid color...

Was it an F150 or an F250?

[Ford F834]

Was it an F150 or an F250?

Has to be an F150 as it is a short bed. I asked to make sure it was a model year 86 and not a build date of 86. The owner said it is a model year 86 but didn’t post a door sticker or VIN tag so it’s just his word on it. I found the pic in my phone: