Unloved Unibody: 1961 Ford F100 – Sold?

September 27, 2021 Update – We just confirmed the listing for this “Classifind” expired, so with no replacement found we’re assuming this ride “Sold?” While this one got away, please reach out either by email or call us directly if you’d like to be informed when we come across something similar.

For many years, Ford’s advertising tagline was “Ford Has a Better Idea.” Unfortunately when new, one of those better ideas was not the F100 unibody pickup truck. While connecting the pickup bed and cab provided a much cleaner style over a traditional pickup, reports in the actual use of beds separating motivated Ford to quickly discontinue the model.  Now a favorite of street machine builders due to their uninterrupted side body lines, it’s refreshing to come across a faithfully restored version such as this 1961 F100 originally listed in August 2021 on Craigslist in Taylor Mill, Kentucky appears to be a finely restored example offered at $30,500 currently. Comparing that price against the Hagerty Insurance Online Valuation Tool confirms the private seller has their F100 Unibody priced between this guide’s #2 “Excellent” estimate of $20,800 and its #1 “Concours” appraisal of $35,900.  Interestingly, the  Collector Car Market Review Online Tool provides a much different assessment as in this case the asking price is nearly four thousand dollars above this guide’s #1 “Excellent” appraisal of $26,800.

When Ford debuted its fourth generation F-Series truck line in 1960, in addition to traditional separate Flareside beds, Ford introduced unibody trucks. These were originally named the “integrated pickup” and consisted of the cab and the bed into one continuous piece, with no gap between them.  The design required fewer stampings as the back of the cab served as the leading edge of the bed, less complicated assembly since the single-wall bedsides were spot-welded directly to the door sills, and the body had a less complicated path through the painting process.  This achieved cost savings in the manufacture of the truck, but the one-piece cab and bed body was still mounted to a traditional ladder-frame chassis.  Only two-wheel-drive F-100 and F-250 models used this one-piece construction.  Unfortunately, poor market reception, likely due to rumors that overloading these trucks caused the doors to jam shut, the unibody trucks were dropped midway through the 1963 model year.

The Osbourne Tramaine YouTube Channel features Ford’s launch commercial for their new line of trucks that overused the word “Certified”:

Highly detailed with a 223 inline six-cylinder and a great color combination, this is a nicely restored F100 Unibody that will get you noticed everywhere you drive it.

Here’s the seller’s brief description:

“1961 Ford F 100 Unibody previously restored by a recent owner in great shape.
asking $ 30,500.00 “

Show or go: what would you do with this restored Ford F100?  Comment below and let us know!