Greetings from Smithfield, NC
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Greetings from Smithfield, NC
Greetings from Smithfield, NC, my hometown which I am moving back to from Raleigh, NC. I've also lived in Houston, TX and Winston-Salem, NC.
The Smithfield of my youth was a FORD TOWN-- the size of the Ford dealership was equal to the next three new car dealerships combined!! Over time, other dealerships have taken primacy in this area, but Ford is still strong.
My father was a Ford F-150 man. He owned them before, but I first remember him getting a new 1960 F-150 when I was 5 years old. Pick-ups were MUCH more plain vanilla then.. my dad's didn't even have a radio in it when he bought it. It was a UNIBODY truck, and occasionally when we would heavily load the bed, it would flex such that we couldn't shut the doors!! ))))
My dad was a brick layer, started his own brick laying business, then started a small ornamental iron and structural steel business and ultimately getting out of brick laying.
My dad ALWAYS wanted a "super cab" or extended cab with storage behind the cab, based on having seen the Ford Econoline truck which was briefly available in the early 1960s. That led to his straying from the Ford fold circa 1974. Dodge offered a pickup with an extended cab, and he had to have one. He liked it, but not as well as his Fords, and Dodge dropped the extended cab after a couple of years.
I inherited his 2001 F-150 Supercrew when Dad died in 2011. It was a "show truck" (unofficially) when he owned it, and my dad had custom graphics on the side and a hard bed cover with a FORD metal logo on each side and painted to match the truck... lots of people thought it came from Ford! He also had a couple of other customizations done to it, including custom running boards he built that still get admiring comments... as recently as 3 months ago. But he got into a mild traffic accident later in his life (early in his Alzeheimer's) and did NOT want it repaired. Since his passing it has become a "work truck" and the bed cover has been removed (but saved).
So I'm here to get help with a specific problem I have with the truck, but also to celebrate the pick-up brand that my dad loved for so long!
EDIT: Oh yes... I am an engineering manager on contract at Fort Bragg, NC. I work in the field of energy conservation and facilities.
Curt
The Smithfield of my youth was a FORD TOWN-- the size of the Ford dealership was equal to the next three new car dealerships combined!! Over time, other dealerships have taken primacy in this area, but Ford is still strong.
My father was a Ford F-150 man. He owned them before, but I first remember him getting a new 1960 F-150 when I was 5 years old. Pick-ups were MUCH more plain vanilla then.. my dad's didn't even have a radio in it when he bought it. It was a UNIBODY truck, and occasionally when we would heavily load the bed, it would flex such that we couldn't shut the doors!! ))))
My dad was a brick layer, started his own brick laying business, then started a small ornamental iron and structural steel business and ultimately getting out of brick laying.
My dad ALWAYS wanted a "super cab" or extended cab with storage behind the cab, based on having seen the Ford Econoline truck which was briefly available in the early 1960s. That led to his straying from the Ford fold circa 1974. Dodge offered a pickup with an extended cab, and he had to have one. He liked it, but not as well as his Fords, and Dodge dropped the extended cab after a couple of years.
I inherited his 2001 F-150 Supercrew when Dad died in 2011. It was a "show truck" (unofficially) when he owned it, and my dad had custom graphics on the side and a hard bed cover with a FORD metal logo on each side and painted to match the truck... lots of people thought it came from Ford! He also had a couple of other customizations done to it, including custom running boards he built that still get admiring comments... as recently as 3 months ago. But he got into a mild traffic accident later in his life (early in his Alzeheimer's) and did NOT want it repaired. Since his passing it has become a "work truck" and the bed cover has been removed (but saved).
So I'm here to get help with a specific problem I have with the truck, but also to celebrate the pick-up brand that my dad loved for so long!
EDIT: Oh yes... I am an engineering manager on contract at Fort Bragg, NC. I work in the field of energy conservation and facilities.
Curt
Last edited by Curt Phillips; Oct 13, 2020 at 10:26 AM.
