If you watch Ford ads of today, all they seem to tout is how the vehicle will do just about every ounce of driving for you. Scared of parking in a city? The Explorer will let you know when it has found a spot it’ll fit in, and it’ll even park itself for you. Want to have that big-truck feel but backing up a trailer is akin to witchcraft? Don’t worry, the new F-series has a feature that’ll help you out with that, complete with enough cameras to qualify as voyeuristic to make sure you don’t accidentally mow over a gas pump. Kind of heartbreaking, especially when we have such fond memories of Ford trucks that were built like a brick house and were work-focused first and foremost. This 1978 longbed isn’t going to park itself. It isn’t going to help you back a trailer so you feel like a professional. Frankly, you’ll be lucky if it lets you know that you left the keys in the ignition, and if it does, the buzzer isn’t a gentle electronic chime noise. It’s a buzzer meant to remind you of a mini-klaxon horn and designed to set your nerves on fire. You know, the truck your grandpa had that you loved.
Mook’s Ford has been a long-ish work in progress, going from waterlogged and wretched to very nearly passable. The goal is to see if the Ford will finally drive and stop, which means that rusty-ass brakes, rotted lines, a sketchy fuel feed situation and an omnipresent rattle that sounds like the bed is moments away from flying off. If it seems like everything here is way too intense, it ain’t. It’s just parts and assembly instructions. Nothing you can’t handle.
