New member and new owner to a 61 Econoline Pickup

Hey everyone just wanted to introduce myself. I am Jordan from Minnesota. I am the proud new owner of the beauty you see below. I have been looking for an Econoline for quite some time and finally found this old girl about 4 hours from me. I believe I got a good deal. The truck is a runner and as you can see does have some cancer. Pretty hard to find a good solid truck in these parts. My real passion is bikes and I am technically and mechanically capable of most things. I have never done bodywork so this might be my first go at it. Any direction you guys can point me in feel free to let me know. Otherwise I look forward to maybe meeting some of you other weirdos some day!

Welcome to the site!!! For a northern early it's really in pretty good shape

Welcome!! Cool ride!

Thanks guys...I thought it was pretty solid for being from these parts. Can someone confirm that the tailgate on the truck is actually a factory option, the dock loader tailgate?

Welcome, nice little truck, I'm no expert buy I have seen afew of those tailgates and I believe it is a factory option..... Wierdo huh?.... I resemble that remark!

Welcome to the addiction man. That's a good start coming out of your neck of the woods.

Oh I know it will be an addiction, thats my only speed!

Can someone confirm, was the 144CI the only motor available in 1961 or was the 170 available?

My first project is brake work...any pointers???

Do it all. You will thank yourself later.

170 also avail too
what color is the valve cover?? blue or red??

I don't know if it's worth more, but that tailgate is stock. Don't see many of them , but have seen a few over the years

Great lookin Ford you have there. Welcome aboard, you have come to the right place. All the voices in my head are in agreement...lol.

Thanks for the welcome guys. The valve cover is blue....

I have not seen very many of them in my reasearch either....good to know it is a factory piece. It will need a little love as you can see in the pic.

I am finding that the replacement parts for these is not as bad as I thought they may be. Nice to know there is still sources for them. I had a 52 Dodge Pilot House before this and parts were not that readily available for it.

its should be a 144 if blue V/C and origional

That was kind of my thought...was hoping it was at least the 170 as I wont have the funds to be swapping the motor anytime soon. Are there any other signs that show the difference other than color of valve cover?

Welcome BOI!
Looks like a good start,
I also had a good grasp of mechanics but had not tackled bodywork before.
I'm in my second semester of the local college's body and paint class after finding out how much time and money it takes for a good body man to do all the restoration needed to get one of these straight.
Research a bunch, grab a manual, ask questions and plan a course of action from where it is to what you want.

Yes - block casting ID on side of block is best ID- and in the actual data plate codes if its never been replaced - block is best

Welcome from a neighbour not too far north from you!

Tailgate... looks like from an F100, not an Econoline. But I would try to modify it... stretch it so it matches the box height. Finding stamped tailgates is not easy!

144 or 170... the blocks are the same casting, only difference is in the crankshaft and connecting rods to modify the stroke. There are places to get a vin decode so that you can see what was the original engine from the factory. If your block has a C0 or C1 at the beginning of the block stamp, that indicates the block is either 1960 or 61, making it likely it is the engine from the factory... not an exact science, but gives you the probability that your engine is the original.

sasktrini pretty some that a stock short tailgate, I think Rip has one on one of his econolines you see them offen which makes me think they were offered to a small market of some type of business

The E100 tailgates are notorious for rusting out particularly at the hinges. Using an F100 tailgate wouldn't surprise me. It just doesn't look stock to me, but I'm pretty new at the Econoline game and definitely not an expert on the trucks, only seen a handful of em and many didn't have tailgates anymore... casualties of rust! I still think that tailgate, regardless of what it's off of, is a great score! And the 5-windows are quite rare too!

I just noticed that the engine has a PCV valve, not a draft tube. So it's possible that it is not the original (or it has been modified like I did on my 240). You DO HAVE the "Powered By Ford" valve cover, which is a cool item!!!

Thanks for all of the info...plenty of research to do. In my research on the tailgate I found a few with this gate... pics below and I was told it was a dock loader gate. Meant to flip down and not scrape the ground.



The fit and finish looks stock to me and not modified to fit. I was under the assumption that the 3 windows were more rare than the 5 windows, good to hear differently.

dockloader... I'll go with that!!!

Those curved windows are worth their weight in gold... take very good care to not ever damage them! Hard to get replacements!

Nice looking ford you got there. The best advice with the body is stripping it down to bare metal to see what u got to deal with and no surprises that way in the future. Regardless the rust has to be removed or it will come back. It even likes to grow under body filler and ruin a expensive paint job. There are many ways to doing body work and ppl have different answers for doing it, but this site is filled with some very knowledgeable people to help you with your van ventures.

I plan to get it into a solid runner for this summer and then consider body work over the Minnesota winter. I dont think this thing will be seeing too much road during the winter months!

Thats the optional stock short tailgate commonly called a "grain gate". Its purpose was so that without a bumper installed,farmers could back up to a dock flush with the gate down and load a sack of grain,etc. The normal tailgate would drag the ground if folded down like that. I had an nos one once but sold it.