Yesterday we had a Civics lesson demonstrating that even Honda could go Crack Pipe when the price isn't right, and enough of the car has been misplaced. Fully 87% of you sent that little CRX to the principal's office for smoking in the boy's room- and it's not getting back without a note from its mom.

Have you ever known someone who obsessed over something, and it kind of creeped you out? Maybe it was their klingon-themed wedding at the Star Trek convention, or an ex girlfriend/boyfriend that they stalked just couldn't let go. Whatever the source of their compulsion, it became all consuming- absorbed their every waking moment, and haunting their dreams. A person like that can be nearly impossible to live with, and many compulsive/obsessives do lose friends and family to their mania- look at what happened to Richard Dreyfuss' character in Close Encounters- Teri Garr couldn't take his nuttiness and left him. Sure, eventually he gets to go on what seems like an incredible journey, but what they don't tell you is that once those doors closed, the skinny space dudes broke out the anal probes and the To Serve Man cookbooks- mmm, yummy.

Today we have a pickup truck - a 1966 Ford F100 to be exact - and it expresses a level of commitment to a theme that could be considered borderline nutty. The seller has re-imagined this Custom Cab Styleside as a kind of homage to the Curtiss P40 Tigershark. This includes gunmetal gray paint, yellow "tail" and hungry-fishy nose. He also has incorporated some "nose art" despite that being more commonly applied to bombers than fighters, and the fact that he's put it on the bed. The obsession doesn't stop at paint, as he has chopped the canopy 4 inches and shaved the door handles to lower aerodynamic drag. Despite that, it still doesn't look capable of reaching angels one-five.

Backing up the show, is a healthy dose of go- as the entire driveline has been modified to bring the Ford workhorse closer to fighter performance and agility. While not an 1,140-hp Allison V12, the 400-c.i.d. Ford big block should provide for suitable performance when engaging in either pre-dawn dogfights or parking lot donuts. Four-wheel disk brakes mean you won't go off the end of the carrier should you get waved off, and the FlowMaster exhaust will keep pursuers off your six.

So, how much is one man's obsession worth? Well, this seller is asking $5,500 for this warbird-emulating work truck. There's no way you could replicate his effort for anywhere near that- but why would you? That's the rub with any vehicle that has been customized to conform to a personal obsession- you limit the audience to those who share your proclivity for such modifications. Much like the way Tron Guy probably has a hard time getting dates, this seller may find it difficult to find a buyer that shares his fascination with a fighter-themed pickup truck. But maybe this is more universally appealing than we think, perhaps there's a market for such a beast? If so, what about that price? Does $5,500 make you want want to pull out the chocks on this deal? Or is that nothing but a bunch of prop-wash?

You decide!

Raleigh Craigslist or go here if the ad gets shot down. Sharing is caring, and a hat tip goes out to Mike for landing this ad, in the hopes he'll stop just lurking, and becomes a full-time Jalop.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

This thing is just concentrated essence of truck. Oh, sure, the original buyer splurged on the optional chrome side moldings, but we can assume the standard 240-cube inline six engine is present; why pour money down the drain for the 300 six or the 360/390 V8s? Or carpeting, air conditioning, AM radio, or anything else. This country is getting soft, by damn, when pickup trucks are seen as comfy commuter appliances! You should be able to spill a five-gallon bucket of paint in your truck's bed and not care!


OK, requisite 2000s truck rant over with. Back in '69, the price tag on this truck, with no options, was $2,393. That was about $300 less than IHC's 2WD half-ton but only 23 bucks more than a new GMC C1500.

Our expectation is this is a slightly slimmed-down truck designed in part to build a Ranger replacement but probably more to keep the F-series numero uno in truck sales, allowing Ford to continue to wear that red badge of honor. Red badge? Wait, maybe we meant red target. Either way, Ford'll be trying to continue to wear it well into the second decade of this century. [via Automotive News (sub. req.)]

Our friends at PickupTrucks.com are also telling us this morning rumors aren't as far-fetched as one would think. Ford desperately is looking for ways to hold on to their share of the ever-shrinking pickup truck market and if they need to offer a stripped down F-150 on Weight Watchers, they'll do it. Heck, they've even got a pretty sketch of what a new boldly-moving-smaller pickup based on the current F-150 might look like. Expect the real version to look nothing like it. But have a look anyway. [PickupTrucks.com]

Unlike the T-Bird and Impala, however, the F-100 gets driven regularly. In fact, this is the daily driver of the three.


The standard F-100 engine in 1964 was the 223 six-cylinder, with the Y-block 292 as the optional V8 powerplant. This truck sounds like it has the six under the hood.


Vehicles rust in extremely slow motion (and from the top down) in Alameda, so there's nothing to stop a simple, sturdy truck like this one from surviving with minimal maintenance for 40 or 50 years. I often wonder what's being stored under that heavily bungeed tarp, which has been on this truck in one form or another for as long as I can recall.

Sure, they don't look at all original, but I think Cragar SS wheels look good on this truck. The owner can always put tall skinny tires on dogdish-equipped steel wheels back on the truck, so purists need not fret.


This truck has some great emblems; in fact, I think the "Fordomatic" emblem shot is going to replace this '50 Pontiac hood ornament photo as the desktop wallpaper on my computer.


So now we have two 50s Ford pickups with bright paint colors in this series, the other being this '50.

The half-ton F-series trucks came standard with a 240-cube six in 1971, but you could spring for the 300 six or the 302 V8 if you needed more grunt.


Of course, there's no telling how many engines have lived behind that grille by now; while the Fords weren't quite as swap-friendly as their GM contemporaries, the owner of this truck still has many bolt-in engine-swap options.


Do I need to go on a tirade about real trucks here? Sure, you could commute from Edge City to the office park in this thing... but there are no cupholders!