The Most Luxurious Classic Pickup - 1985-6 Ford F150 Lariat

Singing on Sha , sha , sha , Sha Sha .

When we test big Ford pickups , we really shake em up above and beyond how you normally drive your truck .

That's another reason why we can say they're built Ford .

Tough , the best built American trucks are built Ford .

Tough pickup trucks today are more or less the equivalent of the 19 sixties and seventies era luxury cars with full frame chassis and many different creature comforts on the interior , albeit quite a few of them have overdone touch screens and infotainment systems compared to what at least some of us would prefer .

And while there are some truly luxurious pickups today , including the Ram in particular , back in the 19 eighties , pickup trucks still were largely work vehicles bought by individuals who needed them to tow or haul items .

It was in the midst of this environment that Ford launched what I believe to be the most luxurious pickup that had been made to that point .

And that was the 1985 and 1986 Ford F 1 50 rit trim .

The 1985 and 1986 F one fifties came out of the bull nose era of Ford pickups which began with the 1980 model year .

This is the first year in which Ford pickups had a ground up redesign since the 1965 model year and a significant number of items outside of the exterior styling were different with the introduction of this pickup .

Not only did the pickup get straight or body lines , it was also the first time that it had been designed for aerodynamics even though it doesn't look it , but it was and new power train choices were under hood .

The below 460 was dropped from the line up in the 1980 model year , although it would return in a few model years and instead Ford focused on some smaller V eight S like the 4.2 liter V eight .

And subsequently , the 3.8 liter V six was even installed in pickups as the standard engine for being dropped after the 1983 model year .

By the time 1985 and six had rolled around , Ford was really settling into its own in the power train line up .

And in 1986 in particular , Ford outfitted its five liter V eight with fuel injection as standard equipment .

This is the first such instance of fuel injection being outfitted to a V eight engine in domestic pickups .

The 1985 model year also saw the introduction of what I believe to be the most luxurious to date interior ever put in a pickup and that was this new for 1985 Lariat trimmed F 1 50 interior .

The Lariat trim had been around for some time all the way back to the late seventies .

But by this point in 1985 Ford really had stepped up the overall interior trimmings and turned the inside of the F one fifties that were equipped with this trim into pickup size luxury vehicles .

More specifically for the 1985 Lariat trim vehicles .

The instrument panel got some more acres of faux wood grain to complement its overall styling as well as the steering wheel door panels became extremely plush with soft velour cloth cloaking .

The upper portion of the door panel with the cloth being used on the door panels , matching that of the extremely luxurious and comfortable velour seats .

Overall materials on the inside of these trucks including fit and finish were excellent for the time period for pickups and the cabins were far more luxurious than anything offered from Chevrolet , even in the top of the line , Silverado trim or the Dodge Ram pickups of the era .

And by this point , pickup truck buyers could choose from creature comforts that were here to for only known in luxury passenger cars , some of which included cruise control tilt , steering wheel , power windows , power seats , power door locks , electronic AM F M stereo radios .

But the only thing that wasn't in keeping with the luxury image of these Lariat trimmed 86 85 Bullnose Fords was the key buzzers and the fasten seat belts , warning buzzers , both of which had that irritatingly harsh tone to them and they clashed when they both went off .

Contemporaneously .

It's amazing to me to compare the inside of these 85 86 Ford Lariat trimmed pickups with that of Chevrolet's top of the line , silverado for the arrow , which does have a somewhat handsome dash layout with full instrumentation , but the overall material quality from the seats to the door panels , albeit they do have pockets to the dash trim to even the steering wheel just does not look nearly as luxurious as the Ford and frankly looks cheaper .

Similar observations can be had when looking at the 1986 Dodge Ram pickup interiors as well with I would say materials and fit and finish on par with the Chevrolet , but certainly not on par with the Ford Laia trim vehicles , either in material quality or the comfort of the seats or the overall fit and finish .

And in fact , the interior of these 1985 and 86 Bullnose Fords was so rich that Ford redesigned the interior after just two years and looking at the 1987 bow nose Ford interior , you can see Ford took a significant amount of cost out , changed the overall interior and dash theme and really it was a regressive step backward over the 1985 and six versions from an overall interior standpoint .

Thus , the Bullnose Fords really provided a level of luxury on the interiors that was unequaled until just about modern day when Ram came out with its most recent pick up in an extremely luxurious interior , much more so than the Chevrolet and Ford offerings .

But the only downside to these 85 86 Bullnose forwards is that if you have a 1985 model , everything pretty much looks similar including the wood grain .

But for whatever reason , the 1985 model year faux wood grain tended to fade to kind of a purplish hue .

Whereas the 1986 vehicles did not , not quite sure why this is the case , but it appears to be true for at least the 1985 model year vehicles that I've seen .

So if you're picking between the 85 86 models go for a 1986 bull nose and you won't have to worry about this wood grain trim issue outside of the overall interiors themselves .

These bullnose forwards were quite good pickups , albeit they did rust quite readily .

And that was really their achilles heel , the engines and transmissions were quite robust , albeit the Ford A O D transmission really was not a smooth shifter at all and often clunked into gear and always felt like it was searching for an ever higher gear in particular overdrive as it shifted .

Perhaps this is one reason why Ford sold so many more pickups with manual transmissions than General motors did during this period .

Another achilles heel of these bullnose Fords can be the front end and in particular , the twin I beam style front end that Ford employed on the four wheel drive vehicles .

This setup did enable independent front suspension which was different from the competitive makes that had solid axles up front .

But if you talk to anybody who owned an alignment shop back in the era , most of them dislike these twin IBEAM Ford front ends as a number of them don't even have castor and Camber adjustments .

The service manual state that if the castor and Camber are out of specification , that you're to replace the twin IBEAM set up aside from these issues , the bullnose Fords really are quite reliable except in the early model years when they did use some early electronic feedback carbo systems that were not quite fully developed at the time , I would say , albeit these carburetors can be retrofitted with auto light twenty one hundred two barrel carburetors and the engines will run just fine .

The rest of the power train components including the transmissions and the rear ends are generally quite durable though , I don't find the Ford A O D transmissions to be as rugged and durable as the previous C 63 speed transmissions that said if you're looking for a classic pickup , that looks great .

A bull knows Lariat from 1985 to 1986 is going to be hard to beat .

The only challenge now is finding one in excellent condition that is not beaten up and is rust free and that was loved and cared for by its owner .

These pickups in recent times have come in short supply and are significantly harder to find than they were 10 or 15 years ago .

They are obviously older , but people often drove these pickups and few thought to save them any case .

I hope you enjoyed this spotlight on the 1985 and six Bullnose F 1 50 Lariat .

Thanks again for watching .

Until next time .

Take care and be sure to check out the video thumbnails at bottom , left and right for some suggestions for you .

Thanks again .