How Ford Is Honoring the F-Series with Color

1953-56The complete set of Ford 2023 F-150 Heritage Edition trucks. Paint makes the difference. Photo Credit: All images courtesy of Ford

Ford is celebrating its 75 years of F-Series trucks, the trucks that continue to make the company a leading seller of vehicles year after year.

So how does it do it?

What makes the 2023 F-150 Heritage edition special?

Paint.

Those opting for the special model, which is available in the XLT trim, get to select from five color options—

Race Red midsection, with upper and lower Carbonized Gray
Atlas Blue midsection, with upper and lower Agate Black
Antimatter Blue midsection, with upper and lower Carbonized Gray
Avalanche midsection, with upper and lower Agate Black
Area 51 midsection, with upper and lower Agate Black

—which the company says is “a fresh interpretation of the classic A-B-A exterior paint pattern.”

That pattern has it that there is an A color for the roof and pillars, B color for the midsection of the truck, then A again for the bumpers, lower door and lower body.

But it got us to wondering about the “classic” painting approach to the truck.

So we asked Ford.

And learned that during the 1970s and ‘80s, F-Series trucks had a color pallet that was certainly distinctive.

Production of the ’23 models will commence this fall.

A 1963 F-100 pickup. Note not only the dual-color paint, but the painting of the steel wheels.

1974 Ford F-100. The F-100 disappeared from the Ford lineup in 1983.

A tri-color 1975 F-250 XLT. The F-250 moniker first appeared for the second-generation F-Series trucks (1953-56), having previously been the F-2 and F-3.

A 1979 F-150 Ranger XLT. Yes, an F-150 Ranger. The Ranger model didn’t appear in the Ford lineup until model year 1983. It stayed in production until model year 2012, then was out of the market until model year 2019.