Decades ago, car buyers in America had access to a truck that combined the best traits of a truck with the best parts of a car. The coupé utility had a practical bed like a pickup truck but was also still a car that you could use as your goin’ to town rig. Today, the ute is a dying breed, seemingly replaced by pickup trucks. Ford bowed out of American utes in 1979 with the end of the famous Ranchero. However, people were still buying coupe utilities, so another ute would wear the blue oval. That year, Ford and National Coach Products produced the Durango, a Ford Fairmont Futura coupe converted into a truck. Yep, there was a Fox Body pickup truck, and depending on who you ask, only a couple hundred were ever built.
Last time on Holy Grails, we hopped on a boat and sailed over to Europe, somehow finding ourselves in the 1980s along the way. I have to stop booking these timeships. While we were in the past, we took a look at the Peugeot 309 GTi 16. Some of the car journalists of today say that the Peugeot 205 GTi was one of the best hot hatches of all time. Others say the 205 GTi stole the light from its slightly larger, but still competent siblings, the 309 GTi and 309 GTi 16. Taking its 160 HP 1.9-liter engine from the 405, the Peugeot 309 GTi 16 was technically faster than the 205 GTi, but always lived in that car’s shadows. Depending on where you live, the 309 GTi 16 could be quite rare.
This week, I’ve found myself unable to fix my time machine and we’re stuck in the 1980s for a little longer. Thankfully, I was able to convince an airline that my fancy 21st century money was legitimate and got us some plane tickets back to America. I’ve taken refuge in sunny California for the time being.
The 1980s marked an interesting period for the coupé utility in America, Ford was getting out of the pool while Chrysler’s brands were just getting their feet wet. General Motors’ utes were in a fresh generation while competition was coming in from the likes of the Subaru BRAT and the Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup. Then, by the end of the decade, it was all over. The El Camino fizzled out in 1988, long after Ford, Dodge, Plymouth, Volkswagen, and Subaru had thrown in their respective towels. From then on, the car-based pickup became a rarer sight, punctuated by Subaru Bajas and Chevrolet SSRs. You could say the type is sort of making a comeback today with pickups like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz.
Ford’s American Coupé Utility
In the early decades of motoring, you could buy cars that had truck beds. A good example was the Ford Model T, which you were able to have with a bed. There was also the roadster utility, which combined a stylish roadster with a utility bed. Ford Australia reportedly answered the calls of farmers when Ford Geelong engineer Lewis Bandt created a two-door body with a tray in the back and riding on a Ford Model A chassis.
In the decades since automakers all over the world introduced their own interpretations of the same concept. Here in America, we tried our hand with Coupé utilities in the 1930s with the likes of the Chevrolet Coupe Delivery and the Studebaker Coupe Express.
For this piece, I won’t go through Ford Australia’s work on the ute. Instead, we’re honing in on what Americans were able to buy. Ford counts the Ranchero as part of its illustrious truck history.
When Ford unveiled the Ranchero in December 1956, the F-Series was in its third generation. Ford marketed the Ranchero as being more than a car while also being more than a truck. The premise was that the Ranchero was a glamorous car and a hard-working truck all in the same package. Ford also noted that the Ranchero’s over half-ton payload was more than some of the trucks on the market at the time. In fact, the trucklet even bested the half-ton F-Series by about 50 pounds of payload. The Ranchero appeared to be the best of both worlds. It was low-slung, allowing both easier bed loading and better handling. Ford also boasted about the Ranchero’s car-like looks, which meant it could be welcome places a work truck couldn’t. Today, Ford calls the Ranchero its first compact pickup.
The first Ranchero was based on the 116-inch wheelbase Ranch Wagon and Courier Sedan Delivery. The trucklet featured a reinforced bed and at launch, the smallest engine available was a 223 cubic inch six-cylinder making 144 HP while the largest was a 292 cubic inch V8 making 212 HP.
The Ranchero would evolve over the years. In 1960, the ute would shrink before growing into a muscle car into the 1970s. Rancheros eventually found themselves housing firepower such as the 360 HP 429 Thunder Jet and the 370 HP 429 Cobra Jet engines. The latter had a “shaker” ram-air scoop. You could even equip your Ranchero with an engine as large as a chunky 460 V8.
Unfortunately, while the Ranchero did fill a niche, it wasn’t as successful as the ute was in other countries. Ford sold 508,355 units over 22 years. Officially, the Ranchero died in 1979 as a variation of the 220-inch wheelbase LTD II. As Hagerty notes, the Ranchero came first, but Chevy’s El Camino was more popular and got to live a little longer. Ultimately, Ford decided to focus its small truck efforts on the Courier and the then-upcoming Ranger.
The Grail
This is not where the story of the Ranchero ended. As I said before, the Ranchero’s contemporaries continued into the 1980s. According to Mac’s Motor City Garage and 1981-82 Durango: The Should-Have-Been Ranchero Replacement, an article in the February 1995 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine, Ford designer Dick Nesbitt decided to draw up a replacement for the Ranchero.
The designer, who had a portfolio including the Mustang II and Carousel concept van, saw potential in the Fairmont Futura. Just the year before, the Fairmont was one of the first cars to ride on Ford’s then-new Fox platform. As I’ve written before, the Fox platform was supposed to be a sort of “One Ford” platform where the brand could make all sorts of cars all around the world on just a single platform. Ford would reduce its production costs and cut out unnecessary, redundant models with one platform. This didn’t happen, but the Fox platform did become a versatile platform for Mustang fans and hot rodders alike.
The Fox platform did get used for a variety of body styles from coupes to sedans and wagons. If you want a Fox Body truck? Well, you have just one choice, the Ford Durango. LTDScott, a reader with a number of Grail suggestions, slipped this one in a comment in the story about the 1993 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra R:
Reminds me of the Ford Durango (which would be a good candidate for a Holy Grail here too). It was a Ford Fairmont Futura coupe which a coachbuilder chopped the back off and installed a fiberglass bed to create a newer Ranchero. My friend had one and when he pulled the fiberglass bed insert out he was surprised to see the rear seatbelts still installed underneath.
This vehicle was mentioned briefly about a week ago in a Bishop piece, and I think it deserves its own standalone article.
As Mac’s Motor City Garage writes, Nesbitt saw the lines of the Fairmont Futura coupe and envisioned it as a pickup truck from the B-pillar back. Nesbitt penned a sporty truck from the Futura and submitted it to Ford brass. Apparently, Ford declined to put it into production. That didn’t stop Barris Kustom shop alum Jim Stephenson and his son, Bill Stephenson. The men, with help from others, ripped out the back of a Futura coupe and replaced the rear end with a fiberglass mold forming a pickup bed. A person claiming to be Bill Stephenson explains some of the work that went into the build:
The original “Durango” was built in our own shop in Sylmar, Ca with the intention to offer it as a replacement for Ford’s “Ranchero” after that was dropped from their line. Among those who helped were my older brother, Jim, George and Katie Gowdy of G&K Fiberglass (they also did the funny car bodies for many of the famous names at that time), and George Price, a very talented “body man”, did most of the finish work on the original plugs used to make the bed molds. He was one of the best “Bondo” men in the business.
I did a lot of the metal work on the bed and I helped design and build the tailgate and the hinges. The metal work I did was used to make the the plugs for the fiberglass molds for the production parts.
The tailgate turned out to be one of the toughest design issues we ran up against. There was no good way to move the taillights to the rear quarter panels because they were too narrow and it was too expensive to create an all knew taillight, so we used the factory taillights in a fiberglass tailgate and had to make it swing out and away from the bed so it was level with the bed floor when opened.
The team took the prototype to National Coach Products, a Gardena, California-based builder. Reportedly, National Coach continued the Ranchero’s southwest theme by calling the resulting vehicle the Durango.
Fairmont Futuras would be converted and sold by participating Ford dealerships. Reportedly, design work was finished in 1979, but Jim Stephenson suffered from kidney failure, binning the project for about two years. A majority of Durangos were built in 1981 with production ending in 1982. Some quirks came with the conversion. As LTDScott says above, apparently at least one example still had rear seatbelts installed under the fiberglass bed. The truck’s taillights were also on its tailgate. So, you couldn’t drive the truck with the tailgate open unless you found some way to reroute the taillights.
In addition to the steel and double-walled fiberglass box, National Coach advertised Durango-specific features such as a concealed storage compartment under the bed, tonneau cover, bedliner, and fiberglass camper shell. Other goodies included an optional pop-op sunroof, custom wheels, air-adjustable shocks, cargo rails, and tie-downs, plus an opening rear cab window. National Coach said that as a truck, the Durango had a payload capacity of up to 1,450 pounds.
According to an archived brochure, the Durango was available with a 2.3-liter inline-four, a 3.3-liter straight six, and a 4.2-liter V8. Reportedly, most Durangos were powered by the 3.3-liter Thriftpower Six and an automatic transmission. This should have been good for 88 horsepower and 154 lb-ft of torque. A larger 4.2-liter V8 was available with 115 HP and 195 lb-ft of torque on tap.
Nobody seems to know how many of these were sold. Ford doesn’t even mention the little truck’s existence in its history. Most estimates place production at somewhere around 212 units. Myron Vernis had a 1979 Durango as a shop truck! The Ford Durango also appears to be one of those vehicles where rare does not translate to valuable. I have not found a single example for sale, but archived listings suggest that if you were able to find one of these for sale, you’d probably get it for under $10,000.
Today crossover-based pickup trucks have seemingly replaced the concept of the coupé utility. A Ford Maverick is about as close as you’re getting to buying a new Ranchero. Four decades ago? It was a different story. Perhaps the saddest part is that it seems the Ranchero and Durango died quietly in the night; no celebration for Ford’s combo car and truck. If you’re lucky and find one of these, the party doesn’t have to end.
With that said if you did or do own one of these, how was it?
Do you know of or own a car, bus, motorcycle, or something else worthy of being called a ‘holy grail’? Send me an email at mercedes@theautopian.com or drop it down in the comments!
115hp V8. Gotta love the Malaise Era.
I saw one in KC probably a decade ago. Only one I’ve seen in real life. I knew what it was, and freaked out a bit. The Mrs. wasn’t impressed!
I skimmed it all to see if anyone else… I like the woody convert. in back ground in the 2nd. pic. It’s like the anti- Lincoln Cont. LTD perhaps? The vinyl wood graphics are so wrong and just right at the same time. The 70’s Baby. I like this vehicle, a Smyth Performance for a prior generation.
It looks like the love child of a 4th gen continental and early 90s Plymouth voyager
Just for fun, I searched this site for “holy grail”, and got 57 pages of hits. Kind of loses it’s impact after a while.
Normal, it’s a regular feature here.
I like the profile, but I’d prefer the front end to look a little more like the Fox Mustang. Or I could just go with a Dodge Rampage. About 500lbs less cargo capability but more style.
My family almost – oh, so close! – bought one of these back in the day. We wound up getting a second-gen Mazda-based Courier instead.
I pass one of these on my way to work everyday, sitting outside a camping store. I tried to tell people online about it, but they all told me it was a one-off custom.
My Scout has a neat feature on the license plate holder: the entire thing is hinged so that when you drop the tailgate to carry a 4×8′ sheet of plywood, you can swing the license plate down to be visible for Johnny Law. Strangely, IH didn’t make this standard; I’ve seen a 50/50 split between fixed and hinged units. I try to save as many of the hinged units as I can when stripping hulks for parts.
Subaru Bajas had this too
And Volvo Amazon estates, as well as classic Minis, which Jason shared here last December: https://www.theautopian.com/is-this-odd-trunk-design-better-than-a-hatchback/
Just a think: shoot a bunch of pictures of the hinged mount from many different angles with dimensional references in the frame at the same distance. That way someone can manufacture a new one if needed.
for grins, I already put together a cardboard template and then mapped it out as a file for sendcutsend.com; they’ll even do the bends. strangely the hard part is sourcing the spring IH used to hold it in place.
Neat! I saw one of these back in the 90s roaming around northwest Houston and always assumed it was an import from Australia that someone had converted to left-hand drive. Nice to know the backstory and that my assumption was all wrong!
Honestly all this time I had thought Durangos were a Mexican market offering, I never knew they were conversions. Thanks for the article!
Also, I think there’s a typo in this paragraph:
“Reportedly, design work was finished in 1970, but Jim Stephenson suffered from kidney failure, binning the project for about two years. A majority of Durangos were built in 1981 with production ending in 1982.”
Design work was finished in 1979, right?
Good work! I’ve never heard of this one. I like the concept a lot. Kinda surprised Ford didn’t offer these in the gap years before the Ranger came out (1979-1983). Maybe they thought the Courier would fill this role?
Mostly, nobody ever bought trucks back then, so they had the Courier, the F100 and this thing. Seriously. It was plenty. You only owned a truck if you needed one.
You could haul more stuff in a full sized station wagon than Durangos and Rancheros, while keeping it dry and secure, so that’s what nearly every home had. They had the wagon mom drove and the sedan dad drove to work.
When I lived back east or in the midwest in the 60s, 70s, only farmers or tradesmen had trucks or vans. That kinda changed with the van craze in the mid 70s, then the mini truck thing and then when minivans showed up in the mid 80s, that was it for station wagons.
Random tangent, this makes me wonder if the F-Series ever had a regular name? Like Chevy Silverado/Dodge Ram, the F-150 is the F(Ford)-Series, so it’s the Ford Ford-Series? Ranchero was cool, they should’ve re-used that for the Maverick.
The Ford 1/2-ton F-Series began in 1948 as the F1. I don’t think any Ford truck has ever had a name in the sense of anything other than “Model TT” or whatever.
Don’t forget that Silverado and Ram didn’t become actual model names until ’99 and ’94 respectively.
I remember but also that was over 20 years ago….man time flies. But yeah, used to be the C/D/K series like Ford. Of course Ford has the Lightning now but that’s almost a trim package/engine spec thing.
Dodge Ram was the model name starting in the 1981 model year. I believe you’re right about Silverado. It was a trim level until 99 when it became the name of the truck.
Ram was the truck family name and badged on the fender but not the official model name. Dodge trucks were D/W 150-350 through 1993 until Ram 1500-3500 became the official model name in 1994.
Upper trim levels of the F-150 are called Lobo in Mexico, but I think that might be it for the big Ford.
I did have a young lady come in to get her boyfriends truck and was asking us for A ford FISO. Took a while for us to realize she wanted his F150
Did she need a new 710 cap?
That’s what keeps the blinker fluid reservoir sealed, right?
You need to remove it to get to the muffler bearings.
I recall the word Ranger on a few old Ford Trucks in the day, then they became their own small truck in the 80’s. But I believe that was just a trim package on an F100 or something.
Yep, Ranger and Explorer first started as trim levels on the F-series.
And before Ranger was an F-Series trim level, it was an Edsel model back in 1958.
The F-150 has been known as the Lobo (in Mexico) since the 1990’s
Youtuber Junkyard Digs has a blue one they resurrected recently. Cool, but gutless.
What am I seeing on the top edge of the tailgate on the “grail” car that I’m not seeing on the actual tan one? Looks like part of a light bar, so you can still see lights with the gate open. If so, it would be a good idea, but only if they were recessed instead. So they wouldn’t get smashed with the building materials you’re gonna have resting on that edge.
There is no “honing” in. It’s homing, as in homing torpedo or homing pigeon. Sorry. I enjoyed the rest immensely. It took me back to the time when all cars rusted quickly up in the lake effect snow/salt belt.
Thank you for trying, but I’m afraid honing/homing is one of those lost causes of the language. I see elite journalists, presumably backed up by elite copy editors, failing to get it right.
Well language changes over time.Honing means to smooth, sharpen, refine. I’ve done it in a machine shop. So I approve lol. So while not the most well known (is it a colloquialism?) it does “work”. If anything, instead of indicating a general return to status (“home”) it indicates a more precise action. Maybe?
Cylinders after being rough bored are honed in to precise size. Search “hone in” on Bing for legit uses. Since she was referring to a general “what Americans were able to buy” and not a specific target item yet, “home in” may not have been appropriate.
There is “honing” in. Take a look at the Merriam-Webster dictionary: to move toward or focus attention on an objective.
Sure sounds like focusing on an objective to me, so I think Mercedes’ verbiage is appropriate here.
Forgot it existed? I never even KNEW it existed. And now I’ll never forget it! Or stop wanting one.. ideally with a Barra turbo motor in it..
Now there’s an idea… the Tuff Mounts Foxbody kit would probably drop it straight in there
Well since you’re in the 80s in Cali…
If you see Burt Reynolds
Won’t you shake his hand for me
Tell old Burt, I’ve seen all his movies
And so on and so forth
He lived down the street from me not long before he passed. My parents were visiting, he. saw them and said “Hi Neighbor”. That was the day Burt almost made my parents drop dead. I knew he lived there but hadn’t seen him, never mind been greeted.
The 81 Durango is the mullet of vehicles.
Being a Fox nerd, I know three people who have owned one (one became a trophy winning Good Guys autocross “truck”), and helped to sell another one that I randomly saw for sale at a local car show so I posted it in online groups I’m part of and it ended up going to a guy on a forum I was in.
I’ve never seen one of these with a factory V8. Every one I’ve ever seen had the 200ci 6.
Shoulda included a photo of the warning label in the door jamb warning not to drive with the tailgate down. I always found that humorous. That’s also a good way to know if it’s a real Durango. There are plenty of homebuilt conversions out there, most not having operating tailgates. I recently got into it with someone online who was selling a homebuilt and claiming it was real. There were tons of surefire ways to tell and I think the guy was just bitter that he got duped by someone.
Oh and Durango is one of the few nameplates I can think of being used across all of the Big 3, although given this isn’t a true Ford product I guess that’s a technicality.
-Ford Durango – Fairmont Ute
-Chevy S-10 Durango – Trim level on ’80s S-10s
-Dodge Durango – SUV
Thanks for profile on the Durango. Though I never got to drive one of these, I imagine it was comparable to the Falcon-based Rancheros, of which I have driven several. I did, however, spend considerable time in the driver’s seat of my mother’s Fairmont and a duller, less capable platform for a ute is hard to imagine.
Still, the Durango not only didn’t look half bad, it was easily the best looking version of the Fairmont even if it wasn’t official.
I miss utes and though I only ever owned one (Dodge Rampage), I got to drive several El Caminos and Rancheros as work trucks and farm cars.
The Maverick and Santa Cruz don’t really fill that niche for me, although I like them well enough. Even older small trucks, which I also like, don’t scratch the ute itch. There’s just nothing like the now defunct coupe utilities. Companies like Lefthand Utes and Smyth Kit Cars are trying to keep the flame burning and that (or a restomod) is the way I’m planning to go for my next vehicle.
It’s not a GoodMont, or a BadMont, it’s a Fairmont.
Sorry.
Fair enough
Good find, crazy that there are still recent vehicles from mainstream manufacturers I’ve legitimately never heard of or seen.
Another idea that was both behaved its time and ahead of its time.
and again demonstrates that “crossovers” have been around since the beginning of time.
Drove several of these. But was just too damn slow. But with a decent V8, well I would be very happy.
Just don’t need the optional bolt on crap though, the black one looks sweet, considering what it is. YMMV
Too slow? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Surely 88HP, paired with a 3-speed slushbox, would be enough to keep anyone happy!
[/sarcasm]
My 78 Futura had the 6, but a 3-speed manual. Not fast, but didn’t stop 16 year old me from getting tickets in it!
You were warned about doing 35 in a 25 zone.
Related: when did the law change to required fixed taillights?
I always think of this whenever I see the rare and quickly doomed Buick Cascada, with its duplicate set of taillights underneath the trunklid.
Fixed taillamps have always been a thing.
Plenty of other cars back then that wouldn’t fly today. C4 Vette headlights for one