Chris Swenson: Bumpin Uglys - Ford Bumpsides (@bumpin_uglys)

On this episode, Chris and Chris discuss how growing up around trucks spawned Chris Swenson's passion for collecting and restoring Ford trucks and eventually sharing his fondness for the "Bumpside" generation with the world.  They also run through all the Ford generations and the origination of their nicknames.

Ford trucks are known for their generational nicknames, but the fifth generation 1967 - 1972 Ford F-Series are known for their unique three-dimensional spear or "bump" that runs from the front fender all the way back through the bedside.  Coined "Bumpsides" by enthusiasts, this generation powered to the pinnacle of American pickup production and popularity with more engine choices, a larger and more comfortable cab and more aesthetically pleasing styling. 

Chris launched @bumpin_uglys, an Instagram account dedicated to "Bumpsides", that eventually grew a massive following of enthusiasts.  That following is what made Chris Swenson the Bumpside aficionado.

Thank you Maverick Cornett (@obsmaverick / @mavsfabshop) for requesting Chris Swenson as a guest on the show!

Follow, Like and subscribe to the podcast on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and your podcast listing platform. Check out our website at classic4x4.com and reach out if we can help you sell your classic, vintage or collector truck or 4x4. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Chris Picconi (00:03.842)
Hello, classic four by four listeners and welcome to another episode of season three where we are focusing on listener requests. So today's guest was again, another requested guest by a listener. And our topic today is something pretty fun that I have a lot of interest in, which is Bumpside Fords. And so today joining us, we have Chris Swenson, who is a Bumpside Ford aficionado, enthusiast.

and collector. What's going on, Chris? How you doing, man? I am well. So for all of you out there that may not know Chris by his exact name, if you're into Fords, you are familiar with him on social media because he is basically the preeminent bumpside Ford social media influencer. And you can follow him on Instagram and the other social channels at

Chris Swenson (00:35.628)
Good, how about yourself?

Chris Picconi (01:01.206)
bumping uglies, which is by the way, an amazing social media handle.

Chris Swenson (01:07.252)
Yeah, it's yeah, yeah my wife thinks it's amazing too, you know like People ask me for people like you should make t-shirts and I'm like, I have the I'd love to send my kids to school but bump on the ugly shirt, you know, but But yeah, I don't know Yeah, yeah

Chris Picconi (01:21.029)
Yeah, that worked out.

Chris Swenson (01:24.318)
It's just something that came to be.

Chris Picconi (01:26.414)
Cool. So, uh, I appreciate, uh, you joining us today. And obviously I have to give credit where credit's due to the listener that requested, uh, Chris, um, to come on today and talk about a bumpside forwards. And that is a very loyal, loyal listener and an, and a listener that, uh, is a big supporter of the show. And his name is Maverick Cornett. Uh, Maverick is, uh, again, like I said, a, a big supporter of the show.

Many of you may know him out there in the social media world as OBSMavric or MavsFabshop. He's a huge Ford truck enthusiast and collector also. So if you don't follow him, check him out on all the social channels at OBSMavric or and MavsFabshop. And Mav, thank you very much for requesting Chris and this particular topic. So...

Chris Swenson (02:18.083)
Yeah, thank you.

Chris Picconi (02:23.17)
Chris, let's get started. And before we talk about bump sides and Ford trucks in general, tell us a little bit about yourself. Like, you know, as a little kid, like how did you end up getting this passion for Ford trucks and specifically bump sides?

Chris Swenson (02:43.13)
I don't know, I would love to have this awesome fairy tale story, but my dad's always been into old vehicles, I've been into old vehicles, they've almost always primarily been Fords. Growing up my dad had Model Ts and Model As and early VA cars, which is flathead era stuff, and I followed those footsteps and still to this day have a lot of that stuff and love those cars.

Ford pickups, I've always liked pickups. Everyone likes pickups. Like I have this theory on why people gravitate towards pickups so bad. But those pickups were escapes to me because I could not afford the 32 Fords, 34 Fords, Hot Rods, whatever. I have had them here and there. Well, I have a few today, but in my younger years, I would always have one I was working on or something. But...

You could go buy a Ford pickup back then for very little money and have just as much fun fixing it up. You can go to a junkyard and buy parts for it. Whereas early VA cars, you can't do that. So to me, it was just like, it was just a cheap thrill. And I've always had Ford pickups and it amazes me what they become today as far as popularity.

Chris Picconi (04:04.322)
And I'll tell you, those were the days where Ford pickups were a cheap thrill and they were obtainable. I mean, it doesn't matter what gen you're talking about, Ford pickups have not become, they've become very popular, but less and less attainable to a vast majority of us. So you mentioned something pretty cool, which is your theory on why people like pickups. What is your theory on why people like pickups?

Chris Swenson (04:14.115)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (04:20.654)
Exactly. Yeah.

Chris Swenson (04:29.078)
Well, so I, so, you know, back to my early Ford's, I can drive, I have a 34 Ford, which is to me like a bad ass car. And I can drive that into town. I live out of town, but I can drive it into town and people won't even, they won't even look at it because they can't identify it. They don't even know what it is. They don't care. It's just, it's just an old car where I could drive one of my beater trucks into town and I get people.

Chris Picconi (04:37.006)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Swenson (04:53.25)
honking and waving and giving me the thumbs up and ladies at the gas station talked to me and stuff and my theory is it's because Everyone had a truck or their dad had a truck or their grandpa had a truck or their best friend's dad's uncle had a truck Or whatever and so no matter what truck you're driving They see like an old pickup and it brings back this memory whatever memory that is of all like yeah oh, yeah, my grandpa had a truck just like that, you know, and so people like pickups because

Everyone you know there's an old pickup and probably everyone's life or very close to it so the older stuff you know it's It's just getting so old where people can't relate to that stuff and like I said, that's just that's a theory of mine It's I'm not saying that's truth or anything But but I've just always felt that everyone kind of can relate to a guy in an old truck

Chris Picconi (05:46.974)
And I will tell you, I can solidify that theory myself. Um, and where I love pickups is, and especially why I love bullnose pickups. Like, so I had all the Ford series. Um, like I love bull noses, right? I always look for bull noses. Uh, they've become rather unattainable recently. Um, they've had a nice run. Yeah. Oh, even the brick noses are, are doing big numbers, but, uh, my dad had an uncle, um, growing up, uh, who was a landscaper. And, uh, when I was.

Chris Swenson (06:06.422)
Yeah.

Chris Picconi (06:15.342)
growing up or my dad had an uncle. And when I was growing up, his landscaping truck was a F-150 two wheel drive manual transmission bullnose. And I just always remember going to his house and seeing that bullnose pickup truck in his driveway. And he kept it in great condition, even though it pulled the trailer all day long, always had lawn equipment in the back. And I got to tell you, it just, it had an impression.

Chris Swenson (06:27.456)
Yeah.

Chris Picconi (06:41.854)
So your theory does definitely hold true with a lot of us. So a question I ask every single guest in the podcast, which is always fun, was what was your first car or truck? When you got your driver's license, you drove it back to high school, what was that?

Chris Swenson (06:58.787)
Oh, well, there's two answers there my first the first car I ever bought was a I don't even remember the year it was a 75 probably f100 two-wheel drive long bed No, no, it was wrecked a guy my dad worked with

wrecked it and he sold it to me for 50 bucks. I did not have it long though, I never drove it. I was like 13 years old. My dad's a machinist and we went over to a guy named Jim Speaks who was this old Ford guy. And my dad was bidding a job to do some machine work for him. And in Jim's backyard was a 56 F100. Short, or no, it was a long bed, custom cab.

And I fell in love with that truck. I went over, I was sitting in it, I was looking at it. I'd been sitting there for decades. And my dad was like, do you like that truck? And I'm like, yeah, this is like the coolest truck I've ever seen. And so he ended up trading whatever job he was doing for that truck and I had to like buy it, like earn it from him more or less. And so I kinda tell people that was my first car. In reality, it was that 75 or whatever, but I only had it like a few weeks or whatever.

and we sold it, bought this 56, and I had that all through high school and stuff. I never drove it in high school. In fact, I never drove it at all. We tore it all apart, and it was one of those projects that got sidetracked because I bought other stuff, and you get your license, and I got into mid-60s Ford cars all through high school. That was kind of my thing, and I had pickups that ran and drove and stuff, and the 56 just sat there, so.

So that is the long answer to your short question.

Chris Picconi (08:47.318)
So what you're telling me is the bumpside guy didn't have, a bumpside is his first truck, he started out with a dent side and then went to a fat fender.

Chris Swenson (08:52.919)
No.

Yep.

Chris Swenson (09:02.27)
Yeah, it, yeah, I don't, I didn't have bump sides until like later in life, I guess.

Chris Picconi (09:12.122)
So that actually brings up a.

Chris Picconi (09:21.442)
That actually brings up a pretty good point. You got me, Chris? Okay, cool. So this system, this will all get edited out. My producer, who's amazing, super talented, he'll actually edit all this out. But what's great about this system is, Brent, who's my producer, he actually, this system is localized and then uploads. So a lot of this breakup, if you see a lot of breakup, you can continue to talk and the audio will still pick up.

Chris Swenson (09:24.897)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (09:31.81)
Okay.

Chris Swenson (09:36.212)
Yeah

Chris Picconi (09:51.202)
The video may not, but yeah, so it'll still pick up. So you're okay. But this will all get, this all get kind of edited all out. But we'll kick back up right now. So Chris, you mentioned something interesting earlier and we've been kind of referencing it. And that is the nicknames that all the generations of Ford trucks have. So I figure for all of our listeners, not every listener out there.

Chris Swenson (09:51.674)
Oh, okay. Okay.

Chris Swenson (10:00.864)
Okay.

Chris Picconi (10:19.146)
is a Ford truck enthusiast like yourself. So I think it'd be pretty cool to kind of walk through all the generations from gen one to gen nine and kind of just talk about their neat little, I guess, pet names or nicknames that they have. So I guess we'll start off with the first F series, right? Which was 48 to 52, which was gen one, which was

Chris Swenson (10:29.069)
Okay. Great. Okay.

Chris Swenson (10:37.94)
Right, right. Yep.

Chris Picconi (10:47.862)
which was oddly called the, I don't know why the nickname. And I know this is a little controversial. You may have a different opinion, but do you call those the bonus builds?

Chris Swenson (11:00.17)
No, but I know that term and I instantly think of those trucks when I hear it.

Chris Picconi (11:05.098)
Gotcha. Is there a nickname that you use for the Gen 1s? The 48s to 52s?

Chris Swenson (11:09.534)
I call them F1s. Well, I mean and that doesn't really count if it's like an F2 or an F6 or something but I just call them F1s because that's what they were called. So I call everything usually by it. Usually it's by its year. All of my trucks I have and stuff it's always either the color or the year. That's how I identify them.

Chris Picconi (11:29.934)
That's pretty cool, man. So let's move on to second gen then, which is 1953 to 56, which this is a unique one. We just talked about these and I mentioned, you know, fat fenders, but some enthusiasts call them effies. So what do you call them? Fat fender effies?

Chris Swenson (11:44.023)
Yep.

Chris Swenson (11:47.942)
I usually use Epi. Fat Fender, okay so back in my back to the early Ford stuff fat fenders also a term for like 41 to 48 Ford cars as well. People call those fat fender Ford's so just a little just a little knickknack for your brain there but yeah I call I call the mid 50s ones Epi's.

Chris Picconi (11:49.639)
Okay, gotcha.

Chris Picconi (12:15.798)
Gotcha. So moving on to Gen 3s, which is a very short generation. It was only 1957 to 1960, and a lot of people kind of forget about this generation, but it actually has my favorite name. And I'm interested, what do you call that, the third gens? Yeah, man, I call them fridge trucks too. I think that is honestly the coolest nickname for that short third gen from 57 to 60.

Chris Swenson (12:32.834)
Fridge truck. Yeah. I have probably owned more of those trucks. I am a bumpside guy, but my heart is probably with fridge trucks more than anything. I have a bunch of them. I have had those my whole adult life. I absolutely love those trucks and it's...

It's funny that you're right, they are almost a forgotten Ford pickup. You know, they're probably Ford's least desirable pickups, but I love those things.

Chris Picconi (13:12.054)
Yeah. And in the market, I mean, there's still value for the fridges. So, uh, moving on to, uh, fourth gen, which is 1961 to 66, which again, you get a little controversy here. Some people call them slicks. Some people call them slick sixties. What, what, what do you refer to them as? Okay.

Chris Swenson (13:15.722)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (13:32.802)
Call them a slick. I've heard slicks died. I've heard slick. You know, I just call them a slick. That's that's it

Chris Picconi (13:37.974)
Gotcha. Yeah, me too, I just call them the slicks. And then, I mean, there's no controversy on what the fifth gen is, right? From 1967 to 72, I mean, I have the aficionado here. There's no controversy. What do you call those?

Chris Swenson (13:45.455)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (13:56.571)
Bumpside, obviously.

Chris Picconi (13:58.478)
Of course, there's no other nickname, right? I've never heard any others.

Chris Swenson (14:00.878)
They're you know, and it's funny even when like people like and I've talked to people that you know I'm not saying they're a Ford pickup person at all But like you use that term and they look at you like what did you just call that like they'd net they have no idea What you're talking about. It's almost funny anymore because everyone calls them that name, you know, so

Chris Picconi (14:23.294)
I think as you get into the later generations, right, there is less and less debate. Like even when you should go into the sixth gen, like 1973 to 1979, like it's a dense side. I've never heard anybody else call it anything. Is there anything else you've, have you heard anybody else call them anything else?

Chris Swenson (14:32.127)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (14:43.671)
out. No. Just to downside.

Chris Picconi (14:44.95)
Meh, just a dense side. And then once we get into the 80s, which 1980 to 1986 is my absolute favorite Ford F series truck generation, which is the seventh gen, the bullnose, man. I am bullnose inside out, upside down. Have you ever heard any other nicknames?

Chris Swenson (15:03.627)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (15:11.654)
No, no, I haven't that and that is the one generation. I've never owned one of those I grew up in one my dad. My dad had a very nice I could 85 or six F250 super cab long bed It was two-tone it was a four-wheel drive And as a kid I grew that was that was my truck until he bought a he bought a new 95 power stroke That replaced it So, you know

from when I was a little kid up until the mid 90s. That was our family truck.

Chris Picconi (15:46.114)
That is a super cool to grow up riding around in a bull nose and then go straight into an OBS. Yeah.

Chris Swenson (15:49.662)
Yeah, full node, full node super cab into an OBS crew cab power stroke. I mean, that was a, that was a bad ass truck. So.

Chris Picconi (15:58.622)
With the, what is it, the 7-3? Yep.

Chris Swenson (16:00.478)
Yeah, yeah, 73 automatic. It was my dad's dream to own that truck and he bought it. And man, it was, it'd be like buying a brand new, you know, King Ranch or a Platinum or something like right now. It was just an XLT, but that's what they had, you know? And it was a two-tone, it was a very neat truck.

Chris Picconi (16:21.59)
That's cool. And I will say that, you know, I think a lot of people's dream is to have an OBS with the seventh grade in it, even today.

Chris Swenson (16:29.318)
Yeah, yeah, they are. That is another truck. Very, very. I've owned a few of them. They are absolutely awesome pickups. And they're another truck that amazes me that it wasn't that long ago when they were I don't want to say they're worthless. But I mean, they were just old trucks and now they're very collectible and the market for them is insane. And I've always loved that body style. You know, they're such a good looking truck.

Chris Picconi (16:55.234)
So we talked about bull noses and then we just went on a tangent with OBSs, but we skipped a generation right there, which was from 87 to 91, which is an interesting one, but it's the brick noses.

Chris Swenson (17:01.394)
Yeah, we did. We did.

Chris Swenson (17:09.962)
Yeah, it's a brick node, that's what we call them. Yep.

Chris Picconi (17:12.122)
Yep, I've never heard them called anything else. And kind of like the fridges, for a period of time the brick noses were like a forgotten generation. But recently I've noticed in the market, brick noses are doing like bull nose numbers.

Chris Swenson (17:21.81)
Yeah. And I think a lot of that is because, and I am not a professional on that generation, pretty much anything post-bumpside I'm not a pro on, but I feel like OBS trucks took off so fast and hard and they have such a following and brick noses are very similar and that's only my opinion.

You know running gear wise even body wise they're very similar other than the nose and the dash and stuff And and I feel that you know guys are like man So BS trucks so much money and I can buy this brick news which is very similar for you know a fraction of that and it's still a really badass truck and you know sooner and They're also get to the age where they're collectible whether people like them or not They're hitting an age where they're collectible and people collect them and they find really nice, you know trucks and there's no denying that the

No matter what it is, if it's a really nice older pickup, there's someone out there that is gonna love them.

Chris Picconi (18:27.014)
And you actually bring up a good point, you know, all boats rise with the tide. So, you know, when you have bumps and dents and bull noses and OBSs rising, you know, obviously they're gonna bring the bolt, the brick noses up with them. Took a little while, but it happened.

Chris Swenson (18:39.698)
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, and I also feel that nearly every old pickup, Bumpside is, is a, is at least to me is a huge player in this that for a long time, they were just old trucks. They were absolutely old trucks and you only bought one if you needed a truck to do work with or whatever. And then all of a sudden it's like, man, when did these things become collectible and people are fixing them up and parts are getting hard to find and

And these trucks are bringing decent money at, you know, when they sell and stuff. And it, it's funny to see that transition transition. And every truck does that, you know, where, where for a long period of slice, it's just an old used truck, no matter how nice or how clapped out it is. It's just an old truck. But then they all hit that point where they're old enough where, where they become collectible.

Chris Picconi (19:32.83)
Yep, everything runs in cycles and hey, at one point, nobody wanted OBSs and now everybody wants, you know, crew cab OBSs right now are doing like psychotic numbers. I mean, people just can't get enough of them. I understand why because they're dope.

Chris Swenson (19:34.943)
It does.

Chris Swenson (19:38.591)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (19:46.641)
Yeah.

Yeah, they're very that the last OBS I had was a crew cab long bed f-350 power stroke and I loved it But I didn't drive it enough to justify owning it compared to what I could sell it for like they were there They're getting stupid, you know, so that was a few years ago to that today It breaks my heart to know what that truck could be worth today. But oh well

Chris Picconi (20:12.49)
What amazes me with, especially the OBSs, and we didn't talk about, I actually, that's the last generation to talk about, which is the ninth generation, which was 1992 to 1996, which was the OBS Fords, not to be confused with other OBSs, which were the GM OBSs, which shared similar model years, but the original OG OBS is the Fords.

Chris Swenson (20:33.772)
Yep.

Chris Picconi (20:38.974)
I look at those things out in the market all the time, and I have to say, one of the most unique things is a 7.3 SuperCrew OBS, right, that has like under 200,000 miles is considered low mileage.

Chris Swenson (20:54.482)
Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. I even see them when it's like 300,000 miles, low miles for a year, which is technically correct, although I don't view 300,000 miles on anything as being low miles, but you know, it's that.

And those are actually, I do have, well, I have several bucket list trucks, but for, I think just two or maybe three years, they build an F 250 crew cab short box. And I'm a, and I'm a short box kind of a guy. And I would love a night. I think it was like 96 and seven or maybe 95, six, seven F 250 crew cab short box power stroke. I mean, five speed would be the ultimate, but that is a truck I've never owned and always wanted one.

getting priced to where it's like, ah, you know, probably never one of those things, but it's fun to dream, you know?

Chris Picconi (21:46.858)
So post 96 to today, there aren't really any, some people call them classics, but they call them, there's no real fun nickname. It's just like, their model codes, their P model codes that Ford had. So there's nothing really more to talk about when it comes to nicknames outside, past the ninth generation, but it's always fun to talk about those nicknames. But let's switch gears a little bit and talk about bump sites, right? So why?

Chris Swenson (22:01.739)
Yeah.

Chris Picconi (22:15.582)
Like at what point in your life were you like, hey, I love these things, you know, I am going to do a deep dive into them. And then at some point, I'm going to create a very witty social media account, right? Dedicated to them that is going, that eventually ended up becoming, you know, basically the account, the social media account out.

their influencer account out there that has the most followers dedicated to bump sites.

Chris Swenson (22:50.605)
Um, I can. Well, I can. I can answer all of those questions. So so back to fridge trucks. I love.

57 to 60 pickups especially 59 and 64 wheel drives 1959 was the first year Ford started doing an in-house four-wheel drive and I've had those trucks forever and I built over the summer I built a Really and I also have to say my favorite trucks of all time are Original trucks original paint trucks unrestored trucks that is bar none my favorite kind of truck Just personal preference

So I spent the summer building this 59 Ford, half ton four wheel drive, and I absolutely loved it. It was one of my favorite colors. I bought a really rough 59 four wheel drive, running driving truck, that the body was shot, and then I had a really nice two wheel drive body, and I put them together. I spent a whole summer and put them together. Just something to do, it was fun. And I got it done, and on my Instagram account, I was posting pictures of it, and a gentleman by the name of Jim,

reached out to me and he kept bugging me wanting to buy this truck and I'm like, well, it's not for sale. It's not for sale. And I'd never talked to this guy before and he kept kind of hounded me on it. And finally he threw out a number that really got my attention. And this was a while ago. This was before trucks are what they are today. Nowadays, it's like a feeding frenzy. Trucks come up for sale. People are wanting to buy them. They ship them all over, whatever. This was back when it's like in my eyes, like, yeah, it was a neat old truck, but it was just a neat old truck, you know?

So I caved and I sold it and it left me without a truck. And it was fall and I love driving old pickups in the fall and in the snow where I live that we get a lot of snow. And I was like, man, I gotta buy a truck. I gotta buy a truck. Like, what am I gonna get? I'm gonna buy a Bumpside. Like I've had Bumpsides, they were just old trucks. They were becoming kind of classic. And I was like, yeah, those are bad-ass trucks. I'm gonna buy a Bumpside. So what do you do? I hop on eBay, instantly find a truck.

Chris Swenson (24:54.926)
It's a 69 F-250 four-wheel drive, Warts original paint, was Royal Maroon, had a big winch bumper on it, big worn bumper, had 916s on it, which I put on like everything. And I was like, that's it, that's the truck I want. And it was in Oregon, which is fairly close to me. So I bid on it and I win it. And I was all happy and I thought I paid too much for it. I paid $6,300 for that truck on eBay.

This was like five years ago. And I mean, yeah, and I remember telling my dad, like, yeah, I'd bid like five grand on it, thinking like that was a ton of money, you know? And so I get this truck and I get it home and my dad had a bumpside project he was doing and my brother had one as well that I'd sold him a 67 F-250 four-wheel drive.

And so, you know, I was like, yeah, well, bump sites, that's really cool. And then, you know, in my head, I'm thinking like, Oh, I should start a page for bump site pickups because I looked and there really, there really wasn't any. I mean, there's, there's people that are into bump sites and they post like their personal projects and stuff, but there wasn't just a page at least that I found that was dedicated to that generation of pickup. And so, you know, I, I created that name, which I'm kind of shocked it was even available, but.

Um, you know, just kind of something stupid like I have a stupid sense of humor. I really do and it's like Oh, yeah, this is stupid. What a stupid name I'm gonna start a bump site page called bumping uglies. Like how dumb is that? you know and it and it just took off and pretty soon like it had a bunch of followers and And and they're all legit like people like people I get messages every day on that account people either saying how much they like what I post or can you post my truck or

Or a lot of it is, you know, I'm looking I want a bumpside pickup. How do you find so many bumps? I pick ups. I really want one That's probably the question I get asked the most is can you help me find one or where should I look for one? Or and there really is no good answer that I find them like everyone else like usually on marketplace or Craigslist or driving around out in the woods or you know, whatever but it truly amazes me how popular those trucks have become and how

Chris Swenson (27:09.618)
genuine and how many good people I've met through those trucks and something that just kind of started out as like a joke.

Chris Picconi (27:19.694)
That's super cool though, that's fun. And I agree with you. I mean, the truck community is, it's the biggest, smallest community out there and how many friends that I've made, across the country, but also locally, just through being in the classic truck and four by four space and, and just having a common interest with other people. You just drop some knowledge, which I did not know.

Chris Swenson (27:27.251)
It is, yeah.

Chris Swenson (27:32.043)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (27:35.762)
Absolutely, yep.

Chris Picconi (27:44.758)
which is 1959 was the first year that Ford did a factory four by four. So prior to that, we've talked about this on the podcast before that, you know, there were upfitters and conversion companies out there. Coleman was a big one, but.

Chris Swenson (27:51.5)
Yep.

Chris Swenson (28:01.915)
Yep, Armand Harrington, Napco, yep.

Chris Picconi (28:04.854)
And then Napco is really big with Ford, right?

Chris Swenson (28:08.294)
Marmon Harrington was more Ford, Napco was more GM, however both would do either trucks. I think a Napco Ford would have been like a big truck, they did like bigger truck conversions, and Marmon Harrington was kind of, you know, all of them did whatever, but Napco was, I think they started out where you could actually order a GM or Chevrolet pickup.

with a Napco conversion. So you could, it was not a factory built truck, but I believe you could order it with that conversion done. And I am not a GM knowledge person at all, but I love all old four wheel drives. I truly do love all older four wheel drive trucks and Jeeps and whatever. I just stick with Ford, but.

You know, there's no, there's no hate on, you know, some of those early napcos and stuff are absolutely awesome. And, um, I think, I think GM, um, was, was one of the first that you could order a truck with that conversion so that when it came to the dealer, it was already done. I I'm not a hundred percent on that, but I've read or heard that some.

Chris Picconi (29:22.058)
Yeah, it's a, that's pretty neat. You know, I've had, we did an entire episode on the, on the history of, of four by fours and, uh, and that was something I didn't know when we talked about in that episode. Uh, it was actually last season, um, with, uh, one of the people from, uh, ATCA. And, uh, that was, he actually went through the entire history of the conversions, all the companies and, you know, the first day you should listen to it, it was last season, um, it was, it was

Chris Swenson (29:45.57)
That's awesome.

Chris Swenson (29:49.603)
Yeah, I will listen to that. I have not heard that one.

Chris Picconi (29:52.478)
Yeah, that was a pretty cool one. Very informative. But I had no idea, one thing we didn't talk about is I did not know that 1959 was the first year. Again, with the fridge trucks, that you could get a factory four by four from Ford. That's pretty neat.

Chris Swenson (30:09.601)
Yep, only F100 and F250, which Ford obviously did up through, I think, 79, you could get an F350 four-wheel drive. That was the first year for that. So again, if it was a big truck in any generation up into the 80s or 90s possibly, it still would have been a conversion truck.

Chris Picconi (30:31.102)
Wow, that's interesting. So while we're talking about these little like, you know, quirks and idiosyncrasies, like every generation of truck in general, especially the Ford trucks, I'd say out of any make out there, the Ford trucks have their quirks. So what are the bump side quirks? Mechanically, cosmetically, what are they?

Chris Swenson (30:37.102)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.

Chris Swenson (30:58.174)
I think well this will wrap into probably any generation but rust is always an issue Especially on a four-wheel drive and there's areas that you look at that you scratch your head on like Why would they engineer this way? This is a pocket that's just gonna rust out You know and other than that I'm trying to rack my brain and see forward This is probably the biggest one, but it's also one of the reasons I like those trucks so much and this

only applies to four wheel drives, but Ford's four wheel drive, F250 four wheel drives, you could get just manual steering or a really crappy power assist steering and drum brakes and a little Dana 44 and a Spicer 24 transfer case. Again, bump side only. I know Dentside, they upgraded them and stuff where you look at a GM product and

You could get full power steering, disc brakes, you get all these automatics, all these luxury items and I'm not here to debate which is the better truck because that's not why we're here but why did it take Ford so long to make a truck that kind of kept up with its competition? On the flip side to that, I think bumpside trucks are so badass and they are like true four wheel drives. The way they are designed, it's like this is designed.

to go where you can't get another truck and blah, blah. And you're only gonna buy one if you truly needed four wheel drive. And I love those trucks because they drive like an implement, you know? But there are a lot of people that wish that there were easier upgrades, you know, instead of just sliding another axle under, it's like, man, I wish I could put disc brakes on this or why is it so hard to put power steering on this and stuff. And so I feel that, you know, as much as I like them the way they are, that's kind of probably a downfall of those trucks is just, it took...

Ford so long to update them to be a little more modern. But, you know, aside from that, I don't know, the seams on the bedside, that's, you know, they rust there. That was, I always like, man, why did Ford do that? You know, it's always little stuff like that. And every truck I've owned has an idiosyncrasy of some sort. They all do. And so you just...

Chris Swenson (33:15.434)
You learn to live with them and love them no matter what. And, you know, they just are what they are.

Chris Picconi (33:23.522)
Yep, that's pretty cool. So let's talk about your personal collection. So I know you talked a little bit about some of the stuff that you do have. And I guess let's start off with the bump sides. What bump sides do you have in your own personal collection?

Chris Swenson (33:29.302)
Thank you.

Chris Swenson (33:39.846)
Currently I have a 1969 F-250 four-wheel drive. If you follow my Instagram page you probably know it. It's orange. It's Cordova orange. That truck has a unique story to it that when I bought it was just a farm truck and it was a flatbed. It had a aftermarket flatbed on it and Cordova orange is a one-year only color. They only had it in 1969 and if you're not super up on the bump sides

The beds on a bump side, you know, you could, the beds all interchange no matter what they're off of, but a four-wheel drive never had a toolbox on the side which some of them, some Ford pickups do, and like a camper special would have an auxiliary fuel tank which meant there's a filler sticking out of the side of the box and stuff. So I bought this truck, I love this truck, and I wanted to look for a bed for it. The truck is original paint, it is unrestored, and it shows very well.

That's like a needle in a haystack because I could not have a bed that had a toolbox or an auxiliary tank and it had To be a 69 bed in that 69 only color and I actually found one and put it on the truck and Even telling people and knowing it that bed was not on that truck since day one like it It is it matches absolutely perfect and that is one of my favorite trucks is that is that 69?

Chris Picconi (35:05.262)
So you, let's get this straight. So you had a rare one-year-only color and you did a bed swap and found a donor truck that had that rare one-year-only color bed.

Chris Swenson (35:16.479)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (35:20.414)
Yeah, yeah, I bought the truck in Wyoming side unseen only for the bed the guy bought it from it was an f-100 two-wheel drive I did it was it was a single color not a two-tone. No toolbox. No, no gas tank filler in the side No, no dense no, right, you know it actually It could not have been a better donor bed. So Anyway, that's probably that is one of my favorite trucks I own

I get asked all the time if I'll sell it. The answer is no. I mean, it's like it I love that truck. I absolutely love that truck. So

Chris Picconi (35:56.642)
So all of our listeners know that Orange Trucks, I have a little place in my heart for Orange Trucks and I daily drive an Orange Truck. My first classic four by four, our classic truck was a CJ-7 in Omaha Orange 81, which a lot of our listeners know I mentioned on a previous episode, that was my truck. I said I would never, the one vehicle I had in my collection, I said I would never sell and I actually did sell it.

Chris Swenson (36:02.358)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (36:13.726)
Awesome.

Chris Picconi (36:25.486)
recently. But it happened, you know, it was sitting in the corner in my warehouse. I wasn't driving a lot. I was really only using it as like my beach truck and for fishing. And you know what, I just got to the point where, and this is how I am, I feel guilty if I'm not using a vehicle. So even though I had it for 12 years, it was like, you know, my first love.

Chris Swenson (36:25.738)
Yeah, it happened.

Chris Swenson (36:38.666)
Right, right.

Chris Swenson (36:48.373)
I feel the same way, yep.

Chris Picconi (36:56.411)
I said, you know what, it's just time to part with it, move it on, let somebody else enjoy it. And ironically, just through a bunch of coincidences, a guy in my town, I auctioned it off nationally and a guy in my town ended up buying it. And I still, you know, that's actually the best part. And this is what made me okay with selling it was, I see him and his family driving around it and all the time.

Chris Swenson (37:01.344)
Right, right. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

Chris Swenson (37:20.699)
Yeah.

Chris Picconi (37:20.966)
and I see them with smiles, he has two little girls, smiles on their faces, enjoying it, and that's what makes me not regret selling that truck. But, outside of that tangent, is this the first orange vehicle or truck you've ever owned?

Chris Swenson (37:29.386)
Yeah, I absolutely get it.

Chris Swenson (37:37.862)
Um, yeah, I mean, I might've, there might've been something else at some point, but it would have been just a parts truck or something. But yeah, this is the first orange vehicle I've ever owned that I've actually cared about.

Chris Picconi (37:51.138)
So do you notice this phenomenon where, doesn't matter what truck you drive, the second you take that orange truck out on the road, people are drawn to it like flies on you know what.

Chris Swenson (38:03.438)
Yeah people love that truck it's Cordova orange is kind of a burnt pumpkin II kind of orange And in my eyes, it's a very pretty color I and I'm not an orange like when I hear orange truck I think like construction truck or something, but this is like a burnt you know late 60s early 70s kind of color and And it's a custom cab. So does side trim and aluminum grill

Chris Picconi (38:20.044)
Hehehe

Chris Swenson (38:31.59)
It sits a little bit taller than stock with tall skinny tires. It's just, to me, it's just a really good looking older four wheel drive, you know. It's not super loud and screaming, hey look at me, but you definitely notice it.

Chris Picconi (38:44.935)
That's cool. Any other bump sides that you got sitting out in the garage?

Chris Swenson (38:49.694)
Yeah, I've got a Lunar Green 67 F-250 Crew Cab. That's a hopefully very future project. It's a truck I tried to buy for years. It sat out in a field south of me. And it's a pretty good truck, but it's a 67. It's a Crew Cab. And it's one of my favorite colors, Lunar Green, which is like turquoise. And...

That one, I have another 67 crew cab. It's an F350 long bed dually that I bought very recently. It just popped up for sale and I went bought it. It's a color called frost, frost turquoise, I believe, or frost blue, I can't even remember, but it's kind of a light bluish color. I've got another lunar green 67 F100 two wheel drive. I just bought last weekend a 71.

Highboy F250 four wheel drive that's been on marketplace forever. I'm very weak. Like when trucks pop up, like I just, I watch them. I can't help it. A lot of times I'm like, man, I hope someone goes and snags that's because I know myself. And, and this 71 I just bought was that situation. It sat on marketplace for a long time. It was very high priced and it was getting cheaper and cheaper and it got cheap enough where I was like, man, I better, I better go look at this thing. And, and now I own it. So.

There's bump sites come and go, you know, I love those trucks. I live in an area, fortunately, where they're still around. You know, I do know that in other parts of the country, those trucks really don't exist unless they're a guy that collected them. Or, you know, they're not like here. You can drive in a 20 mile radius and probably count 20 of them sitting around. They're still here, still working or just sitting, waiting to be, you know.

rejuvenated.

Chris Picconi (40:49.833)
Cool. What else you got? What other Ford trucks you got out in your?

Chris Swenson (40:52.75)
Oh man. Um, I have a really genuinely nice 1960 F 100 four wheel drive. It's original paint. It's light blue. Probably the night back to the fridges. Uh, it, I wanted the nicest all original, um, fridge four wheel drive. I could find, and I found this truck. It is a very, it's got a grill guard. It's a factory grill guard truck. It's a custom cab.

Chris Picconi (41:04.674)
Back to the fridges.

Chris Swenson (41:21.278)
I love that it drives like a brand new truck. I love it. And I have a 59 crew cab that I just converted to four wheel drive. Fridge trucks, when Ford built a fridge truck, four wheel drive, they essentially just took a two wheel drive and just, just like a conversion company would do, they just bolted the four wheel drive stuff under them. They're not like a bump side or a newer truck where the frames are totally different and everything's different. You need a whole other frame. Like that's not the case at all.

So this is a 59 F250 crew cab and I just wrapped up a four wheel drive conversion on it. I bought a parts truck. It was a 60 F250 four wheel drive and that gave me all the pieces needed to convert it. I have a little 57 short wide box. I've got a, oh, I have another bump side. I forgot a Holley green flatbed. It's just kind of my work truck.

It's a F250 four-wheel drive. I love four-wheel drives and, you know, two-wheel drive pickups, I've had a lot of them and I love them, but nothing gets the blood flowing like a four-wheel drive to me, you know? So there's a lot of four-wheel drives around. I have a lot of parts trucks. There's just a lot of stuff here, so.

Chris Picconi (42:38.122)
That's fun. Hey, I guess you're fortunate to live in an area where you have space and there's a place to store all this stuff. I unfortunately don't. I gotta tell you, if I had like, my dream is a couple acres and a pole barn where I could just pack it, pack it tight with anything and everything.

Chris Swenson (42:53.278)
Yeah. Yeah, I have 20 acres and a couple buildings and, and I tell you what, if you buy something like that, all you'll do is fill it up because I'm already like out of, yeah, I'm, I'm already out of space. I'm like, Oh, what am I going to do now? But it's all in fun.

Chris Picconi (43:07.054)
But I would happily fill it.

Chris Picconi (43:14.006)
Yeah, of course. I mean, that's what gets the blood flowing. So any other trucks you want to highlight or talk about or projects you got coming up?

Chris Swenson (43:24.062)
Like I said that lunar green 67 I want to do that 60 set this is like a big this is a big debate but there Supposedly Ford never built a 67 f-250 four-wheel-drive crew cab there are people that say that they did and Again, I'm not here to argue that that's not the point But I'm gonna build that truck as if it was a stock Ford f-250 four-wheel-drive. So

It'll be original paint, lunar green, it's a short box. All crew cab four wheel drives were short boxes. So that's an upcoming project. And there's always projects. My little 57 short box, I'm right in the middle of an engine swap on it. That 59 crew cab, I just, like I said, I just wrapped up the conversion on it for four wheel drive. And there's always something to work on around here, always.

Chris Picconi (44:18.422)
Hey, that's the advantage of owning old cars and trucks in general is, oh, there's always something to work on. And it doesn't matter what it is, you know, even when you get to the point where you're like, okay, everything's right where I need it to be. Hey, let me go take a truck out and you go put the key in it and turn. You're like, oh, you're like, oh man, there's always something like they will always keep you busy.

Chris Swenson (44:24.489)
There's always something to do, yeah.

Chris Swenson (44:33.908)
Yeah.

Chris Swenson (44:37.802)
Nothing.

Chris Swenson (44:42.018)
There's always something to do. Yes, yes indeed.

Chris Picconi (44:45.782)
That is, that's pretty cool, man. Well, I gotta tell you, Chris, I can't thank you enough for your time today, the knowledge that you bestowed on all of us. You know, bump sides are really cool. Four trucks in general are an amazing conversation to talk about any generation, but especially the bump side generation. And I'm glad we actually talked to talk about the fridges. You know, I didn't expect that going into it.

Chris Swenson (44:51.766)
Thank you.

Chris Picconi (45:13.494)
today, but being able to talk about this, the fridges, which are like the unknown, like the most under the most like unappreciated generation. So if there's one takeaway, I'm really happy we got to talk about bonsais, but really happy we got to talk about that fridge generation, which is that short three years.

Chris Swenson (45:19.36)
They are.

Chris Swenson (45:25.482)
You know, like I said, fridge trucks, they hold a very, very special place in my heart. And I've always had one. I have not always had a bump side. I've had a lot of bump sides over the years, but those fridge trucks, for whatever reason, they tug at my heartstrings and, and they're, they're getting very hard to find. Like

like junk ones, you know, you can still drag those home, but like that F100 four wheel drive I had, I wanted the nicest one I could find. If you want the nicest F100 four wheel drive bump side you can find, you can find one, but finding a second year four wheel drive that wasn't run into the ground is very hard. So I feel very, very blessed to have that truck.

Chris Picconi (46:11.426)
Well, especially when they only had a three year model run, which was the shortest model run of pretty much all the F series. So...

Chris Swenson (46:18.134)
Four technically, but yeah, they were, and it's funny, there's so many parts to a fridge truck that is not like a 56 and not like a 61 and up. Like they are their own unique bird, and you know, they have a hydraulic clutch system. Like Ford didn't use a hydraulic clutch on anything until when, the 80s or so, I think the 90s, you could get a hydraulic clutch in a pickup. Again, I'm not a pro on those, but.

from 57 to 60, they were a hydraulic clutch and they are troublesome. And you can see that Ford did that and then went away from it in 61. And it was like, yeah, we're not doing that again. So they definitely have their idiosyncrasies.

Chris Picconi (47:03.102)
I appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us in the Classic 4x4 Podcast. And for all of our listeners out there, if you don't follow Chris and his bumpin' uglies, and that's B-U-M-P-I-N underscore U-G-L-Y-S, his bumpin' uglies account, you've got to. He has some great content, some great trucks out there. And I gotta tell you, a lot of that stuff, I didn't realize a lot of stuff you posted.

Chris Swenson (47:06.719)
Absolutely.

Chris Swenson (47:15.702)
Hehehehehehe

Chris Picconi (47:32.37)
U-Post is actually some of your own stuff. So I was looking in researching our conversation today, I'm looking at a lot of those trucks and saying, wow, that's pretty cool, that's pretty cool. Now as we're talking about them, I didn't realize they are yours, right? I just assumed that a lot of it was reposts.

Chris Swenson (47:46.364)
Yeah. I try to I try to post stuff, you know that other than my own stuff like that's kind of the point that I can't I do post a lot of my stuff because you know it's my account and that's what you do but.

If anyone if any listener out there like has a bumpside pickup I'd love to see it posted like send me a picture of it. Like just make sure it's a decent picture I don't I don't like I call it posting filler where you post just to post like I try not to do that So get a good picture your truck and send it to me and I'd be happy to post it up Like that page is to celebrate those trucks and then and the dudes and gals that really like them, you know, like

That's the best part of trucks to me is the people that own them and the people that you meet along.

Chris Picconi (48:31.982)
That's awesome. Yeah, you're right. It's all about community. So appreciate your time. All of our listeners out there on all the social channels, make sure you follow Chris and bump and uglies. And hopefully everybody took away a little piece of knowledge today like I did. So Chris, thanks a lot, man. And be well, man.

Chris Swenson (48:48.691)
Thank you so much. You too.

Chris Picconi (48:54.518)
All right, we're good, buddy. Yeah, so we're, I just gotta wait a minute or two because you have to upload, because you have a.

Chris Swenson (48:55.943)
Awesome.

Chris Swenson (48:59.744)
Thank you.