The Mustang line got a radical redesign for 1974, a year late for the first oil crisis. It was now officially known as Mustang II. At 175 inches long, this generation was the shortest in length, and was based on Pinto architecture. While the car itself is scorned by purists to this day, it was […]
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Ford Explorer No, not talking about the venerable compact/midsize SUV of the modern day. Back in the day, Explorer was a trim level of the fullsize Ford pickup line. It was available with all body styles and all weight ranges. However, the Explorer package was most prevalent on the F100 and F150 platforms. This was […]
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Ford Ranger The Ford Ranger was a top trim package of the big pickups and even the later Broncos until 1982. At minimum, the package added cloth and more padding to the seats, as well as extra brightwork throughout. Two sub-levels of trim were also available during this era. These were Ranger XLT, and Ranger […]
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LTD The top car in the Ford lineup for 1973 was the LTD. Base and Brougham were the two versions sold. Body styles included 2 door hardtop, 4-door hardtop, and 4-door post. Wagons had their own model names this year, so watch for those areas. The LTD was even available with a Police Package for […]
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Ford Bronco The Bronco was made in two stages. The first stage was the ‘small Bronco’ stage. It was around from 1966-1977 and we’ll start with the 1973 version. The start of the smog-era for the Bronco had some changes. The biggest variance was that the pickup version was no longer available, only the SUV […]
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Ford Ranchero Ranchero It was Ford’s sedan-pickup rival to the Chevrolet El Camino and GMC Sprint. In 1973, the Ranchero was Ford’s ‘sedan-pickup’ version of the Torino, and it too was in the second year of a new generation. Throughout the Torino / Ranchero ‘marriage’, the two vehicles shared most of their options, including the […]
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Ford Custom 500 Ford’s “no frills” Custom 500 shared in a ’73 redesign with the other big Fords. It was primarily sold in a 4-door post body style. There was a station wagon version called Ranch Wagon, which we will cover separately. Engines ranged from a standard 351 CID 2bbl V8, with 400 CID 2bbl […]
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