Old School. That’s what the seller calls this 71-year-old daily driver, and I couldn’t agree more. It has a certain rough-around-the-edges look that you just can’t fake. Most survivor pickups we feature don’t come with palm trees, sunshine, and a California backdrop but this one does. It’s been a California truck all of its life since the day it rolled off Ford’s Long Beach factory way back in 1951. This cream dream is for sale here on craigslist for $18,750 and thanks again for our pickup pal, T.J., for sending this tip our way.

I guess one of the most famous 1951 Ford F-1 pickups is the faded red one from the old Sanford and Son TV series. I can imagine having “Sanford & Son Salvage” on the doors of this one as well. Nothing is shared about the truck’s history or what it’s been up to since Harry Truman was president back in 1951. It’s obviously got plenty of bumps, bruises, scrapes, rust spots, and all the other imperfections that give an old pickup truck “character.” But that’s why I like it. The seller does some name dropping and says a well-known classic car mechanic (Tim Krehbiel) has completely gone over the truck mechanically and has tuned it up and made all the necessary repairs needed to make it roadworthy. (And the new owner will be given copies of all the recent repair and maintenance work performed.)

The interior has the classic old school, mostly-metal spartan 1950s vibe and looks good overall, even though I’m not sure how accurate the bench seat cover is and there’s an opening where a radio was. The dash was redesigned for ’51 and I read that this is the first year the manual transmission moved from the floor to “3-on-the-tree.” The floors appear to be solid.

You gotta love the utter simplicity that greets you when you raise the hood. I’m assuming this is the standard 215-cubic inch inline-6 cylinder engine that generated 101 horsepower when new. Nothing is mentioned about any rebuilds and the mileage is given as 29,277, with one guesses has probably rolled over once. The seller states that the engine runs strong and the truck overall is mechanically sound. There’s also a mention of spare parts for the truck’s body in case the next owner wants to pursue a full truck body restoration but no details are given.

This 1951 F-1 represents the third year of Ford’s historic 1948-1952 first generation F-1 truck series and marks the first year of a major front end redesign. Gone were the horizontal grille and inboard headlamps of the ’48-’50 models. A new single bar grille with 3 large “teeth” and headlamps moved farther out gave the F-1 a bit of a more aggressive look. (Seeing these trucks as a kid, I thought it looked like they were wearing braces with that big tin grin upfront.) The F-1 was the lightest of Ford’s truck series (1/2 ton) and were available as a pickup or panel truck. Overall, 279,693 pickups and 22,421 panel trucks found new owners in 1951 and were put right to work. If you were lucky enough to be the next owner of this old pickup, would you leave it as is and enjoy it as a daily driver? I know I would.