Restored 1953 Ford F-100 Sold on Bring a Trailer Might Be the One That Got Away

Vehicle restorations are tricky. It's often hard to find parts for a car or truck that was produced half a century ago, and restomods don't always produce the desired results. Sometimes, though, the restoration hits all of the right marks, which is what we saw when this 1953 Ford F-100 Deluxe sold on Bring a Trailer recently. Better yet, it went for a reasonable price that brings the world of online car auctions back to earth, if ever so slightly.

There’s nothing quite like vintage American pickup trucks, and this one’s about as classy as they come. The truck’s creamy white paint job, narrow whitewall tires, and perfect red interior complete the package. Nothing made in the last 50 years even comes close to the level of style this thing has, and the fact that the restoration work took the truck back to factory fresh instead of turning it into a hot rod makes it even better. Hot rods are still great, of course, but everything has its place.

The Ford is powered by a 239-cubic-inch flathead V-8 and utilizes a four-speed manual gearbox. Both were rebuilt when the truck was restored in the 1990s. There's a 90-mile-per-hour speedometer, which seems a bit optimistic, and the odometer shows just 17,000 miles, though the seller notes that true mileage is unknown. We do know that only 4,000 miles have been tacked on since the restoration.

The Bring a Trailer tax is real, but this Ford appears to have broken the chain. The truck’s $23,000 final selling price is around half of the value that Hagerty’s price tool assigns to Concours condition vehicles and $5,000 less than those in excellent condition. Looking at the quality and care that was put into the truck since its restoration nearly 30 years ago, we’d guess its value lands somewhere around the “excellent” mark, especially considering all of the spare parts and documentation that went with it. 

After seeing so many vehicles go for far more money than we’d ever expected, it’s refreshing to see one sell for what could almost be considered a reasonable price. 

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