The 1968 Ford Ranger, a classic favorite ride, was owned by one man for more than half of his life: Editor’s note: We pulled this January 2018 piece from the My Favorite Ride archive because Laura Lane is on vacation this week. Two typographical errors that were present in the original column have been fixed. At the age of 83, Fred Rainey passed away in June 2023.
Harold Rainey purchased a brand-new Ford Ranger pickup from Bloomfield’s H & H Motors fifty years ago.
When he ran out of money a year later, he exchanged it for his brother’s 1968 Ford truck. In order to repay the Ranger over a two-year period in $67.34 monthly installments, Fred Rainey took on his sibling’s $1,500 bank loan.
That Ford Ranger has been in the possession of the 79-year-old Monroe County resident for 49 years, or more than half of his life. Rainey is reminded of his brother, who passed some years ago at the age of 67, by this family treasure. Seth Query, the grandson of Fred and Susie Rainey,
When I stopped by the Raineys’ garage, I saw it parked in the sun, straight and shiny, along with a 1979 El Camino in another garage near the house. That is a tale for a different time. With a 360-horsepower engine and a steering-column three-speed shifter, the vehicle has only 126,000 kilometers on it.
According to Rainey, the truck began to exhibit signs of aging around 15 years ago. The engine block was shattered and covered in rust. He had to choose between having the truck refurbished from the inside out or letting it go for scrap. He decided to buy the car he cherished.
In 2004, before the company relocated from neighboring rural Scotland to Bloomfield, her husband dropped off the Ford Ranger to Minks Body Shop. For a year, the truck remained there. A year. Rainey was patient and never came in to see how things were going.
The truck appears to have been waxed by hand yesterday. Rainey acknowledged that the night before my visit, he took ten minutes to feather-dust the truck. “No, I had it detailed three years ago at a place down in Bedford,” he replied. “It doesn’t get out very often.”
The truck has drawn attention at the occasional vehicle show and carried the Monroe County Fair Queen in Ellettsville’s Fall Festival parade. As people pass by, Rainey usually puts a Jim Reeves tape into the 8-track player.
He recalls one event when the judges were more interested in fast Ford Mustangs than vintage pickups, at a Ford dealership in the town of Washington, in southern Indiana. Confused, he remarked, “They walked right past this truck.” “Isn’t that unbelievable?”
Next Saturday, October 26, from 9 to 11 a.m., Laura Lane will host a unique Cars & Coffee event at Butler Winery Vineyard, located at 6200 E. Robinson Road. Do you have a vehicle or truck tale to share? Laura Lane, a reporter for My Favorite Ride,
Source: Classic My Favorite Ride: The 1968 Ford Ranger one man owned more than half his life