Let's go through a rundown of everything that's been changed.
First of all, you'll notice the pages are a bit wider. When I first started FORDification back in 2003, I had the pages optimized for 800x600 resolution, since many folks were still running their computer monitors at that resolution. However, a vast majority of visitors now are viewing the site with their monitors set at 1024x768 (or greater), so I felt it was time to bump things up a notch size-wise. If you're monitor is set to 1024x768, it should fit perfectly on your screen. Most of the site's page content hasn't been rewritten, just rearranged to fit into the new wider template.
The front page is the page most changed. You'll notice that down the left side, you'll be able to see the last 10 active topics posted on the forums, as well as a random image and the most recent addition from the new Factory Literature Library (more on this in a moment). At the top of the page, the small image of a tan pickup that's been there since the site's inception now has some friends. I've initiated an image rotation, so that every time the page is visited and/or refreshed, a new image will appear. I've got 25 different truck pictures that will rotate, all pictures scanned from vintage factory literature.
A new section of the site is the Ford Truck Safety Recalls (Light-Duty 1967-1979). This is a complete listing of all recalls initiated for light-duty trucks. Some cool info here, just for general knowledge.
Another new section...err...photo gallery, is the shots I took several years ago of a low-mileage '71 F100. There are 102 images on this page, in both low and high resolution.
Low-Mileage 1971 Ford F-100 Custom LWB Gallery
You'll definitely want to check out the wiring diagram section. I spent about 6 weeks (nearly 100 man-hours) putting together an EXTREMELY detailed 1972 Ford truck wiring diagram. These are very-high resolution, so be prepared for that. Here's a direct link to the '72 wiring diagram:
1972 F100-F350 Master Wiring Diagram
But by far, the most-changed area is the factory literature section, now to be known at the Factory Literature Library. All the previous literature images were entered into an image database program, plus I scanned and posted an additional SEVENTEEN new '67-'72 brochures to view. I'm not going to tell you which ones...you'll have to do some exploring on your own.
I then expanded the Factory Literature Library to also include the '73-'79 trucks.
There are currently EIGHTEEN dentside-era brochures to check out. I have each of the dealer brochures posted except for the '79 version, which will be coming soon.I then went to work and configured the program to also allow me to post audio/visual content. This would allow me to start digitizing the vintage dealer filmstrip presentations I had to share. As some of you might remember, I've got a fairly extensive collection of vintage dealer training filmstrips. These filmstrip presentations were sent to the dealers to acquaint the salemen on each year's new models, and gave them tips/tricks for selling vehicles. In fact, about a year ago I got one of them digitized and posted to the forums in a trial run. (It's posted there too....and will get reworked in the near future to dramatically improve the video and sound quality.) Well, I've gotten better software to make the conversions and have been actively working on these, and at present I have SEVEN more full audio/visual presentations done and ready for viewing.
However, I also have many of the vinyl-record soundtracks but haven't been able to locate the accompanying filmstrip, so in the meantime I decided to at least record the audio portions of these training presentations and post them. As I type this, there are 24 audio tracks posted in an mp3 format, each of which is about 15-20 minutes long. Now...not all of these are specifically for light trucks. You'll find a bunch which cover cars, vans and medium/heavy trucks as well, and will cover the gamut of Ford vehicles from the late '50s up through the late 70s. In fact, I'll be recording every single soundtrack I have, about 50 or so, I think. As time goes by, I hope to track down each soundtrack's matching filmstrip and finally reunite them into a true audio/visual presentation.
The Library will also contain the popular Ford truck commercials which were previously posted to U-tube, and I'll be keeping my eyes open for more to include. There's a very good possibility that I might just go ahead and start archiving ALL vintage '60s-'70s Ford commercials, not just for the light trucks.
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Now, all these cool updates do come with a price. Virtually every single link posted anywhere on the internet to any page or file on the site will now be broken. This is due to how things got reorganized behind the scenes, which will really help me out in the future. This means that any bookmark you have to anything on the site will have to be reset, and clicking on virtually all links in forum messages to any site page will give you a 404 Not Found error. However, between the redesigned Site Index and the easier navigation, finding what you need should be easier than ever.
Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Take some time to check things out, and please PM or e-mail me if you see something not working right. I'll be spending the next couple days visiting every single page on the site and clicking on every link, just to make sure I have everything right, so any problems should be taken care of pretty quickly.
Well, that's it...have fun!
