Slickstock. Where members of the Slick '60s Ford Truck Club get together and eat lots of Pizza Shoppe

As the owner of a 1963 Chevrolet pickup, sometimes it is hard for me to remember that they actually made some other kind of truck in the early-to-mid 1960s. But on our way to dinner Friday night, I stumbled upon a reminder that yes, there really was at least one more brand out there. I think they were called Fords.

Actually, when we saw a bunch of them parked at the Platte Woods Pizza Shoppe, the first thing I thought was, “hey, I didn’t know we had a Ford truck club here in town.” And as it turns out, I thought right. These were members of the Slick ‘60s Club, which is a nationwide group of ’61-’66 Ford F-Series enthusiasts. Every two years these folks meet up for “Slickstock” to catch up on old times, talk trucks, and eat pizza.

I learned from a stray club member that their home base while in town was the Four Points Hotel near KCI, so that was our next stop. There was a handful of trucks parked there, an abandoned tent city, and the remnants of a small swap meet. And although there were no people in sight, the weekend schedule was posted on the door. It said that Saturday night they would be invading the Outta’ Control Hot Rods Cruise in Platte City. That worked out well for me, because I was planning to cover that event anyway.

So that brings me to Saturday where I finally found a whole big bunch of these guys all in one place. Incidentally, this is a different Pizza Shoppe parking lot, so they should be familiar with the famous pink salad dressing at this point.

There were several nice old Fords at this meet, a Unibody or two, and a few of their Canadian Mercury cousins. Among the Fords was this ’64 F-100 that was done up NASCAR style. The workmanship was top notch, and I liked it a lot more than I would have expected. It had a great stance, genuine Bassett six-slot racing wheels (not for street use—pfft), and what appeared under the hood to be a racing-style tube chassis. It really was a neat rig.

For completely opposite reasons, I was attracted to this nice ’66 F-100 short bed. First of all, I’m a sucker for old black cars and trucks with red upholstery. But even more significant is the fact that this truck looked largely original. If it had anything restored on it, it was a long time ago, and it’s starting to wear that age well. This is sort of the way I would like my truck to be, but this one is much nicer.

Here’s another ’66, this an old one-ton wrecker. It looked like it hadn’t changed since it was put into service some 46 years ago, and it was a great time capsule into vintage service trucks. BHo immediately said it reminded him of Cooter’s tow truck from The Dukes of Hazzard. Actually, the fact that my eight-year-old can pull up a reference like that brings a proud tear to my eye. Of course, it brings tears to my wife’s eyes for different reasons, but we won’t go there.

This green ‘66 long bed step side is a regular at car cruises all over the northland. It’s a nice old truck, and a common sight around here. He’s been hanging around long enough that the rest of his brothers in trucking finally came to visit him. I’m glad, because it had to be hard on the guy to be the only Ford in a city full of Chevys all these years.

These folks hold this event in different cities every two years. It looks like they have a good time, and their members are obviously very loyal. I can tell your right now, even if my old truck could make it to Canada without a glitch, I think that trip would wear me to a nub. I gotta’ give them credit, these guys made it happen.

The slideshow below contains photos from the Platte Woods Pizza Shoppe, the Platte City cruise, and the host hotel for the meet. Check them out here, or click this link for a nicer version of the show.