It’s About Damn Time Trucks Started Offering Old-School Two-Tone Colors Again

Beyond window sills you can comfortably rest your elbows on, reasonable hood heights, and the vent under the steering column, occasionally referred to as the ball chiller 9000, one thing I miss the most about old trucks is their paint options. Sure, fleet trucks were always solid white, but you used to be able to get a proper two-tone. After what feels like far too long, Ford is bringing it back and you don’t have to buy some limited-run special edition to get it, either.

This re-entry into the wide two-tone arena comes via Ford Custom Garage, an initiative by the Blue Oval that puts together dealer-installed accessory packages. Want a supercharged F-150 street truck or a big-turbo Maverick? This is the division you’re looking for, and its latest creation is an enchanting throwback play. The two-tone package is available on crew cab XLT and Lariat F-150s with the 5.5-foot bed, or essentially Ford’s most popular half-ton trucks. White, grey, and black midbands are currently available over any standard-order paint option, which really lets you mix-and-match.

Want a white band on a red truck, or a black band on a grey truck, or a grey band on a silver truck? No problem. The two-tone treatment even follows the dip in the greenhouse towards the front of the front doors, and the contours in the tailgate, and even leaves a relief for the stamped F-150 nameplate out back to let a little contrast poke through. It’s a charming nod to classic models, and a clever visual trick that works well with the latest trucks.

See, for the most part, two-tone paint’s been relegated to contrasting bands of color down the sills of certain trim levels. It worked fine in the 2000s, but there are a couple of problems now that all relate to modern proportions and surfacing. See, the towing wars have required huge radiators and coolers at the front of modern trucks, which means the truck hoods of today sit wildly tall. To keep things uniform, pretty much every manufacturer’s pushed the bottom of the greenhouse up so their trucks don’t look like Scrappy Doo, which means there’s a huge amount of metal on each door and bedside. Designers break this up with character lines, but using those for a two-tone break results in a truck that looks even more jacked-up than it already is.

Running a tall two-tone band visually breaks up this metal so it doesn’t read as tall to the naked eye, and it adds horizontal lines down the sides of a truck and across the tailgate. That might sound small, but it has the effect of slicing down the visual height of a truck, making it look sectioned without any structural modifications. Plus, keeping body-color sills means the wheels and tires don’t look like they’re floating in space. Overall, it’s a win.

While Ford is the first automaker to bring back this once-popular color split option, don’t be surprised if it goes further. The aftermarket’s slapped similar two-tone treatments on modern Chevrolets and Rams to great success, and Ford could also theoretically give the Super Duty, the Ranger, even the Maverick a similar treatment. For now, we get a sweet new optional look for the 2027 F-150. Excellent.

Top graphic image: Ford