Hi Newbie here from the UK Bought a 1972 Ranchero as a winter project, with my brother. It had already been fitted with (temperamental) air ride, and a 460 with C6 box. We are planning to upgrade the air ride to ridetech schockwaves. The big block is a bit thirsty for us over here, it drinks more than the wife so we plan on putting in a 2001 Cobra 32V with 5 speed manual. Change the wheels to 18" or 19" rims And last of all, change the puke green colour!! Here are a couple of pics the day we bought it
How about black flames? Have seen a few cars with that reversed take on an old hotrod theme. Though none that started with lime green base.
After a long search, managed to find a 2001 Cobra 32V Mod motor, but changed our mind on the gearbox, and went auto instead with a 4R70W Trial fit of engine was tight !! Little space for the manifolds, so will have to do a little fabrication to gain some clearance. We will have to get custom headers as the drivers side manifold will hit the steering box, but other than that, should be ok. The autobox bolted up a treat, with no mods required at all !!
Took the Ranchero to check out some custom headers, but the company were not too keen on doing it. Too little space for what they would normally do. So we have bought one of these !!! We have done some basic measurements, and we believe it should fit (it is wider than stock). If it does work, then it will solve changing the sump, a steering rack means we can remove the steering box, which should give us the space for factory/aftermarket headers. It should hopefully transform the steering/handing of the truck........ It does look like we will have to change our thinking on the wheels, and may need to look at more modern rims, with a deeper backspace Does not ship to the UK until August, so not much to post until then, just waiting.....
Welcome to the site! Will be interested in seeing your progress and how you overcome any issues that arise. Quite a few people are doing the same conversion on a range of Ford models and I am considering it on one of mine as well. Again :welcome:
Great thread. Wow what a color (or is that colour). You are doing some interesting modifications. Thanks for sharing and please keep us posted! Laters, Jeff
Its been a while since an update. the upshot was the Crown Vic front end missed the shipping date for the container, so will now hopefully arrive at the end of November. In preparation, we decided we would lift the body off the chassis. It came apart a lot easier than we expected, luckily it had not been in the UK too long, or it may have been a different story, snapping bolts etc... It was also surprising how much flex the chassis had...... Luckily we have the use of a body/chassis jig, so using the frame dimensions off the internet, we mounted the chassis on the jig. Then stripped the front suspension and steering, ready for the new front clip. Now the centreline has been established for the new crossmember, it should make the installation a lot more straight forward (we hope!!) Fingers crossed, should have the installation complete over the Christmas...
How hard was it to remove the body from the frame? Were all of the bolts removed from the outside/underneath?
