Hi All This is my first post (after intro) and I wanted to share my Ranchero build. I want this to be my new daily driver that I can enjoy every day. I will leave it LHD but I will still have to drive on the wrong side of the road (compared to the US). I bought this as a rolling shell from a good mate of mine that has owned it since 2003 - 04. The car originally came from Martinez in San Francisco and landed in Adelaide, Australia. My mate bought it from the guy who imported it and he only imported the car to strip it of it's running gear - all of it. I have known this car for a long time but somehow it got under my skin and I needed to have it Here are some pics of it the day that I bought it. Bear with me as I work out how to post pics Cheers Turns
Okay - I think I got the pic thing down pat. These pics are what I started with Thanks for looking Cheers Turnsa
There's a lot to like there Turns; under the old paint looks to be nice sheetmetal. Good floors, bed trim is all there, front bumper looks good, uncut dash, nice grille. I can't quite tell if it's V8/5-lug suspension, but if it is, you've got some good bones there. Have you had a look under the rear bed compartment?
It actually looks like 4-lug to me; I downloaded the side view pic and enlarged it, and it appears to be four.
NICE! That's a great start! Enough to make it whatever you want it to be. The Chrome would be the hard parts to replace. Most everything else is still available.
And with a blank canvas like that, you can do whatever you want. Restore it, restomod it or hotrod it.
I did the same, quality is low. The rear looked like 4 lug, but not convincingly. The positioning looked correct for 5 lug on the front.
Hi guys - thank s for the interest. The car is a 5 lug. From what I can tell the ca was originally fitted with a 260. Since these pics I have given the front drums the 'floatation test' and fitted some discs. The diff has been swapped out for an 8" with finned drums. All 5 lug to take Ford stud pattern wheels
The car had some rust under the tray that was replaced with fresh sheet metal. Both front floor pans were replaced too. These cars seem to have galvanised rails This isn't going to be a full rotisserie build, moreso a reliable daily driver. I am working on several parts of the car at once to keep it flowing and the build time shorter. I live not too far from the Pacific Ocean so I wanted to make sure that it was all sealed up from the elements The roof was a bit average and needed some repairs - mainly panel beating. I went back to bare metal to avoid future headaches I order up some parts to address the front brakes and went a bit further with a strut and rack conversion. I hope I don't upset the Ranchero purists I was pretty relieved when the discs fitted inside the new wheels I gave the engine bay a quick coat of paint Which caused a knock on effect - I couldn't really bolt back 50 year old parts without some attention I bought a steering wheel that I liked for the car and the fella I bought it from had a nice Ranchero himself Cheers Turns
Yeah, I was just pondering the rack conversion myself. And the other guy's Ranchero? There's one in the same color just 2 1/2 blocks from my apartment, except no white roof, but definitely a '68 or'69.
Haha! No, not my first rodeo - although I prefer bikes over horses/cattle. Thank you for the encouragement I will let you know how the rack conversion goes when I drive it. From what I can glean from research and talking to fellas, these cars came factory fitted with bump steer which isn't really desirable - especially in a daily driver. My wife will drive this occasionally and my two daughters will ride in it, so safety has to be considered. Which ever path I took, I had to rebuild the steering, suspension and brakes as there was very little running gear and what was there was 54 years old. You can see in the pics when I first bought the car, that the factory steering box is still fitted but the steering shaft had been cut off. I wise mate of mine once said "building cars is all about making choices and sometimes you have to compromise". Parts for these cars are hard to come by here in Australia and we are a long way from the US (we are coined Down Under haha). I have never really seen that many Rancheros in Australia but now I am building one, I seem to see more of them Thank you Mykul - I am humbled. I don't ever want to grow up Thanks for the interest - I am sure I will need some wisdom shortly to help me get this thing on the road Cheers Turns
To get the steering rack to work in this car, the supplier of the rack recommended that the steering column needed to be cut and shut flush with the firewall. This is needed to give enough room to get an intermediate shaft to work between the column and the rack. This caused me some grief because I had my heart set on running a column shift for the automatic transmission. The supplier suggested that I should just fit a Lokar type shifter on the floor and said that it was impossible to run the column shift with this setup. Nothing is impossible,it just takes longer I planned on modifying and fabricating a suitable column from scratch. I had sourced a complete steering column that was in parts and an extra outer tube - I don't even know know what model Ford the parts came from but just kept pushing forward. I also ordered a bunch of new parts online by pretty much guessing, such as: column bearings, shift detents, gear indicator, double D shaft etc I don't have many pics of the column build but it was super difficult (for me anyway) - lots of brain power and bourbon was required. My plan was to finish the column flush with the firewall but modify the column shift bracket behind the firewall (inside the car). My design still allowed the shift cable to be in the engine bay though. To seal off the column junction to the firewall, I had to fabricate a 'blister' shaped thing to keep noise and fumes out of the cabin. I hope this all makes sense This is part of the bracket that supports the bottom of the new column set up I shaped the blister over this old swing press handle The blister taking shape Here is the finished blister Here is the indicator switch - lots of original parts were worked and restored for their new lifetime This is the intermediate shaft that connects the column to the steering rack Fast forward and here is the steering column in the car. The seat has been mounted and the wheel was tested for clearance , driving position and comfort. For the record the bench is out of a HT Holden which is a car manufactured in Australia and needed spreader plates and proper mounting in the Ranchero
The whole time I have been working on the car, I have been getting a motor and transmission ready to go. The driveline will be a 302 Windsor, C$ automatic and 8" diff. Here is a pic of the 302 which is a '71 model. It was fitted with injection and been stripped of it's allow rocker covers etc so I have some work to do to get it ready for the Ranchero. Here is what I started with I took this 'arty' picture Starting to come together. I wanted to paint it factory Ford blue but ended up getting influenced by my mates as they think my tastes are boring. I thought that red would match the interior Thanks for looking in Cheers Turns
That rack system was originally engineered for Mustangs, but those rails are just about the same for the small and intermediate Fords, so it gives me a sense of satisfaction that setup will work on your Ranchero (I was thinking 2-door Granada).