This thread is a place for me to keep a rolling commentary on my build. Started with an auction site 65 Ranchero. Initial inspection and a little information from the PO (still trying to track him down) website shows a hotrod leaning build. 302 V8 (age and quality unknown), 1406 Edelbrock 4bl with High rise dual plane intake C4 automatic 3 speed tranny with aftermarket cooler and cooling fin aluminum pan (age and quality ?) front disc brakes ala Granada dual exhaust with headers 3 core new aluminum radiator with push electric and aggressive flex fan (will I need both??) hood pins new lower profile rubber all around new steering link from gearbox to tie rods new floor carpet new race seats non-functional gauges except temp gauge disconnected heater (does it still work?) body in primer, bare metal and some bondo. Minimal body rust. Crunched right front fender SS bed trim removed and bed pinch weld cut off with spot welds (original plan to shave??) I was able to drive it home although it heated up a bit. This was fixed with a new T-stat and replacing the rusty water with radiator fluid. The fun begins. Still working on an ID on the motor. Runs good but needs tuneup and carb adjust. Tranny shifts very hard from 2-1 on downshift. Steering is wobbly and car wanders a bit when hitting bumps. What I have done in the last week: 1)rewelded bed so it doesn't come apart. Still deciding on shave vs. replacing trim. I have all trim except short curve pieces near tailgate. 2) tore out dash insert, building custom dash insert with Equiss gauges. Installed new cable with gear tonight and the random guess speedo gear was perfect!! Remaing gauges need to be wired. 3)Replaced sway bar front bushing, added missing sway bar-frame clamp, replaced lower control arm-frame link bushing and now the care doesn't try to jump off the road. Major improvement for low dollars and minimal work.
As long as it runs good, age shouldn't matter too much. And if everything is in good working order, you should not need two fans to keep it cool. A pusher fan should be an absolutely last resort, imho. A mechanical fan set within spec of the new rad and/or with a shroud should be all you need. Very sweet ride.
Ah good to see another Ranchero getting some loving. I look forward to seeing your progress. Laters, Jeff
More progress. Last night I worked more on the custom dash gauge insert. See the pic below. The speedo works but everything else has to be hooked up. Today I had my kids out helping me. Wife is complaining I come home smelling like old car. So....unbolted the race seats, pulled the carpet which is basically new. Under the carpet were a few holes in the floorboard and two small areas of rust that I will repair. The Driver area was covered in oil like I thought based on the smell. Sent the teenage elbow grease to work with scrapers, shop vac and cleaning chemicals. Took the carpets to the carwash and soaped and hosed them down. Will probably put some extra insulation in before laying it back in. I will raise the seats up about 2 inches then put it all back together.
today I hooked up my temp gauge, started installing sound deadening floor material and dried out the powerwashed carpet.. I welded a couple of small spots on the floorboard. I painted my seatbelt floor mounting hardware and browsed more paint scheme ideas...... the work continues.
Finished the peel n seal foil backed product on the entire floor, firewall, and kick panel locations. Added the bubble wrap heat shied product to the fire wall and tranny tunnel. Set the seat back in and went for a drive. Nice! Good interior noise control. Sealed up many of the random firewall holes as well. Maybe now I wont smell like old car to my wife. Next on the schedule is raising my seat height by a few inches, finalizing the dash gauges and insert.
Raised the driver seat this morning about 2 inches. Need to do the passenger side. New temp gauge works. Need to hook up oil pressure gauge, wire the volt meter and see if the fuel gauge wiring works. Drove it this morning. Now I can hear the little rattles and squeeks. Much better. Now I can chase those down. Some has to do with the lack of a healiner.
Body work.....arghhhhh. Obviously this chero had more than one PO. the last one I believe had some bodywork skills. Previous to that however.......I think was a bondo king!! Drivers rear quarter had bondo. I finally got brave enough and took the wire wheel to it.....1.5" thick in sections. I took out the tail light and was amazed. The bondo removal uncovered a previous accident. Not too bad. Easy to get to behind the light with a 2X4 and some other tools. This dingbat however must have wanted to play with a slide hammer.....I ended up filling about 30 holes which appeared to be screw holes and likely a slide hammer was involved. My next big body work is trying to figure out how to take an arch out of the tailgate skin. It and the rear bumper suffered. The bumper took the brunt. The tailgate has a gentle arch at the middle and lowest body line. This will likely challenge my limited metal working skills.
Slide hammers----pretty common thing to do up until the late 80s Got a few of those in mine as well My uncle was pretty good at taking care of most stuff on the car over the years, but beinig a shop truck for over 40 years did take a toll, and it did get beat up a bit. (Bed floor looks like the Pismo Dunes, but the body was kept up) That tailgate will be more fun than you know. Tailget is 2 pieces----and interesting to get apart by yourself. Once you get the gate open----support it before you remove the straps a few screws and the inside shell will come off----along with locking and support mechanisms. Once that shell is off---you will find a double walled tailgate with little to access to the exterior panel from the inside. (but hey---now you can get the steerhead off the tailgate and replace it with a new one.) Not even access to the "FORD" lettering----so if you need to replace the lettering----make sure you have the 'barrel nuts' cause you ain't getting no speednut or retainer on from the inside. My gate is apart now----took it apart to straighten the inner panel a bit, and weld up a couple of cracks in it.
Gate is already separated. I even cut out the secondary backing plate to allow access for body work. Time will tell if that was a mistake.
