1969 Ranchero GT 428 Ram Air

i saw one back in late 80's that was dark green. two guys were doing laps on the quarter mile at LACR in Palmdale. i have pics somewhere. i should dig those up. i knew then that those were pretty rare.

 

I'm currently looking at a 69 428 R code 4 speed. The seller's Marti report says there were 80 like that.

 

Think I saw that one on craigslist. Was considering it myself, but then i would probably lose interest in my current car. can't let that happen.
Sure looks good in the pics. If it is as good as the guy says, I'd say go for it!

 

WOW!!!

My understanding is that in order of rarity for GT's

1. 428 CJ Ram Air 4 Speed, Bucket Seats, 82 would makes sense since #2
2. 428 CJ Ram Air w/C6, 101 built
3. 390 w/C6, 350 (So I was told by a guy who had one, and an extra grille I was interested in.

If that is an all matching numbers Ranchero, it is the Holy Grail of 69's, if not Ranchero's in general!

 

how much is seller asking? and are you going to get it?
got any pics to share?

 

He's listed it for $18,000. It looks nice and has a new bench seat interior.

I've been reading about FE engines and apparently there's no way to confirm this as a CJ (or even a 428) for sure without getting into the engine. That concerns me a bit. Without some documented provenance how would you know what it is?

I don't know yet if I'll want it. I've communicated with the seller a couple times. He seems like a nice guy but he's clearly tired of tire-kickers and people only interested in the drive train.

Here's the link - https://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/cto/6017953866.html

 

If it's 'there,' that would be a honey of a car to have, not to mention, we'd all have to kneel and genuflect....

 

WOW! And its not a bucket seat car! You might want to get the Delux Marti... I was under the impression that the 4 speed cars were also bucket seat cars... I would venture a wild guess that the number of bench seat 4-speed cars is very small, maybe in the extremely rare category!!

My Marti report (Delux) shows

183 428-V4 Cobra Jets/Ram Air... 101 had C6 tranny's

the fifth character of the VIN should be "R" to validate the hood scope badging.

It is possible that a partial VIN (RXXXXXX) would be stamped on the Block, drivers side, just below the head... mirror and flashlight required. OR Drop the oil pan, and find the stamp on the Crank... Somewhere I have a list of Crank Stamps, 428CJ Cranks for 1969 would be 1U, on the front counter balance.

https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1969-Ford-Ranchero-GT?id=141470

https://www.428cobrajet.org/id-block
http://www.ehow.com/list_7404251_428-cobra-jet-engine-specs.html

Found it...

https://www.428cobrajet.org/id-crank

 

looking at the pictures it is a very nice car... but looks like the grill is missing the original center piece... and has been blacked out. Should look like this, based on the portion around the headlights>>>

These are the ones that came with my car, and I had to buy a third to get one that was not cracked or missing a vain or two.

 

I sent him a offer of 15250.00he replied;;

do you want to look at it I would like to get 16000. I have almost twenty invested in it. but I had planned on keeping it, but I have to many cars and I like them all so ranchero has to go.. show me how serious you are, we might can make a deal
YOU CAN GET THIS THING FOR 15000.00 OR LESS IF THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT /ANDY

 

Yeah, he had indicated to me he would take less. My problem is I would want to modify it in ways that might be more appropriate for a car not so unique.

 

Actually.... I just remembered! If you can get a picture of the exhaust manifolds. 16 blot pattern on the head is a Cobra Jet, anything else would be some other big block. OR get the part number off of the manifolds.

https://www.428cobrajet.org/id-exhaust

These were only used on CJ's

 

probably the best way to verify the crank would be to remove a spark plug, drop a long wood match or a straw and rotate the engine and measure the distance traveled up and down of the piston. = "stroke"
i think standard 390 exhaust manifolds with the drop down head bolt pattern would work but you cant dispute the crank stroke. chances are the engine has been bored 30 over by this time as well.
nice car for sure. first thing i'd do is cut those LOOOOONNNNNGG exhaust pipes back a bit.

 

I found a couple other ads on different sites for the same 428 4 speed car. This one has more information that he's gathered. He seems to think the engine is a 428 but it and the transmission may be from an older Galaxy. At least that's the way I read it.

http://www.oldride.com/classic_trucks/930723.html

It's also advertised here at a higher price. I'm guessing this is an older ad.

http://www.fossilcars.com/ford/ranchero/671918

 

yeah, looks like if he really wants to sell it as "rare", he's gonna have to verify a lot of part numbers. block, crank, exh mans, bell and trans. geez, even the rearend should have a tag on it. should be a 9" for sure.

 

To BAD! Looking through the pictures, radio missing, Gauges added and built into the dash... a one of 80 with no documentation... If the tranny is out of a galaxy, then this is just a nice replica of what could have been! Part of the breather is missing, Hub Caps on the Passenger side, none on the Drivers... depending on which set of pic's you look at ???

I think I got excited for nothing! and yes... That's what she said!

 

I've had and have been following R and q code cars since 85. And the only ones that ever go over 30 grand are 68.5 mustangs and 69 and 70 Mach 1s . No matter how little the production . U can take a 69 or 70 cougar with a production number of under 50, with ac tilt swing away e windows leather interior it's worth 25 same Mach 1 same platform bare bones 60 or 70 grand makes no sense but been like that for 30 yrs

 

I looked up the craigslist ad for the first car posted in this thread, since we never heard back from Dillon14 about whether he bought the car. Apparently he didn't buy it. It is in Illinois. Listed as in Excellent condition. The guy was wanting $23k and is now asking $20.5. I sent him an email with a couple questions about it. It has been sitting for two years, the power steering has been removed and it is manual steering now, It needs a gas tank. I sent him an email, gently pointing out that, usually, I find that if a few things that are needed, that pretty much always means that several things are needed to get it into nice driving condition and said that I wouldn't be a serious buyer unless it was more like $12k. (I know it sounds like a low-ball, but I'm looking at it from my financial point of view, not his. And I figured I could possibly spend $5k on those "few" repairs, and another $5k flying out to look at it, and ship it to CA. I don't need the car, but if he was willing to part with it for what I was willing to spend...) I wasn't surprised when he rejected that number, saying that he was going to get the tank repaired. The craigslist ad is no longer good. I guess we will see it in a few weeks, once the tank is done.
Like I said before, I really don't want to lose momentum on my current project, so, for me, it's all good.

 

The 69 CJ's used the unique exhaust manifolds mentioned and they had 2 C6 transmissions. With the "Drag Pac" they had the super C6 with more discs inside and a higher rpm stall converter. The Ram Air R codes usually came with the Drag Pac. I think all of the 428's are different from the 390 in that they had the external balance hub on the front of the crank behind the harmonic balancer. They also had a factory transmission cooler and a little power steering cooler. I had a 1969 factory Cobra ((Fairlane body type) in high school and it had factory power disc brakes and 14" wheels. The 9 inch was a 3:50 ratio and I didn't find out it had the big C6 until it need rebuilt. Too bad that beast wasn't preserved.