Couple that radiator with a set of electric fans, and you should have plenty of room under the hood. Have you read the thread on the EFI 460 into the '73? If not, check it out. http://www.ranchero.us/forum/index.php?threads/1973-460-swapped.22205/
So I was debating on how to pull this off and decided I was over/under thinking it all way to much/little. I’m going to do all the body work first. Then I’ll pull the body and put it outside under the new cover I bought. Then, I’ll work the frame and all that. After which I’ll send the body to paint and either paint the frame myself, or get it powder coated. Have no idea what that’ll cost but I’m guessing it’s somewhere off in the deep left field of wake up and forget about it. Anyway, I’ve got a plan now. I also ordered some of those car dollies that go under the tires so I can push the car around in the garage from of all places….Wal-Mart! Four roller skates, 1500 Lbs cap each, two sets shipped for $89 bucks. Harbor Freight wasn’t that cheap! Nuts. My plan is to start removing all of the trim and such after I make a plan on keeping it all together and not broken during the work. Should be fun.
Looks like a great build, I like that you have a plan already laid out! Mine has a basic plan but keeps veering in one direction or the other from time to time. I had to sideline it for 3 years to help my son restore his 67 El Camino so I've had too much time to think about it & too little time to work on it!
Thanks. The plan is grand but the budget not so much. So this is going to be a long haul ride. I keep trying to rope my 15 y/o son into working on this with me. No luck yet. Not enough flashing lights and exploding things I guess. I'll keep trying. I got a quote for some of the powder coating on Friday. HIGHPOINT POWDER COATING ALL ESTIMATES UNTIL SEEN. SINGLE STAGE POWDER COATING COST IS SHOWN - 2 STAGE WILL COST ABOUT 30% MORE. FRAME: $750 UPPER CONTROL ARMS: $45 LOWER CONTROL ARMS: $65 REAR DIFF W/3RD MEMBER: $185 FRONT WHEEL WELL LINERS: $85 TO SANDBLAST THE ENTIRE CAR BODY ABOUT 5 HOURS @ $150 PER = $750 At these rates I don't feel bad about moving forward. Honestly, I had no idea what it would cost but this isn't the nightmare I thought it might be. Had a good chat with 5.0 Chero about the rear disc brakes today. Very interesting. Thanks again Carl.
Well, it's been a little while since I updated this. Here's the update. My son and I started digging into the Ranchero a couple days ago. My grand plan was to be tabled until "some" year due to a new interest into Jeep Wranglers since my brother and I go on Jamboree trips every year in his Jeep and I have a ton of fun every time. But this is for another story. I'll get a Jeep when my current lease car runs out a year from now. I knew the Ranchero was in really good shape but I didn't know it was THIS good! I swear you'd think someone drove this car for a couple years and the parked it in a zip-lock bag and forgot about it. Other than the paint and interior this thing is the closest example of mint I've even thought possible. When I say mint, I'm speaking of the condition of the metal and ALL the hardware except rubber stuff. It's crazy. Just crazy. I grew up in Michigan and I've never had the luxury of working on a car this old and this clean. I've honestly worked on 5 year old cars that are not half as nice as this thing. Thank God! Since I thought we were only going to change out all the rubber and not restore this thing we started with replacing the transmission mount first with the red polyurethane mount I bought with the "complete" kit that's not all that complete.... We pulled the entire trans support/cross member out of the car and it looks like new. The picture bellow shows what it looks like after 10 seconds of essentially wiping off the dust. After this little job I was already starting to rethink the Jeep ideas I was having. I just can't get over how nice all this metal is. So the next day came and we decided it was time to pull the rear axle and replace all of those bushings. So we got to work. It took Decklin and I about 2 hours to pull it out. We're taking our time since This is Decklin's first car work realistically. Done. I've tried to rotate that picture twice now. Photobucket.com sucks. Here's a couple close-ups of the other parts we took off. By the way, NOTHING broke, No one thing ended up getting rounded out, the vise grips stayed in the tool box. The cutting torch never got warmed up. The saws-all....sawed nothing! We can, and likely will, reuse everything that's been taken off this truck so far since it's like we're dealing with all new gear. It's simply incredible. It all appears to be OEM stuff too. If the bushings were not as rotted as they are I'd swear someone replaced every nut and bolt with new stuff last year. Thank God! Here's where we need help. My Ranchero has a rear sway bar and I'm not finding anything for it in the Energy Suspension catalog for it. Honestly I've not had the time to look very hard either. Do any of you know what parts I need to replace these with the same red Polyurethane I'm doing everything else with? We need all three connecting points. Decklin seems to be very interested in this project and also seems comfortable in front of the camera so I'll be posting the updates each day we work on the truck to Youtube and my Facebook page as we go. I'll do the same updates on here. Talk to you all later.
Unless somebody recognizes the sway bar, or you take measurements and our through catalogs, you may end up ahead just replacing it with new. Boxing the rear control arms is an easy way to improve handling.
I'll get some measurements put together and post them. Boxing the lower control arms I can do. Thanks for that tidbit.
I went with this company upper an lower control arms http://www.spohn.net/shop/1972-1976-Ford-Torino-Ranchero/Suspension/ Rear Suspension Control Arms | 1972-1976 Ford Torino & Ranchero 4 total items available Pages: 1 SKU IMAGE DESCRIPTION PRICING FT-205 Rear Lower Control Arms - Adjustable with Del-Sphere Pivot Joints - 1972-1976 Ford Torino & Ranchero More Details » $249.00 FT-607 Rear Upper Control Arms - Tubular with Del-Sphere Pivot Joint/Poly Combo - 1972-1976 Ford Torino & Ranchero More Details » $199.00 FT-981
I'm giving serious thought of air bagging the entire car. Do you know if these will work with that? I had a thought this morning of leaving the top of the car looking the way it is but completely powder coating the underside, and rolling chassie and putting it all on air bags. Think they're calling that a rust-o-mod now.
do not see any reason they would not ,you could call them and ask ,these made mine handle fantastic no rolling affect
Just double-checking, but does ALL the suspension stuff from a '72 - '76 Grand Torino work on the '77 - '79 Ranchero?
Unless some idiot engineer decided to throw us a curve ball, they should be close. The big plus with those LCAs is their adjustability. I'm jealous of your rig for all its care it's received in its life. If I had the money to do so, I'd make you an offer you can't refuse.
Sorry, but I'd be wishfully thinking...I do too much of that. But I can assure you, it's worth more than Babe, and if I hadn't let her sit so long since I had gotten her, perhaps the body rust she has wouldn't be so bad. But, that's the price I pay for not getting the work done.
I understand. I'm just curious what she's worth. I know what I'd pay for it. But it's only worth what other people would be willing to pay. I'm not really interested in selling her anyway. Thanks for the love anyway.
Some of those bushings were pretty tough to get out. Several pushed 100% of the rubber out and left the sleeve in place. We didn't use any heat at all. Just a little Dep45 lube. After Super Bowl we'll be back on it. Gotta big BBQ and game to watch.
