New member in Arlington, wa.

Hi everyone, I'm Jeff and I live in Arlington.. I have a 64 Ranchero with a 351W and a 4spd (T10) original. It's was some one's baby years ago, but had been left outside in the weather for 10 years, so it is very very rusty, I am in the process of replacing the floor boards and that is as far as I am going. It will just be a rusty Rat rod. Haven't had a fast car in a long time, so this will do the trick. I have had many cars over the years and love spending lot's of time and money on them, my wife isn't impressed. This is one of 3 cars I'm working on, I also have a 57 Ford fairlane 500 and a 1970 Volvo P1800E Now that my kids are out of the house, I have some extra time and $$ to get busy on them.

Welcome to you Jeff. Sounds like you have the right vehicle for your "fast car" project. Please post some fotos and keep us posted on the progress.

Welcome Jeff, by all means show us what you got... It's always nice to see someone else projects...:BEER:

Welcome Jeff, and hope to meet you soon. Maybe at the upcoming meeting next week. Larry

Welcome Jeff. Lets see some pics [thumb]

Thanks Smithkid for the photo advice, If someone recognizes this Ranchero let me know, I heard the Guy who fixed it up years ago passed away.

Nice! Always glad to see pics of projects.

Nice one, but the shop is even better...whats in the plan for the ranch? :3g:jh

Nice find! Nice shop too!
What plans do you have for it?

We are all ogling the shop...

Ranchero? What Ranchero? :ROTFLMAO:

It is a nice shop space though. Envious. :D

Welcome on board. Love to see another one pulled from the weeds and saved - if even as-is. I can see making that one safe and driving it as-is too. Though it would eventually get the best of me and the curse I live with (WIAI).

Not that I would recommend doing the work of cowl repair (because it is a lot of work), before you go through and replace floors, you should at least look at the cowl and make sure the water that you got into the car didn't in-fact come from there. If it is, the new floors and carpets will just fail again if left outside. You can get magnetic cowl vent covers to keep water out of the cowl, but then take them off when you need air to flow. It would be worth probing the cowl via the two openings (driver air vent and heater removed from under of the cowl) and make sure you don't have 50 years of pine needles up there. Clean it, dry it out and seal it as best you can. You can also gain access to the drains for the cowl area by removing the front fenders and exposing the external ends of the cowl.

Also, you are 100% sure that is a 351W? They are a VERY tight fit in a 60-65 Falcon with shock-towers left intact. I've never seen one with headers before either. I did a Falcon with a 351W in the late 70's with stock exhaust manifolds and there was maybe 1/4" of clearance. Anyway, small blocks are hard to tell apart unless you know... or measure the width of the intake manifold. If it is a 351W, would love to see how they crow-bar'd it in there! [thumb]

Thanks for the shop comments, It's got everything I need a real loud stereo and a beer fridge, "It's a bathroom away from the perfect shop" Well my plans are to get the floor pans in and drive it, I did a major tune up and referb under the hood, seems to run real good, haven't actually driven it other than to move it into the shop. It is a 351W (1970) and yes it is definitely shoe horned in, there is very little if any clearance in between the shock towers, looks like a small portion had been removed and the clutch linkage goes thru a opening in the headers. So far the breaks have been gone thru, heater box disassembled and rebuilt, gas tank cleaned and powder coated, new radiator, water and fuel pump, Timing chain & gear, (Had original plastic one) wiring under the hood, Carb. all hoses and rubber lines So it should be a reliable screamer. So between CRS & WIAI I'm spending way to much and not getting nearly enough done!!!!