Call me crazy - Ranchero's (again)

**doghows** · April 18th, 2011, 08:33 AM

Where is the world do you find the time??? After a 12hr day Saturday and finish the honey do's, all I got to do was look at my car as I passed by it for tools and supplies..
Looks awesome, and after seeing it in person I know how much work you have into that old girl. Keep it going and we will be a your place soon doing final assembly.
2 thumbs up.

**Luva65wagon** · April 18th, 2011, 09:21 AM

I worked until 11PM on Friday night and it only took me about 6 hours to do the Jag cap (it'll take another 6 hours to get it to look good with the bodywork). I've got plenty of time!

And the one and only benefit of being honey-less is not having a honey-do list. Dishes, vacuuming, yard work? I'll get to them when I get to them....

Jeff- I gave Kenny the hose section and boy, I'll tell you, that is a pain to put on this thing. I even tried using my press. Sprayed it with soapy water. Spread extra slick assembly lube on both parts. Nothing let it "slide on." I eventually got the best results just placing the hose over the thing - setting it on the floor - grabbing a rubber mallet - opening the top - and whacking it 100 times. Got it on to within about 1/2" of full-on with a good 1.5" of engagement. I have the hole in the bracket big enough for the hose - will install the clamp once it is in the hole.

**BPVan** · April 19th, 2011, 09:07 PM

Nice tour of the shop yesterday evening and my intro into metal fab. The Ranchero is definitely coming along nicely. Keep up the good work, here are a couple of action shots.

**doghows** · April 20th, 2011, 08:01 AM

Looks like the turbo powered engine was working overtime in that engine bay?? Soon it will be time to put in those red seat you got..

**Luva65wagon** · April 24th, 2011, 11:09 PM

Haven't been slacking on this, but have not taken a lot of time to photo things lately.

Mostly just working on final welding of the floor pans and grinding stuff down. I did start working on the rotting shifter hump, but sort of wanted to take a couple days off on all the pounding needed to make all this stuff fit. But you can see it with the patch piece welded on and I will now heat it and form it to shape.

Today I spent the day working on getting the seat mounts and weld-in thread plates for the new seats. Look close and see if you can figure out what I used to make the seat mounts from.

**doghows** · April 25th, 2011, 08:08 AM

I am going to take a shot in the dark here, but from the serial number on one I am thinking inner fender pieces???
Looking good Roger will you have yours on the road before Gene?? (haha)
I shaved all my door handles this weekend and now more bodywork.

**Jeff W** · April 25th, 2011, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by Luva65wagon

Today I spent the day working on getting the seat mounts and weld-in thread plates for the new seats. Look close and see if you can figure out what I used to make the seat mounts from.

Ooooh Ooooooh Mr Kotter, "Shock Tower Brace"

**Luva65wagon** · April 25th, 2011, 08:56 PM

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding - You are correct Mr. Horshack.

And see, I maintained the VIN number. It will still be in the car - though I'm going to have to put these in above and not under the carpet. The first one took me about 5 hours to think through... and the second took a little over an hour. And looks so much better.

I took a bunch of stuff to blast at work today and the linkage for the gas pedal was quite a patchwork. I think I will look for a good cable pedal at the Pick-a-Part... while I'm at it.

**BillP 98201** · April 26th, 2011, 08:48 AM

Roger where did that hub cap in the pic of your seat come from? My brother in law gave me a set, and I was wondering what they came off of

**Luva65wagon** · April 26th, 2011, 11:31 AM

Bill,

Those are produced in two sizes - 9.5" and 10.5" for 14" four-lug and 14" and 15" wheels five-lug wheel, respectively. They were found on 65 Falcons and 65 F-100 pickups - that I know of. May have been found on other Fords - since they say Ford and not Falcon.

My wagon has these and these in the picture were on the gray Ranchero (see the opening pictures - I think they are on there when that was taken). I was looking for a set of 10.5" for this Ranchero because I went with 14" five-lug wheels.

**Luva65wagon** · April 30th, 2011, 11:20 PM

Have been steady at it as I can. Work has eaten into the days a little and I haven't had much to take pictures of. Have been blasting an painting parts getting them ready to to put back on.

Gene's been by a few times - a couple hours here, a couple hours there, and has been making great progress on the prep to paint the engine bay. I'm almost ready to do that.

I also had to fix the shifter hump where the bottom half was rotted out. Didn't take many "before" pictures, but it was pretty much swiss-cheese down below. Lots of heat and hammering and it's good as new.

Today, after a wasted trip to Arlington without a wallet

I came back and proceeded to get the dash welded back on and gave the dash and cowl a coat of etching primer. Tomorrow... we'll see what it brings. I really need to figure out how I will seal that bed panel in permanently. May just work on that.