Call me crazy - Ranchero's (again)

I know it's been a while since I posted anything. Have been working on it though... almost every day. Getting closer.

Last week, with Gene's help, I lowered the rear panel into the bed and got it all glued and bolted into place... not to come out again without a lot of heartache. There were a few places between bolts that wanted to bulge, so I had to rig up some method to hold them down until the glue cured. I'm using Loctite Polyurathane roof sealant here, which is also what I used on the underside of the car. Takes a few days to cure, but seems very tough. The bed is the last thing I will clean up before I take it over to Line-X or Rhino-liners to get the bed sprayed. Mostly all done with a wire-wheel and some hammer paint. Easy-peasy.

I have the weatherstripping and the windless in now, as well as the beltline weatherstip similar to what Jeff and Kenny used. I glued mine in, so I have been letting that glue cure before I roll up the window. It's pretty stiff material, so I hope it stays glued down.

:NERVOUS:

The past few days I've been working on getting the tunes all hooked up. Possibly tonight I'll be able to fire that off and get it tuned and adjusted to my liking. As you recall from my summer pictures I now have a speaker box tucked up under the bed in that wasted empty space (hence the need to seal it all off from above). The picture shows how I mounted the amps and rear speakers. I have a piece of red vinyl the same as the roof and will make a curtain for over all this so it can't be seen from outside.

Then it's onto the door panels, which are ready to go in, and then the tune-up on the motor to make it run right. And ta-da! it'll be ready for front-end alignment and bed liner.... and prime-time.

[thumb]

WOW! Can't wait to hear it.

Nice job! Your wagon's gonna get jealous!!

Im already jealous!!!!! Gotta yank my generator out, and do something with my tunes, and door panels, and......... :D
Great work Roger!

One would never know what that car looked like when it left my driveway. Can I have it back now?? I'll trade you a 62 V-8 chero and a 65 6 cyl one for it!!!:D
All I have left to do is ........ EVERYTHING:o

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Originally Posted by SmithKid

WOW! Can't wait to hear it.

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You mean you didn't hear it last night? It sounds AWESOME and I haven't even tweaked it yet.

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Originally Posted by redfalken

Nice job! Your wagon's gonna get jealous!!

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It's only jealous right now because it is sitting out under the ghetto garage in the freezing cold. Soon it will be back in the garage snuggy and warm(er) and snickering at the freezing Flarechero.

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Originally Posted by BillP 98201

Im already jealous!!!!! Gotta yank my generator out, and do something with my tunes, and door panels, and.........
Great work Roger!

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Thanks Bill! When you're ready to upgrade your tunes... or anything else... just let me know.
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Originally Posted by doghows

One would never know what that car looked like when it left my driveway. Can I have it back now?? I'll trade you a 62 V-8 chero and a 65 6 cyl one for it!!!
All I have left to do is ........ EVERYTHING

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They need only look at the first page of this thread. I can hardly believe what I've done in these few short months (though I am only 5 months overdue). And NO! you can't have it back. I don't think I have it in me to do this again - this soon. After something like this I'll need at least 5 years off. You'll soon have yours back from paint, and then it can go as fast or as slow as you want it to go. We'll have to throw a put-it-together party... on the condition that your lovely wife prepares a feast like the last one. I think we could get the whole club to come to that. It was awesome! We were reminiscing just the other day....
:)

No problem. I will plan if for spring when it is warm. I have plenty of room for camping.:BEER::rocker: Hopefully I can get enough parts and stuff together by then.

As I indicated months ago (seems like years ago) I bought aftermarket door panels off ebay for $80 a pair. Far cry cheaper than factory looking panels. I worked some on putting those on last night. I have the driver's side on completely, and will be adding the 4 screws you see in the picture to the passenger side. The holes behind the panels don't come close to the holes in the doors. The holes for the arm rests and window crank are fine, just not the retainer clips. So 4 stainless screws will help hold it on. Jury's still out, but it's not too bad looking. The arm rests were donated to the car out of the wagon at Steve's house. That car lives on in many ways.

Rolled up the windows into the new fuzzies too last night after a week of letting the glue cure. Stiff stuff, but it should keep the interior of the door a lot drier. The doors sound so.... solid. Though with the issues I discovered on the passenger side of the car, that door may forever shut hard.

So that make your 's a 61-62-63 "flarechero". COOL.. Do the tunes sound as good as the one's in your wagon?? Maybe we can get both your car's to a show and play both stereo's together for super stereo!![thumb]
You have got to be itching to drive it.:shift:

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Originally Posted by doghows

You have got to be itching to drive it.:shift:

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I realized when I woke up this morning that I had just had a dream about driving it. I think Gene was in the car too. How the heck I drove up the little hill along side the road I was on is still troubling me. :WHATTHE::NERVOUS:

61-62-63 4Xflare4Chero??? I don't know if you are rubbing off on me or the other way around??

...I can taste it.

I'm down to just two things in the interior now. Secure the console and add the spare tire carrier. The latter will be bolted in since I can't weld it if I ever need to pull speakers or the box from under the bed. The spare is going to be a wanna-be I picked up at the Pick-n-Pull.

Yesterday and today I got the driver side door panel finished and sill plates in, the visors cleaned and painted (after a near disaster with a spray can of red vinyl paint gone wild), rear view mirrors and interior lighting done.

Most of these pictures were taken with my phone camera with the garage lights off and the interior lit with the interior lights. Used Photoshop to make them visible, which is why they're pretty grainy. The little light behind the dome light is a light I've had around for about 20 years. Finally found a home for it. It articulates to point anywhere you want. The lights under the dash are the old lights from my friends Mustang, which he replaced with new ones.

So... now I'm torn regarding the side-view mirrors. The ones I got off ebay are really small and I'm not sure I like them. I'm not sure whether I won't just get a set of regular door mirrors. We'll see.

Next up - getting the engine to run right.

Weekend update. I spent the day yesterday getting the console mounted permanent-like. Made a bracket to mount underneath. I also mounted the spare tire bracket and mounted the wanna-be spare. Still have a lot of room back there.

Today I didn't spend a lot of time out there, but did a few checks to see why it has been running so bad after putting it all back together. I did a compression check first and all cylinders were at 150 psi., which was pleasant to see. I inspected the plugs and they were all fouled. I measured the resistance of all the plugs and they were all over the place, so I picked up a new set and after installing them it did run a little better, but very poorly still. So off with the carb and see for yourself. Not very pretty in there. Who filled my carb with dirt? Anyway, it was a recent rebuild Steve put on it, so I was able to disassemble it without tearing any gaskets. Cleaned up, readjusted the choke, which wasn't working right, installed it, and purrrrrr....
:banana:

Good way to end the weekend.

This is really looking fantastic. I am so amazed, (don't know why) at your ability to take something and turn it into such a beatiful vehicle in such a short period of time. Congratulations, Badbird,Larry

Boy you would think that putting 2 fuel filters on there would have stopped all that junk.. Guess I should have just junked that tank??
Anyway looks awesome as usual. Got the parts from Gene thanks for that, and hope that bed trim is what you need.
Can't wait to see it out on the road. Toady maybe?? Off to alignment..:rocker::3g: