Please welcome my new 1962 Ford Ranchero to the fleet! The image you see above marks the fourth vehicle that’s been towed to my driveway in the last four years. This fine example of the Falcon platform’s versatility sports a 170ci straight six, a three-on-the-tree and…not much else. Power nothing, non-functional window rollers, rusted-out floors and a few good dents in the body. However, it only weighs about 2500lbs and shares a number of key parts with all other Falcons, Mavericks and early Mustangs.
That parts interchangeability should come in handy as we build it out to be our next LeMons racer. Things than many people throw away (like 200 and 250ci I-6s, 8″ rear axles, floor-shifted three speed transmissions and drum brake spindles) constitute upgrades for us. Not only that, but it can haul its own spare parts!
Well, it could, once it’s running…
As-is, it cranks and wants to fire, but seems to have an ignition issue stemming from shot points and redneck wiring connections literally held together by nothing but duct tape. My goal is to get it back to life by the end of this weekend. Fitting, really. If so, I might have to nickname it Jesús, maybe Jesuchero. The overwhelming simplicity forms a nice contrast to the Uberbird, which featured such things as four separate temperature sensors all right next to each other and an electrical system that depended on the gauge cluster “ALT” light to successfully charge the battery.
After the immediate work to get it running, we’ll get on to making it properly driveable. What’s obvious today:
- Every gasket everywhere leaks
- Floors are completely shot
- Re-wire the whole car
- Seat is kinda flopping around due to being bolted to metal that’s no longer present
- Exhaust has a big pinch/kink in it
- Parking brake handle is frozen in place
- Radiator probably leaks
- Carb seems to work…but also leak a little gas
The goal is to get it driveable and even serving as a backup/beater vehicle in my personal fleet. Just driving it around will help debug a bunch of stuff that new, bottom-rung LeMons cars spend their first 50 laps addressing. When it comes time to upgrade:
- Five lug conversion and disc brakes up front
- Five lug 8″ rear end out back
- Find some V8 Mustang coils and cut them down
- Do a Shelby drop and some bracing on the front end
- Maybe switch to a floor shifter
- Maybe upgrade to a 2-barrel carb
- Maybe upgrade to electronic ignition courtesy of a junkyard Duraspark unit
The tricky part is figuring out how much time and money it makes sense to throw at this motor versus the major upgrade a Craigslist 200 or 250 could be. We know we’ll be slow, but just how slow we’re not sure of yet. And that’s to say nothing of the abundance of Ford small blocks floating about. It might just be the case that my ’64 Falcon gets an upgrade to a roller 5.0 and the 260ci gets handed down. After all, 260s aren’t worth much…
No, I won’t say what I paid for it. Yes, you can expect regular updates and maybe the occasional video about it. Yes, we do have some awesome themes in the works. No, I won’t share what they are.
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