Falcons do rot wierd. We have a pair and both look decent, except the '60 has a slight kink up where the fenders meet the body. That one, the rearend is about to fall out of, it's so bad. Floors are just plain gone. The other has floors in it still, but one of the rear bumper brackets is a tad loose. Fixable, but that's enough to send most people running away screaming in fear.
Hey, like dude I meant the rust is fixed in place, naw, it ain't goin nowhere!! Nice job saving this cool hauler, I love the tasty simple color. You don't see a bunch of these cool rides around. Atta Boy!!! ~Sololobo~
YEA, thoes tail lights really look like a space ship at night. I took a gamble on them, hoping they would fit the contour, and they did. Thanks for the postive comments.
very nice job,, the floors look like mine do now... theres pix in my album of my flooring job on the go...
all that rust didn't start from a window being down. stick your head under the dash and give the bottom of your cowl a real good look, or you'll be doing this job again soon. the giveaway was the "flurry of leaves and debris" when you hit the road again. here's why: this is the dreaded cowl cancer that affects probably 90% of Falcons/Comets and Mustangs. it is harder to see from outside the car, but evident whenever the entire front floor is rusted out. be warned, it's not a HARD job as far as rust repairs go, it's just a Pain in the Ass to have to disassemble the car as far as it needs to be done. i got this cowl off breaking only three drill bits and using one spotweld cutter. TIP: predrill your spotwelds slightly, as the cutter likes to wander. and YES i found this AFTER i replaced MY floorboards too.
Wow your's was much worse than mine. I simply cut the ends of the cowl off, cut out the bad, welded in a plate and said forget the fresh air vent. If i want fresh air I'll roll down the window. hahaha.
Hey its been a while since I posted to this thread. Here's the latest. Times have been tuff, for us all, and I was at a point where I had to sell the Ranchero. Lucky thing is, no one else had any money to buy it, so I still have it. It seems as if things are comming around so I've begun to enjoy my Rust Ranch once again. I'm preping the interior with for new paint. I had bought a heap of interior stuff last summer but never got around to installing it. I tried selling that stuff too with no luck. So I've got new seat skins, knobs, door pannels, carpet, insulation, weather stripping, window seals and some other bitchen stuff just waiting to be used. This spring the Ranch is going to be ready.
Its been a month since my last post. I've painted the interior antique white (photos comming soon). I'd noticed speakers hung under the package tray but never took the time to inspect them, the radio doesnt work so who cares about speakers. I removed the speakers before painting the interior. Turns out they were not car speakers but removable Sony Ghetto Blaster speakers from the late 80's. Remember thoes?? "Hell yeah babe! I just upgraded my I.C.E. (in car electronics) with some new Sony speakers." Needless to say, I swooshed thoes into the garbage can from the three point line. I removed the pass. fender and patched a large rust hole in the lower fender. I plan on filling the antena hole and the emblem holes too. Installed a new heater plenum and ducting. The heater works like a charm and now I can defog the windshield!! - Bonus - I began to remove the windshield to patch a few small rusty holes in the upper cowl. The rubber is so damned hard that I could barely cut it with a razor knife. The chrome was litterly stuck in the hard rubber. I tried hard to save the chorme, but managed to screw up each piece. So I'm in the market for new chrome. The lower lip that holds the windshield rubber on the pass side, is pretty rusty. I'll be cutting that out and welding in a patch. Then I'll be able to reinstall my window with new rubber. Lets hope that my interior leaky issues will be porperly delt with then. Quality time with the Ranch. Photos to come in the next few days.
OK, as promissed, new images are here. The interior metal parts are now a nice antique white. I swear that I'll never use Krylon again! That paint sucks! I patched up the antena hole on the pass. fender. Lower rust hole fixed up. and new fender mount welded onto the inside the fender. No more sheet metal screws to keep the lower fender in place.
i've seen this car floating around on craigs off and on for a long time. glad to see you're keeping it, and fixing it. keep us posted. rancheros are bad ass.
Awesome work man Good job saving a Ranchero! I dont know why everyone is whining about rust, you got a good deal on it and now look what you made out of it so glad you proved the haters wrong! Glad to hear your keeping it too! I say you name her "The Rustero!"
Zombie57Ranchero "The Rustero!" Sounds like a great name. Shooter54. Your right, the Ranch had been for sale numerous times. Each time there was probably a different desire or need which prompted the sale. But fortunatly no one was interested. I think that I had it for sale from late summer of 09 until Jan. of 2010. During that time only one guy came out to take it for a spin. So now things have begun to level out. I have time to work on the Rustero and actually enjoy it. Look for it this spring - summer. I plan on driving it all over the joint.
Zombie57Ranchero. I forgot to say that I looked at the photos of your ranch on your profile. You've got that ranch down low! Its a sweet looker!
On the picture above, showing the antena patch, you can make out some major rust. This rust was hidden under the windshield rubber. I've taken care of this job today. Note to self, paint the dash after you're through with welding up rusty spots. Finished up and added my THREE WISE TIKI'S for good measure. Thanks for looking
And there was some rust in the upper passengers side 'A' pillar too, so I took care of that as well. Thanks for looking
Holy Shite! Work on the the Ranch is comming along. I'll have some photos soon. I couldnt believe it, but it turns out that my Ranchero has the 170ci motor, not the 144 like I had assued (and been told by many people.) I purchased a 1960-1963 Falcon book at the PDX swap meet this year. I decoded my S/N and found out that the car was built in San Jose and was a speical order car. I think it is possible that the intrior color and the motor were the two items which were special about the car, because everything else about it is normal. I purchased Rust Doctor at the swap meet too. I spoke with Rust Doctor, Blue Lightning, Por-15 and one other rust killer product company (cant recall the name) Blue lightning and the "forgotten" company did not look like what I was after. Por-15 is raved about by car guys, but It has to be painted on. I wanted something I could spray up into my dash, and into cracks and so on. Rust Doctor seemed to be the best bet for what I was doing. Rust Doctor looks like it is kicking butt too. I followed the directions (for once) and have some great results. I top coated the treated areas with some thick rustolium paint. Next will come the rubberized undercoating to act at a sound dampener. Then the Jute and finally the carpet. I do love the fresh air comming in from all directions, the random blasts of powdered rust, and the howl of just about ever moving part. But I hope to calm this down a bit with the interior treatment. More photos soon.
Congratulations on the terrific looking Ranchero. You definitely brought one back that would have likely continued to rust into oblivion.
UPDATE: Getting close to windshield install. The "Three Wise Tiki's" are on my passangers side dash now. I came up with the design and then painted them on, taking advantage of the missing windshield. The side windows are in. PROBLEM: The weatherstripping kit I purchased from Dearborn Classics (WK102) is not as good as I had hoped. The wingwindow / quarter window seals (WE131) is not made properly. The rubber is not wide enough at the base to properly seal against my doors. There is a gap of 1/8" - 1/4". The rubber product was produced by Re-Pop. This image is of the drivers side wing window on the outside. I placed a drop light within my door in order to light up the inside of the door and highlight the rubber area that is not touching my door. If this seal were made properly no light should be visable. This is the same point of view, but with the overhead lights off. The bright white areas are being lit by the doop light. I've done all I can from massaging, pressing, and even unscrewing the wingwindow frame and allowing it to drop within the door. The rubber is simply not wide enough. I've written Dearborn Classics but have not heard back from them yet. If any of you have a suggestion of a different seal maker, please let me know.
The third show for Billetproof NW is almost here (Three times in a row makes it a tradition right?). The thing that sucks is that I'm going to miss it. Dealing with a death in the family and all the other crazy shit that has been happening this year, I forgot to ask for it off and now I'm skunked. OH Well...Life goes on. Here are some of the latest images I have of the progress on my rusty ranch. The Ranchero bed has a trap door in it (for those who are unaware) this is because Ford used the same floor plan for all makes. In a Falcon / Comet / Wagon, this area is where the rear seat is. For some unknown reason Ford simply slapped a trap door over the cavity and bolted it down. This area is prone to leaking and is the cause of much rust from what I've seen. My Rancher was massively rotten in this spot. Lots of time has gone into rebuilding it. Here is how I've decided to finalize this. I welded it shut forever. I fab'ed up some plates to fill the gaps. I did this because the gaps are too large to bridge and the original metal at the seems are too spoty to trust.
Now thats what it's supose to look like. I dont know how I'm gong to tackle that prob yet. It's a real tough area to deal with. My idea was to cut a small rectangular section from that area (to be used as a small access pannels), weld in a vertical wall between the bed floor and the shock mount area. Then bolt the small access pannels. But for now, I have no good ideas. Any suggestions? Keep in mind that I want to use the area under the bed as aft storage.
The Jalopy Journal
