Rebirth of a Ranchero

As an owner of a '74 Ranchero Squire I've watched with interest your project and I must say, you ARE ambitious!! You haven't mentioned whether you have found replacement moldings or woodgrain for that fender. Mine is also damaged in the left front fender and squire moldings are not plentiful! Do you have a source you might share with a fellow Ranchero owner?? Any Ideas would be appreciated
Thanks, Tim O

You have no fear! Keep going man. Appreciate the updates. I'd go to more car shows if the only ones there were projects like yours.

Cheers,
Jon

Squire boy for right now I am going to run the 73's fenders. I still have the passenger side fender and plastic piece. Once I find another fender and plastic piece for the dirvers side, those will be going back on. For right now I have no idea where to find any of the plastic pieces. I do know a guy who goes to the yards fairly often and winds up with some rather intresting things, he does a few of the plastic pieces but not the ones were looking for. If and when I come across some of these I will be using what I need first but the rest will go to those who need them. There never were that many Squires built and I hate to think of people not restoring them because they cant find the pieces. Hell Trikar has a Cobra Jet Squire, who'da thought?

Well it turns out the drivers side engine mount was bent in the crash as well. I replaced that and got the driver train installed. I have also started painting the frame and I have selected the body boushings that are in the best condition to reuse. So the drive train is in and I am going to attempt to drop the body tomarrow. Should be fun. Oh and on a side not I will find a source for replacment body bushings for these era cars.

Well yesterday was fun, I got the body down. Its not bolted in yet but at least the car is movable now. Next week will be spent putting most of the front end back together and getting the fenders lined up.

Not much to report today. I managed to get the hydro boost hooked up again, had to dig around in my O-ring kit to find the correct ones to replace the broken ones. Also got the alernator remounted and the radiator bolted in and hooked up. And finally I hung the inner and outter fenders. Nothing is tightned down yet as I still need to get the front body mounts bolted in. So from the looks of it I will be taking a "test" driver next week end. MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Open headers and back country roads YEEEHAAA!!!! Still need to remount the gas tank, was going to today but decided to hold out for a new tank vent. Throw that up next week end and bolt down the front of the body and align and tighten the fenders and I should be ready to fire the engine.

Ladys and Gentlemen. It's Alive! Click image to see movie.

Great job. Can't wait to see it pull out of there under it's own power too.

Pretty cool to see that a female was actually enthused about the achievement. 72-76 torinos/rancheros were never known as babe magents. Sadly, I think mine served as repellant for many years.

Hey, you should have auditioned for the AutoZone commercial. Come on, just say.... "It basically took me the whole summer"

Thanks Mike. I have already done a test run. Still needs alot of work but she at least moves now. Gonna get the rest of the front back on next weekend and hopefully get her down to town for the exhauste and a really good bleed on the brakes.

The woman was my friends dads girlfriend. Sge thinks these are teh greats cars ever.

On the auto zone. I loath even thinking about going in there down where I live. I have beter customer service at Pepboys and Carquest and NAPA. So those are the 3 places I go for parts. Now outside of California than heck ya I would go to Autozone but never in Cali.


Oh and how did you get the video to imbed in the webpage like that?

Ladys and Gents the Squire is back on the road.



Almost six months after the crash that took out the grill, bumper, and frame the Squire is prowling the streets again. Still about a billion things that need to be adjusted and tightend but she is at least back in my garage.