57 Ranchero based on Fairlane?

[Ford Blue blood]

My paint guy called the BASF tech support and got a really close match for the yellow on my Edsel.  Turned out great.  The cowl vent is the new paint, the cowl is the stock 58 Edsel Joaquin Yellow.

[jvo]

Just talked to the PPG guy again, and he reminded me that 21469 number was good, but I can't have it cause I'm not a pro.  They only make that in water base, he says, and he can only sell it to professional shops. 

So next question is, Silver Mocha available anywhere else that's not water based?

But I still need the Silver Mocha paint code that will work for the suppliers here.  Sherwin Williams guy can't do it either. 

I thought I read somewhere there were some Chrysler colours that were very close.  I guess I should say it doesn't have to match anything on the car.  The whole car is getting painted, so it could be slightly off but I'm not good with colours so I don't want to just match a paint chip. 

[jvo]

Been making progress although not as fast as I'd like. Everything is fitting nicely now, and I'm ready to scribe and cut the tops of the quarter panels, so as to fit and weld them.
BUT, I decided it would be way way easier to finish the inner fender well, and finish welding the outer quarter panel where I couldn't get at it when the wheels were still on it. Metal finished the whole driver's side of the body now. Its ready to prep for painting.

Also, its way easier to be able to finish fitting and welding the inside box corners once I cut out the area for the fuel tank. Thus, I now have the fuel tank pretty much fitting into place. I can remove it now, then I can stand inside the box as well as outside for the fitting and welding about to take place.

[jvo]

Remember, this floor pan is from a four door sedan. Thus, the tire well is not the same as a regular Ranchero. I found this fuel tank online after much measuring and searching. Its a 1995 Ford F150 tank with pump. Fits the space nicely, and its only a hair over 7 inches deep.

I have to take a trip to pic a part to look for some weather stripping maybe from a mini van door or something with a pinch seal like the outer edges of the gas tank. I plan on putting the weather stripping on the edge of the gas tank so as to seal this area on top of the tank from the elements.

The bed floor will be hinged at the front so I can access "stuff" under it, like the duster and polish and tire stuff and **** like that, right?

[hiball3985]

The tank looks good. Will the filller neck be in the bed?

[jvo]

Oh boy, how do I answer that one?  Its a secret that I've been keeping till I got things worked out.  I'm not all the way there yet, at least not for the final product.  I'm pretty much all the way there with the picture between my ears though.  But I don't have any pics yet. 

I've been thinking about where to put the filler, the whole time it was sitting outside in the snow and rain, waiting to come back inside again.  That was a long time.  I presently do not have any holes in either quarter panel, and I really like it that way, as the originals from the Ranchero didn't fit very well and I really didn't want to cut a hole in the quarter.

Really didn't want to put it in the bed floor either.  That is a compromise, at best.  I didn't want that or even on the inside back corner of the bed on the vertical bedside, just as though it were on the outside of the quarter panel.  Still a compromise.

I wanted the tank to be tucked up under the back end.  The filler wouldn't work under the tailgate, like the original Fairlane.  I didn't think I could get the gas to flow uphill into the top of the tank. 

So, I got this wild hare idea about taillight fillers, like 56 Chevy.  No pics yet, but its mostly built.  Bought a couple linear guide rails, bent up a housing to hang it all in, put a plate on the inside of the taillight area on the fender  to give it some structural integrity.  With all of this, I got to thinking about how I would put the actual light in there.  I needed it to be skinny, like one of those led taillights on the back of a school bus.  Bought a couple of those cheap and found the bus taillight actually almost fits inside the 57 Ford taillight.  Wouldn't work that way for my application without sticking out the back of the taillight housing and looking like horse dung.  Carefully dissected the bus taillight and found a nice skinny little led board that I can still use the original back, albeit ground down slightly so as to fit precisely inside the 57 Ford taillight.  I have it fit, but not attached yet.  Thinking perhaps some industrial silicone or urethane adhesive to permanently attach it inside the back of the Ford lens.  You end up with a 57 Ford lens with the led light inside, and 3 wires sticking out the back of it.  That will be attached to the original Ford tin backing plate for the taillight. And that will be attached to the linear guide rails.  There will be a little housing made that the whole shebang slides straight outward about 6 inches, and I plan to hinge the lens as well to gain total access to the filler inside the bottom of the taillight opening.  If you bothered to read this far, I'll get some pics up soon as I can so this might make some sense.  And now, if this doesn't work out, I'm going to look like and idiot. So far, it looks like it will glide in and out of the taillight housing precisely.  The housing if you take note, has the inner diameter on a slight taper, I imagine so as to make it possible to replace taillight lenses without scraping the paint off.  I can see as soon as the taillight becomes unlatched, it will pop straight out with no clearance problems.  I hope.  And oh yeah, I forgot about the latch.  VW beetle hood latch purchased cheap.  It will be on the inboard end of the sliding taillight mechanism and will have a cable release mounted "somewhere".  You asked.

[hiball3985]

Maybe I shouldn't have asked  Thats a major project that would keep me from sleeping at night.
Good luck, looking forward to seeing the pictures in the future.
I've seen early Ford trucks were people wanted the in cab tank moved to the rear of the bed, they usually use a Mustang tank and all the different filler ideas people come up with so that sparked my curiosity.

[djfordmanjack]

John it sounds that you have your assembly figured out. Maybe my design can give you some additional ideas. Guenter

http://57fordsforever.com/smf/index.php?topic=4930.msg44164#msg44164

[jvo]

Well Guenter, I think I like your idea better.  I didn't think I could get it to swing inward far enough to get to the gas cap.  I guess I should have tried harder. 

I see it appears that you removed the inner mounting ring.  How will you mount the taillight housing now?

So here are the pics of mine.  Not quite so proud now that I see how clean Gunter's is.  Oh well.

[jvo]

I tried to take this lens apart by drilling out the rivets.  No go.  Had to grind down the outer circumference to free up the led board inside.  Easiest to grind with a 36 grit 3 inch sanding disc on the black back side.  Melts just like black abs plumbing pipe.  Smells just like black abs plumbing pipe. Dirty mess to get it apart, but it sure fits nicely inside the 57 Ford lens.

[jvo]

I have a bunch more work to finish this up, and now I'm considering stopping production of this item until further notice.  I'd like to see more detail on how Guenter did his.  I'm thinking it might be less work to start over and do that.

[djfordmanjack]

John, I hope that you don't take offense in my posting. It was never meant as a know it all.

Since you hadn't posted pics of yours I just wanted to share my idea, which I find quite simple.
Let me say, I already did another conversion on my 57 SD 15 years ago, but unfortunately no pics. That conversion also put the light outside and swung it out to completely open the taillight area. I always just was afraid of the filler hose catching the unit and ripping off the taillight. So I came up with this newer version. it has some shortcomings. like water drain and what about fuel spilling. also getting rid of fuel fumes. it will need a small vent tubing added to the filler pipe and a non vented cap now. vent tube routed out and under the car.
your unit looks extremely solid and could also be welded closed on the bottom to build a bowl, for spilled fuel. add a drain tube or hose out under the car, and it will add safety benifits. I like your idea with the VW hood latch, because yours is obviously locked and doesnt need a locking gas cap. remote opening is very easy with a simple cable or solenoid. Also I want to add, the angle and length of the fin on a Fairlane is different from a Custom model. so you would need to make sure if my arrangement even works on your Fairlane quarters.

I liked my idea because it is extremely lightweight and undetactable from the outside, still using stock lights. I also thought about building a sheetmetal 'funnel' sort of that would drain spilled fuel outside, but never got to finishing the install yet.

concerning the bolts, yes I removed the inner ring metal from the quarter panels, which is easy, just drill out some spot welds.
as you can see there is one stud left in the potmetal housing. I plan to add 2 or 3 more studs with JB weld or similar to the hollow pot metal, which should be easy to do and pretty sturdy fastening to the quarter panel.

Your set up also gives me some good additional ideas and maybe we both end up with a mixed/matched version of both.
btw you can still use your led panel an any mix of ideas as well.
Keep us updated on your project !

[KYBlueOval]

John, I moved the gas filler on my Ranchero to behind the left tail light. I'm using a '63 Fairlane tail light, but the method of moving the tail light to get to the filler pipe is the same, regardless of what tail light is used.
There are a couple of additional details now that it is finished. If you would like more photos or more information, just let me know.
John

http://57fordsforever.com/smf/index.php?topic=7657.msg66066#msg66066

[jvo]

Nice. I like that one too.  Mine is about 90% built so I'll probably leave it like it is.
Yes, I do plan on making a little drain bowl below the gas filler with a drain tube down to the ground below, in case gas is ever spilled, or water leaks in there.

Back to work on it today again. I finished welding in the gas tank opening.  Now I can stand in there to make the pieces to tie the bed side bottoms to the tail gate bottom.  I need to leave the tailgate mounted precisely where it is and build around it.

Until I cut the gas tank opening out, I was struggling to gain access to that area to finish it up.  Today.

[mustang6984]

I bet there will be someone eventually who will make that time worn comment..."WOW! My dad/grandad had one just like that too!".

You're metal work makes me jealous...well done!