Newbie from England

[gasman826]

Just strap an empty oil drum to each corner and float it across!

Just throw it in the Detroit River and hope in makes Niagara Falls before the lakes freeze over.

[57ford]

Well its been a while chaps, thought I would update you on my Ranchero.

As im sure you have read, the car has some issues. The major issue being that it is on a convertible frame so the rear axle is too far back, the parking brake cables are too short plus the small issue of a dirty great x member underneath!
The rear axle is now in its correct location which meant removing the rear spring hangars and relocating them the required 2 inches further forward that Ford had already punched in the frame! The front hangars were more of a challenge in that they had to be cut off and re welded, again further forward to yet again a hole that was already there, only requiring a larger hole drilled on the inside of the frame to access the spring hangar bolt. New bushes were installed, 2 inch lowering blocks installed, the rear end could go back in the car. Then come out again as it needs new axle bearings and my garage isn?t wide enough to pull the ?shafts with the axle still in the car!

Parking Brake: the car came with brand new parking brake cables which now the axle is in the right place, I could attempt to connect this up. Small issue being that I didnt have an operating lever with the car, so gasman826 very kindly sent me the correct part! This in turn needs a gearbox crossmember to attach to. The crossmember in the car is a home made affair which would come out as I had acquired an original sedan crossmember off a friend who had a derelict 58 in his woods, and also an equaliser off another 58 that my brother broke. After a lot of head scratching and looking at pictures on here and removing the dirty great x member!, I finally have a working parking brake!
Brake and clutch: an awful homemade brake and clutch pedal assembly was in the car, which quite frankly was bloody dangerous! The pedals were mounted so low down that the pedal pads actually hit the horizontal floor board! These have subsequently been thrown at the nearest bin. The 58 in the woods also gave up its pedal box which after a lick of paint and some new bushes its back where it should be. Treated it to a new original master cylinder and brake lines throughout.

Steering column drop: it didnt have one. The previous owner had been driving this car swinging about on a full size wheel with no power steering and no column drop! I now have an original pedal box in the car I can now make a column drop using the original bottom half of the column clamp. Except the mounting screws aren?t long enough because when the body was put on the frame, the rear footwells fouled on the top of the x member. To overcome this the body mount rubber doughnuts have been removed from underneath the frame and put on top, meaning that the body now sits 3/4s of an inch higher than it should, so the column screws now just get full thread engagement on the nuts.

Gas tank: as we are well aware, Ranchero gas tanks are expensive. Shipping one over here is cost prohibitive. Guess where I got a gas tank? Yup, the 58 in the woods. Now being a sedan tank, it aint gonna fit, so , the spare wheel well in the Ranchero got removed, and a new floor was made using the original tank strap mounts which means the sedan tank now sits sideways with the filler neck pointing in the same direction as the original one! The tank now needs to go through a cleaning process and to be topped off with a new fuel sender.
Theres still a few little bits and pieces that need doing, but im happy I have broken the back of the major problems.
Robin

[RICH MUISE]

Lots of head scratching going on over there with good results! I think more than a few of us have found some stuff from '58 donor cars to help get our '57's back on the road. I found a '58 with a pristine floor and inner rear quarters. Glad your keeping at it and thanks for keeping us posted. Do you live far from Gary and his Ranchero project?