57 Ranchero

[Limey57]

Hi folks, Gary here, live across the water in England, where the weather's cold & wet & the TV programmes suck!  I've had my 57 Ranchero for 3 months.  It was imported from the US about 8 years ago (it was once featured in Old School Rods), I bought it from the previous owner who had stripped it & started rebuilding it.

The spec & story so far:

Chassis, axle suspension etc, etc has been shot blasted & painted, its fitted with a Wurth steering rack conversion, power disc brakes, dropped spindles & Aerostar front springs.  The body was dipped & primed about 5 years ago, revealing typically rusty floorpans, rear arch edges, some rocker damage & a few thin bits here & there.  All repairs are being done by cutting out all the rot & butt-welding in repair panels attempting to metal finish & use no filler, only high build primer.  Okay, I've had to use a skim of filler here & there but I want this car to be the best I've ever had.  The car came with around $2500 worth of brand new packaged parts (including all of those little bits & pieces that you don't realise you need until the last minute) rechromed bumpers & overriders, etc, etc.

So far I've replaced both rockers, repaired the edges of the roof and also replaced parts of the A-post adjacent to the windshield.  I've just started to drill out the spot welds holding some of the floor panels in place in the end of the load area.  The aim is to have the body lifted back off by end of the summer to allow painting to commence!  Colour will be blue & white and wheels will hopefully be 17" Torque Thrust 2's.  I'll add more pics as & when I get chance.

I've got loads of questions as well, so I hope I fit in round here!

[JPotter57]

You've got it looking good,  Gary.  Keep up the good work and keep posting pics of your progress.

[RICH MUISE]

Welcome to the website. You'll fit in just fine...and since we're two countries seperated by a common language, our biggest problem will trying to figure out what the other is talking about. I'm curious what an "overrider" is ??  Nice sheetmetal work...looks like that ranchero is in the right hands.   Rich

[Frankenstein57]

Welcome, you have a nice start there. To bad you don't live next door. Just curious if the car was an ebay find or something else. Mark

[shopratwoody]

Looks like you're doing it right Gary. A lot of work, don't get
burned out. Mine looked like that once.

[Limey57]

Welcome to the website. You'll fit in just fine...and since we're two countries seperated by a common language, our biggest problem will trying to figure out what the other is talking about. I'm curious what an "overrider" is ??  Nice sheetmetal work...looks like that ranchero is in the right hands.   Rich

Aha, "over rider" thats what we call the pair of upright bits attached to the bumper, you guys might call them bumper-gaurds?  Yep, I'm used to the minor language variations that can cause some head scratching, having owned a '60 Impala for eight years and using chevytalk.com, I got to grips with MOST of the American-English differences!

[Limey57]

I knew that there was some rust in the rear load area, so today I decided to make a start.

The upper panel was repairable, so I drilled out a load of spot welds, cut through some brazing and lifted off the upper panel to get to the rust in the underside panel.



I lifted the panel off and was greeted with this lot.......







Fortunately the rust only affects this panel & the body brace so repairs SHOULD be straight forward.  Unfortunately I just found out I've run out of sheet steel, so I've got to wait until tomorrow now to pick up some steel & start fabricating & cutting.

To be continued.....

[shopratwoody]

I did that floor on mine.What an F'n job. That's some of the worst part
of the whole car. I cut 6" out of the bulkhead too and replaced it.
Tough work.
Ron

[jdlafayette]

Gary, Nice work. I have to hand it to you restoring an american car must be tough in England. It's hard here in New England, home of the rust buckets! Keep up the good work!

[Limey57]

Okay, a bit of an update.

I removed the rusted section & fabricated the outrigger:



Then cut out a repair panel (I'm doing it in two pieces) for the lower panel.  The recess for the body mount was tricky so I had to think about it because I know I'd seen that shape somewhere before:



There will be no more home made jam tarts at our house:



The baking tray was a good quality one so the metal was nice & thick & the shape was just right!

[Limey57]

Floor pans next.  They were good, but rusted through under the seats. 


I know these are available in the US but shipping was horrendous, so I used a similar shaped one for another car, any ideas what it it?


VW Beetle!


Still got to grind all the welds down (all repairs are butt welded in).

[Ford Blue blood]

Very nice work!  Love the cake pan idea!

[RICH MUISE]

ditto on that. Wished I had thought of the tart pan idea (muffin pans here in the u.s. lol) when I replaced a couple of areas in my trunk....although playing with a nylon dead blow hammer and a shot bag for a few hours was kinda fun. Nice work.  Rich

[Limey57]

Cut, weld, grind.  Cut, weld, grind.  And repeat until the rust is gone.....!

Passenger side looked to be not too bad, but I should have known better:









Just need an hour or so with the grinder to linish the welds flush then I can get the body off (again)!

[RICH MUISE]

Gary...you're moving right along on this project. Looking good.