My Ranchero Resurrection

[KYBlueOval]

Balance of the photos

[RICH MUISE]

Very neat work John!! I've got similar grounding strips throughout my car as nothing on mine is grounded to the body......everything is wired grounds. I used strips like yours in the trunk and under the dash. In the engine compartment, I used covered power distribution boxes for the grounds to keep them clean.
Sorry for the really dirty engine compartment.

[lalessi1]

Blown away again! Incredible detail/design and execution. Can't wait to see it in person!!!

[CobraJoe]

John, your attention to detail is phenomenal! The car looks awesome, looking forward to see the completed project.

[KYBlueOval]

Some time ago I posted photos of the cowl drain that was installed. I have recently been test fitting the inner fenders for the routing of the right side wiring and the heater hoses on the passenger side and the left side wiring and AC hose routing on the driver's side. The rest of the cowl drain parts have been installed to make sure the drain tube is not in the way of anything else in that cowl area. When the tube is permanently installed I will use both a Corbin Clamp and a Gates Power Grip Shrink Clamp as getting into this area to tighten a clamp will be rather difficult at best.
Below are some photos of the rest of the parts and pieces that make up the cowl drain.





The photo below is what you see from the wheel well
   

I need to rotate a couple of photos, but don't know how to do it.
John

[hiball3985]

That is SUPER! original wasn't one of Fords better ideas

[mustang6984]

SWEET! Well done John!

[RICH MUISE]

That's the best cowl drain setup yet!! great  engineering and execution, John!
To rotate a pic....same program I talk about to resize.....RIGHT click on the pic, chose "open with"......chose "paint"........top left, the rotate button is right under the resize button. Click on save when you close.
That's assuming your running on Windows

[KYBlueOval]

I've been working on several projects for my Ranchero and modifying the grill is one of them. I shamelessly stole this idea from the fella from ARP Bolts, that posted here on the Forum while building his outstanding 2 door wagon. I saw it at the Street Rod Nationals,...........I believe it was two years ago, and it gorgeous, and I really liked the grill with the parking lights removed. What I will do is what he did regarding the parking lights. I will have two LED Lights stacked and mounted behind the grill. The lights are from United Pacific and have as I recall 12 LED's in each light. If anyone wants the United Pacific number, I have it.
Had the grill stripped of the chrome so it could be welded. Obtained one side of a bent up grill and it supplied the "bars" needed to make this change. A little more sanding, and it is off to the chrome shop.

[RICH MUISE]

I like the nice clean look. Great execution!

[mustang6984]

Interesting idea. I'd like to see pics of it when you are done. I put one and a half grills in the ceiling of my garage several years ago. They had sex...and I now have 4 sets...LOL!!! so...material to play with

[Ford Blue blood]

Saw that wagon too.  Just simple a work of art!  John it is often said copying is the greatest form of compliment.....

[KYBlueOval]

Progress comes slowly these days as life keeps getting in the way. Here are some photos of some recent work. My goal was to eliminate as much wiring, hoses etc. from the engine compartment. Here is how I am routing the wiring to the front of the car.  I'm presently working on the wiring that connects to things like temp. sensors, choke, alternator etc. and I'll post photos in a few days.I'm also working on the routing of the heater hoses, and I'll post those photos in a few days as well.

These photos show the 3/4" electrical conduit that I bent for the wiring going to the front of the car.The compound bend in the conduit, to make it follow the compound curve in the inner fender, was some what of a challenge, but I got it.

[lalessi1]

I can't open any of these photos either.... wait a minute... I copied and pasted the link and I can see them in another window!

[KYBlueOval]

I've been working on the routing for the heater hoses. My goal was to have as little of the hose in the engine compartment and as few connections as possible, and make some 90* bends,without kinking.

The hose is 5/8"ID, made by Gates, in the U.S.A. and it will kink if you bend it to a 90* shape. I tried bending a 5/8" OD piece of thin wall SS tubing to a 90 and then forcing it through the hose. After about 18" it just plain stopped. My next thought was to run a piece of SS corrugated  Natural Gas Flex line inside the hose. So I bought the shortest 3/8'OD line I could find and cut the connecting ends off. Smoothed the cuts and slid in it the heater hose. You'll see a piece of the SS hose in the first photo. Second photo is a piece of the 5/8" ID heater hose with a piece of the 3/8"OD Flexible SS Gas Line inside it and bent to 90 degrees.
Next I bought a 1/2" OD SS Flexible Gas line and tried running it down the hose, photo 3.  Although it is called 1/2" OD ,the OD is closer to ,if not exactly 5/8" OD.The line I bought was 4 feet long. Removed the fittings, cleaned up the ends and pushed 2 feet inside the hose without too much effort. The last two feet is another story. Yes, I used all types of lube and finally got it all inside the hose. The third photo shows the route of the hose, through the inner fender and then it is zip tied to the conduit I ran for some wiring, and then takes a 180* turn at the front of the inner fender and then a sharp 90* turn under the battery.The SS Corrugated SS Gas Line, inside the heater hose, makes those bends, without any kinks. I used the 1/2" OD , but if I had to do it again, I'd use the 3/8"OD . Much easier to work with!

So, there are very few connections, thus fewer chances for leaks.The return heater hose goes from the heater to the water pump. A connection on either end. No bulkhead connection. The hose from the intake to the heater has the control valve in that line, and the control valve will be between the inner fender and the right side of the cowl, and not inside the car. If it leaks it won't ruin the carpet. Four connections, but no bulkhead.
I'll use the 3/8"OD SS Gas Line inside the hoses as they make the 90* bend exiting the right side of the cowl.

There is also a photo of the battery and battery cables. The cables will go through the inner fender. The negative cable, follows the heater hoses and grounds to the engine block. The positive cable goes into the recently installed conduit, to the solenoid behind the glove box door that energizes the fuse panel etc.



 
More photos in the next post. The third photo in the next post, shows the heater hoses and negative battery cable coming through the inner fender, towards the engine, below the battery.