My Ranchero Resurrection

[KYBlueOval]

After some "objective" thinking,and good advice here on the Forum, the speaker grill was removed and filled. The leaded seams have been blocked. It is done now. Everything I wanted to do  to the dash has been done.There is a guide coat on the dash for the day in the future when it is time to block sand it again prior to color being applied.
Another item that has been addressed is the %^$@*^% Cowl drains. What you see is a 1 1/2" X 1" Copper reducer fitting and a 1" X 1" Brass PEX fitting. Once soldered, the piece will be secured on the cowl drain with a SS screw and a good application of some silicone.There is no water pressure, so I think it should work.
I'm going to steal an idea from the forum regarding the other end of the cowl drain. "'57 Again" made a flange that was installed on the inner fender, and that is what I'm going to do as well. When I get to that point, I'll post photos.
In the mean time we are working on the unfinished details. Once those are completed.the bottom can be painted and then I can bring it home and install it back on the frame.

[djfordmanjack]

good progress and clean work all around !

[RICH MUISE]

Nice work John! That cowl drain should work just fine with the silicon as you mentioned. I got off easy with my speaker fill-in............with my padded dash, I just left the oem grille in there and went right over it with the foam padding, lol.

[KYBlueOval]

Update on the cowl drain. Decided it need a bracket. Bracket was silver soldered to the copper. There is a "notch" in the top end of the cowl drain. A corresponding "notch" was cut in the copper fitting. It just fits better with the two notches.
The bracket has a screw hole high up so as to keep the screw out of the water running through the cowl.........I hope.
Now for the "other end". I really liked an idea I saw here on the Fourm, where the cowl water drains through the inner fender, and I stole it! What you see are 2 1/4"  X  7/8" SS washers and SS elbows from a previous project. The washers were opened up slightly, drilled and tapped and the elbows welded in place. I'll show exactly where it was mounted, if anyone wants to see it.

[KYBlueOval]

Well is has been since May of last year since I posted any updates or photos. Detail work on the body, blocking and sanding, etc. not worthy of photos. Blocking inside the truck bed is a real PITA, but it is done, except for the ribbed, bolt in section. Test fitted all of the Truck Bed Stainless Trim, only to find out that it did not fit very well, and required that many screw holes be moved. It all fits now.
Been holding off installing the rear fender inner panels as we didn't want the sanding dust, metal chips etc. to accumulate between the inner and outer fender. We are now ready to weld them in. In the photos below you see three sections that will complete the inner fender. The ribbed piece on the far right is from EMS. The other two pieces were hand made to fit. Once these pieces are installed and finished, I'll post more photos.
I've also posted photos of the seat belt installation. Because of the way the belt is installed, It will require that the belt be shortened. BTW, I'm using '66 T'Bird Seats.

[KYBlueOval]

Here are the seat belt photos. Don't know how to rotate the last photo..........sorry about that

[mustang6984]

The small things that no will see...are the ones that will make it trouble free for ever...and assure nothing but fun driving down the road. Looks good...very good.   

[Jeff Norwell]

Beautiful work John.....

[RICH MUISE]

Very impressive. It's going to be so nice you may not want to drive it. Got an overall pic.? It's hard to see how far along it is with the closeups on details.

[KYBlueOval]

I'll get some full photos , but it might be in a week or so. Stay tuned.

[CobraJoe]

Looks great John! I see you are still using Imgur, so it's easy. Click on the photo, then "edit image", then "rotate", then "save" and then use the new code provided for your edited image.

[KYBlueOval]

Thanks CobraJoe. I made the correction.

[KYBlueOval]

As you can see in the photos the remaining rear quarter panel inner pieces are now being tacked in. The Driver side is done and the passenger side will be completed soon. You'll notice that on the photos of the Driver Side, there is the opening where the filler pipe was originally located. Further back, you can see the new hole where the filler pipe goes through to the area, and brings the filler pipe up, just behind the tailight.
There are a few smaller pieces to be made and installed in this rear quarter panel area. When these other pieces are completed and installed and after the grinding etc., is completed, I'll update with photos. After that are some minor details that have been knowingly overlooked that need to be completed , and then a lot of seam sealing on the bottom, prior to painting the bottom.
Stay Tuned!

[RICH MUISE]

You're making steady progress John, wow. I've never worked on a Ranchero, so I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out what most of the stuff you're showing us is. If you can get back far enough, an overall pic would help alot to understand what your showing us. Gotta be almost entirely handmade panels your working with.?!

[terry_208]

John, are you doing the finish welding with tig? I used mig for mine. In the first pic, I was confused, it doesn't take much, by the hole across from  the og gas filler access. Then I remembered this is a Ranchero so I also don't know. In your third pic, left side, at the front of the wheel well, I found that dogleg to be quite challenging but decided it would be easier to form the dogleg separate from the slightly curved panel and seam it on the side. I replaced the entire curved panel rather than seaming it in the middle.  This shows the many ways to get to a well finished product.