1965 Ford Ranchero

Originally it appears to have had a 170 inline 6. It now sports a 289 v-8 with a 4-speed rock-cruncher transmission and other than an Edelbrock carb she is pretty much bone stock.

This 1965 Ranchero belonged to my uncle Kit#039;s highschool friend until about 15 years ago. My uncle Kit passed away last fall suddenly and unexpectedly. He was more like a father than my uncle. 15 years ago we loaded our tools on our motorcycles and rode from Salt Lake City to Porterville California where the car had been sitting in an Orange Orchard with a broken z-bar clutch linkage and ball. We pulled the engine and got her fixed and running. Loaded my motorcycle into the rear tray and started our journey home. We didn#039;t make it far, about 100 miles away to Fresno - overheating every 10-20 minutes. We found a small radiator shop that was willing to rod the radiator out first thing in the morning. By mid morning we were on our way again, but not for long... We made it to just outside Sacramento heading up the Sierra Nevada#039;s and she just couldn#039;t do it. Overheating issues. So we pulled over and found a safe place to park, rode the motorcycles home and grabbed his truck and a dolly to finally get her home. We were about an hour away when somehow the manual transmission popped into 2nd gear while we were going 65mph. Since then we fixed the transmission and found that the water pump and block were totally plugged. Owner had only used water and had caused severe corrosion. He didn#039;t have much time or money when he was alive. I only took possession of it this week and I hope to have her back on the road by the end of the weekend. I#039;ll upload pictures and revival videos as she gets running.
Update 3.27.2021 - she’s running! Hope to upload a video of the first start. Added a few pictures. Threw some wheels I had kicking around, did some cleaning, and installed a seat cover. Starting to come around.