...Got me a Ranchero today! '73 with the somewhat rare base/police/fleet Torino front. (Probably not original but I love it! Looks a lot better to me than the regular '73 Gran Torino and Ranchero grille.) 351C, C6, very little rust and a perfect interior! Drove 200 miles to get it, and I liked it when I saw it, but I fell in love driving it all those miles back. It rides like a Lincoln. Now I've gotta find out whether the AC leaks and fix/fill that, replace the flasher for the blinkers, get that damn hitch and the bumper overriders off, (maybe tuck the front?) put some speakers in it and cut a coil on those front springs...
Sharp! I've always wanted a 67, a one year front end on those, then they went to the Torino front. I know where there is a 68-69 sitting at an abandonded house, just haven't been able to find out who owns it or the house yet. As if I needed another project....
sweet! there was one of those for sale around here a couple years back and i thought it was awesome. cool ride!
So there's been some progress on the Ranchero... It has turn signals now, the choke works, exhaust is hung properly, hitch is gone, few other little things done. Drove it around all last week, and it runs like a dream. But it still has no reverse! Saturday I was all set to install another transmission. Dude who sold it to me threw in a good C6 with the deal, and we both assumed that's what it came with, but once I got it on jackstands I found myself in my first face to face encounter with an FMX! Can't use a C6 to replace that. Not really... I mean I could, but there's the linkage I'd need to fab, need a converter, modify the crossmember, shorten the driveshaft. Not interested in all that when I know another FMX would drop right in, or better yet a C4 would be a nearly bolt-in swap, just need another yoke. So I put an ad on Craigslist to either trade the C6 for an FMX or C4, or sell it for enough to buy one. (Found my choice of either one for $250, so that's what the C6 is listed for.) Then I got to thinking. If you know me you know things can get out of hand quickly when I do that, but nevertheless I thought, you know, I have to procure a transmission any way I look at this. And if that transmission I happen to acquire ends up being a Fox Mustang T5, I can put that in my Maverick. My Maverick needs and deserves a T5. And as a byproduct that swap, I will end up with a good C4 laying around with a shift kit and mild stall, which can then find itself a new life underneath the Ranchero. The Maverick finally gets the manual transmission it's been craving all its life, the Ranchero gets fixed and picks up a little performance to boot... Everybody wins! So I think that's the plan now. I need to find a T5.
