Seeing these pictures makes me feel better about buying my car. Like many I’m sure, I sometimes have a little buyer’s remorse as I get to know the car better and the amount of work to realize my vision gets more apparent. Thankfully, mine won’t require any major rust repair and it hasn’t been modified or abused. It’s in nice enough condition to drive and enjoy it as I make improvements. They look good in the fancy, loaded version and they also look good as a plain Jane with big power. Thanks for posting all the pictures.
The hood scoop looks better on the dark colored cars. Do they reproduce that hood in fiberglass? The side trim variations interest me. The Ranchero above has a smaller simpler trim, some of the cars pictured above have no trim or just rocker trim. Mine seems to have the largest trim variation. It’s not too objectionable I guess, it’s growing on me. However the “old man” utility trim above it and the door edge trim will have to go. Of course that ugly little trim leaves three holes per piece so it’ll stay for now. All of the factory trim is in good condition except the one behind the right front wheel. I found a nicer one, I just need to swap them. What I’m not finding is the grille badge and the Ranchero specific badges on the B pillar and the tailgate. Does anyone reproduce the badges? Mine have terminal acne. My grille badge is like this one.
Your grill badge can’t be like that one. There was no GT model in 1967, unless someone replaced it with one. As far as the bullhead emblems specific to Rancheros I’d say good luck. Find good used. The fibreglass ram air hood used to be reproduced by Crites, but they closed shop a couple years ago. Maybe VFN or some of Ford repro places? Macs, Dearborn Classics,, Dennis Carpenter?
The badge surround is the same, but mine has red, white and blue sections instead of the GT. So many subtle variations. I did find a few decent tailgate badges on eBay I’ll probably grab one of them. I didn’t see any B pillar badges though.
Thanks. They’ve got a lot of stuff! They have a stock Fairlane hood and one with the 4” Thunderbolt scoop but not the open front version. VFN seems to have it, listed as a “427 style” but no picture. I’d have to call to verify. No hinge provision, only pin-on. We’ll see, I’m not there yet.
I need to upgrade the fuel pump to carburetor lines as pointed out earlier in the thread. I’d like to keep it looking sort of factory so I’ve been looking at engine compartment photos. I like the big canister filter used on the multi-carbed 427s. It’s available through the Cobra/Shelby parts sources but it’s pricey - $129+ without the bracket. Other sources? It looks like it will fit with the power steering by making a custom lower hard-line. Should I bother? Any drawbacks to that filter in my application? It opens up with a replaceable filter element inside?
Someone picked up the Crites tooling for the 427 hood with the leading edge scoop and is in production, per a recent post on one of the Facebook Fairlane groups. I seem to remember that it was one of the former employees, but not certain about that.
Crites I thought also had reinforced the hood hinge area so you use light duty springs or at least use prop rod to keep the hood open.
I had a few '69 Fairlanes. They were great cars. The last, circa 1980, I put together for a girlfriend. I had a wrecked one I took the front discs from, the 351W went into my '68 Mustang GT. I was scrapping junk cars in 1978 and cane across a badly wrecked one, it was a real Joe Friday whip, gunmetal gray...but the passenger side from the back door to yhe rear bumper was caved in. It had a 250 in it that ran well. I drove it for 6 months until I got my '65 Belair wagon together.
Some old cars don’t know that they are supposed to quit. I had a ‘66 Mustang hardtop daily driver, always ran hot. I put it up for sale for $800. A young girl who had just got her license hit the driver’s door with her Mom’s Cadillac, caved in the door and bent the poor old Mustang right in the middle. To avoid the insurance claim, her parents paid me $800, and I kept the car. I put the steering column back in place, fixed the driver’s seat, got a door (the same white/red interior) from the wrecking yard and had the wheels aligned the best they could. I drove it for two more years and finally sold it for $800. Tough old hoss….
Boy, I like the black and maroon ones. I picked up some nice tailgate and B pillar emblems. Got a smaller diameter wooden steering wheel too. With the holiday festivities winding down I should be able to do a little work on it.
I need to find a place to put the bulb end of my S-W mechanical water temp gauge. I’m sorry but the factory Idiot lights just don’t cut it for me. It needs a 1/2” NPT opening and the only one I see is there where the heater hose is. I could probably install a Tee there but it would look pretty Mickey Mouse. I’ve seen thermostat housings with a boss for a fitting but it looks like a 3/8” NPT. I could use it for the heater hose and the old location for my gauge. Does anyone know what year thermostat housing has the boss for a pipe fitting? Is there a better way to get the gauge hooked up?
I’ll be cleaning up the fuel and vacuum lines as soon as I get my new fuel filter and bracket. I definitely want to simplify the vacuum lines. Why did Ford use this line for PCV vacuum? It taps both ends of the intake manifold. Any reason why I can’t pick up vacuum from a single port under the carburetor or in the manifold like everyone else does? There’s a PCV valve in the passenger side valve cover and a breather cap (with a hose to the air filter housing) on the other valve cover. This mess looks a lot more complicated than it needs to be to me….
Early 429-460 have the style you’re looking for. Or something like this. It’s a stock Ford piece but I don’t know the application. I think it’s 3/8” pipe.
Thanks! My past experiences with Fords has taught me that “it ain’t that simple”. lol. I need to figure out if my intake has a 2 1/8 or 2 1/2” thermostat. According to some of the restoration parts catalogs, they apparently made a change late ‘66-early ‘67. There are more options if it’s a 2 1/8”. The one in the picture above looks like the 2 1/8”, the bung would point straight forward into the heater hose but there might be room for a 90 degree fitting. I guess I could braze a bung onto my current thermostat housing, I think it’s cast iron.
The Jalopy Journal
