Debut show day. The Ranchero arrived on the trailer . . .
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And was rolled inside the garage with the few project cars on display.
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While I was outside getting the bugs off Betsy from the drive up, the guys bolted in the seats. To load and unload the trailer, our son sat on an old toolbox. They also bolted in the instrument cluster, just for the show. We will have to take that back out to do the wiring. The original back of the cluster would have been cadmium plated, but that would have stood out against the white dash. The white back blends so much better.
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But all our friends found us inside the garage to take a look at this beauty.
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In case you had not guessed it yet, the new tires did not arrive before the show either. The painted rims sat on display, with the freshly buffed hubcaps, but no rubber. Oh, and the lugnuts had not arrived either.
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A closeup of the instrument cluster and the steering wheel, without the horn ring. The wheel is one of the last parts to be painted yellow, along with the bed. If you look closely, you can see the white back of the instrument cluster between the aluminium surround and the dash. The stainless dash trim makes this look good.
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More friends stopping by and taking pictures. How else do you get a picture of the photographer?
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Our friend's grandson had never seen a fender bird before.
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The show is over and it was a big hit. Everyone had a fun time and enjoyed seeing all the cars. Time to finish the Ranchero over the winter. But for now, it will remain at our son's work for a couple of weeks while we finish the garage. Then when it comes home, we will finish out the interior and the exhaust.
The first few starts were loud as we were running open headers. The fuel mixture and timing were adjusted until the engine purred as only a straight 6 cylinder can.
In the spring we plan to finish painting the bed and start the shake down cruises before the deadline - his wedding day in June.
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A box of stainless exhaust parts to provide the bends for a custom stainless exhaust.
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One of the two Borla mufflers for this straight 6. We hope they will be enough to keep the car quiet as they had to fit the small available space, both under the bed.
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The clamped up 2 1/2" custom stainless exhaust. The header downpipes go into a 2 to 2 1/2" merge collector. There is still some welding to do to finish this out from the first muffler back.
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This is the second muffler that was removed and welded to the custom stainless exhaust hangers. Note the single inlet to dual outlet.
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Yes, the dual tips are for looks, but a custom ride deserves dual tips.
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To hold the tips in place for welding, a custom jig was made.
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Now that the exhaust is done, we can hear a clanging in the engine. Something was causing a bolt on the #6 connecting rod to hit the bottom of the oil pan. The conclusion was that the pan was too dented up in that area from floor jacks, so a new pan was purchased. Until it arrives, the oil pan was clearanced with the judicious application of a stud puller.
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The original air cleaner just did not fit all the customizations under the hood. Our son found this aftermarket one and painted it old Ford blue. It will work nicely.
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The final piece for the engine bay, OEM horns from '65 Mustang. They are not as loud as the '56 Chevy's, but much better than modern horns.
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Betsy plays escort to the first show, before the bed was painted.
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The Ranchero instantly drew a small crowd. This cruise-in is in Bristow, VA at a place referred to as The Wall because of the high wall on one side of the parking lot.
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It really is a small world. This group came over to talk and the tall man with his back to the camera recalled doing the machine work on a straight 6 about 5 years back. Yep, this is the machinist that helped with the engine work.
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There is a good reason for short shake down cruises and this show lived up to that. The rear brakes locked up and the Ranchero came home on our trailer. The shoes were set too tight to the drum and as the metal heated and expanded, they tightened further. Once the brakes cooled, we were able to back them out a bit and had no further problems.
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Finally, it's time to get back to the paint booth to finish the bed.
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This was the shiny, new black wheel. It had to be scuffed to accept the yellow paint.
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The bed, ready for the paint booth. We used power orbital sanders to buzz this down and make sure it was as flat as possible.
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The finally painted bed. This is a vast improvement over the rusted out original bed. While she was sitting in the garage, we kept commenting on the "glowing yellow thing" in the garage. She was finally named Sunshine.
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Remember that ugly, pitted floor pan. Not anymore.
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She's finally ready for her shakedown cruises. Everything is done. Or so we thought.
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The Olds played escort this time, along with Betsy. We are at The Wall in Bristow again.
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Found time for a nearby breakfast cruise called Cars n Coffee in Lake Ridge. Again, the Ranchero drew a small crowd.
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