After many years of creating loads of kilos promoting coupe utilities Down Beneath (Australia did not swap to the greenback and its futuristic decimalized system till 1966), Ford determined to start promoting a contemporary ute in america for the 1957 mannequin 12 months. This was our introduction to the Ranchero, and it was the primary of many cartrucks (or truckcars, if you happen to desire) bought in the course of the Sixties-Nineteen Eighties American heyday of this automobile kind. For 1960, the Ranchero moved to Ford’s new compact platform, changing into the Falcon Ranchero by 1965. Then issues received a bit unusual in Ranchero-Land; the Falcon moved to a shortened model of the midsize Fairlane’s chassis for 1966, with the Ranchero shedding the Falcon identify however in any other case trying like a Falcon from the entrance doorways ahead. For 1967, the Ranchero grew to become a Fairlane with a pickup mattress… however only for that lone 12 months. This is a kind of Fairlane Rancheros, discovered final summer time in a automotive graveyard close to Denver (sorry, everybody, it received crushed a few months in the past).
Named after Henry Ford’s property in Dearborn, the Fa in america by 1970 (after which the Torino identify took over). Australians may purchase new Fairlanes all over 2007.
After 1967, the Ranchero stayed on Ford’s midsize chassis by its discontinuation in 1979, and it by no means once more had so as to add the badges of one other Ford mannequin subsequent to its personal.
The construct tag tells us that this automotive was in-built Kansas Metropolis, and that it got here with a two-barrel 289-cubic-inch (4.7-liter) Windsor V8 from the manufacturing facility. I ought to have scraped the primer off this tag to find out the gross sales workplace, transmission kind, and so forth, however I did not notice that data was painted over with grey primer till later.
That is undoubtedly a Windsor V8 with a two-barrel carburetor, so it’d even be the unique mill that the lineworkers bolted in again in KC. If that’s the case, it was rated at 200 horsepower and 282 pound-feet.
The physique trim within the cab and primer throughout recommend that this truckcar was someone’s mission that by no means received completed.
The inside is lacking the seats, however does not look unsalvageable in any other case.
A 3-on-the-tree column-shift guide transmission was base tools within the ’67 Fairlane Ranchero. With the 289, you would improve to a four-on-the-floor guide or a three-speed Cruise-O-Matic automated. This one has the automated.
There’s some rust within the ordinary spots, nevertheless it’s all fixable. I am by no means shocked to see Sixties Detroit sedans in yards like this, as a result of tens of millions have been bought and few fanatics wish to drive a traditional four-door right now. I’ll admit that I was startled to discover a mid-to-late-Sixties Ranchero in such a spot, nonetheless, as a result of these machines have a loyal following keen to speculate the money and time required to repair one up. Perhaps not in Denver!
Ranchero purists can be displeased concerning the ’64 GTO hubcaps, however they do look fairly good if you happen to do not discover the lettering.
Fairlane promoting received fairly lysergic round this time.
