1971 Ford Ranchero "special" 5.8L

1971 Ford Ranchero special Description

The first picture shown is the car's current condition. I have a folder on my facebook showing the stages of the car from when we purchased it, through all the work completed to it, up to it's current condition. If you would like to see the album, please contact me and I will provide a link.
Car is a "special" as is shown in the advertisement included in this ad. From the best I have been able to find out, it was a model only offered in the southern states. Car IS NOT a New York car, but did end up here, and sat for approx. 18 years between the last 2 owners before me.
When first received, the car had a damaged engine that had been removed, the hood did not match the car, vinyl top was sun baked, top's of the fenders, and quarters were also sun baked, and at some time, somebody sprayed red primer to protect the car, and the interior was completely destroyed. Windows were tinted at some point in it's life, car clearly shows original dealer sticker on tail gate that matches front license plate from HOYLE Ford, in Lincolnton North Carolina as it's original point of purchase. This would explain all the sun damage!
We rebuilt the 351 Cleveland engine for the car. Block was taken .30 over to clean up the bores, good flat top pistons, new rings, bearings, oil pump, comp cam's cam, with matching lifters, timing chain and gear's, and valve springs were installed, A Edelbrock Performer intake was installed. We found a original Ford Autolite carb, rebuilt it to factory specifications, everything under the hood is new. New water pump, radiator, ford hoses, new belts, fuel pump, new fuel line from pump to carb, new heat tube installed in intake for choke, along with working electric choke. all receipts for engine work, and parts are in a binder to be given to new owner. Cam has a slight lope to the idle, sounds excellent! It's a little heavy RV cam with a RPM range from idle up to 5800. We sourced a brand new OEM passenger exhaust manifold, and purchased a refurbished driver side one here on E bay from a seller that does just manifolds. We did this as the factory manifolds although present, were cracked and split. Driver side one has a hook on the end to clear steering components, and we were trying to avoid going to headers, as car is still wearing factory original exhaust front H pipe, into a pair of extremely old glass pack mufflers, then shortened factory original tail pipes. Yes, car has original exhaust on top of original paint. Engine was started and broke in with Rotella oil with Zinc additive. After initial break in, the oil was changed with motorcraft oil, again with the zinc additive as the cam is a flat tappet cam, and today's oil no long has any zinc in it. Distributor was also gone through and upgraded with pertronix ignition, new cap, rotor, plugs, wires.
Under hood was power washed, and painted in factory color, all factory replacement stickers were placed in all proper locations, engine was painted "old" Ford blue and installed.
Transmission was pulled, de-greased, opened up and inspected, new seals were installed everywhere, tranny was painted, and reassembled, and installed with factory torque converter. Original tranny lines are in place and are spotless!. Tranny is factory C6.
Rear end was pulled apart, cleaned, all bearings were replaced with timpkin bearings, sealed back up with new seals, and painted factory color. The chunk after being de-greased was found to be wearing factory red primer, however the cleaner dissolved it. I replicated the factory primer, and can provide photograph if needed. Rear breaks are factory, everything in rear brakes is in amazing condition, along with still wearing factory brake lines, and e brake cables. E brake functions as it's supposed to. We added air shocks to the rear in case anybody ever wanted to carry a load in the car, it can be adjusted. Very little air is currently in shocks, and car drives and rides very nice!
Front brakes were originally non power drum. Factory spindles, calipers, and rotors were sourced for disk brakes. Front brake lines were not swapped out, but only cut and re flared for new location of lines at the factory locations for disk brake car. New power brake booster, and new master, and proportioning valve were sourced, detailed and installed with all factory correct brackets, including the bracket under the dash. These were all cleaned, sandblasted, put in self etching primer, and painted. New front rotors were installed, with new bearings and seals. New front shocks were installed, along with new outer tie rods, lower control arms, bushings were replaced, power steering lines were pulled down, and cleaned/inspected. Factory power steering hydraulic ram was de-greased, rebuilt with new seal kit, painted along with the suspension, and re installed. Car was then sent for alignment, and goes down the road pin straight.
Car originally had a typical 70's factory seat cover in the original color of Vermillion (same as exterior color), however the headliner, carpet, and seat were all sun damaged beyond using. We actually looked for the original type material for the seat, but it was not/is not available anywhere on planet earth. This left us with doing it in vermillion vinyl, or maybe changing it to black. We chose black. The complete interior is NEW. All components came from Dearborn Classics. We pulled the rear window to replace seal, but also to install new head liner, and vinyl top. We also checked for any rust in the channel and found none. However the rear floor pans were a little soft as one previous owner drilled holes and mounted tie downs in the bed up close to the rear window, which allowed water to get into the car on the rear floor. We then purchased factory replacement rear floor pans from Dearborn classics, cut them to the size needed, and welded them in. Ground down all welds, cleaned sealed, primered, and painted. The entire floor was then coated in Por-15 paint including the firewall. Also coated the inner roof with the same paint. Then installed brackets for new power brakes, new brake peddle, pad and trim ring. put down factory replacement tar mats, new firewall replacement insulation pad, pulled out the heating system, cleaned, replaced heater core, and reinstalled. We then put down insulation matting on the floor, on the panel behind the seat, and in the ceiling. Installed new head liner, new sun visors, stripped both metal sections of the dash to bare metal, primered, and painted with correct shad of trim paint. new dash cap installed, cleaned all gauges, and reinstalled dash. Installed new carpet, all new kick panels, new rear panels, new rear cardboard divider behind seat, resealed factory spare tire, sand blasted jack and all components, painted, and installed those parts. Recovered factory bench seat with new material and installed. Everything was installed with new screws where they were available, along with new door panels, new door seals, new window rubbers, and new roof to window seals.
The roof was then stripped to bare metal, primered with self etching primer, then painted in satin black paint. Let cure for almost 48 hours, then new vinyl top was installed. At this time rear window was reinstalled, and all chrome was cleaned and reinstalled.
The bed was sanded down with a DA, re-seam sealed, primered, and painted in the original low gloss style paint. No dents were repaired, the bed is in "as was" condition with the exception of a new coat of paint just to clean the car up some. The front hood was also removed from car, low pressure sand blasted, primered, and painted in low gloss black stripe, and I tried to replicate the touched up red primer look of the top of the fenders. These are the only non original painted area's of the car.
At this time, I spent 3 weeks under the car with a paint scraper, and a wire brush cleaning off all this red clay (which we believe is from North Carolina) that was all over everything under the car. It seems that this red clay in some fashion helped to protect the car from the elements. I then painted the bottom of the car with semi gloss paint. The good thing about the paint used is that it hides NOTHING, as there is NOTHING to hide under this car.
The gas tank was pulled down, cleaned, repaired both inside and out as it had a small leak. We used the POR-15 gas tank repair system to seal the inside and outside of the tank, all brackets were painted, and tank was also painted. We replaced ALL rubber lines on the car, but once again, the fuel lines are original to the car and in excellent condition.
Car has been driven just under 1000 miles as of this moment, and is licensed to be driven, however it's now currently in my garage for winter storage. The miles on the clock say 24k, but I am fairly certain that it's actually 124,000. Especially considering the car sat for almost 18 years of it's life. I spent a good day just washing, and detailing the body, and was able to get some shine to come back out of the paint. I will not lie, there are two VERY small spots of rust on the body, the body is riddled with small parking lot dings, but considering it's in original paint from 1971, there is nothing hidden anywhere! I did speak to a body paint friend of mine who told me that it wouldn't take much to fix the rust spots, blend in some laquer paint, then clear coat the entire car to protect it's survivor looks. In all seriousness, how many 1971 cars do you see running around wearing most of it's original paint?
New York is a non title state for cars older than 1974. We have clear transferable registration in hand. Car is literally pump in gas, turn key and run kind of car. I have entered it in two car shows, and actually intend to put it in another one this coming weekend. If you hadn't noticed, this car was assembled with car by couple of detail freaks. If your in the area, feel free to come and check the car out in person, or if you like, send somebody to inspect the car for you. Just an FYI, the cars electrical system was completely gone through, cleaned and reinstalled. All side marker lights, turn signal's and tail/brake lights were replaced. Two of the cars headlights look like originals, the other two are also very old, but I don't believe they're original.
Thank you for looking! Please note that this car is for sale locally and I reserve the right to end this auction at any time. Also please note that if reserve is not met, I reserve the right to contact the highest bidder to possibly work out a final price. I don't NEED to sell this car, however I'd like to sell it as I'm currently working on restoring my high school car! Thanks again!
This is a short video of the car idling, and showing that everything works as it should, including the windshield washers.
Please copy and paste the link into another window.
https://youtu.be/bP0HO7LCbbg
Ok, I have set a reserve on the car, and listed a buy it now price. If you're seriously interested in this car, please feel free to contact me, as I am negotiable, and open to reasonable offers. Thank you.