Zim's 63 Ranchero - Loose Ends

After crawling around a lot underneath this Ranchero, I have come to the
unhappy realization that the rust is probably a little to far along to make
it worth fixing the right way.

If there were some sentimental value to this vehicle, there would be no
question about restoriing it, but I can probably go find one with a lot less
rust for less money than it would cost to fix this one right.

So - the goal is to just get it running again, reliably, and use it as a beater
Until I can sell it and find another project to work on.

There are lots of things going on in the pictures on this page...

They begin with the carburetor. I cut the throttle nub off of another parts
carb, and had a guy at work weld it on to mine in the right place to pick up
my linkage. This will allow me to use this original truck carb an use the
original manual choke adjustment, while still allowing it to connect to the
original Falcon throttle linkage.

I dropped the fuel tank and got rid of the old gas (at the local filling
station) and then tried to get as much crud out of it as I could.

I also found a set of new brake lines at inlinetube.com and got those in.
I got them all into place temporarily without attaching anything yet.

Once the fuel tank was back in, I added 4 gallons of new gas, and primed the
fuel pump. It started right up! :)

But the "ALT" light would not shut off - and every time I started it, the
battery sounded worse and worse. So I had the alternator tested. It was
fine!. So the store sold me another voltage regulator, and that solved the
problem. Turns out the fancy Autolite VR I bought last spring was no good!

Finally, I removed the brake pedal / Master Cylinder / Clutch assembly so
that I could trade with someone that has the automatic / larger brake pedal
assembly. What a pain in the butt that was to get out!

-Zim