Triche's '72 Ranchero Restoration

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As most of you are aware, I'm in the midst of a complete ground-up restoration. When I bought the car in October 2000, I had hoped it was in pretty good shape and would not need much work. Well...as usual, things don't work out the way we hope. I had to immediately deal with the front suspension. The following year (2001) I dealt with the engine and transmission. That little project took me from May to October. By the time I was done, I had restored everything in the engine compartment. After about a six-month rest, I figured it was time to take on the interior and body.

As soon as I pulled up the carpeting, I found a big problem...serious floor pan rust. In my search for replacement floor pans, I contacted a fellow in San Diego who parts-out certain older Fords (Torinos, Rancheros, etc) he had a nice straight '72 Ranchero, already almost completely stripped. For a variety of reasons, I opted to buy this second body versus repair the original, not the least of which was the fact the original body had an after market sunroof which leaked. So, one sunny Saturday in May 2002, Dwight and I made a trip down to Oceanside with his trailer and came home with a second car. Carol was SOOO pleased (NOT)! So the project became the restoration of the second body, but the original chassis (for DMV and other reasons).

I was able to restore the original chassis while the 2nd body was being worked on. I stripped the original chassis bare and had it powder-coated, as well as most of the rear-end parts. The front-end had been done in the fall of 2000 (as I mentioned above). All I needed now was for the body to have some minor bodywork done (after having it completely sandblasted) and to be painted. All that work took from late October until the end of February.

Then finally, on this past March 3rd, a group of us (Dick, Darrel, Rich, Dwight, and myself) did a little chassis swap. In a matter of hours, we had the 2nd body up in the air on a pair of specially constructed saw-horses (thanks to Dwight), the two chassis’ physically switched and the two bodies lowered back onto the chassis’s. These guys were a big help and everything went pretty smoothly.

As you’ll see from the pictures Rich took (thank you Rich), it all went pretty smooth. Having a few “good buddies” help makes all the difference.