1971 Ford Ranchero "special" 5.8L

Description for Ford Ranchero 1971

The first picture shown is the car's current condition. I'm going to include a link to a folder on my facebook showing the stages of the car from when we purchased it, hrough all the work completed to it, p to it's current condition.
Car is a "special" as is shown in the advertisement included in this ad. From the best I have been able to find out, t was a model only offered in the southern states. Car IS NOT a New York car, ut did end up here, nd sat for approx. 18 years between the last 2 owners before me.
When first received, he car had a damaged engine that had been removed, he hood did not match the car, inyl top was sun baked, op's of the fenders, nd quarters were also sun baked, nd at some time, omebody sprayed red primer to protect the car, nd the interior was completely destroyed. Windows were tinted at some point in it's life, ar clearly shows original dealer sticker on tail gate that matches front license plate from HOYLE Ford, n Lincolnton North Carolina as it's original point of purchase. This would explain all the sun damage!
We built a new 351 Cleveland engine for the car. Block was taken .30 over to clean up the bores, ood flat top pistons, ew rings, earings, il pump, omp cam's cam, ith matching lifters, iming chain and gear's were installed, Edelbrock Performer intake was installed. We found a original Ford Autolite carb, ebuilt it to factory specifications, verything under the hood is new. New water pump, adiator, ord hoses, ew belts, uel pump, ew fuel line from pump to carb, ew heat tube installed in intake for choke, long with working electric choke. all receipts for engine work, nd parts are in a binder to be given to new owner. Cam has a slight lope to the idle, ounds 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, nd 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, ere cracked and split. Driver side one has a hook on the end to clear steering components, nd we were trying to avoid going to headers, s car is still wearing factory original exhaust front H pipe, nto a pair of extremely old glass pack mufflers, hen shortened factory original tail pipes. Yes, ar has original exhaust on top of original paint. Engine was started and broke in with Rotella oil with Zinc additive. After initial break in, he oil was changed with motorcraft oil, gain with the zinc additive as the cam is a flat tappet cam, nd today's oil no long has any zinc in it. Distributor was also gone through and upgraded with pertronix ignition, ew cap, otor, lugs, ires.
Under hood was power washed, nd painted in factory color, ll factory replacement stickers were placed in all proper locations, ngine was painted "old" Ford blue and installed.
Transmission was pulled, e-greased, pened up and inspected, ew seals were installed everywhere, ranny was painted, nd reassembled, nd installed with factory torque converter. Original tranny lines are in place and are spotless!. Tranny is factory C6.
Rear end was pulled apart, leaned, ll bearings were replaced with timpkin bearings, ealed back up with new seals, nd painted factory color. The chunk after being de-greased was found to be wearing factory red primer, owever the cleaner dissolved it. I replicated the factory primer, nd can provide photograph if needed. Rear breaks are factory, verything in rear brakes is in amazing condition, long with still wearing factory brake lines, nd 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, t can be adjusted. Very little air is currently in shocks, nd car drives and rides very nice!
Front brakes were originally non power drum. Factory spindles, alipers, nd rotors were sourced for disk brakes. Front brake lines were not swapped out, ut only cut and re flared for new location of lines at the factory locations for disk brake car. New power brake booster, nd new master, nd proportioning valve were sourced, etailed and installed with all factory correct brackets, ncluding the bracket under the dash. These were all cleaned, andblasted, ut in self etching primer, nd painted. New front rotors were installed, ith new bearings and seals. New front shocks were installed, long with new outer tie rods, ower control arms, ushings were replaced, ower steering lines were pulled down, nd cleaned/inspected. Factory power steering hydraulic pump was de-greased, ebuilt with new seal kit, ainted along with the suspension, nd re installed. Car was then sent for alignment, nd 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), owever the headliner, arpet, nd seat were all sun damaged beyond using. We actually looked for the original type material for the seat, ut it was not/is not available anywhere on planet earth. This left us with doing it in vermillion vinyl, r 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, ut also to install new head liner, nd 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, hich allowed water to get into the car on the rear floor. We then purchased factory replacement rear floor pans from Dearborn classics, ut them to the size needed, nd welded them in. Ground down all welds, leaned sealed, rimered, nd 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, ew brake peddle, ad and trim ring. put down factory replacement tar mats, ew firewall replacement insulation pad, ulled out the heating system, leaned, eplaced heater core, nd reinstalled. We then put down insulation matting on the floor, n the panel behind the seat, nd in the ceiling. Installed new head liner, ew sun visors, tripped both metal sections of the dash to bare metal, rimered, nd painted with correct shad of trim paint. new dash cap installed, leaned all gauges, nd reinstalled dash. Installed new carpet, ll new kick panels, ew rear panels, ew rear cardboard divider behind seat, esealed factory spare tire, and blasted jack and all components, ainted, nd installed those parts. Recovered factory bench seat with new material and installed. Everything was installed with new screws where they were available, long with new door panels, ew door seals, ew window rubbers, nd new roof to window seals.
The roof was then stripped to bare metal, rimered with self etching primer, hen painted in satin black paint. Let cure for almost 48 hours, hen new vinyl top was installed. At this time rear window was reinstalled, nd all chrome was cleaned and reinstalled.
The bed was sanded down with a DA, e-seam sealed, rimered, nd painted in the original low gloss style paint. No dents were repaired, he 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, ow pressure sand blasted, rimered, nd painted in low gloss black stripe, nd 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, spent 3 weeks under the car with a paint scraper, nd a wire brush cleaning off all this red clay 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, s there is NOTHING to hide under this car.
The gas tank was pulled down, leaned, epaired 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, ll brackets were painted, nd tank was also painted. We replaced ALL rubber lines on the car, ut once again, he fuel lines are original to the car and in excellent condition.
Car has been driven just under 500 miles as of this moment, nd is still being driven. The miles on the clock say 24k, ut i'm 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, nd detailing the body, nd was able to get some shine to come back out of the paint. I will not lie, here are two VERY small spots of rust on the body, he body is riddled with small parking lot dings, ut considering it's in original paint, here 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, lend in some laquer paint, hen clear coat the entire car to protect it's survivor looks. In all seriousness, ow 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, urn key and run kind of car. I have entered it in two car shows, nd actually intend to put it in another one this coming weekend. If you hadn't noticed, his car was assembled with car by couple of detail freaks. If your in the area, eel free to come and check the car out in person, r if you like, end somebody to inspect the car for you. Just an FYI, he cars electrical system was completely gone through, leaned and reinstalled. All side marker lights, urn signal's and tail/brake lights were replaced. Two of the cars headlights look like originals, he other two are also very old, ut I don't believe they're original.
I tried to list a link here for the photo album showing the steps of the work done to this car, owever it wasn't allowed in this ad. If you'd like to see the photo album, lease contact me and i'll supply you with the link.
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, reserve the right to contact the highest bidder to possibly work out a final price. I don't NEED to sell this car, owever I'd like to sell it before winter hits and I have to store it, s I'm currently working on restoring my high school car! Thanks again!