1969 Ranchero GT

[TooOld]

7 hours ago, fairlane1320 said:

Looks great! I have a 69 Ranchero in my WIP collection. Did you fab up those tail lights?

The taillights are just printed on sticker paper for a mockup and to give me the shape for body work , I'll make the actual taillights later .

Where's the WIP for your '69 Ranchero , I couldn't find it . Any pictures ?

[TooOld]

Still not getting a lot of bench time but I managed to get the shape of the tailgate blended into the taillight areas and scribed the tailgate opening .  The  taillights were made with Evergreen strip , it's hard to see but there's clear lenses in them that will be painted later . I worked on the bumper so that it fits properly but it still needs some work before it can be chromed .  As for the F-O-R-D letters on the tailgate they'll come from the ModelCarGarage PE set for the Moebius pickups .

After finishing the bumper I still need to add the side marker lamps and gas cap , then add the B-pillar molding and drip rails to the side windows . Hopefully it won't take another two weeks to get that done .

Edited June 22, 2022 by TooOld

[Oldcarfan27]

1 hour ago, TooOld said:

Hopefully it won't take another two weeks to get that done .

No need to rush, everything is coming along great.

[Sledsel]

Since I love Rancheros, this is an awesome build. I am sure there is a caster that would reproduce it. 

[David G.]

The tail lights and bumper look great!

David G.

[Repstock]

On 6/24/2022 at 12:11 PM, Sledsel said:

Since I love Rancheros, this is an awesome build. I am sure there is a caster that would reproduce it. 

I hope that happens. Looking real goos thus far.

[TooOld]

On 6/22/2022 at 1:20 PM, Oldcarfan27 said:

No need to rush, everything is coming along great.

 

On 6/24/2022 at 12:11 PM, Sledsel said:

Since I love Rancheros, this is an awesome build. I am sure there is a caster that would reproduce it. 

 

On 6/27/2022 at 6:58 AM, David G. said:

The tail lights and bumper look great!

David G.

 

On 6/27/2022 at 11:24 AM, Repstock said:

I hope that happens. Looking real goos thus far.

Thanks everyone for the comments !  As for casting . . . I don't think so .  With the way people nit pick bodies to death it's not even close to being good enough .

UPDATE .  I've finished the B-Pillar trim and added the drip rails , a small Ranchero emblem will be added later with a decal .  Also added the gas cap and side marker lamps , and wheel opening molding .  The wheel center "GT" emblems are also decals , the wheels will get painted a light Argent color . 

I spent a lot of time trying to get the bumper shape right , finally deciding to quit while I was ahead . It still needs license plate lamps added but I think it will look okay once it's finished and chromed . I also tried printing decals for the taillight lenses , much easier than painting them ! 

That's all for now , comments and suggestions are always welcome ! 

[espo]

Your conversion is looking great. Your mention of license plate lights, if it is that important to you. A couple of small round "bumps" on either side of the plate mounting could look much like the lights often used for this. They would be very small and would just depend on how far you want to go. Been watching your build and really like how you brought this all together. 

[Sledsel]

Love it

 

[slusher]

Fantastic work Bob!

[TooOld]

19 hours ago, espo said:

Your conversion is looking great. Your mention of license plate lights, if it is that important to you. A couple of small round "bumps" on either side of the plate mounting could look much like the lights often used for this. They would be very small and would just depend on how far you want to go. Been watching your build and really like how you brought this all together. 

Thanks David !  Yes the lamps are on the small side but they do stand out if you look at photos , like you said they are easy to make .

[TooOld]

18 hours ago, Sledsel said:

Love it

 

Thanks Andy !

[TooOld]

3 hours ago, slusher said:

Fantastic work Bob!

Thanks much Carl !

[TooOld]

Just finishing up some little details before getting ready for paint , first item was to replace the molded on windshield wipers . Here's the ones I'll be using along with the tools needed to remove the molded on wipers .

Using the pencil grinder I removed the wiper arms and then drilled mounting holes for the new wipers .

Next I used the flat file to remove the wiper blades .

Finally a small rolled up piece of sandpaper was used to clean up the cowl .  Total time for the entire process was maybe 5 minutes , very simple  .

For the door handles I'm using the Mopar Late B Handles from Fireball Modelworks , they have a similar square shape as Ford handles . After cutting a pair loose I drilled and pinned them with some brass rod .

I'll be adding a driver's side mirror from the AMT '67 Mustang GT kit , it was also drilled and pinned .

The last item is an antenna . I used some hypodermic tubing and a #000 stainless insect pin to make one .  I bought a 36" length of tubing several years ago and since then found a pack of 100 pins for $11.00 , should last me a life time . 

And here's the new parts installed on the body . 

Thanks again for looking !

[cobraman]

Your model is looking really great !

[David G.]

It looks perfect!

Thanks for sharing all the how-to information as well.

David G.

[thatz4u]

nice work so far..

[slusher]

Nice touch removing the molded in wipers..

[TooOld]

On 7/3/2022 at 9:59 PM, cobraman said:

Your model is looking really great !

Thanks Ray !

On 7/4/2022 at 7:52 AM, David G. said:

It looks perfect!

Thanks for sharing all the how-to information as well.

David G.

Thanks David !  I hope it helps .

On 7/4/2022 at 5:44 PM, thatz4u said:

nice work so far..

Thanks you Al !

On 7/5/2022 at 1:56 AM, slusher said:

Nice touch removing the molded in wipers..

Thanks Carl !  I don't do it all of the time but the ones on this body were molded so poorly I figured it would be worth the effort .

[TooOld]

One thing I always do is to pre-fit the windshield-dash-interior and chassis into the body , seems there is always some sort of interference that prevents the chassis from fitting into the body properly . In this case there was definitely a problem , turns out that by shortening the wheelbase a scale three inches some of those molded in bumps moved forward and were pushing the interior upward .  After some selective grinding and a little trimming where the rear wheel housings were still hitting the bed everything slid into place . 

 You can see in the photos that the windshield and dash fit nicely and the chassis now sits even with the rocker panels like it should . I probably messed with this for an hour or so but it was time well spent .  

[David G.]

Nicely Done!

David G.

[TooOld]

On 7/6/2022 at 7:14 AM, David G. said:

Nicely Done!

David G.

Thanks much David !

[TooOld]

I've been collecting as many sets of clear headlight lenses as I can find so this morning I decided to tackle upgrading the molded in headlights .  The front grille/bumper was successfully stripped a couple weeks ago so I start with the small round burr on the left .  After I have the headlight removed I use the grinding stone to carefully shape the headlight bucket . The last step is to carefully ream the inside with the drill bit , this leaves a small step for the clear headlight lens to rest against . 

The white plastic is hard to see under bright lights so I used a Sharpie to highlight the rims , that way I could see what I was doing .  The next photos shows the finished buckets and then the clear lens set in place .

Time to start prepping for paint . Thanks for looking !

[StevenGuthmiller]

I just stumbled across this build today. (I don't spend much time in the truck section)

Some excellent work going on here Bob!

 

I didn't read the text of every post, so I don't know for sure, but are you planning on a full engine compartment on this one?

 

 

 

Steve

[TooOld]

4 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I just stumbled across this build today. (I don't spend much time in the truck section)

Some excellent work going on here Bob!

 

I didn't read the text of every post, so I don't know for sure, but are you planning on a full engine compartment on this one?

 

 

 

Steve

Thanks Steve !  I don't think I've done a full detail build since my '71 Roadrunner so it's definitely time for one . . . but it won't be this one . Maybe the next one .

Edited July 7, 2022 by TooOld