got a rusty old 1960 ranchero futura, its just about dead, i put a few hundred dollars in it and decided to dirt track it or make an all out hot rod out of 'er. please, if ne one has ne info or suggestions please please write me...very frustrated.....

 

i would say hot rod it! just ask a question and i will answer. i have a 61 tudor sedan that is gonna get a turbo 6 or a 5.0HO

 

Hot rod!!! Hands down.

 

Hotrod and pro-street!!!!!!!!!

 

Go old school Hot Rod.

 

Yeah, I would do what those guys said.

 

Into the wayback machine: In 78 or was it 9 or 80? I saw a yellow '65 Ranchero doing quite well in offroad racing. (Once at Riverside when P Jones nerfed some guy and was thrown out of offroading for a while) This truck had what appeared to be a mild 289, and heavier springs including coil over shocks in front along with the front coil springs. Of course, I'm sure he did more to it. But it fly good and straight and landed nice and performed very well.
Depending on your rust situation, you may have to do some mods to make it stay in one piece.

 

rust is pretty bad but come summertime im gunna gut it and rebuild it like i want it, some idiot went in were the floor was eaten through and pop rivetted a bunch a tin foil lookin sheet metal, dint help much, now all that is rusting like crazy. i found a 351 for it but still no go on the tranny. got ne suggestions ? id like to buy one with a trans brake but its not imperative.

 

351 may require spring tower surgery, unless you move it back and massage the firewall. 351's take the c4--correct? You can get a built c4 that should hold up.

Could be a cool project. What have you got to loose? Not like you are carving up a Boss 429 to get it back to standard width or something.

 

351", C or W or M? the W is the narrowest. a 302/5.0 can be stroked to 347"

 

the towers arent in to great a condition so i may need to rebuild them ne way but ill give er a try.... thanks fellers..

 

Don't get me wrong here, not trying to rain on the parade. But if the spring towers are shot and the car is full of rust, can it be saved? Can you ever get it strong enough to trust with real power? Real speed brought on by real power?

Maybe this ought to be a donor car for a more solid example?

Just hate to think of hard work and hard cash followed by a hard crash.

 

set it on a chassis and tie it down real good?

 

its a pretty solid little truck but its got some work till its good n racable. the towers are solid but not enuf for what i want, its still got the original shocks a springs on it and you can tell there 44 years old. so some rancho shocks are plannned...heavy duty leaf springs out back. a friend a mines got an old mustang, built just like my rachero, same front end, suspention ect. im thinkin of using it as a donor car.