Images by S. Forrest from the Cohort.
While this Ontario car is probably not a survivor(no patina here), it’s still worth a sentence or two.
While this car truck utility vehicle Ranchero appears to have benefitted from some restoration work, it also looks to be in use, and not a trailer queen. It’s also a reminder that Ford kept the ‘ute’ flame alive in North America, largely due to the fact that Ford kept producing a two-door Falcon wagon, making the Ranchero was an uncomplicated task. Indeed, the El Camino would return when the two-door Chevelle wagon appeared. Let’s hope the owner is enjoying the brief Canadian summer.
Related reading: Two Door Wagons 1965 El Camino Ford’s “Falcon” Platform
Beautiful vehicle. Slap some whitewalls on it and call it done!
Cute little trucklet ~
In San Gabriel there used to be a HUGE Plumbing outfit that had a fleet of these up into the 1980’s .
-Nate
I’ll have mine in white because that’s my default color when there is no AC. Any power train you happen to have. Monday delivery will be fine.
Optional back up lights in the tailgate and it is a V-8. Nice Falcon to own.
Steer head+20 years = Maverick logo inspiration? 😉
Hope they enjoy it while they can, as there are but 2 seasons in Canada, Winter, and August.
Big brother had the engine and box for his 63 Falcon from a scrapped Ranchero.There was a very nice light blue Ranchero owned by a bike shop at shows a few years ago.
I have one of those! Well, close enough. It’s a ’62, with a 170 straight-six and three-on-the-tree. The one featured here has V8 badges on the sides (which would make it incredibly rare — I’m thinking it’s a conversion). It also has backup lights, which I believe were an option at the time.
Unfortunately, however, somebody changed the color from Wimbledon White (like this one) the Turd Brown Metallic. Hence its nickname: “The Thundering Turd”…
Roofer friend back in the 80’s had a 63 260 V8 auto. Nice little truck. We swapped out the 2 speed auto for 3 speed auto. Was a big improvement.
Those reversing lights look aftermarket why would you mount them on the tailgate where the can get smashed? Nice ute though somebody actually looks after it very few survived here past their first few years though I see one roaming locally OZ built though.
Seem to remember the reversing lights option on the OZ ’65 XP SW was a circular ‘white’ lens bang in the centre of each of the main rear lights, which worked very well. Am not sure about the ’64 XM SW though, and seem to recall when my father ordered the option on that one, that it came as a separate light mounted below each of the main rear lights(?)
..the official Ford factory colour chart names for each of these wagons was ‘green velvet’ (XM) and ‘silver mist’ (XP) ..amazing how such insignificant minutiae remains still imprinted on the 13 yr old mind to this very day …wtf (git yerself a life mister lol)
Looks like if it was a Falcon with a tailgate (either a station wagon or Ranchero), the backup lights were mounted right in the tailgate. Otherwise, the backup lights went into the center of the taillights.
The Fairmonts had a separate reverse light under the main tail light, the Squire wagon had the same I think.
Nice Ranchero but too bad the Americans had the recipe wrong. Why wasre space (length) above bed level on storing the spare?
I thought the styling of the b-pillar on many of these early car-based pickups could have been better handled. I think if the rear roof line had been swept more and better integrated with the bed, the styling would have been more classic. I find the early Rancheros look somewhat homemade from Falcons.
Did they ever make a camper top/topper/truck cap for these like they offered for the later Chevy Elco? Seems a low profile white truck cap would look the business on this.
I’ve seen a few of them over the years but back in the day the vast majority of canopies were made of wood frames with sheet aluminum covering them so they were pretty boxy and clunky looking.
Like this.
About the back-up lights. Paul’s column on the ’62-1/2 Sport Futura shows a factory-brochure pic (not a wagon or Ranchero) where these (optional) lights are there in the trunk lid, inboard of the tail lights (as with our pictured Ranchero). So when did they go over to being centered in the tail lights themselves?
I had a XP Fairmont (aussie) the backup lights were under the tail lights it had amber indicator lights in the centre of the tail lights, however it had been rear ended at some point and wore a Falcon boot lid (different colour inside) so whether it was correct or not I dont know, reversing lights didnt work anyway it had been converted to 3speed floorshift manual (speco) so perhaps the switch had been deleted.
I don’t think they were, apart from when separate back-up lights were not fitted of course. Maybe the amber turn signal lens was faded?