ekarlberg
New Member
Hello - I am a new member here and joined because I just acquired a 1974 Ranger. It was parked in a barn 9 years ago and supposedly ran at that time. For the last 2 years, it has been in the open and exposed to the elements on a lot in Granby, Colorado (snow and sun exposure). Here are some details on the condition:
- Spending it's life in Colorado, it does not have any rot problems.
- The frame is super solid as well as floors, firewall, and the body parts.
- However, there are numerous dents, dings, chips, etc that have all developed some surface rust.
- There are enough dents that seem major enough that body work of some sort would be required or would need replacement.
- The interior is also very rough and there is no back seat.
- It Chrome Yellow in color and is quite nice in it's original weathered patina look.
- The interior is rough and has the ginger houndstooth pattern.
- The interior door panels and quarter panels are still pretty good, though.
- The carpet is shot.
- The dash pad is badly cracked.
- The dash itself is quite nice and is only missing the washer knob and one radio knob.
- No rear drive shaft (for unknown reasons)
- 48,xxx on the original 302 which is dirty, but complete.
- Not currently running.
So, I was quite excited to find and purchase this, but now I don't know what to do. I liked it because it was original and uncut - no modifications. I would like to try to keep it as original as possible, but given I need to change / replace some things, I don't know if that will make it creep into doing everything -- all the way to new paint, etc. Since I don't want to do a full restoration to mint condition, I am not sure how to proceed.
I would love feedback, guidance, do's and don'ts, opinions, lessons learned etc.
Had trouble uploading pictures, so trying this link to my Google Photos album to help show the details. https://photos.app.goo.gl/j4iPyp8rfLQ9zV1AA - if that doesn't work, I will try to figure out how to load them here.
Thanks!
- Spending it's life in Colorado, it does not have any rot problems.
- The frame is super solid as well as floors, firewall, and the body parts.
- However, there are numerous dents, dings, chips, etc that have all developed some surface rust.
- There are enough dents that seem major enough that body work of some sort would be required or would need replacement.
- The interior is also very rough and there is no back seat.
- It Chrome Yellow in color and is quite nice in it's original weathered patina look.
- The interior is rough and has the ginger houndstooth pattern.
- The interior door panels and quarter panels are still pretty good, though.
- The carpet is shot.
- The dash pad is badly cracked.
- The dash itself is quite nice and is only missing the washer knob and one radio knob.
- No rear drive shaft (for unknown reasons)
- 48,xxx on the original 302 which is dirty, but complete.
- Not currently running.
So, I was quite excited to find and purchase this, but now I don't know what to do. I liked it because it was original and uncut - no modifications. I would like to try to keep it as original as possible, but given I need to change / replace some things, I don't know if that will make it creep into doing everything -- all the way to new paint, etc. Since I don't want to do a full restoration to mint condition, I am not sure how to proceed.
I would love feedback, guidance, do's and don'ts, opinions, lessons learned etc.
Had trouble uploading pictures, so trying this link to my Google Photos album to help show the details. https://photos.app.goo.gl/j4iPyp8rfLQ9zV1AA - if that doesn't work, I will try to figure out how to load them here.
Thanks!