1965 Ranchero Questions

Does anybody know if there's a sheet metal that has the creases in it like the bed of a pick-up truck. My bed in the truck is warped inbetween the frame rails and cross member and I would like to replace it with some thicker metal or just some new unbent metal that I could weld in. The other question I have is, does anyone have a site or a gasoline tank company where I could get a replacement tank with the fuel gauge and everything installed, prefferably about a 20 gallon tank that would fit in between the narrow frame rails of this 65 Ranchero? If anyone has any other good sites for these Rancheros I would appreciate it. Streets, the site you sent me mentions rear replacement fenders but, doesn't tell me who makes them. This is what my main concerns are right now. So that I can procede with sand blasting the rest of the car. So I can begin on getting the rest of the body straightened out so, that I can paint it. The guy that they had put in the new 302 decided to paint the engine compartment flat black, and it looks like crap!! So I'm removing everything out of the car, to sand blast the whole thing and paint the whole car. To bad the front clip wont come apart without cutting it. I had an old 79 El Camino that the whole front clip un-bolted right down to the frame. When I put it back together looked like it had just come out of the factory with a fresh paint job. This paint job won't be so easy. Thanks for any help...


~ Vegas ~

You might want to check with the people who sell aftermarket body parts for the bed floor metal as I think I seen sections of the ribbed metal in a catalog,as for a gas tank you can use up to a 71 ranchero or torino/fairlane wagon tank. i had a 64 falcon 2 door wagon that needed a tank and I had one from a 70 ranchero and used it in the 64 and it was identical.

I'm kinda in the same boat on my 68 Ranchero, front bed panel (in front of the shock access panel) is bad.....but I'm not alone, I know of a couple others too. Jeff's jogged my memory, I have seen bed floor panels somewhere......... Let me know if you find them and I'll do the same.

I looked in my JC Whitney catalog and they have repair panels in the truck section for $18.95. They have them for full size Ford trucks and 82 to 92 Rangers. There's nothing about Ranchero but check to see if one of them might work. The panels are 16"wide and 48"long. They also have full size Chevy, S10 and even El Camino. I need to patch my 73 Ranchero so let me know if you have any luck.

Here's a link to a resource guide for Ford trucks and rancheroos, and they have some links that might also be useful.

http://www.gardenofspeedin.com/parts.../bkfrdtrk.html

And here's an online locator that salvage places respond to, someone may have good used, or repop (a lot of salvage yards are doing this now too) parts and will respond to your inquiry.

http://www.usedpartslive.com/fordrancherobodyparts.html