1967 Ford Squire wagon restoration

Finally attached the rear bumper and completed the replacement of all the wire going thru the rear bumper. I was not sure for the last 2 years if this would fit. I bought it off a guy on eBay who had it re-chromed for his Ranchero. It did not fit his car so he sold it to me. Thankfully it fits! There is even a hole for a step add-on. My original bumper did not have the steps since it was only a 6 passenger.





The two license plate lights are very hard to find, even harder with the light sockets and wire harness!

 

We have to remove the woodgrain off the tailgate since it is on crooked. We did not notice until I went to put the trim on. Its just bad enough to bother the heck out of me!

 

Head light bezels and new rubber seals installed.





Needs a good cleaning!

 

Thanks for the update, it gets better and better by the day.

 

Most of the metal on the Country Squire is Stainless Steel. Time consuming, but easy to polish with a buffer.

However, the three pieces that cover the tip of the hood...well that stuff is anodized aluminum. It will polish up, however, I got very shiny spots and very dull spots. Overall it will look terrible!

Here is what I had to do:

1. Soak all three pieces in EZ-Off oven cleaner to remove the anodizing
2. Wait 5 minutes, and scrub (use gloves)
3. Rince
4. Repeated 4 times.

5. Wet sanded the pieces with 400 grit wet dry to 1000 grit
6. Take to spiral sewn wheel with gray clay bar and polish the heck out of it.
7. Then use loose buff wheel with White clay then finish with blue clay.

Here are the before:


After

 

Installed the rear tail lights this evening.


Note the gouge next to the drivers side tailgate. The entire gate fell off the top hinge when I tried to swing the door open when I did not know it was not closed all the way at the top. That had to be a huge safety flaw! Perhaps someone with the same door can let me know if their door does the same thing.

 

your ford is similar to our zc fairlanes. very neat wagon you have

 

Hi,

We've had a Country Sedan since new. I do recall the tailgate coming off once, although I'm pretty sure that the latches and mechanical safety limits inside the tailgate are designed to keep that from happening. With wear and age and corrosion, it becomes possible to release the top left hinge without the bottom right catch/hinge being latched. Rods that transverse the tailgate provide the feedback for the latches, providing the safety mechanism, and although I haven't studied this system in several years, this is my recollection.

 

I may have described what happend incorrectly.
The door was not closed at the top left and right hinges all the way. Not knowing this, I used the right handle to swing the door open and that unlocked the lower right hinge too. I would think that handle should be disabled with a safety mechanism when both latches up top are not secured.

So the door fell since the top left, top right, and lower right hinges all off at the same time. Its a heavy door. I was lucky I saved it.

I would love to find another big ford wagon with the same gate and try the right lever while the door was just leaning closed to see if it does the same thing.

 

Right, when the "safety" rods are adjusted properly you should not be able to do that. When new, the tailgate would not swing open, or actually fall off, when the left top hinge was not closed all the way. We'll be getting our wagon out of the garage soon, and I'll confirm this. That's what I remember, occasionally trying to swing the door open and it wouldn't move because it was not fully latched. Reclose the door, latching the top hinges, and then it would swing open from the side. As often as kids are opening and closing the tailgates, they would certainly need a safety mechanism to keep the door from falling off and landing on somebody. Unfortunately, your safety mechanism has gone out of adjustment and has ceased functioning as it should.

 

geez Doc.....its so close you can almost smell the paint burning off the exhaust manifolds

 

We just finished painting all of the interior metal and there is a lot of it. We color matched it and its looks great.

I will be installing the floors and the third seat this week. I am a little nervous about putting in the third seat since its from another car and our car was originally a 6 passenger. We are hoping we have all the hardware needed...

 

Here are some of the metal interior pieces that came from the blue donor car berfore paint.



After new paint



Little taste

 

Looking great! It's funny because my interior panels were originally tan and now they are blue and yours are vice versa. Thanks for sharing a "side view" shot! You are going with factory wheels (hubcaps) and tires, correct?

 

I am planning on using the original wheels off of the 67 LTD donor car. I have driver quality 67 OEM hubcaps for now. I still may put on some low profile rims someday.