My 1967 Ford Country Sedan

My 1st car was a 68 T-Bird Charcoal met. For come reason I thought the 69 had the same grill with the T-Bird emblems on the headlight covers like the 68. I had trans problems with mine and when the dealer had trouble fixing it correctly thought about trading for a 69.I still miss that car, but when I got drafted in 71 I sold it rather than letting it sit for a couple years.

I also had a 85 Turbo Coupe which was one of the most fun cars I have had.

 

Nice cars, always kind of liked them. Nice to ride in, distinctive cars. Still nice today, who knows, maybe some day I can sneak one home. How long have you had it?

 

That 78 Diamond Edition blue is very lovely, but I think it is just a little light to go well with the white interior. Not quite enough contrast for interest. Nora's vinyl top was replaced with that Diamond Edition blue, and on the white car, it just doesn't quite work right. The slightly darker regular production light blue metallic would work though. It is just dark enough to provide some needed contrast. You might also think of 1989 Ford Crystal Blue Metallic. It is a Tempo/Topaz colour, not the Light Crystal Blue Metallic of the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis.

 

We bought the car in 2010 to haul a travel trailer. Put a hitch and electrics on it. Put quite a bit mechanically into the car, but it was an Arizona car, the underside is just amazingly clean.



A change in plans resulted in us selling the travel trailer and we bought a 5th wheel and thus a truck to haul it. Now we are trying to sell the car. The price isn't bad, but there is not a lot of interest in the Glamour cars (1967-69 T-birds).

 

Whew. Pulled the rear seat seatbelts, some additional trim and glass from all 4 doors. The window felt was in good shape on three of the four windows I removed it from. I am not sure it's available aftermarket and as the CS felt is shot, I might use this. Need to talk to Doc.

By that time I was beat. And it was getting too warm out.

Trying to figure out how to get the glass out of the tailgate. You cannot move the glass when the door is open. How do you get to whatever you need to get too, to get the glass out. The glass is in the way! LOL

The 1967 Ford Manual I have has been excellent. Up till now. Cannot find instructions. Time to keep looking I guess.

 

With Doc's help, got the tailgate glass out of the Ranch Wagon. Easy once Doc told me to open the gate, manually close the hinge, and then the motor would work without the gate being closed. Wife had the idea to just keep running it up and see if it would pop out. Pretty much did. Easy.

Got a bunch of parts out of it, but the shell is still solid. Put it on the for sale list. Hate to see it go to the crusher with the rest of the car.

All done but the bumpers. Those have got to be cut/torched off.

 

You're kickin', Wing!

 

hey great find times two i also have a 67 country sedan hows the rear bumper on the ranch and would you be interested in parting with it ??

 

Thanks silverfox! Took the doors off today for a buyer from this site.


Taztech: I am trying to find someone to cut off the bumpers (cut the bolts from the back side) as I cannot move them. Once I get that done I can give you a better idea.

However, I have a better deal for you. I will have to remove the bumper of the CS when it goes in for body work and paint. That bumper is much better and has the steps (if you want them). I already have a new bumper to put on the back.

BUT KEEP IN MIND, the RW bumper does not have the holes for the steps. The CS bumper does. If you are looking for a bumper without the holes you will need to go with the RW bumper.

I hope to have someone get those bumpers off this coming week.

 

I cleaned up some of the parts from the Ranch Wagon. I don't have the CS home right now, they are still working on the brakes and few other items. Hope to get it home in a couple days.

I figured I would do some testing of paints available to see what I like. I bought a can of Ford Lt. Parchment from Dearborn Classics (Ecklers now) to see if I would like it.



Tomorrow I will run to Lansing and get some SEM paint. According to their website, they have 2 types that will work with my car. The Color Coat and the Classic Coat. They each have Lt. Parchment. They don't really give you on-line, which is better for what type of application, so I will talk to the guys there. Bought from the place before and they were very knowledgable.

I will be painting metal, plastic, and some vinyl (arm rests mainly).

I tried the Ecklers on one of the kick panels I took out of the RW.



I thought it came out pretty good. I rattled the can for quite a while, then sprayed it away from the panel (all kinds of crap came out before it finally settled down to a nice paint).

It wasn't too heavy, covered well and yet didn't lose the texture of the panel.

However the color is not quite the same as original.



Above is the painted versus the unpainted kick panel. You can see the discoloration (darker) in the unpainted version. Its hard to tell from the pick, but with the naked eye you can see the newly painted one is just a tad bit darker than the original (where its not discolored).

I will buy a can of SEM tomorrow and try that on the other kick panel and compare it to other original panels. See which I like best. After they have time to dry, I will twist the panels to see if any cracking occurs. There will no doubt be twisting to get the things back in and I don't want a bunch of cracks.

The online information on the Ecklers paint says for hard and soft surfaces. We shall see.

Some of the metal parts have some slight rust coming through. I cleaned, lightly sanded and thought I would try some rustolium primer to keep the rust at bay. I also wanted to test whether it would lift the paint.

No problems so far. The primer went on well. I will probably try some SEM on it too.

Unprimed left, primed right.



Anyway, just some info for me to keep track of things.

 

I'm interested in doing much like you are, need to match up some panels, so appreciate your posts. Thank you.

 

Glad to help. This thread helps me too, keep track of what I am doing and have done.

This morning I went to Finish Master in Lansing. They recommended the Color Coat for its versatility and flexibility. I picked up a can of the Lt. Parchment.

I sprayed the other kick panel from the RW, then after allowing it to dry compared the two kick panels.

The first pic is the Ecklers from the other day, with an unrestored piece from the RW. I made sure that the unrestored piece was representative of the color of all the pieces I took from the RW.



As you can see, and as I noted the other day, the ecklers is definitly browner than the original. Not bad looking, but definitely not an exact match.

I sprayed the SEM in the air first and not nearly as much crud came out before it sprayed fine compared to the Ecklers.

Below is the same original piece compared to the SEM.



As you can see, the SEM is almost dead on, if not dead on. Be sure to look at the left side, as the right is a little different shade only because of lighting. I compared the newly painted SEM piece to an original plastic piece and the shades are again, dead on. Well done SEM.

This paint is supposed to be elastic enough for carpet. It should work on the softer vinyl of the arm rests. Looking forward to using it.

Conclusion: Both paints sprayed well, went on well, covered well and seem tough and flexible. However, for this shade, the SEM was much closer to the original color. No comparison.

 

Well bad news with the CS. The reason the brakes were not working correctly was because the engine was not making enough vacumn and the vacumn was bouncing. The engine was rebuilt about 9 years ago and looks like they screwed something up. Dang.

So tear down time. Going to be awhile before I get it back. Mechanic mentioned it could be several culprits (timing chain, rods, etc) and he will go through the easiest and cheapest first to look it over.

 

If you find that the cam is killing your vacuum the obvious fix is an electric vacuum pump piped into your booster. Way cheaper then an engine rebuild and soooo much better then stickin' your left foot out for more whow. Jer in Washtenaw county

 

Your right. The mechanic also mentioned that. I had never heard of doing that before.

The problem with the Country Sedan turned out to be that when the heads were milled years ago, they didn't put in shorter push rods to compensate. Thus the valves were remaining open and vacumn was about 15 lbs and jumping all around.

Replaced the push rods and I am getting 18 to 21 lbs without the bouncing. So the brakes work well now. The previous owner spent thousands on the brakes trying to get them to work. Nobody ever figured out the vacumn issue.

My mechanics hooked up a vac pump just temp and noted the brakes working ok. Thats when they knew it was the engines vac.

Well, its back home. Many more dollars poorer, but many seals and pumps replaced.


Better news is that I got the front and rear bumpers cut off the Ranch Wagon today too. The front will be rechromed for use on the CS. The back will make a good core for someone else.



Also sold the doors today. More good news.

That's it for the RW. Supposed to have a buyer for the rest of the car. He is going to take out the engine and tranny and then sell the remainder to someone else that wants the frame. I hope this all goes as planned, because we are really using up the RW, not just scrapping it. It will save several more cars.