Ratty 1964 Ford Country Sedan Wagon

duh09

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Hey guys,

If you're friends with me on Facebook, then you've likely already seen it but I figured I'd start a build thread to track my progress on it. If you're not friends with me, well you suck.

So yesterday I trade a 07 Yamaha Rhino that I picked up for a steal for this pimp '64 Country Sedan wagon. 390, 3 on the tree, front and rear benches, just the perfect 60's wagon. I've been trying to find something like this for a long time and the trade worked out perfect and here we are. The car had a busted belt in one of the front tires so I couldn't drive it home, but I slapped my KMC Novas that have been passed between a few of my cars on it and drove the crap out of it today and I could not be happier.

Plan is pretty simple with this thing, I've got to order some spacers to put my rear Nova's on and then I'm probably going to cut a coil or two from the front. I'd like to lower the front down a good 2-3" to get a decent rake on it and get it to sit the way I want. Maybe work up some sort of valence on the front to help it look lower. The car had factory A/C but the compressor was junk so he removed the under-the-dash box from the interior. I'd like to fix that and put that back into the car and possible return it back to power steering as well. I kind of dig the 3-speed but I may eventually try and find a good O/D transmission to make cruising a little better. Motor runs great, needs some carb work but don't plan on messing with under the hood too much besides dressing and maybe a intake. The rear seat is 100% MINT but the front is literally TRASH. Supposedly the car had been in a barn for 15-20 years with the rear seat down so it was preserved but a racoon made a nest in the front and ripped it to shreds. Hopefully I can find some repo front seat covers and have it fixed. Sound deadening, new carpet, hidden radio, and that is about all I've got planned.

On to the good stuff- the pics!

Loaded up and ready to head back to TN...
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Got home with enough time to get my front wheels on and head a few miles down the road to top off the gas. Fuel gauge is Inop, hopefully get that fixed at some point.
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Test fitting the rears... going to need around a 1" spacer. The wheels are all OVER the leaf springs, would like to be able to get my hand between them. Should still leave me with around 1.5-2" from the edge of the tire and the fender lip so hopefully won't be beating and rolling them.
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duh09

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Not sure why I cropped this without the sweet pinstriping on the dash. Oh well.


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caldeio

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Someone down the road has one of these. Its been quite awhile since I've seen him have it out though. :(

Supercharged and over 700hp. Idk if he had it dyno'd or not. It'll crank wheelies at the drag strip ;P I got to ride in it one time, I don't even think it had seatbelts. It's a really heavy car and floats but it would pick up really nice and cruise!
He has the rear tire covers for that stealth look! Im pretty sure it has wood grain sides even. If I ever see it, I'll snag a pic!

I think it looked like this...I searched the local drag strip and ford wagon and it popped up.
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ElrodKTPQ_89

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Thats freakin awesome dude! One of my dream cars is a late 50's early 60's caddy hearse. Something is cool about a slammed down big wagon.
 
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duh09

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I ordered some 1.5" spacers. Should be a good fit if me and my tape measure were worth a damn. Should be in by the end of the week, and hopefully this weekend if I'm in town, I can get the inside cleaned up and dust the ole camera off and get some worthy shots of the ole beaut.
 

Orange 94

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I looked at this thread when I first woke up and thought it said "RALLY" instead of ratty. Now that it's closer to lunch I now understand haha. A rally wagon got my attention though

Love 64s! Soo goooood! Love the roof and hood! Too bad there's holes in the bottom, should fix those but leave the rest alone!
 
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duh09

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Shit, them holes aren't going anywhere. Not planning on clearing it either. Something about shiny rust makes little kids cry at night. It took 42 years to create that look and I don't want to ruin it haha. The underside of the car is surprisingly solid. Surface rust on a lot, but nothing a wire brush and some epoxy paint couldn't fix. Couple minor holes in the floor boards, some already patched, no biggie.

Just impatiently awaiting my rear spacers so I can decide on cutting my springs.
 

ElrodKTPQ_89

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It took 42 years to create that look and I don't want to ruin it haha.

I told someone that almost word for word recently and they just looked at me like I called their mother a whore. 100% agree though, that's character that can't be replaced.
 
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duh09

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Finally snapped a couple real pics of the car. More to come as I start getting into it more. Been driving it a good bit lately. Motor is going to need some love soon, little smokey smokey. One of the guys that works for me has a set of 4BBL heads that are ready to go on something, so probably going to snag those and find a cheap block to rebuild on a stand while I drive this one. Otherwise, seems to be going like a top. Good oil pressure, doesn't get hot. Still needs some carb tuning but overall amazed with how well it runs. Ripped all the bamboo yoga mat shit out the back and picked up some blue leather to work on the rear panels, going to end up repainting the floor in the back, still figuring out carpet for the front and what I'm going to do on the front seat. Ordered a set of new front coils, planning to cut 2 coils from there, should be a 3-4" drop and get the front closer to where I want. Happy with the rear, but need the front a good bit lower to get that mean rake look.

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duh09

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Took the time to tune-up the ole gal. New plugs, wires, adjusted float level on the carb, etc etc and cleaned off the old factory air cleaner and put back on. Paint was coming off the expansion tank so took a wire brush and knocked it off and polished it up a little just to decide if I liked it... which I do! Going to eventually take it off and polish the whole thing. Going to eventually use some gutter guard and gold paint to sort of patch it and put in the holes of the air cleaner and find a pin-striper to stripe the valve covers and breather.

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Drove the car ~250mile round trip to the Redneck Rumble yesterday as well. Spent most of the day in the rain, turns out the ole wagon leaks like a ***** around the windshield. Still had a blast. Snapped this shot before we rolled out. You can also see my latest eBay find, '64 TN Guardsmen tag. Cleaned it up a little, and re-painted the letters and lines and whatnot. Love it.

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duh09

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I've been driving and enjoying this car too much for pictures! Haha

I'll be posting some more real soon. After I got back from Redneck Rumble, I started tearing apart the rear interior to start working on building a sub box and prepping it for paint/upholstery work. I still haven't decided on a full plan for the front seats but I've got some ideas working in my noggin for the rear so I'm going to start working on that and see where it takes me. Working for a few months in an upholstery shop and seeing how easy it is to get creative with has really gotten me wondering about some neat design ideas that I'm going to try out in this car.

I'm ditching the spare tire and using that area for mounting my shallow mount 10" Kicker sub along with an amp to power it and a bluetooth amp to run music from my phone to some hidden speakers allowing me to keep my factory radio in place and wired up. With the rear seat laid flat and folded out, it's got basically a flat plane from the tailgate to the back of the front seats. Everything metal below the window line is getting cleaned up and painted soon a color I mixed up at work. I found a newer Toyota color that was pretty close to the factory interior paint but a little less blue and a little more metallic. Added a bit more blue tint to it and got it where I want it, pretty close to factory but more sparkly bling bling. I'm stripping the "mats" on the metals panels to eventually make some upholstered pieces that will lay down there and be bolted down with some stainless trim.


Here's a generic photo of what the rear should look like in one of these. This is with the rear seat up, it actually will fold down and part will extend and make a solid flat floor. The sub will be mounted under the panel closest to the rear, with the amps and wiring hidden under the second panel. The striped bits on the floor are the mats I'm removing and where I'll eventually have some sweet pieces made and installed. I'm going to run trim to mimic the trim on the tailgate. The rear tire wells are covered in vinyl from the factory. I'm going to clean mine up and paint them along with the rest of the floor.

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duh09

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Boy I haven't done much but enjoy the shit out of this car since my last update. I successfully pulled the rear of the interior apart and started making templates and well that's it. Took it to a few shows, been driving it every couple of weekends. Been fun.

Pulled the generator's wiring harness this weekend and start re-doing a bit of it to install an alternator that came off my dad's 67 Fairlane. Ordered some OE alternator brackets and installed a 65 model water pump a couple months ago when the old one went out, should be a bolt-up affair. Also found a old OE trailer hitch for the car that I need to install.

Also made a couple big purchases for the car, a Edelbrock cam and FiTech EFI unit. Ordered a Holley in-line fuel pump, going to piece it together little by little.

Gameplan is to finish the alternator install and make sure electrical system is rolling good, throw the rear interior back together, and get the car ready for Stoopidcold above Memphis in a couple weeks. After that, I'll be checking compression and deciding what route to go with the motor. It's smoking a bit but usually just when its first started up, hoping its just valve stem seals. If compression is alright, I'm going to have a set of heads gone through and have new valve stem seals installed, order a new intake and spend a weekend swapping the topend out and installing the EFI.


And to reward you for reading, here's a pic I snapped this weekend on the way home in it.
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96blak54

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One dag on pic! Fa real?

Killing me!

Ill take it.

Youll make a good album at this rate in 4yrs. Posting one dang pic every 4 months (rolleyes)
 

CompOrangeSN95

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Just dropping in to say I love your new ride. I'm a little jelly. Side question: you ever finish that murder machine of a supermoto?
 

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