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Year
1960
How does that song go “I want to be a
cowboy”? My love for these early “round body” years just continues. About three years ago I decided having a pick up would come in handy for hauling jobs. Having only one daily driver in the family – my wife’s Pathfinder – I set out on a search for 60-63 Rancheros. My preference was for a 61 model since I like the grille style better and I thought any bugs re the 60 model might have been worked out. My search included a trip to Yakama, WA and telephone calls back east. But the main trip was a flight to San Francisco, car rental drive to Los Angeles and back to San Francisco all in one weekend. I saw eleven Rancheros and found this 1960 in Sacramento. Very clean and original. Being an original California car, the undercarriage and body are in pretty good shape. I left a deposit and picked it up later. Once I got it home and got a clean bill of health from the local inspection facility, I added a few things. Out went the 144 cid and in went a 200 cid engine. Also I added trim rings for 13” wheels and a Frontenac grille (from Ray’s great find). It bolted right in. Although these are pretty rare in Canada, this is now my daily driver. I moved to Kamloops in Feb, 2002 and it was quite interesting driving up the Coquihalla in a snow storm with this vehicle. It needs the bumpers re-chromed and maybe some tailgate work, but ‘till then I’ll just keep on enjoying driving it with my cowboy hat on.
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