When perusing cars for sale online (like on, say, ClassicCars.com), it’s easy to find sellers make historical proclamations that are often not quite true. One that I often see for 1969 Camaros or 1970 Coronets is “one-year body style!” when the seller means to articulate how a particular facelift only lasted for one model year, and a body style like hardtop or convertible has nothing to do with anything. However, our Pick of the Day, a 1967 Ford Ranchero 500, is a true one-year special that may have folks scratching their heads 58 years later. It is listed for sale by a private seller in Charlemont, Massachusetts.
You may know that the Ranchero has its origins with “coupe utilities” developed in the 1920s, though it was famously exploited by Ford of Australia starting in 1934. For Americans, it seems the utility had its start with the 1957 Ford. Ford offered two different bodies for the first time, with the Ranchero being based on the smaller of the two, which included the Custom and Custom 300 on a 116-inch wheelbase (the Fairlane and Fairlane 500 featured a larger body on a 118-inch wheelbase). Though obviously based on a car, the Ranchero was marketed as a truck, even having a payload that rivaled Ford’s half-ton F-100.
Available as a utilitarian Ranchero and fancier Custom Ranchero, Ford’s new ute was a hit through 1959, upon which Ford decided to transfer the model to the all-new Falcon platform. Ever the utilitarian vehicle, the Falcon Ranchero received a dose of power in 1963 thanks to Ford’s small-block V8. This car was redesigned for 1964 and then, again, in 1966, but that third-generation Falcon Ranchero only lasted one year . . . sort of.
The redesigned Falcon shared a (shortened) platform with the redesigned, bulked-up Fairlane. Both shared station wagons on a 113-inch wheelbase, which hence made it easy for Ford to transfer the Ranchero model to the Fairlane series for 1967. While the Falcon Ranchero featured two inline-sixes (170 and 200ci) and two versions of the 289 V8, the Fairlane Ranchero started with the 200 and added the big-block 390 with up to 315 horsepower.
Trim levels were now Ranchero, Ranchero 500, and Ranchero 500/XL, the latter featuring bucket seats and console; opt for Cruise-O-Matic and you’d get the SelectShift feature that allowed for manual control. Of course, Fairlane styling included contemporary vertical headlights that tied in better with Ford’s full-size series and came off as being more sophisticated than the Falcon’s.
This would be the only year that the Ranchero of this generation was not a Falcon. For 1968, the Ranchero transitioned into a mid-size utility that tossed off any Falcon remnants. That makes this Springtime Yellow 1967 Ford Ranchero 500/XL a true one-year-only model. Glance at the interior and you’ll note the fine XL appointments that made this utility somewhat less utilitarian. Only 1,881 were built and, considering this one has the 390, it should be quite rare, but how? The seller doesn’t fill us in whether this is an H-code 390-2V (416 built) or Z-code 390-4V (484 built, with 317 backed by an automatic, both courtesy of Marti Auto Works) but, as you can see, either one is quite rare.
The seller doesn’t specify much else about this Ranchero other than it has a rebuilt engine and is in excellent condition overall with 107k miles. If this ute is just your style, it pays not to be shy so you can ask questions and get it moved to your garage after exchanging $42,000 (OBO),
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