That's where I saw this:

After looking over all of the pictures and info, I could not pass it up.
Yeah, it's uglier than home-made soap, but the body is straight
AND it came from the factory with the 429 engine & C6 transmission.
(my old Ranchero 500 came with the 351 engine C4 transmission
and had to be modified to fit the big block).

So I made a few bids, feverishly as the auction came to a close
(somebody else wanted it pretty bad too).
Next thing I know, I am the proud owner (of one hell of a project).

The first 5 digits of the VIN are" 2A49N"; which decodes to
1972 "N Code" Ranchero Squire made in Atlanta GA.
Here's the picture from the Ford brochure:

Hey! Who stole my wood trim?
And where's my boat?

Out of the 45,741 Rancheros made in 1972, only 4,787 (10.5%) were Squires.

I read somewhere on the net that approximately 5% of the 1972 Ranchero GTs
came with the "N Code" (which indicates that the car came with 429 engine);
If this percentage is correct, and if the percentage of "N Code" Squires
is similar to the percentage of "N Code" GTs, there may be less than 300 1972
"N Code" Ranchero Squires in existence.

If anyone knows what the exact production numbers are,
please email them to me at Ranchero@RoundhillSoftware.com

Unfortunately, a previous owner had removed the
simulated wood panels from the body, so I don't think the car has
the same value as it would if it was still "in the box" (so to speak).

As some old philosopher said:
The voyage of 1,000 miles begins with one step.

My first step was "Pay the man"

After paying the man,
my new (old) baby was unloaded from the flatbed.

Even though I have my own house with ample driveway
space to do this job, my driveway slopes a little too much for
jacking up a car that will soon have a disconnected
emergency brake. So I asked my parents if I could use the flat
spot at the top of their driveway for a couple of "weeks"...
When they said "yes", I don't think that they (or I) realized
just how long that they would have to endure this lovely
new driveway decoration.

Speaking of making people endure things, Tanya, my wife, was
somewhat less than pleased about my project; she has been
wanting to revamp our kitchen for quite some time.

In my initial attempts to quell my wife's rising anger over my
li'l project, I could be heard telling outrageous lies like: "I can
get this thing on the road for about $5,000", or "I'll have it running
in about a month." Well, reality has a way of rearing it's ugly
head: $10,000 and two months later, I could be heard saying
things like "You were right honey" which was usually followed
up by "You'll love it once it's done" (the jury's still out on that one).

So, to those who are being inconvenienced and/or irked by this
project, two words: "Sorry" & "Thanks"

That having been said, let's get busy...

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