The Ford Ranchero was introduced in December 1956 and was based on the 1957 two-door Ford Ranch Wagon. It had an open, reinforced bed, a rear window unique only to the Ranchero, and the cab had a cargo box behind the seat. Even though it was based on the station wagon body, the Ranchero was sold as a pickup truck through Ford’s truck division.
The name Ranchero was chosen to evoke the American Southwest with advertising themes showing the vehicle in ranching and other outdoor activities. “More Than a Car! More Than a Truck!” was the advertising headline.
The Ranchero was a hit with both the automotive press and the car-buying public. It filled an untapped market niche for a vehicle with the utility of a light pickup truck combined with the riding characteristics of a car. The Ranchero also had a slightly higher cargo capacity, by about 50 pounds, than the half-ton F-Series pickup.
Any engine available in a Ford car was also available in the Ranchero. Stylewise, the 1959 Fords reverted back to the Ford trademark “bull’s eye” tail light and did away with the four-tail-light design used on the 1958 Fords, which were meant to evoke the “Thunderbird spirit and design” but did not work that well on the full-size Ford.
The car seen here has been modified and updated but is all Ford. In place of the original 352 V-8, a later 390 V-8 has been installed, mated to a Hurst 4-speed floor-mounted shifter. The front seat has been covered in a soft beige and brown velour material. The dash and the rest of the interior are stock. The two-tone paint job of creamy white hood and mid-body and pinkish beige roof and lower side body panels is what was on the car originally when it came from the factory, except the beige paint is a 1990s Nissan beige. The previous owner who redid the car preferred this shade of beige over the original Ford beige color. The white is a 1959 Ford white, and while the stock 1959 Ranchero would have had a white roof with the lower body panels beige, this Ranchero has a beige roof.
In 1957 and 1958, Rancheros came in two trim body styles, one of which was targeted to farmers. The Custom trim, which had most of the accessories available on the Ford Fairlane, was called the Ranchero Fairlane. In 1959, the Ranchero was only offered in the upscale Custom trim, which had the stainless steel body moldings and two-tone paint, as seen on the Ranchero here.
Guy Vanderhoof, the current owner, is a “Ford” guy. His other vehicles are a 1946 Mercury convertible, which has been modified, and a 1955 Ford convertible. In 2011, one of the members of the car club Guy belongs to told him about “a friend who has a 1959 Ranchero he was thinking of selling” and that Guy should take a look.
“I went to take a look at the car, liked what I saw and bought the car,” said Guy. “It was basically how it looks now. I liked that there was a 390 V-8 and Hurst 4-speed as upadates. The car had aftermarket wheelcovers, which were alright but not the lool I wanted. I had some wheelcovers in my garage which I thought would look better, and those are the ones on the car now. I wanted the look of a traditional 1950s/1960s mild custom, and one of the features of the period was to have different wheelcovers on the front and rear. The rear smooth covers are aftermarket which were common in auto parts stores into the late 1970s. The front are covers a friend made for a Ford he owned, and are a combintation of Olds and Ford with custom cross bars. The seat is from a 1965 Ford two-door with custom brown-and-beige velour-like fabric. Other than that, the interior is stock. The dash is beautiful and part the of 1950s look — to alter it would be blasphemy!”
The 1959 Ford had a 118-inch wheelbase, which afforded the Ranchero a seven-foot bed — almost a foot longer than the 1958.
In 1960, the Ranchero was downsized and built on the new “compact” Falcon chassis. The Ranchero would be made on the Falcon chassis until 1965.
From 1966 to 1967, the Ranchero would be built on Ford mid-size chassis of Fairlane, from 1968–1979 the Torino chassis. There were no Rancheros after 1979.
The first generation Rancheros sold so well that in 1959 Chevrolet came out with their own version the of the “car pickup” named the El Camino.
