Light Painting a 1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero
We’re very excited to share a beautiful light painting project of a stunning silver 1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero! I traveled to a beautiful Island Lake Reservoir, about 40 minutes north of Duluth, Minnesota, to create this beauty!
This is a light painting project that I’ll always remember!
One of the many reasons why is that, as we started light painting, the loons were calling from all over the lake, and in the air too! For that reason alone, this light painting experience was awesome!
For those of you who don’t know, I began my career as a professional photographer as a wildlife photographer. And, photographing the Common Loon was my specialty – way back in 1986!
Here you can see the entire setup from the camera position. The image on our iPad Pro is what the camera would be capturing that evening.
The 2025 Motorhead Madness
I met the Ranchero’s owner, Conrad, at Motorhead Madness in Duluth, Minnesota, this past spring. The last few years, I’ve given out “Photographer’s Choice Awards” at the show. Selecting the winning vehicles is never easy, and this year was no exception!
Conrad’s 67 Ford Ranchero is on display at the 2025 Motorhead Madness.
So, I went about it a little differently this year. I sent several iPhone pics of different cars to Joannie. And then I send more to our grandkids, Riley, and Ryder. I tasked each of them to select one of the vehicles as their winner. Conrad’s Ranchero was Joannie’s choice!
In our text exchange the day after the photography session, Conrad wrote: “Again, THANK YOU for this opportunity. Also, tell your wife I like her taste in cars!”
Here’s the rear-end view of Conrad’s Ranchero at Motorhead Madness in Duluth.
Location, Location, Location
Conrad had a special place in mind where he wanted to create his light painting. It was at the lake home of his long-time friends, Ryan and his wife, Bobbie. Once I arrived, I could see why! It’s really beautiful!
Down the road, Ryan might have a cool light painting of his own, too. He’s got a rather interesting “snowmobile” that he’s interested in having light painted – in the winter! Pardon the pun, but that would be darn cool (maybe even freezing)! We’ve never light-painted any vehicle in the snow before! I hope his cool contraption will be the first!
The smoke from the Canadian wildfires was pretty heavy that day (and night), and it made for a very orange sky from the Waning Gibbous moon that evening. And I think it looks really cool in Conrad’s final artwork!
Conrad’s Ford Ranchero Story
In 1978, when he was 15 years old, Conrad bought his first car. It was a 1967 Ford Fairlane 500XL that their neighbor had resting on cinder blocks. After making it roadworthy, Conrad drove it for 4 years until it rusted out beyond repair.
In 1983, while training for the Air Force in Denver, Colorado, he bought his second ‘67 Fairlane 500XL. He sold that one in the fall of 1985. The following year, while visiting family in Las Vegas in April of 1986, he and his Uncle Bill went junkyard shopping. They did that every time he was out there.
At one of the junkyards, he spotted the double-stacked headlights of a Fairlane. He rushed over only to discover it was a Ranchero 500XL, and not a Fairlane 500XL. On the windshield was written $400 pick up on Wednesday. But they were there on a Friday. He talked to a worker from the junkyard, who said it was supposed to be picked up 3 Wednesdays ago. The Ranchero was mostly complete, with the engine taken apart and placed in the rear cargo area. Conrad did not buy it on the spot. Instead, he went back home to Duluth.
Here’s our initial setup image. The smoke from the wildfires in Canada is pretty evident in the sky. That smoke actually ended up enhancing the final artwork once the moon arrived on the scene.
Thank you, Uncle Bill!
For three days, he thought about the Ranchero. Then, he called his uncle. Conrad told him that if he ever went back to that junkyard, and the Ranchero was still there, would he please pick it up for him? Uncle Bill called him back the next day to tell Conrad that it was now sitting in his driveway!
For the next 36 years, Conrad bought parts that he could find and worked on the Ranchero when he could. Which wasn’t much. Between racing stock cars, moving 3 times, getting married, having kids, getting deployed 6 times, and working, not much got accomplished on the Ranchero.
The big push to finish this beautiful vehicle came in 2020, when Conrad retired. It took him about 2 years of working on it steadily to finish it. He had parts that had been in storage for 30-plus years that had been through 3 moves!
Once the body was stripped down to bare metal, Conrad realized the extent of the damage from past accidents. There was more than an inch of body putty on the passenger side rocker panel. The rocker panel was replaced, and all the other dents were hammered and dolled out. When all the panels were straight, primer was sprayed, and then Silver Frost paint and clear-coat were applied. The Ranchero was then carefully reassembled using both new and rebuilt parts!
Not only is Conrad’s Ranchero looking amazing, but the Waning Gibbous moon is looking pretty cool too!
1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero – The Finer Details
- The engine is a 289-2v V-8.
- Transmission is a 4-speed Automatic with overdrive (AOD).
- Rear end is an 8” with 4:11 gears and traction-loc.
- Paint is Ford Paint Code 4, Silver Frost (and it’s really pretty!).
- The interior package from Auto Krafters was installed.
- Wheels are 15×8 Keystone Klassics.
- Tires are BF Goodrich Radial T/A. The fronts are 215/60/15, and the rears are 245/60/15.
- The Tonneau Cover is from Craftec Covers.
An interesting Ford Fact: In 1967, just 1881 Ranchero 500XLs were built. And only 19 of those were painted Silver Frost that had black vinyl bucket seats.
1967 Ford Fairlane Ranchero – The Movie
As always, we’ve got a short “Build Video” on our YouTube channel that features the images that went into creating Conrad’s beautiful artwork. We took 256 images that night, and 91 of those were used to complete the image. The link to view it is below:
There’s Lots More!
Down the road, this project will be added to our dedicated Light Painting Photography Website. We’ve still got many projects in the hopper over the next couple of months, hopefully before the cold weather gets here. So, it might be a bit before it gets added.
We still have several light painting projects to finish creating from trips to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We also have two more trips planned, one in North Carolina and another in Connecticut, coming up too! Plus, there might be another amazing project that includes a famous crime-fighting car! Please stay tuned!
We also have a page on this website that features many of our light paintings. You can enjoy those images at this link.
In the meantime, there are lots of other cool light painting projects to check out on our sister website. Here’s the link: www.MichaelAndersonLightPainting.com