My 88 Ranger 4x4

I'm just starting this thread because i can lol... And to keep track of things a little bit.

To start off, My dad bought this truck new in November of '87 and gave it to me in '08 when he bought a new f-150. I love my truck because I grew up with it and would never get rid of it no matter what. If it gets ran over by a tank, I'll guarantee you that I'll fix it lol.

What I got:
-1988 Ranger XLT Supercab 4x4
-3" body lift
-30" BFG A/T's on 15" generic aluminum rims
-Original 28" Uniroyal Laredo M/T spare that's never been removed
-Completely original engine with 200k and a blown head gasket with some temporary sealer in it
-Original but rebuilt Ford 7.5" rear
-Original Dana 28 Front
-Bone-stock 5 speed FM146 trans
-Stock Borg Warner 1350 T-case w/ electric shift
-New polyurethane cab mounts
-Alpine Head Unit
-2 Apline MRP-500's
-2 12"Rockford Fosgate Power T1's
-7 cubic foot Bandpass box
-Polk MM 5x7's in the rear
-Rockford Fosgate 5.25"s in the dash
-JL Audio 4"s in the doors
-Thats all I can think of lol


Plans:
-New/Rebuilt engine this summer. Probably 2.9 but hopefully 4.0
-Lift kit 4"-6"
-Tires 33"-35" M/T Baja MTZ
-Bedliner
-Get rid of my huge loud sound system lmao
-Ford 8.8 rear
-Dana 35 Front
-Some of those new wheels that the rich kids have
-Whatever I stumble upon that I like


Well anyway, this is the oldest pic I can find of my truck...


And after years of prep work, she went into the booth finally!
She got a coat of Sonic Blue Pearl, a Ford color from the early 2000's.



Rolled out of the booth the same day with the paint still wet lmao.



I did it in my school on a friday and my auto body teacher is a dick so he wanted me to leave it there all weekend.
My dad and I decided that wasn't going to happen so he broke into the shop for me and we put the bed on, taped the tail lights on and drove away lol.

Here's when I got home that day... I was soo nervous driving it lol.
And those vertical streaks are just reflections, not the paint.



Some of the kids at school call it the purple power-ranger because the paint looks a little purple in dim light, but they still admit I have the best paint job at school lol. But these are the times I wish I went with the original Midnight Blue...

And a few weeks later on my first offroad trip with new paint, my bumper decided to fall off on the passenger side and use the driver's side frame rail as a pivot point and scratch up my driver's side fender lol. I don't have any close up's, but you can see I took my bumper off after that.



I filled that in with a little leftover paint but have yet to wet-sand and buff it due to my laziness.

And here's one of my best pics right after i washed and waxed it for the first time...




That's all for now, please let me know what you think!

OMG! dude I love your
Paint, that blue the blue I have been looking for! dude your trucks looks really good, I will have to steal your paint color.

American1990 said:

OMG! dude I love your
Paint, that blue the blue I have been looking for! dude your trucks looks really good, I will have to steal your paint color.

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Thanks! I fell in love with it when I first saw it too lol.

Just go to a paint store and look through the book for sonic blue pearl. I discovered the color on a Mustang but I think it came on Edge Rangers too.
I forgot the code and cant find it on google. I got it at Maako for like $250 for a gallon.

I think I should have got more paint though because you can faintly see the old primer under it in the dark when you shine a bright light on it, but you can't even tell unless you do that.
It's almost black in the dark and bright blue in the day and purple in the evening.

Nice man. I like the fact that it was your dads and all. Keep it in the family man. You'll never get your money back out of it anyways. I tell people mine will be my yard ornament before I sale it! Keep it up. And I'll let you know about that lift. Hope to have it off in the next month or 2.

Hell yeah man, how many gallons did you use?

This makes me thing I need to start working on my dads old 84 he bought new and gave to me. You have done a fantastic job painting it and whatnot, I am jealous and may also have to steal that paint color from you.

American1990 said:

Hell yeah man, how many gallons did you use?

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I only used a gallon. It would have covered much nicer if i primed the whole truck first, but I just painted over my old paint and spray primer spots lol.

If you're painting over a solid color, one gallon will do, but if the truck has many different color spots like mine did, I'd recommend 1.5-2 gallons.

But as you can see with mine, its really (REALLY) not even noticeable unless it's dark outside and you shine a super bright light on certain spots. I mean it's that unnoticeable to the point that only I know about it lol.
I think it only does that because it's almost like a candy color so it's not a completely solid color so it shows what's underneath to add an effect of more depth in the color.

So I'd recommend to paint the truck all one solid base color and then hit it with a gallon of this paint. If you want it darker, use a darker base color, and if you want it lighter, use a lighter base color.
I think that would be cheaper and would look better than trying to cover up splotchy paint.

Original_Ranger84 said:

This makes me thing I need to start working on my dads old 84 he bought new and gave to me. You have done a fantastic job painting it and whatnot, I am jealous and may also have to steal that paint color from you.

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Do it, man.. lol. It's awesome to restore something that was passed down to you, because it has a real long story behind it instead of saying "oh I just bought it from some guy"...

And thanks. My dad did the paint for me though. I probably could have done it just as good because I'm a pretty awesome painter, but my dad paid for the paint (birthday present) and if he were to mess up I could blame it on him lmao.

Go ahead and steal my paint lol, it's an awesome color. One of my friends told me he saw someone down here that already stole it and I only did it 3 months ago.

4.0B2 said:

Nice man. I like the fact that it was your dads and all. Keep it in the family man. You'll never get your money back out of it anyways. I tell people mine will be my yard ornament before I sale it! Keep it up. And I'll let you know about that lift. Hope to have it off in the next month or 2.

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By no doubt I'll keep it in the family. Yeah, retail price was $14,000, and now its like $1,400 lmfao. I'll never get rid of it, even if I were offered a million dollars lol. Thanks, I cant afford to cough up $1000 for a new lift kit, but I want one. Cuz I make like $100 a week lol.

nice truck love the blue looks good

I added more to "What I got" and I added "Plans"... Forgot I have a $1500 sound system lmfao.

P.S. How can I get that thing by my name that says 1000 Watts RMS? I'm Definitely over that level, but I want it lol.

tmaxxman said:

nice truck love the blue looks good

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Thanks! I love your truck! Is that a snorkel I see? What truck is that for? or did you make it? And is there a place you can buy those things you got on your headlights?

hell yeah man, I will probably go with a lighter color first, I love when the sun light hits a blue true and the blue just brightens up everything
haha

Those Baja MTZ's are pretty sweet tires! I had a set on my truck and I loved em! But they are expensive as hell, I was gonna get a new set since one of mine wore out way faster but it was going to be close to 300 buck a tire for 31's.

Original_Ranger84 said:

Those Baja MTZ's are pretty sweet tires! I had a set on my truck and I loved em! But they are expensive as hell, I was gonna get a new set since one of mine wore out way faster but it was going to be close to 300 buck a tire for 31's.

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Yea, they're really expensive... But I want them because I read how good they are on and off road. People were sayin they get a ton of miles out of them and that they got through what Super Swamper Boggers couldn't... Now I'm not so sure about that part, but it sounds good lol.