adsm08's Ranger build up

[85_Ranger4x4]

I am also good with no rust, but paint helps with that, and I have seen nasty nasty things under drop-in liners. I was very surprised to find the inside of the box as nice as it was when I pulled my liner today.

As for temp, I couldn't ask for better conditions, especially the last two days. Yesterday I started in long sleeves to keep the paint mist off my arms because it is sticky and hard to get off. I gave up on that less than 1/4 of the way through painting. It was in the 70s yesterday, and it is heading there again today.

Mine looks the same as yours pretty much.

Make sure your metal is warm though, it can lag behind air temp.

Supposed to get into the 50's here today. Had snow two days ago.

 

[adsm08]

The metal was pretty warm. My garage door faces east, so it gets hit with direct sun first thing in the morning. I had the door open for about 90 min before I started painting.

Seeing the way this stuff lays down I really think my orange peel is more the paint than anything. It starts splotchy, almost as if I was spraying pure thinner, and then fills in as it starts to dry. It's kind of weird. But like I've said before, this stuff isn't meant to be sprayed, and so I am using a ton of thinner to get it to run through the gun. But it is working, and the orange peel actually smooths out a bit on it's own after about 3 days.

But I have never used a spray gun and not gotten some degree of orange peel. It's just part of the way it works. A better gun and automotive paint might give nicer initial results, but ultimately orange peel is why we have 1000 grit sand paper and buffers.


I gotta say, while I like snow I am loving this early spring this year. I am getting a lot of work done on what is easily the biggest project I have ever under taken, and I am trying very hard to get this all done, or at least the biggest parts of it, before August when I loose all my help with watching the kids.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Seeing the way this stuff lays down I really think my orange peel is more the paint than anything. It starts splotchy, almost as if I was spraying pure thinner, and then fills in as it starts to dry. It's kind of weird. But like I've said before, this stuff isn't meant to be sprayed, and so I am using a ton of thinner to get it to run through the gun. But it is working, and the orange peel actually smooths out a bit on it's own after about 3 days.

I usually have a conniption fit before it dries but that is exactly how the spray paint is.

I was pressure washing off wet paint a year ago because of it on my tractor's oil pan. Had to blow off two paint jobs before I got a decentish paint job (and the paint won't stick on a sharp corner either)

If the Agco dealer wasn't an hour and a half away I would have trashed it and got the real paint.

 

[adsm08]

I don't like the way it looks right after it is sprayed, but so far I am extremely happy with the way the paint job is turning out.

Next order of business is to get some epoxy primer for the frame. I started cleaning it tonight. Tomorrow will be applying the rust converter, which will get epoxy over it, then paint.

 

[adsm08]

I don't like the way it looks right after it is sprayed, but so far I am extremely happy with the way the paint job is turning out.

Next order of business is to get some epoxy primer for the frame. I started cleaning it tonight. Tomorrow will be applying the rust converter, which will get epoxy over it, then paint.

 

[RayInStl]

This makes me wonder what it looks like under my Ranger's bed. I need to change the body mounts sometime this summer, so I might just pull the bed all the way off and take a closer look then.

Glad to see someone that doesn't send it to the junk yard when the frame gets a little rust. Time to pull out the and get things done!

 

[adsm08]

Glad to see someone that doesn't send it to the junk yard when the frame gets a little rust. Time to pull out the and get things done!

Dude, this truck is never going to the junk yard. Not if I can help it.

For those that have missed the history section, that I never wrote, let me give a brief run down of my history with this truck.

I was born 5/9/86. The truck rolled off the line sometime in February 87. My wife was born 6/3/87. My dad bought this truck off a used car lot in 11/88. I then rode around in the back for the next 12 years.

I learned to drive stick, change oil, rotate tires, replace brakes, set ignition timing on this truck. I took my first solo road trip in her. Then I went on my first date in this truck. Took her (and a girl) to my senior prom. Then I took my wife on our first date. I picked the major for my first degree it was picked so I could learn to fix this truck. When I left for college full time I took the old girl with me and we were out there on our own for two years, just me and her. Two weeks ago I left it at my grandpa's house for a few hours while I took his car to fix the exhaust. My boy spent the whole two hours I was working on that car laying on the garage floor crying, complete with tears, because he was afraid his truck wasn't coming back.

This old girl has never once let me down or disappointed, no matter how much I have asked of her. I can't very well let her down now can I?

And honestly, the frame isn't in bad shape. My parts donor's is better, but its 2wd, too much work to switch that cross member.

The frame repairs will be done by a friend of mine who has a welder and better skill with it than I do. Then epoxy primer, and more tractor paint. I still need to order the primer. I haven't used any yet because I have yet to strip anything down to bare metal. As far as the body is concerned this is just a color change. The frame is being taken to bare metal where I can find it, and getting rust locked where I can't.

I am finding lots of clean pretty metal on the frame under the coating. It seems like the only places the rust is more than surface deep is on top where things sit, and a few odd-ball places where I assume the coating got nicked early on. The back end, and a small hole even with the wheels, and I am expecting to find a few more spots where brackets were attached, but nothing insurmountable or irreparable.

 

[adsm08]

Anyway, today was a lot of work for not a lot of result. I spent about 3 hours removing a single stripe and it's adhesive from the new bed. I learned that wire-wheels and strippers are not the answer for these guys. The heat gun takes the sticker off nicely. It leaves the glue.

Fortunately I have this crappy brake clean. It is supposed to be used to get brake fluid out of pads, not oil off stuff. I use it for hand cleaner. Well thinner doesn't cut this glue, WD-40 doesn't cut this glue, goo-gone doesn't cut this glue, but this bottom drawer brake clean and rubbing it with my thumb takes it right off. I had to pick at where the edges of the sticker were with my nail a bit. I'm sure a rubber eraser wheel would do it faster, but I don't have one.


Then I spent about 15 minutes sanding. I have the driver's side done and ready to wash. I'm hoping to get the passenger side done and the head gate sanded as well tomorrow. Then I can apply rust converter to a few spots, and I have a hole that needs patched in the one bed rail. After all that I just have to wait for a nice day to spray.

 

[RayInStl]

That's cool. I wish I had my dad's old 91 Ranger. Most of my childhood was shared between that and my mom's Oldsmobile station wagon. He used that truck like it was a truck twice it's size. Only thing that ever went wrong was busted leaf spring. I know there isn't much love for the 2.9L around these parts, but it was a good little truck. He ended up selling it to a mechanic buddy of his not long after I got my license. I was none too happy.

That's where my love for the ever dependable Ranger comes from, so I can really appreciate where you're coming from. I wish I knew what happened to his!

 

[adsm08]

The 2.9 is a good engine, but it was discontinued almost 25 years ago. The 4.0 OHV was stopped about 12 years ago. The 4.0 SOHC was only stopped about 4 years ago. The older an engine is the harder parts parts are to get. And the newer you get in that line up the more power you get.

I got rid of the 2.9 for two reasons.

1) I was getting into stuff that even my built one was having problems with and wanted more power.

2) I was starting to have problems finding reliable TFI modules.

A few weeks ago I picked up a 4.0 SOHC that just needs a timing set on bank 1. I am hoping to get the money around and fix it so it is ready to go in while I have the cab off this summer.

 

[adsm08]

Well I was hoping to shoot color on the bed sides this weekend, but that isn't happening now. Yesterday I was spot cleaning and treating for rust on the bed sides, since they weren't perfect, and as I was peeling back the paint around the rust spots so I could be sure I got the whole thing I kept finding more rust that hadn't broken through. It almost looks the like the surface was contaminated when it was painted originally.

I was really hoping to not have to take the bed to bare metal since I don't have a real paint booth, and I didn't want to mess with primer, but I think it has to happen if I want a good lasting paint job.

 

[adsm08]

Yesterday was no fun.


It did end with shiny though. I was able to get all but a few spots of rust blasted down the clean metal.

I know it looks like I missed a big spot on the bottom, but it's just the reflection of my creeper mat.



This is a hole. I primed over the area. It will have to be cut out and repaired, and the primer touched up then, but I didn't have a lot of time to work and wanted to get the bare metal covered.



Last rust spot.


All this rust got treated with Naval Jelly, which should lock things down nicely in addition to the primer. I am using the Valspar tractor and implement oil primer, which should keep things locked down, assuming the label is to be believed. Then I washed the bed side one last time, dried with air, and wiped down with thinner. Dried and and:




This primer is much thinner than the color coat is out of the can, but still too thick for the gun. I thinned it as closely as I could to manufacturer's instructions. They say 8oz thinner to 1 gallon primer, which would have over-flowed the can, so it was more like 7 oz. It still sprayed really poorly. I spent a lot of time playing with the gun settings and finally got it to spray "well", but I have a few boogers that blew off the end of the gun. I was never able to get a good pattern either. For the most part it was like painting the bed with an air brush. I will probably do a light sand and lay another coat of primer before doing the top coat early next week.

IMO Ford layed the colors backwards. I know it is easier to cover a lighter color with a darker one, and so the bed was painted red over white originally. The reason I don't like that is because it leaves the lower portion, which is exposed to more debris, with the thinner layer of paint. I don't like this, and will be doing it the other way. This has the added benefit of needing more paint to cover the darker color.

I realized also that too much paint can cause other issues, like peeling, but since I went to bare metal I don't think I'll have to worry about it that much.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Dang that is a pretty box

 

[97RangerXLT]

Very nice looking. I would love to be able to pull the cab off of my frame and rust reform and epoxy the frame. I did the frame under the bed 4 years ago when I did my spring hangers. Need to pull the bed again to replace the filler neck again...have to see how it held up.

AJ

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 while sitting in my underwear

 

[adsm08]

Thanks guys. I am a little worried about when I do the other side, because I know there is body filler around the wheel arch. It isn't a big spot, but I just don't want to tear it up.