93 Build - Slowly but Surely

I bought a stock 93 ext cab ranger 2 and a bit years ago and have not been able to stop working on it. I have done almost all the work myself. The only thing I haven't done is the bending of the exo cage. Was way over my head when it came to bending tubing so I got Karnage Fabworks to do that part. I will do my best with pics and arranging everything in order since I'm going through old pics scattered every where on the computer.

Anyways its a V6 3L standard. Went out a few times when it was completely stock.


After long I wanted to lift it so I purchased I used 6" BDS kit. The guy a got it off of cut out a section of the driver side drop bracket so it would not hit the pumpkin. I also gusseted it to the cross member so it wouldn't bend under hard "impacts". In this pic I started out with xj 6" lift coils (I believe). I ended up replacing them with the BDS coils. I did not include the sway bars when I put everything back in because this is a trail truck only.


For the rear I used a bastard pack out of explorer and ranger leafs. Worked pretty good. The rear ends sits about an inch lower than the front but I couldn't care less.




I was tired of smashing out my head lights so I welded tubing to my bumper to protect the front end. I will not show the welds because they were frickin disgusting. Goober welds galore, thank god I have got better at welding. I started to smash my rocker panels and my doors so I fabricated a set of rock sliders from scratch. They were made out of 1.5" sch 40 tubing. I welded them right to the frame. I do realise that I will get some flack form this but I really don't care.

I ended up blowing out the 7.5" spider gears apart. Really weird because I was in a parking lot, backed up a foot and then the rear end locked up. I said screw it and locked the hubs and then, boom, slow, slow drive home pushing the shafts back in every 200 ft. Thank god I live in a small town with barely any traffic, and I was also very close to my house. Yes, it was a very immature to sit there and drive it home and not pay a $60 dollar tow bill but I was half a kilometer from my house. I acquired an 8.8 from a 97 exp. It came with discs so I was supper stoked. After I installed it I found that the clutch plates were pretty worn. I had my buddy weld the spider gears together because I was not very confident on how to do it. I welded the tubes of the axle to the pumpkin so the tubes will not spin. What a difference, its great having traction for once. I have replaced the diff fluid twice now, so the amount of steels bits should be minimal.

Cool ride. I miss wheeling Sooke sometimes (originally from Langford.) How do you like the BDS lift? NSOR deals them and can't get the TRS preferred brands.

I finally got to replacing the radiator mount (not sure what it's called). I went to the junkyard and I had them cut out a radiator mount from another ranger. I welded steel plates onto the existing front body mounts that were rusted out. I bolted the rad mount to the existing inner wheel well instead of welding it so I could take it off in the future. For the bushing I cut down boat rollers.

After quite a bit of abuse the passenger side drop bracket was starting to crack so I stick welded the crack and then used the mig for the gussets. I did not get a before pick of the crack but its where the tab is bent in the first pick. Hopefully that makes sense. I'm getting pretty good using the mig, if I say so myself. Had a huge amount of practice using a TIG on aluminum when I was in school so it gave me a good idea how to improve using the mig.

prerunner said:

Cool ride. I miss wheeling Sooke sometimes (originally from Langford.) How do you like the BDS lift? NSOR deals them and can't get the TRS preferred brands.

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Sooke is amazing for wheeling. To bad you moved away. The BDS brackets are alright but if a had more money when I purchased the brackets I would have gone for JD or Skyjacker.

This pic is one of the last pics before the exo cage went on.


As I was starting to smash my cab against trees and what not I decided to invest in an exo cage (also to protect my head as I'm getting better at wheeling, I like to take chances). Like I said at the beginning of this thread I had Karnage Fabrications to do all the bending. They did an amazing job. I changed the bar that goes underneath the rear window. I bent it out more because it was touching the cab and I wanted to have two bars going down through the box to the frame rails. I also had to cut out a chunk from the front cross member that goes in front (of the bottom) of the windshield so the windshield wipers would clear the bar.

I will update as soon as I get more pics.

i like it keep it up

Two weeks ago I had painted the exo cage grey. I couldn't find a darker grey that would match the trim but I will live with it for now.


Here's a pic of the back of the cage to give everyone an idea of what I was doing.


I ended up cutting out about 10" out of the box so it would not hang out so far. Also made a new rear bumper that is bolted to the frame in case I ever need to take it off. Really simple, and the hitch only hangs down 3" from the frame. I replaced the rear frame brace, that was just in front of the stock bumper, with .25" C channel that was laying around. Its actually angle iron, and I welded two pieces together making a C channel.


The bumper raps around the corners of the box so it protects tail lights.


I cut the sides of the box out and I'm going to run tubing along the sides and along where the wheel wells used to be. I'll cut out sections of the left over box sections and bolt them into the "empty spaces", if that makes sense.


Since I'm a young person that can't afford a proper bender, I have been using a pipe bender and heating up the tubing for about 5 min, with a tiger torch, so the tubing wont kink (that bad).


That's it for today. Hopefully I get more done in the next few days.

Just remembered that after I rode with the used pitman arm for 12 months, it had gotten loose on the shaft of the steering box. I would need to tighten it after almost every ride and after a while the splines were so stretched that nothing was left to tighten. Has anyone experienced this before? I looked through the Haynes manual and it sais to tighten to 180 ft-lbs ( I think).

Also, I mashed the transmission cross member about .25" up into the cab, so when I get bit of wheel spin the trans case hits the bottom of the cab. I have an extra one from a parts truck so I will reinforce that one when I have time.

Great work so far. I like it warts and all.

Finished the rest of the cage for the box. I added a bar across the rear of the box so that the box would not collapse inwards. I also added tubing in front of the lights so they would be protected from whatever would smash them.




I placed the part of the box that I cut out into place to give you guys an idea of what I'm going to do with the "empty" areas.




I have now welded in all the tabs so the plates will be held in place.

Also had to replace the front U-joints, what a pain in the ass to take off the third. I will eventually get rid of the c-clip, but I'm trying to finish everything for this weekend. Gotta love being unemployed. In the above pic I bent the wheel well tubing so I can fit 37's easy.

i like it keep up the work man