The Legacy of Whopper Jr

[Josh40601]

Some of you all know that i bought the Whopper Jr truck from Petersen's 4wheel and offroad. Needless to say, this truck was a pile.... Just an all around junky truck.








Made it in Petersen's again


It was for a good cause, so i went to Michigan, picked it up, and drove it 600 miles back to KY.

Well, I then traded the truck for a 99 Ranger in October of 2011. The first 8 pages cover the work done on the Ranger.

When I first got it...



When I traded it...



In November of 2012, I decided to part ways with the little Ranger, and traded it for a 97 F150.



starting on Page 8 will be the story of this truck

The eff 1 Fiddy was a pile, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a newer truck.





99 Ram, 24V, auto, 4x4.

How she sits now

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

Damn man! incredible work!!

[Josh40601]

When i got it home, i put it on craigslist for sale or trade. Ended up getting an offer for a 99 Ford ranger regular cab 5 speed 3.0. It had high miles (193K) but thought it HAD to be in better shape than this thing.... We all have been mistaken before....








































This is what I found when i met the guy in Lexington....


I didn't get anymore pictures of it, mainly because it was hideous. Here is a list of the issues....

1. There was a brush guard from lord knows what tacked to the factory bumper,
2. The front bumper valance was gone
3. There was some controller thingy from Ebay that was making it run HORRIBLE
4. The exhaust was a hodge podge of toob hung with coat hangers
5. Seat reclined without using the handle
6. had house carpet in it
7. radio wiring was jacked up
8. the underlying red paint was showing through the "custom hot rod black paint job"
9. horrible vibration around 60 mph
10. Speedo doesn't work
11. ABS and SRS lights on
12. Wheels were unmatched and were held on with bolts and lock washers
13. rear shocks were busted
15. smelled like rotten ass crack, ciggerette smoke, and BO inside the cab
16. Bed was covered with junk, clothes, and lord knows what else
17. Tailgate latch is broken
18. body is pretty beat up.
19. ball joints, TREs, and wheel bearings are WELL on their way
20. Brakes could use some help


Since i really like Rangers in general, i couldn't bear the fact i would let this truck stay with this dude, so i took the trade. After everything with the Whopper truck, I was out about 1500-1600 bucks in that one. This Ranger was NOT a 1500 truck in it's current condition....

My mom owns a cleaning service and drives a C330 Benz.... My step dad has a Wrangler, so they didn't own a truck. My dad is like me, Craiglist and used junk is our cup of tea, so they really needed a truck. Due to them helping Kristina and i out, and this truck needing a lot of attention we couldn't afford at the time, I gave it to them.

We immediately began working on it, making it safe to drive.
The first job was to get the running deal taken care of. The controller box thingy was wired into the MAF sensor, so i removed it and the truck immediately ran 100% better.
Next we pulled the wheels and tires off where we found the fastening components the PO used... Nuts and lock washers. Yes I am serious.

We put a set of stock steel wheels off my step dad's Jaheep on the truck and a new set of acorn lug nuts.
I put the truck on 4 jack stands, and laid in awe under the truck for about 10 minutes just staring at the "custom" exhaust. The metal was not prepped, so all the welds were broken and the pipes were just hanging there with bent up coat hangers. The cats were removed and a giant hole was left to let the truck exhale.... So i took off to Napa and picked up 4 exhaust hangers, and went to work. I removed the entire heap from manifold to tip. The metal was rather new, so i didn't want to pay to have someone fix it. I broke out the flap wheel grinder and Mig welder and went to work. I fixed all the holes, added the new hangers, and made it a 3 piece exhaust, instead of a 1.

So now the truck ran good, and drove good enough, so it was time to take care of the god aweful smell inside. Here it is before we started.


Mom tore all the carpet out, and bought a replacement kit from Ebay. She also removed the seat covers, threw them in the washer, and bought a new set of covers to go over the original fabric. They are the ones that are made directly for the Ranger seats. She used her work supplies and after about 2 hours and 2 rolls of paper towels, the interior was back to Ford intended it to be.... Kinda.




Mom hates ugly vehicles. It's just one of her pet peeves. So the truck couldn't stay in the ugly black and brush guard look. My dad told me a secret about if the truck was not prepped, Acetone would pull the spray paint off. That is when we went back to Napa and picked up 2 gallons of acetone and 2 more rolls of shop towels and went to town.




As you can see, this works pretty good. I also took a cutoff wheel and took care of that brush guard....

The end of the Acetone....




Once the truck was here, we had to fix the lack of radio.... I went to the Junkyard and they had a 2001 Red Edge ext cab.... The interior was trashed, but they still had the factory radio harness and bezel.... I bs'd with one of the guys for a while, and he ended up giving them both to me. Once i got them home, i rewired the harness so that it was back to factory specs. I put in just a junky cd player and we now had music.

While i was at the JY getting the harness, I ended up buying the edge front bumper for 75 bucks. It wasn't pull apart, so for them to pull it, 75 seemed like a good deal to me. It didn't have fog lights, but did have the tow hooks. Since it was red, we didn't even have to paint it. It isn't in the greatest shape, but for this truck... It will suffice. The tow hooks wouldn't work, so i just pitched them in the scrap pile.

Bumper and valance on




Next was to take care of the headlights. The acetone did a number on the plastic, and the overspray was still very apparent. The header panel and the grille were cracked and busted, so I started looking for new lights.... I ended up finding a set of 06+ lights and corners for cheap, so i ordered them for D, and now i had a set of 01+ lights.... I remembered that the Edge at the junkyard still had the grille assembly attached but no headlights. The cheapest lights we could find for the Sport were around 106 bucks shipped. So if i could get this grille and header panel for less than that, it'd be worth it. Went up to the JY, and sure enough, they told me 100 bucks and it was mine. Got the header panel, all the fasteners, black thing, and grille assembly. Just got that installed this weekend along with my old headlights from D.




So for right around 400 bucks (minus the purchase/trade), this is the truck they had. My mom and step dad rarely drove it.

Due to money issues and Kristina having to drive 60 miles a day in a 4cyl Wrangler, she started driving this everyday.

So now the list has been knocked down to this....

1. Busted shocks still
2. Speedo still doesn't work
3. seat still reclines with just a little push
4. Tires are around 40-50% tread
5. Tailgate latch is broken
6. body is still pretty beat up.
7. Suspension still sucks
8. Brakes could use some help
9. ABS and Airbag light still on

So it isn't perfect, but it sure is a lot better than where it was.

[F8LBITE]

Very cool! Looking at the before photo, I didn't expect it to clean up that well. Nice job!

[brinker88]

Wow! At least the body was straight. Looks great!

[4.0B2]

hahahaha. yeah... looks GREAT compared to what it was!
and looks a heck of a lot better than whopper jr.!

[Josh40601]

Originally Posted by brinker88

Wow! At least the body was straight-ish. Looks great!

Fixed it for ya

Thanks for the kind words guys! I will get the new pics up as soon as i can.

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

It is incredible because i wouldnt expect that under that...thing, there was a decent looking truck. hahaha

[brinker88]

Lol thanks bro.

I'd just keep it as a beater. Who gives a shit what it looks like. I just got a beater that looked like that. Drivetrain's in great shape but the body's beat to shit.

[Josh40601]

Originally Posted by Ranger Sport Honduras

It is incredible because i wouldnt expect that under that...thing, there was a decent looking truck. hahaha

Ahhh.... Yea, kinda what i was thinking!

Originally Posted by brinker88

Lol thanks bro.

I'd just keep it as a beater. Who gives a shit what it looks like. I just got a beater that looked like that. Drivetrain's in great shape but the body's beat to shit.

That was the original plan... It still is a beater, don't worry. Just fixing shit that is already broken. If i am going to fix it, why not try to fix it with something that looks better? I won't be buying anything new. Likely everything will be used, unless she wants to fork out the cash for something new. Remember, not counting the trade to get the truck, Her and I only have about 400 bucks in it to bring it from black to now.

[brinker88]

Nice! Hell of a lot cheaper than a paint job, that's for sure!

Then again, my paint job was only $125 for my truck lol

Gotta love Single Stage paint and a buncha friends!

[Original_Ranger84]

Yeah its a big improvement over what it was. Nothing a little... or alot of cleaning can't fix.