86 ranger equal length build

Hey guys, I havent posted on here in ages since I havent done much work on the 92 street rod in a while but I have been chipping away at my other truck, an 86 ranger xl 2.9l 2wd. Looking to build a pre runner style truck that will be functional but at the same time driveable on the streets and around here it wouldnt see anything too extreme.

So ill start off with the photos!

There she is bone stock, bought for 500 bucks with 160,000 km


equal length beams out of a 69 f100.



out with the old


spacing out the coil buckets so everything lines up, looking to ditch these all together eventually and just get coilovers


found some rubber for 100 bucks


wheel adapters so my bolt pattern is the same, looking to get a 9 inch in eventaully though.


some new shoes


got the beams bent and painted them up


started mocking it all up


radius arm/trans xmember mounting bracket


beams in


got some dom and started extending my radius arms


radius arms in



started flaring and fiberglassing the fenders and trimmed the bedsides


some gravel guard action


fixed up all the rust and sorayed some more gravel guard


extended my shackles, will lift the truck for now but ill be doing the 63 inch chev leaf swap


m50d, and 4l clutch assy vs. old toyo koygo and 8 inch clutch


finally got a drop pitman arm too


and that brings us up to what i did today, ditched the old bumper


made some mounting plates and tacked on the main bar


got the stinger on there too



hopefully tommorow i can get the bottom half done with my skid plate and crossmember.



this whole build has been way over my heas and im pretty much just winging it and seeing what happens so any suggestions are much appreciated!

ranger92 said:

this whole build has been way over my heas and im pretty much just winging it and seeing what happens

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With torches, cutting wheels and a welder, about anything can be put together, taken back apart and fixed if needed!! Maybe that should be in my signature!

Looking good.

Looks great! Especially the flaired fenders.

Looks good so far! What size tires are the new ones and how much travel are you getting?

I would plate the beams before you start beating on it

n_bannerman said:

Looks good so far! What size tires are the new ones and how much travel are you getting?

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Thanks! tires are 33 x 10.5 and up front I should be able to get 20 inchs with the right coilovers. right now it just has f350 springs sitting in there so im not seeing much travel at all right now.

and to Benny I am planning on plating the beams just leaving it for whenever I have nothing to do or when I have the coin to get coilovers and am actually going to start driving it like a pre runner.

thanks for the input!

got the bumper pretty much finished today.

replaced my crossmember and used it as the lower mount for the skidplate


got the skid plate on there




Im thinking i might go ahead and paint the whole truck next now that its starting to warm up, either that or grab some chev leafs from the junkyard and start re arching but man im excited to see it all painted up

this things awesome!! First time I've seen one using fullsize i beams, good idea. On the fenders are they getting smoothed out more before you paint it? or are you going for the angular look? Can't wait to see it finished!

Z3CHYD said:

this things awesome!! First time I've seen one using fullsize i beams, good idea. On the fenders are they getting smoothed out more before you paint it? or are you going for the angular look? Can't wait to see it finished!

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thanks! The fenders are just kind of a hack job so i dont have to buy fiberglass ones yet. Im just gunna paint them up as is and then ill need to either make new ones or just buy some when i get coilovers because the truck will actually get 4 inchs wider up front.