my 2000 ranger build

mkats · Nov 25, 2014

This is the build of my 2000 ranger that i bought for a whole $500 dollars back in 2013.
Here are the specs of the bad boy.
Year - 2000
model - ranger xl
cab - regular
box - short
motor - 2.5
miles - 215000
transmission - manual
drive - 2wd
color - toreador red
interior - grey

I was looking for one of these truck for a while but never had the money to buy one. Until this one came around. I wanted the rack and pinion steering, the manual transmission. and the regular cab with the short box. And i could not beat the price. The miles did not scare me. It did not run when i bought it but that was a easy and cheap fix with just the replacement of a fuel pump. I had a 225lph laying around that i had just pulled out of my mustang. So i put that one it. Had to do a little modifying to the fuel pick up to fit it but it worked perfect truck ran like a top.

First pic is the day that i picked it up.

The next pic is about an hour after i had it. The tires on it were shot and i just happend to have a set of mustang saleens sitting around.

3rd is most of the interior striped out of it. The truck was really dirty. To bad i forgot to take more pictures of it.

4th is of the motor. sorry its a little blurry i shake really bad.

XLTsplash · Nov 25, 2014

You got a great deal for $500 and you've got the truck looking better with the new wheels. What are your plans for your Ranger ?

mkats · Nov 25, 2014

The ranger sat at school for a couple weeks while a checked it over and fix a few things. I ended up replacing upper control arms and lower ball joints.

The truck is not without its flaws. It does have some damage on the box. And i think that the previous owner ran into a pole our something.

first pic is the day that i brought it home.

second is the damage on the box.

third is the front bumper with the damage. I also painted the front grill on with some aluminum paint just to try and help out the front end.

i wasn't a couple of weeks of driving the truck and i could feel the clutch slipping. so it was time to change that out.

4th pic is the difference between the old clutch disc vs the new one. she was pretty worn out.

mkats · Nov 25, 2014

Next on the list was to update the front end of the truck a little. And i always kinda liked the front end of my brothers 2001 ranger 4x4. So i decided to put on that kind front end on and i also put on a new grill.

first pic is pretty much how i bought it.

second is with the new grill in.

third is with the new bumper on.

however the nice looking front end did not last long because once winter hit i found out how bad my tires were and driving around a truck that only had 2wd. I ended up losing it on the interstate and ran into a guard rail. I ruined my brand new bumper and valence. Along with a marker light and my fender.

After my little accident the truck sat for awhile till i could afford to fix it and also throw some new fun parts at it. In the mean time i pulled the truck apart and found some rust on my radiator support. From the looks of it the radiator support is not even bolted to frame anymore. :shok:

While the truck was in our shop all ripped apart. i thought i was a good time to rip it apart even more.

I had got a roll pan for Christmas so i decided it was a good time to put it on.

7th pic is the rear bumper before.

8th pic is the bumper removed

9th pic is a better shot of the damage on the box.

10th is the roll pan that i had got.

this roll pan however did not fit without some modification. :icon_welder:

i had to remove my spare tire. but who needs a spare tire anyway its just extra weight.

i then had to cut some of the spare tire housing out to fit it around the licence plate indent of the roll pan.

11th pic is the part i cut out.

12th is the back shot of the roll pan showing why i cut it out.

13th is the bracket i made to bolt up the roll pan to the factory bumper mounts.

14th is the bracket mounted to the roll pan

15th is the roll pan on the truck

the next is an bunch of new parts for the front of the truck.

and i had an extra tail gate lying around from something else so i threw that on because my other tail gate was all beat up and rusted.

the truck sat for a while till i got it back to school this time for body work.

more to come.

mkats · Nov 26, 2014

Now its time for the some paint and body work. I had got done with automotive tech school and right after that i went to paint and body school. However i think Im probably more of a mechanic that a body tech.

On to the pics.

First set of pics are the body work, to paint, to assembly of all the small parts of the truck.

The next set is the box repair start to finish.

We used a mixture of solvent and water born paint on the truck. All the primer/ surfacer was PPG's Envirobase. The color was a PPG mix and we shot it all with 2002 clear if i remember right.

The box was first pulled using a stud gun. then a little hammer and dolly but a dent like that would take forever to get the metal work perfect. So long strand fiber glass was used to fill a lot of the big dips in the body work. Because we were doing the work in the bottom of the box we also fixed all the dents that this poor thing had received in its life. And there were quite a few of them.

The paint for the box side went well but Im not perfect so we managed to get a run in the clear. That's usually not a big deal you just sand it out and buff it back up. But again Im not perfect so there is a pic that shows the color changes just a little bit in two spots. That is that way because i went through the clear trying to sand it out. I forgot to take pics of the box side prep after i went through the clear and the re clearing of the box.

dont mind the huge bumper gap on the last pics i fixe that later.

XLTsplash · Nov 27, 2014

Wow what a transformation. Nice work, the newer front bumper is a nice upgrade and the added chrome changes the whole look of the truck. Nice job and the paint and body work.

mkats · Nov 27, 2014

Thanks for the nice words. but Im not done yet

i have a few little other projects that i have done to it, but haven't had time to post all the pictures. Ill maybe post some more later today.

mkats · Nov 27, 2014

I had learned that one of the guys in my class had installed window tint on the side. I asked him, if i helped, could i get a discount on getting my windows done on my ranger. He said yep. We started off by pulling off the tint that was on the back window of the truck. I wanted it all to be even. We did the back window both side windows and a tint strip on the top of the windshield. I think we used 30% all the way around.

first pics are after the rear tint was removed. and the next pics are with the new tint minus the tint strip.

Then some of the first shots of it out side after all the body work and tint was done.

and the next few are showing how dirty my wheels were. That day i was just giving my truck a good wash. The day before i had made a trip to the salvage yard to pick up a center counsel form an explorer. And i just kinda started to install it.

I cut down my factory 60 bench to fit the center counsel. Shown in the pics. i then took the seat cover and wrapped down and around the seat. It doesn't look to bad and it will do for now till i get another passenger seat or change the seats out completely.

Then i made my own shifter boot out of some vinyl material i had laying around.

nosferatu49426 · Dec 2, 2014

It might not be perfect, but think of the wealth of experience and knowledge you will possess when your done. And it should only get easier and better the more you do it.

XLTsplash · Dec 4, 2014

The console is a nice upgrade.

mkats · Dec 5, 2014

Yea i really like the center console. If you couldn't tell the lid on it was actually from a tan interior. It didn't bother me cause i plan on switching the interior color to black. I also picked up a carpet out of a u pull it the other day. I don't care for the vinyl floor in it. Ill post some pictures of the cleaning of it sometime but for now its just not ready to go in yet.

stmitch · Dec 18, 2014

That's a really good looking truck now. Nicely done!

mkats · Oct 19, 2015

So i finally got around to getting my carpet put in my ranger. I started out by pulling one out of the junkyard. It ended up being out of an older truck so its too short but ill figure some thing out too fill that in.

first shot is the carpet that i pulled out of the junkyard
second is the one after some good cleaning with the power washer.
and then some shots of it installed in the truck.

If you have't been able to tell i like to finish what i'm doing before i post on the site. Well the reason why this post has not been updated for awhile was because i have been doing some major surgery to the truck and hopefully in the next few weeks i should be nearing the end of it of it. i will be starting a new thread once i start posting stuff for it.

mkats · Dec 24, 2015

Brake upgrade (Brembo)

I decided to do a brake up grade over the winter. Because Im a little more afraid to drive it on ice now

. So i wanted to go with a bigger front rotor. I was looking at the cobra 13 in upgrade and liked the idea of running that with the cobra caliper. But there was one problem those calipers new from LMR were kinda expensive. And i could not find any used ones for a good price either.
So after pondering this for awhile i had an idea hit me. Why go through the work of putting on a 13 in rotor only to put on a 2 piston caliper back on it again? I mean I would have to make bracket's to mount it anyway.
So i started looking at other options. First it involved finding out specs on the cobra rotor.

Its 13 in total diameter, it has a thickness of 1.1.

So what other caliper could i get a hold of for a good price. That would be better then a cobra caliper. I started on ebay looking at a factory take offs from newer mustangs. The track packs that had the brembo brake kits. Those were 14 in brake and were very expensive.

So Brembo take offs from anything else out there... I then ran across some calipers form a 2014 Cadillac ATS. They were well priced. And the rotor specs were close.

total diameter 12.63 in and a thickness of 1.18.

I think i found my calipers and for a whole lot cheaper then cobra calipers. They were used but sure didnt look like it with only 3k miles on them.

So i ordered them up. Along with some replacement rotors for a 2003 cobra. and began test fitting.

mkats · Dec 24, 2015

First some before pictures with the stock set up.

Now i did some reading on how some of the other 13 in cobra kits worked. It usually involved a custom hub. Well with the reading i did and the info i found. the cobra rotor should fit around the ranger center just fine. the bolt pattern is the same. So why not?

The ranger center hub measures 2.77. and the cobra center hole measures about 2.8. So i cut the rotor part right off the ranger hub to make my own custom hubs.

And what do ya know if fit real nice. And it looks good with the Cadillac caliper on there too.

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my 2000 ranger build

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