1994 Ranger - starting small

[FFGlen]

Yeah, I'm glad he's across the country, for sure. As much as I love my truck, I think I'd probably hit him with it.

Anyhow, I definitely like the idea of the blue chassis. I like that the truck is a little understated, but some things pop out about it. Like the shiny silver diff cover, lol.

 

[FFGlen]

Bit the bullet! Ordered parts for the front suspension.

 

[FFGlen]

So, I've got two small updates, and one awful update.

One, a friend of mine agreed to lend his shop and his time to help out with the ball joint/u joint replacement. Those parts were also shipped this morning.

Two, after my poorly timed discovery last night, I took out a little frustration by cleaning the front axle a bit.

Third.... the bad news.

All the other body mounts are rusted out pretty bad. So, I'll be ordering a polyurethane set for that, a new radiator mount, and if I'm lucky, new brackets for the front body mounts. If not, I'll be looking into getting those fabricated.

In addition, also found a rust patch on the passenger side end of the frame, so that'll need to be patched, as there's a decent hole in it.

 

[ranger_mclaren]

Speaking of EMS/ Firefighters. Hows the under body work going?? If I'd knowen anybetter I'd would have guessed you bought that truck here in ohio. It looks like the typical rust you see around here. lol

 

[FFGlen]

I didn't drive it for a couple days and now it runs crappy. Or maybe it's always run crappy and now I just notice it more.

Underbody work has STOPPED, essentially. I'm scared of what else I'll find.

But, in all seriousness, my ball joints and radius arm bushings came in today, and will hopefully be going on tomorrow night. I'll also be pulling the leafs off the parts truck tomorrow (they probably won't go on tomorrow night, since I work on Sunday. But, there's a good chance they'll go on next week).

Other than that, I've been trying to track down a core support in town, because shipping for one is more expensive than the part itself. So, all of my truck work has been phone work for the last few days.

Good news is I might have found one. Just waiting on the guy to call back.

And, RM, you just burst my "rust doesn't exist in the rest of the united states" bubble. It is however, a Juneau truck, through and through. It just doesn't have a Juneau-body (this is a newspaper classifieds approved term, apparently).

 

[ranger_mclaren]

I didn't drive it for a couple days and now it runs crappy. Or maybe it's always run crappy and now I just notice it more.

Underbody work has STOPPED, essentially. I'm scared of what else I'll find.

But, in all seriousness, my ball joints and radius arm bushings came in today, and will hopefully be going on tomorrow night. I'll also be pulling the leafs off the parts truck tomorrow (they probably won't go on tomorrow night, since I work on Sunday. But, there's a good chance they'll go on next week).

Other than that, I've been trying to track down a core support in town, because shipping for one is more expensive than the part itself. So, all of my truck work has been phone work for the last few days.

Good news is I might have found one. Just waiting on the guy to call back.

And, RM, you just burst my "rust doesn't exist in the rest of the united states" bubble. It is however, a Juneau truck, through and through. It just doesn't have a Juneau-body (this is a newspaper classifieds approved term, apparently).

I don't think the rest of the guys have let in on a little (publicly) knowen secret lmctruck.com look up ford ranger and go to page 47 and 31. once you get done there check out the rest cause it's worth it. Oh and sorry for busting your bubble there are several states in the "rust belt". You can thank me later.

 

[hockeyryan]

hey idk if you already answered this question but what year/modeldid you get these seats from? much appreciated

 

[FFGlen]

An 04 single cab ranger

 

[FFGlen]

So, leaf springs did not get pulled yesterday. Somehow, I ended up helping a buddy hunt for a air compressor instead. But, I've made some progress on the parts truck.

From this...

To this:

Got a guy who's coming to take the exhaust system today, and when I'm all done stripping the truck of things I want, the guy who wants the motor is going to tow it away. Awesome! Saves me a hundred bucks plus tow costs, and he gets the 2.3 he wants.


Did make some progress on my truck!

My parts came in!

Adam decided he wanted to paint-to-match lol. Since our schedules are totally opposite, he's currently got the truck, and we're putting things on one side at a time. As of now, drivers side is a go!

 

[FFGlen]

So, after a frustrating long weekend, the ball joints and u joints are finally in. It seemed like everything piled up this week to make it impossible to get to the truck, but Saturday night came and it barely got it done.

I don't have any pictures of the installation process, because I unfortunately wasn't there. It ended up being a "drop the truck off and borrow someones car" night, because shit met the fan in other areas.

But, Adam held true and did some more paint to match. On top of that, he got rid of my let-off-the-brakes clunk.

And a blue axle shaft to boot.

I've got one of the old ball joints in the bed of my truck. I'll get a picture of it later, just for comparison purposes.

Hopefully I'm back to my regular schedule. Will be ordering a radiator core support off ebay, since the guy in town who has one fell through on me.

 

[FFGlen]

Ball joint

I'm glad I didn't wait til October to do this.

 

[FFGlen]

Finally sucked it up and bought the core support. Body mounts next! Then maybe, finally, the worst of my rust problems will be over!

 

[FFGlen]

Since ordering my core support, I've had the itch to work on the truck. Unfortunately, I haven't had anything to DO on the truck (that's not really true, but... you know what I mean).

So, I decided that the road noise had bothered me for the last time, and went in search of sound insulation.

Apparently no one in town has heard of such a thing.

I finally tracked some down at SS Sounds (who have turned out to be very helpful and tolerant today - particularly when I came in near closing, forgot my wallet, and had to come back).

So, I pulled off the door panel on the drivers side. In retrospect, I should have started with the passenger side first (I drove around several times picking up things I'd forgotten)

This is the only sound deadener I could find. It was about 60 bucks for 6 square feet, and I ended up using 3 sq ft per door.

Decided that while I had the door panel off, I should replace the crappy stock speakers.

Hopefully this will tide me over til the core support comes in.

 

[ranger_mclaren]

Nice progress, havn't stuck my head in for a while. Ever sense I started putting money in my focus i've been hanging out on the focus fourms alot. I can't wait to see the work on the core support!

 

[FFGlen]

Neither can I!

Good to see you back. Been wondering where you'd gone off to