'85 Ranger Restomod

[RangerFabWorks]

Looking fine as a dime

 

[1qaz]

Love seeing you get your truck back together...nicely done. Congrats to you and Mrs 85 and glad you survived that nasty winter and subsequent thaw.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Love seeing you get your truck back together...nicely done. Congrats to you and Mrs 85 and glad you survived that nasty winter and subsequent thaw.

Thanks! How goes your truck?

New to me steering shaft is installed. Whole thing looks almost new actually, actually seems to steer nicer too but it is hard to be very objective since I haven't driven it much in the past year.



Again hard to be objective especially since I also fixed an exhaust leak but it is freaky quiet now.



Also threw in the floor liners so I don't mess up my new carpet.

 

[Ranger850]

lookin' good 85.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Both inner fenders and aluminum wheel arch trim is installed. Not really much to take a picture of.

If I had a front driveshaft I would have 4wd now.



Skidplate fits perfectly, will protect rocks from getting damaged by my t-case... and I finally don't have to trip over it laying in the back of my garage anymore.



Truck is tentatively DONE aside from D35 swap. There are some minor things like shift boots and organizing wiring but otherwise the meat and taters part of it is done.

Radio sounds a lot better with the stuff behind the speakers too.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Or not...

I was driving it around my acreage today, before if I hit a bump turning left a tire would rub. Now it rubs bad even on level ground. I always figured it was my aluminum moulding rubbing... the body should have gone up with the new body mount bushings. So I put her hard to part it and crawl underneath.



The inner fender is cracked at the rear, it must not be sitting quite the same as it was before but it did have an issue before.

The other side:



Pic of skidplate in better light:



And the totes fit between wheel wells with ease for the trip.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So how does one mend an inner fender? With a mending plate of course!







It isn't perfect but everything sits as it should now. I drove it around some last night and could not get it to rub anywhere. Should tide me over until I sneak up on a replacement.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So now that the truck is driveable what is the most logical thing to do? Tear it a apart again of course!



Dang, that ain't good. Frame feels ok behind it so I am cautiously optimistic just a bucket will fix it. DS looks great though.





With the weird floor in my garage I HATE having multiple tires off, my initial plan was to swap the D35 beam first so for at least half the process it would have 3 tires on the ground. DS pivot bracket has to come off to change the bucket so that isn't going to work at all.



So off come the tires:



Hey look, I'm a Duramax!



Steering is off, shocks are off, sway bar is loose and just wedged in the radius arms. Just tap out the caliper pins, pivot bracket bolts and radius arm nuts and I think the thing should fall out.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

My race truck had the passenger side bucket look good....then I took it off and could punch holes thru the frame with a screwdriver. I ended up plating the outside of the frame with some 1/8" flat stock and reinstalling the bucket.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I couldn't feel any big rust pocks thru the hole in the bucket... so fingers crossed the frame isn't too bad.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Deconstruction continues:



Last time with these:





The front fell off!



[

Pivot bracket is off, just have to get the spring mount off and the radius arms off the axles and we can start going back together.

 

[Shran]

Hey that looks familiar... I just pulled the front axle out of my daily driver yesterday and did new radius arm and pivot bushings. It's not a sloppy mess anymore.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Really not hard to pull. 3.5-4 hours total.

Spring studs I think are going to be a fight though...

 

[Shran]

My HF earthquake air impact zips them right out, usually. Once in a while I have to use a little heat - even a minute or two with a propane torch is enough. They have a bunch of blue loc-tite on the threads.

Do you need a coil tower? Saw your other thread. I've got two 4x4 front crossmember sections already cut out and another parts truck on my trailer. Could torch one off and send it your way.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I took it to work, DS actually came loose in 2011 when I replaced the springs (see page 2 of this thread), he came out with a box end wrench at break. Then I wheeled the truck around and attacked it with a air impact. I think my electric one could have done it but my deepwell sockets were not deep enough. I dont have enough compressor to run a air impact very well.

A new chinesium spring bucket showed up yesterday, I just need time to get back at it. Thanks though!