1996 2 door flareside TRX KILLER!

[Blmpkn]

Drove a couple hours north and bought this over the weekend.

1996 2.3 2wd manual trans with around 215k on it. It's purpose is going to be split between winter beater duty and things like this..

I don't know which I'm more excited about.. not driving the Bronco through steel eating brine all winter.. or having something to unmercifully beat on and not feel bad after

This makes my 4th Ranger. Started with a 98 RCLB 2.3 2wd manual, then a 2010 RCSB 2.3 2wd manual, and the most recent was the '21 4 door 4x4.

It's good.. but not great.. probably the worst of the bunch lol.

-Leaks oil, has a slight miss, ghetto exhaust, scratches & dents all over, broken windshield, stupid rear bumper, beat up interior, one cab corner missing, shift knob pops right off, drivers seat belt wont latch, and the metal bits of the bed are about what you'd expect for a salt belt truck still... it's good enough!

It needs a little tinkering before I'm comfortable driving it all the time. Hoping for nice weather this weekend so I can start the process.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Have you considered professional help with your... I need another project thought process?

But good on you... I'm so tired of rust belt stuff... keep that Bronco out of it.

 

[Shran]

Have you considered professional help with your... I need another project thought process?

But good on you... I'm so tired of rust belt stuff... keep that Bronco out of it.

Maybe we could get a support group going.... apparently I have this issue as well

 

[Uncle Gump]

Yes... you sure do!

 

[sgtsandman]

Even if you don’t drive the Bronco in the snow and slush, there will be residual salt on the roads. Get the thing treated with a Fluid Film type coating to make sure the salt doesn’t get to it.

 

[Blmpkn]

Have you considered professional help with your... I need another project thought process?

But good on you... I'm so tired of rust belt stuff... keep that Bronco out of it.

It's a terrible affliction, really.

However... (in my mind that needs help ) this wasn't purchased as a true project like the caddy, or the squarebody, or the wagon, or the Honda trike I'm building from parts, or the go-kart I have half built, or the couple AR's sitting around half built, or.... point taken

This one is truly going to be a minimal effort driver. It doesn't need an inspection sticker, so that helps a ton.. antique plates. I DO need to put a real exhaust on it, factory rear bumper, and fix the cab corner though.. to comply with the stipulations regarding the antique plates (not primary vehicle, not modified).. and just make sure it's safe.

I AM going to cheat the rules a bit and do a shackle flip though.. shhhh luckily for me the hangers have already been replaced & bolted on.. so as long as the leaf bolts aren't siezed in the bushings that should be a quick job.

Even if you don’t drive the Bronco in the snow and slush, there will be residual salt on the roads. Get the thing treated with a Fluid Film type coating to make sure the salt doesn’t get to it.

The residual salt is so incredibly bad up here that it creates big dusty clouds with enough traffic.. its insane.


I had it treated with New Hampshire Oil Undercoating a couple weeks after bringing it home though.. pretty much the same thing. I'm just so incredibly in love with the Bronco theres no way I can bring myself to drive it after the roads see their first treatment of the year

I'm more than happy to drive a small, slow, 2wd pickup with worn out seats all winter to ensure the Bronco stays as nice as possible for as long as possible.

 

[bilbo]

The salt in ND was bad too. The road surface would be nearly white. Back when I was in college (almost 20 years ago, yikes) the hem on everyones' pants would have crusty white lines from the salty slush drying out. I don't remember there being as much salt on the roads though

I was walking to my car after work once and saw a puddle in spite of it being -15F outside. It was so saturated there were salt crystals lying in the bottom. They really got carried away with the salt after a couple of people slipped and fell.

When I moved to FL I brought all my vehicles with me just so I can continue to fight rust.

 

[Blmpkn]

The salt in ND was bad too. The road surface would be nearly white. Back when I was in college (almost 20 years ago, yikes) the hem on everyones' pants would have crusty white lines from the salty slush drying out. I don't remember there being as much salt on the roads though

I was walking to my car after work once and saw a puddle in spite of it being -15F outside. It was so saturated there were salt crystals lying in the bottom. They really got carried away with the salt after a couple of people slipped and fell.

When I moved to FL I brought all my vehicles with me just so I can continue to fight rust.

Up here they'll pre-treat most of the main roads before a storm with calcium chloride, it keeps liquids as a liquid down to like 30° below or something like that. It's super obvious when it's been done because when it dries it leaves the road surface with stripes almost as white as the lines on the side of the road.. then once the storm starts they start slinging the salt around.. and a LOT of it... 2 tons of salt for 3 miles of 2 lane road.

 

[bilbo]

In ND they pretreated too with a beet sugar byproduct. It was basically molasses after most the sugar had been removed through a special process. Beet molasses is full of salts and I swear it’s even more corrosive than calcium chloride alone. The granular CaCl2 was also coated with it to help it stick to the road. The piles were reddish brown.

 

[sgtsandman]

Up here they'll pre-treat most of the main roads before a storm with calcium chloride, it keeps liquids as a liquid down to like 30° below or something like that. It's super obvious when it's been done because when it dries it leaves the road surface with stripes almost as white as the lines on the side of the road.. then once the storm starts they start slinging the salt around.. and a LOT of it... 2 tons of salt for 3 miles of 2 lane road.

They do that here too.

 

[sgtsandman]

In ND they pretreated too with a beet sugar byproduct. It was basically molasses after most the sugar had been removed through a special process. Beet molasses is full of salts and I swear it’s even more corrosive than calcium chloride alone. The granular CaCl2 was also coated with it to help it stick to the road. The piles were reddish brown.

They did that a year or two here. The amount of corrosion that caused to people’s vehicles caused such an uproar, the state stopped using it.

 

[Blmpkn]

They did that a year or two here. The amount of corrosion that caused to people’s vehicles caused such an uproar, the state stopped using it.

Is it really that much worse than calcium chloride?

The salt belt is just ridiculous. I remember reading that 3+ billion dollars is spent annually on rust repair.. it's so bad that certain political pricks have suggested rust belt folks get some sort of tax break or special refund or something because we get the absolute shit end of the stick compared to everyone else.

 

[bilbo]

Is it really that much worse than calcium chloride?

The salt belt is just ridiculous. I remember reading that 3+ billion dollars is spent annually on rust repair.. it's so bad that certain political pricks have suggested rust belt folks get some sort of tax break or special refund or something because we get the absolute shit end of the stick compared to everyone else.

The idea behind adding the beet juice is to help the salt "stick." If it sticks to the road more tenaciously then it will stick to cars as well, in all the little nooks and crannies. With that I can see how it may exacerbate the effects of road salt on vehicles.

When sugar is made, the process is basically extracting the sucrose and concentrating everything else, including a bunch of metal salts. I'm not sure but it's possible some of those are more corrosive than CaCl2. There probably have been studies done, but depending on who funded and/or conducted the studies I don't know how much trust I'd put in them.

I agree the salt belt sucks. Not just vehicles but plants, animals, and surface water damage is well known too. At this point I think it would be hard to dial back the de-icing as people have come to expect it. Everyone wants their stuff on time and wants to get to work or shop or whatever and not be inconvenienced by Ma' Nature, regardless of the impact it has.

 

[Curious Hound]

This one is truly going to be a minimal effort driver

That's YOUR opinion. Have you asked the truck how it feels about that? These things have a bad habit of making demands we never planned on meeting.

 

[sgtsandman]

Is it really that much worse than calcium chloride?

The salt belt is just ridiculous. I remember reading that 3+ billion dollars is spent annually on rust repair.. it's so bad that certain political pricks have suggested rust belt folks get some sort of tax break or special refund or something because we get the absolute shit end of the stick compared to everyone else.

Well, if we could convince most of the population that winter tires are a better idea than all season tires for driving in the winter, we might be able to get back to using sand and cinders to treat the roads.

Especially with how bad some of those “snow flake rated” all season tires are. My girlfriend kept getting stuck until I sprung for a set of winter tires for her car. The way the tread pattern was on her “all seasons”, they were pretty much glorified rain tires.