'85 Ranger Restomod

[85_Ranger4x4]

Burned the midnight white gas tonight and covered a lot of boring ground.

It recently occured to me that the lantern I wanted to take to the roundup I paid less than $5 for and it had like 10min of runtime which is less than ideal for something to drag over two states away and have much confidence in actually working. It is a old CL2 that was built 4mo after my truck, 6-85. So the poor little guy that I haven't even taken time to clean at all got to run for 2.5 hours and it didn't miss a beat. I am not sure if I have even added fuel to it since I got it yet (I didn't tonight)



Radiator is in and hooked up. New heater hoses are installed. Ad hock vent hose assembly is installed until I figure out something better looking. Pulled the PS inner fender and secured the bottom of the heater box. Reinstall inner fender, vacuum canister and DS intake tube. Ran coax for the CB antenna out of the cab. Power steering is hooked up and has fluid in it. Also since the cap for the bottom tube of the evaporator was just stuck on the nut that swiveled on the tube and wasn't really sealing anything... I went ahead and replaced the orings on the condenser and installed the hose to connect it to the evaporator.



Supervisor came out to check my work and I think it passed.



And he even tried to help...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Hit the JY yesterday and snagged the lower seal off an Explorer (and a better looking/more supple upper one)



And HOLY COW.

I pulled the truck out out and just let it idle while I put stuff away. Efans kicked on with a vengeance, ran a couple minutes and kicked off. Dropped it from like 202* down to 190*. I let it keep going and letting it kick and off. The third time I timed it, it took 6 minutes at idle. With the hood down I can feel a lot of hot air coming out of the back of the hood. I was almost surprised the truck wasn't starting to crawl ahead from the thrust.

I never timed it with the 16" single but I am pretty sure these move more air/cool it faster than the single did even without blowing thru a condenser.

Anyone looking to increase cooling... I think those seals would help cram more air down the radiator at speed too. There was an '84 there at the JY too with factory A/C and it had nothing for seals.

I snagged the big cool looking funnel thing off a second gen for the radiator support but I would have to cut a lot of it off to get it behind my grille. Apparently a second gen has a lot more room between the grille and radiator support.

 

[BlackBII]

Damn you're low on space everywhere. With how hot it's been AC is necessary!

 

[Roert42]

It makes a lot of sense about those seals, but it seems like it’s hard to imagine how big of an effect they would have until you see it first hand.

 

[RobbieD]

Thank you for that update, and I'm really pleased that it seems to have worked out so good.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It makes a lot of sense about those seals, but it seems like it’s hard to imagine how big of an effect they would have until you see it first hand.

Unlike most I can kinda cheat, my pushers kind of simulate a wind tunnel.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

When I built my rear bumper last summer I made some quick and dirty braces for the top. I had hoped I wouldn't need them and got caught in the end when I really needed something.



They worked but they creaked like crazy whenever the truck hit a bump or as the gate was opening. Kept trying to tighten them before I realized the bend was working against the ends of the frame rails.

After a year of "working"



New and improved "design" has a chunk of square tube to eliminate having to have a dogleg in the straps.



Oil is changed, tires are rotated... I think it is largely ready for the trip.

Kinda freaked myself out with the spare... it just doesn't look right.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

When I built my rear bumper last summer I made some quick and dirty braces for the top. I had hoped I wouldn't need them and got caught in the end when I really needed something.



They worked but they creaked like crazy whenever the truck hit a bump or as the gate was opening. Kept trying to tighten them before I realized the bend was working against the ends of the frame rails.

After a year of "working"



New and improved "design" has a chunk of square tube to eliminate having to have a dogleg in the straps.



Oil is changed, tires are rotated... I think it is largely ready for the trip.

Kinda freaked myself out with the spare... it just doesn't look right.

That square tube should be oriented so the bolt goes thru the empty space. It's much stronger. The way you have it can fairly easily crush.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

That square tube should be oriented so the bolt goes thru the empty space. It's much stronger. The way you have it can fairly easily crush.

I thought of that after I had drilled the holes.

It could easily crush but the bolt in the tube is in sheer, that strap will likely bend before the tube would crush anyway.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

By and large the truck has done great. Made it back to Iowa so far.

Things I need to do before next time...

1. Steering box. Its been loose for awhile and I am about ready to give up on it healing itself. Getting to be annoying on curvy roads especially in the dark.

2. Radio. Keeps glitching out and can't read MP4's so I only have one song on my USB thumbdrive it will play. For added enjoyment the CD player doesn't want to work (has an old burned CD in it) and it only has what seems to be a 15 mile range on the antenna. And my metal antenna got bent again on a tree. I need a new radio and I think an OEM style antenna would be more durable than my telescoping one.

3. A/C. Today has been miserable driving, it is really gusty out of the SW so I can't have both side windows open or it is like a wind tunnel thru the cab. So I sit in the sun with the window barely cracked open so it basically just blows into my ear and suffer with the heat. The wind tunnel thing screws with my eyes in pretty short order.

4. GMRS Radio. I managed to win the drawing and won a new GMRS Radio from Midland... so I need to get that hooked up.



CB has been freaking awesome to talk to my @r-hindl71 on the road but basically nobody but us two (and those kind enough to play along) was using CB's on the trail. Even then we had @snoranger's handheld's so I don't think we were really using CB at all towards the end.

5. Front driveshaft/exhaust situation is almost comical at this point that it hasn't been dealt with by now. I really need to get on that.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Ok, new dumb idea I had while rumbling back home from the roundup:

I need to replace the steering box. While it is out could I slip in some sort of oil filter adaptor to forget the hose crap altogether? Then reinstall the steering box? There is fairly decent pocket of space where my oil filter adapter sits behind the steering box. Kinda rinky dink but I would eliminate my oil filter hose to A/C compressor clearance and I wouldn't ever have to fuss over hoses again. And I would regain a place to mount a charcoal canister. That is a lot of birds with one stone.

So I snagged an adapter from a '99 Explorer today.



It just might kinda sorta probably won't fit!?



So anyway, kinda excited about that.

Radio reception pretty much sucked for the entire trip. I can see the cable on my current aftermarket antenna is chaffed where it goes thru the firewall. So I also snagged a nice stock one out of a sharp '84 (same truck I swiped my OHC out of a few weeks ago) Kinda starting to think my truck may have been radio delete? I don't have the three mounting holes to mount the antenna and my cable comes out of the cowl, under the HVAC box an in the firewall down low thru a hole that it looks like someone possibly made with a the dull end of a chisel. The factory one goes thru the firewall right below the passenger side front speaker (I learned that today)





I was looking at my 2.8 in the corncrib (oil filter adapter) and noticed it must have been kind of tight for running the stock 2.8 exhaust with the 4wd front driveshaft too.



Factory dimpled for extra clearance (which didn't have to deal with the telescoping boot)



And today I picked up the foundation of a long term project...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well I actually had time to do something to the truck yeseterday!

Like 15+ years ago I turned the antenna base sideways with the thought that I could lay it down flat when I did offroading. I never could manage to remember to do that and I have bent it on every trail ride.



Screw was stuck, so we drilled it out.



Cable did some chaffing where farmer bob had it passing thru the firewall back into the cab below the heater box.



Not sure where this was in the routing:



Fished the cable thru where it is supposed to go with a piece of light fence wire and it is now all as Ford intended.

 

[ericbphoto]

I see the tractor tire hasn’t been unloaded. Is that your “winter traction weight”?

 

[RobbieD]

Nice collection of Ranger emblems!

I don't have the three mounting holes to mount the antenna and my cable comes out of the cowl, under the HVAC box an in the firewall down low thru a hole that it looks like someone possibly made with a the dull end of a chisel. The factory one goes thru the firewall right below the passenger side front speaker

Cable did some chaffing where farmer bob had it passing thru the firewall back into the cab below the heater box.

That's funny, and brings back memories from when I installed radios in these trucks when they were new. In general, in some cases the antenna coax could be routed through a factory grommet, but a lot of times we'd have to make our own hole. This was my homemade "hole poker", which I made from a tire iron:

It actually worked good; it could be used between an open door and fender, if needed, and it nicely rolled the inside edge of the hole, which prevented chaffing the coax cable. And then a little black sticky butyl putty sealed it all up. This "tool" was used a lot; the mushroomed end is honest wear. I still use this damn thing; it's handy for a lot of things.

I think that all of the early Rangers had cowl panels pre-punched for the antenna (I don't recall ever having to drill one on a Ranger). The radio delete trucks had a plastic plug stuck over it with double-sided tape.

It's a damn shame that aftermarket antenna's rockers always cracked the paint under the base, and let rust get started. Getting rid of the janky aftermarket antenna and putting on a good stocker is a definite improvement.

 

[racsan]

If its a fluid - filled tire in the back it would be more than enough weight, too much actually. I have a sand-filled 3/4 ton truck tire thats a good 250#. Thats almost a bit much, its great for going straight but if you start to slide with extra ballast its real difficult to bring it out of it.