Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Jake_C
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 5
- Points
- 3
- Location
- Ohio
- Vehicle Year
- 1997
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
- Engine Type
- 4.0 V6
- Transmission
- Manual
- 2WD / 4WD
- 4WD
- Total Lift
- None
- Total Drop
- None
- Tire Size
- 235/75/r15
Couldn’t find an area on the forum specifically for build threads but I’m new so if this is in the wrong place I’m happy to move it.
I bough this ranger last winter after an ice storm here in Ohio when my g20 conversion van had trouble making it out of the driveway. I figured it would be nice to have a little 4x4 pickup truck to get me around if the snow was bad and haul kayaks to the river in the summer. I paid $2000 for it and probably still overpaid. But it was what I had been looking for, 4.0 motor, 4x4, with a 5 speed transmission. It’s also a long bed which is a bonus. It had just over 200k miles.
The po had bought it from the original owner who smoked a lot apparently. It didn’t smell too strong like cigarettes but there was nicotine on everything and the headliner was gross from all the smoke. There were also burns in the driver seat. After doing a thorough deep cleaning it actually didn’t look or smell half bad. I took out the old headliner and redid it with some light gray headliner cloth to try to match the original as best I could. I also removed the horrible tint and put bigger mirrors on so I could actually see. Not long after I was able to locate a high top camper shell for a seven foot bed which was not easy to find. It had a tennis ball sized damaged area on it but otherwise was in decent shape especially for $100 bucks.
It is actually made for a ranger so it fits really nice. I power washed it and slapped it on and fabbed up some canoe bars for the top out of 5ft galvanized pipe and 3/16 flat stock. They bolt through the top and don’t leak and I’d wager the fiberglass would break before they did so I’m happy with them.
The camper shell has a sliding glass window to the cab but my ranger had a solid back glass window so I went to a pick and pull junkyard and snagged a sliding glass window and installed it into my truck without a hitch. So now I can access the back of the truck through the cab which is convenient for throwing crap back there while I’m driving. That’s how it sat for most of the time I’ve owned it and I’ve daily driven it all summer. A couple weeks ago i decided to try my hand at a rattle can paint job to make everything match. The passenger fender had been replaced at some point as well as the trim piece under the grille and neither matched the silver paint. The camper shell doesn’t match either obviously. I went ahead and masked everything off and roughed up the clear coat with 80 grit and went ahead and primed and painted it. I used dupli-color “deep jewel green metallic” It’s a ford color but I have no idea what they painted in this color. It took 13 cans of paint and 6 cans of clear coat but it turned out looking pretty nice. I know what it takes to do a professional paint job and I definitely skimped on mine. I didn’t fix any dents or rust. Just painted over all of it but it doesn’t really bother me.
As of now I still have to finish painting the camper shell, I already fixed the damaged part. It will be nice to have everything the same color even if it’s still dented up and a little rusty. I also need to paint the fender flairs and find one for the passenger side in the front. I figured out what wheels I have, they’re from a early-mid 90s explorer. Same wheels on the Jurassic park explorers. I found a set of center caps so they’ll be going on and if I can’t clean up the wheels they’ll be getting repainted. I need to put in new shocks and I need new tires. So all that is coming. I’m considering a v8 swap at some point but I feel like that’s a good ways down the road. Still doing research on what I’d need for that. I’m new to rangers and fords in general but I’ve rebuilt motors before and I’m finishing up a full frame off restoration on an old blazer. Mechanically I’m pretty handy and there’s nothing on this truck that scares me but there’s definitely a lot of little information I’m sure I don’t know as is the case with any platform I’m unfamiliar with so I’m sure I’ll need help with plenty. The goal of this build is to keep it daily drivable but make it into something I enjoy driving and is at least somewhat off-road capable.
I bough this ranger last winter after an ice storm here in Ohio when my g20 conversion van had trouble making it out of the driveway. I figured it would be nice to have a little 4x4 pickup truck to get me around if the snow was bad and haul kayaks to the river in the summer. I paid $2000 for it and probably still overpaid. But it was what I had been looking for, 4.0 motor, 4x4, with a 5 speed transmission. It’s also a long bed which is a bonus. It had just over 200k miles.
The camper shell has a sliding glass window to the cab but my ranger had a solid back glass window so I went to a pick and pull junkyard and snagged a sliding glass window and installed it into my truck without a hitch. So now I can access the back of the truck through the cab which is convenient for throwing crap back there while I’m driving. That’s how it sat for most of the time I’ve owned it and I’ve daily driven it all summer. A couple weeks ago i decided to try my hand at a rattle can paint job to make everything match. The passenger fender had been replaced at some point as well as the trim piece under the grille and neither matched the silver paint. The camper shell doesn’t match either obviously. I went ahead and masked everything off and roughed up the clear coat with 80 grit and went ahead and primed and painted it. I used dupli-color “deep jewel green metallic” It’s a ford color but I have no idea what they painted in this color. It took 13 cans of paint and 6 cans of clear coat but it turned out looking pretty nice. I know what it takes to do a professional paint job and I definitely skimped on mine. I didn’t fix any dents or rust. Just painted over all of it but it doesn’t really bother me.
As of now I still have to finish painting the camper shell, I already fixed the damaged part. It will be nice to have everything the same color even if it’s still dented up and a little rusty. I also need to paint the fender flairs and find one for the passenger side in the front. I figured out what wheels I have, they’re from a early-mid 90s explorer. Same wheels on the Jurassic park explorers. I found a set of center caps so they’ll be going on and if I can’t clean up the wheels they’ll be getting repainted. I need to put in new shocks and I need new tires. So all that is coming. I’m considering a v8 swap at some point but I feel like that’s a good ways down the road. Still doing research on what I’d need for that. I’m new to rangers and fords in general but I’ve rebuilt motors before and I’m finishing up a full frame off restoration on an old blazer. Mechanically I’m pretty handy and there’s nothing on this truck that scares me but there’s definitely a lot of little information I’m sure I don’t know as is the case with any platform I’m unfamiliar with so I’m sure I’ll need help with plenty. The goal of this build is to keep it daily drivable but make it into something I enjoy driving and is at least somewhat off-road capable.
