Detroit-area Junkyard Rangers - extremely pic-heavy

[kishy]

Call me crazy or wierd, but out of everything you posted, I want that fuel door. I am still trying to understand that one variance on these first gen Rangers. Nearly every Ranger had a raised bump to hook with a finger and open the fuel door. At some point on the first gens they did not have it and it was flat like what is seen here. My 84 was of the flat variety, both the 86 and 85 I've had since were of the "hooked" variety. For some reason that is one of the things that has stood out to me as unique on the 84 and I'd like to carry over to the current 85 build. Problem is that I need two of those doors (dual tank Ranger) to pull it off and I haven't been able to find any.

I'm impressed you fought your way through quoting that one image.

I hate to throw a wrench in things, but I'm almost positive the pictured truck is actually an 88. I believe that's the one I took the fuel sending unit from to do my EFI engine swap, and I distinctly remember that I took that part from an 88, in that yard, which was facing that direction.

Of course, there's no way to be sure it had its original bed or fuel door. My 85 has the bump. And now looking at that photo closer, the intake tube has me thinking it might be older.

 

[JoshT]

Quoting that was super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Yeah that is why I'm having trouble figuring out that one little difference. My 84 had it and it was original to the truck, since dad bought it in 87 or 88. I've only ever seen it on a few first gens, but I couldn't get a year off most of them and wouldn't know the history if I did.

I can't say anything about the intake of that red truck, but it's a 2.3L EFI, and 86 or newer according to the instrument cluster.

Just one of those little differences most wouldn't notice, but I do. It bugs me a little that I can't find it documented, or figure out a reason for it. Was it a trim thing? I doubt it, mine was a base model and I don't know about the othes. Was it a year thing? That wouldn't explain the separation in years of the examples I've seen. Was it a plant of origin thing? I don't remember where mine was built, but if that were the case, I'd expect to see a lot more of them.

 

[RobbieD]

I'm betting that ones without the finger bump have the Power Gas Door Release option.

Seriously, I don't know when the bump was added. My '84 doesn't have one, and its build date was 09/83.

 

[PlumCrazy]

My service bed came out of a Detroit area (Sterling Heights) junkyard circus 2017. Drove up from Columbus, Ohio to pull it myself and drag it back home.

 

[kishy]

That's a sweet little service body. Not a huge fan of that yard but every once in a rare while they get something neat.

Alright, you folks win.





Quite imperfect, but neat regardless. I went back on Sunday for that and the toolbox in the bed, but the toolbox was gone. I have a half-baked plan to chop up a toolbox so it will work inside my cap, and in order for this plan to work it needs to be the style that is hinged on the front. I also want it to be quite shallow so the full bed length is available below it.

While there I grabbed a couple things to try to up-option my work van, which is a '21 Transit Connect. Obviously not doing anything invasive to my employer's vehicle, but little things like the visors with vanity mirrors (running into a meeting with crazy hair is the motivator here) and the dome light with optional map lights. I'll be talking to our fleet people about FORscan and possibly trying to enable cruise, since I grabbed the wheel with the buttons. That is probably crossing a line they won't like, but you never know, and the wheel was 9 bucks so I'm not concerned if they say no.



This was in the parking lot:



Since the wagon gets some love here, I'll mention that on Saturday I drove 2.5 hrs each way to go visit a station wagon being parted out as a derby car. I scored some things I need to make mine a little better. Mostly interior plastics, and one extremely rare out of production weatherstrip.





I'll keep this primarily RBV-related but will drop the occasional other vehicle of note, if there are no objections.