There was once a time when Model A Fords filled the junkyards and were resold on the cheap. And then the next generation found them, knew they were easy to restore, to hot rod, too. Suddenly those old cadavers became something more than what they once had been. They were no longer practical transportation. They became something of a dream of speed, a promise of paradise on wheels, and local legends were born in diners and drive-ins and drag races.
Today, of course, they are worth their weight in gold. Old men stare wistfully and grease spots in their garages and remember, "It could have been mine!"
Millions of those old rangers may have been made in the last 40 years. They've become as common as covid. The graveyards are full of them now. Maybe this is the dawning of their new day. Get one for cheap. Drop a hemi in it. Go off road, or totally truxarosa lowrider on the street. And, if you are worried about the carbon footprint, you can go EV.
What makes those old Ford Rangers so very special is that they can easily become a platform, or even a pedestal, for whatever soap box you want to stand on, for what ever you dream. Sarah-n-Tune remembers her "Grams." I remember my off roading days. I don't know. Maybe you remember going fishing with your dad.
The old Rangers are perfect. They won't even break a poor man's pocket book. They can be had for just a song right now. Done right, that Ranger becomes you...and only you, a very rare chance in this pricey day and age, to dream your own American Dream.
So why not put $50,000 of your own labor into them if you got the time? And what good is your time anyway if you are living without a dream.
I'm very grateful to see a documented frame off restoration. It's fun! It's even educational. But there is an even greater lesson to be learned here: that time spent working with your hands is never time wasted. It always means something much more. I hope my grand son is driving my Ranger some day even long after I'm gone.
My two cents anyway.