What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Blmpkn]

View attachment 113478

@Rick W heavy breathing intensifies

 

[Rick W]

View attachment 113478

Rustoleum?

 

[Uncle Gump]

Rustoleum?

As much as you want me to day yes.... No.

Those are PowerStop powder coated calipers and brackets. I have new rotors and their ceramic dust free pads also.

Side note... I think I found a fella to machine the center bore of my new finned Aerostar drums so they'll fit the 98 and newer 8.8 axle hub.

That's gonna be my brake upgrades before it head down to the mountains of Kentucky/Tennessee this fall for the 25th.

 

[rumblecloud]

As much as you want me to day yes.... No.

Those are PowerStop powder coated calipers and brackets. I have new rotors and their ceramic dust free pads also.

Pretty! You're gonna get those dirty....aren't you?

 

[Uncle Gump]

Pretty! You're gonna get those dirty....aren't you?

Undoubtedly...

 

[geofffer]

Installed the Road Active Suspension. Not as difficult aa I anticipated. Raised the rear from 29" to 34" at the top of the fenderwell. Ride is a little stiffer, not bad, but definitely.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Old 5.0L short block out of the truck and on the ground. Need to transfer parts from it to new short block. Have a little suspension work to tackle/finish while engine is out, then it's time to start reassembly.

Unfortunately that will have to wait a few days, a doctor appointment tomorrow is going to keep me out of the shop until Friday. Possibly have short block going back in this weekend, then I'm on hold again for my heads to arrive.

Honestly, I’d get the heads on before putting the 5.0 back in given the limited space in the engine bay. I’ve done heads on a 2.9 in the engine bay and that’s not overly fun, but there’s room.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You should do a build project thread on this. It’s everybody’s dream to put a V-8 in their buggy, and you’re doing a good job with the ups and downs on it. Just a suggestion. Seems it would take you the same amount of time and you get a central place for people to check up on it.

By to say this, hope it helps

I don’t have a thread on my build, but I do have some video on my YouTube. There’s a bunch of videos that need edited and put up though.

 

[JoshT]

Honestly, I’d get the heads on before putting the 5.0 back in given the limited space in the engine bay. I’ve done heads on a 2.9 in the engine bay and that’s not overly fun, but there’s room.

That's why I'm putting the heads on after. Leaving them off gives more room manuver the block into place. It also gives room around the top of the block to get at most of the bellhousing bolts from the top instead of miles of extensions to go from the bottom. It'll also be easier to drop the passenger side header into place before the head is on.

 

[pentode]

Now that I finally got a proper welding setup to do thin sheet metal, I finally got around to fixing my rocker panels that have been getting worse over the last few years. My camera is terrible and I'm way too impatient to document everything properly but I did snap a few bad pics along the way. Those pics of the welds weren't the final product - I took them during a gear-off break in the 95 degree heat. (There are more pics but suffice to say they were very similar on both sides.)

I did work on them a little bit more before I got to the bondo stage but I did get sick of chasing burn-throughs on paper thin rusty metal so feel free to mock them mercilessly.
In case you're wondering, yes, I could have cut back a lot more to get to better metal, but I halfway wanted an excuse to test what I could do with this welder setup and I figured once these rust through again, I'll probably get actual rocker replacement panels and do it properly. You'd never notice it until you look very closely but there are actually a lot of complex bends and curves on that panel. The little patches I made were kind of fun to get right but anything beyond that would be beyond my bending skills...and tools.

Thank God there was a storm coming in which forced me to abandon perfecting the bondo and just get it primed and painted. I'll go back and make it perfect someday.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

50 miles an hour and 50' away = 100%

 

[pentode]

It's an inverse relationship. 200 miles an hour and 12.5 feet looks great too.

 

[superj]

I filled her up since gas is 2.91 and washed her. Looks great

 

[pentode]

I filled her up since gas is 2.91 and washed her. Looks greatView attachment 113593

Great looking truck!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

That's why I'm putting the heads on after. Leaving them off gives more room manuver the block into place. It also gives room around the top of the block to get at most of the bellhousing bolts from the top instead of miles of extensions to go from the bottom. It'll also be easier to drop the passenger side header into place before the head is on.

So I put mine in with no upper intake and just the passenger header on. It was snug getting it wiggled in, but it went. Without the upper intake, bellhousing bolts wouldn’t have been terrible, but I did engine and transmission together with no core support (I had to replace it so I made it bolt on).