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

["Risky Bizness"]

My wife gave it a bath. I checked the air pressure, checked oil level, topped off the windshield washer solvent. (We have 4 FORD trucks, and the checking happens EVERY week-end. Have always done it this way).

 

[Rick W]

A while ago, I bought the air dam for The Road Ranger that holds the two running lights/fog lights. I had five pair of driving/fog lights, and of course none of them fit in the hole. I fiddled with it a while yesterday.

So I bought a set of LED lights. I’m not opposed to LED lights in general, but they just don’t look right on that vintage truck with where I’m going with it. I wanted to do this years ago, and I kept my eyes peeled for one of those set ups in the scrapyard, but I’ve never seen one. And while I like the look, as my eyes get older with the rest of my decrepit body, I really want the extra light down on the road.

Right now I’m leaning towards the halogen Amber lights I bought for a Mercedes sedan about 40 years ago, still new in the box, but I’m going to have to use the reciprocating saw/heat gun trick to get them to fit in somehow.

 

[Tbow2025]

A while ago, I bought the air dam for The Road Ranger that holds the two running lights/fog lights. I had five pair of driving/fog lights, and of course none of them fit in the hole. I fiddled with it a while yesterday.

So I bought a set of LED lights. I’m not opposed to LED lights in general, but they just don’t look right on that vintage truck with where I’m going with it. I wanted to do this years ago, and I kept my eyes peeled for one of those set ups in the scrapyard, but I’ve never seen one. And while I like the look, as my eyes get older with the rest of my decrepit body, I really want the extra light down on the road.

Right now I’m leaning towards the halogen Amber lights I bought for a Mercedes sedan about 40 years ago, still new in the box, but I’m going to have to use the reciprocating saw/heat gun trick to get them to fit in somehow.

Your right, incandescent bulbs are the way to go on older Rangers

 

[rumblecloud]

Doing a little underbody repair work so I can put my freshly painted fenders back on. The bottom bracket the fenders bolt to is completely gone on both sides so I'm making replacements. Not tried this before so this is new territory for me. Need to clean it up, punch a hole for the fender to bolt to and spot weld it in place. Coat it with POR or some other encapsulator

 

[superj]

Maybe gas mileage will improve without the air dam?

 

[SenorNoob]

Maybe gas mileage will improve without the air dam?

Likely the other way around.

 

[01WHTRNGR]

Helped a buddy load a ‘62 F250. Got it non running for $300 and the body is pretty straight. Can’t really beat that

 

[Tbow2025]

Maybe gas mileage will improve without the air dam?

It will be marginally worse

 

[Yepitsbob]

This is what I did to my Ranger last week. I flipped my rear leaf spring brackets on my 97 Ranger. I love the way it looks and it rides way better. Special thanks to Jim for his article on the subject.

 

[holyford86]

Worked on my square (ish) tube rockers on my replacement cab and did some rust repair along the way. Slowly working my way around the cab, next comes the back wall and a couple small patches in the rear of the floor.

The tube is a cross bar from a pallet rack which works out to be the perfect size and shape to box in a rocker. The outer portion of them was mangled by the scrapper I bought the truck from so I figured it was a good time to do what I always wanted to and box them in. The metal is about 0.090 so thick enough but not too heavy.

The back side of the factory rockers was punched for plug welds, once the cab is off the workbench I'll be able to get to the rest of them.

This portion of the cab corner was rotted so I chopped it out and replaced it.

Bonus pic of the driver side floor pan all finished up, with the patch I had to add to the bottom of the firewall.

 

[sgtsandman]

Maybe gas mileage will improve without the air dam?

It's a crap shoot. Sometimes it's better sometimes it's not. Sometimes, it's better on paper but real world gains are so marginal, we won't see it.

 

[superj]

and i think that is how the cooling is without it also since the air dam creates a low pressure zone under and behind the radiator so the air pulled/pushed the radiator is sucked under the truck instead of bunching up in the engine bay. sometimes it makes it warmer and sometimes cooler but most of the time, you don't notice it

 

[Tbow2025]

and i think that is how the cooling is without it also since the air dam creates a low pressure zone under and behind the radiator so the air pulled/pushed the radiator is sucked under the truck instead of bunching up in the engine bay. sometimes it makes it warmer and sometimes cooler but most of the time, you don't notice it

You got me think about low air pressure with air dam. There is a shroud built into the bumper cavity that directs air into the intercooler and radiator. That shroud create high pressure and if the air dam was creating a small low pressure zone that would effectively draw out the engine bay and speed air up through the intercooler/radiator shroud. Have I effectively muddied the water?

 

[superj]

You got me think about low air pressure with air dam. There is a shroud built into the bumper cavity that directs air into the intercooler and radiator. That shroud create high pressure and if the air dam was creating a small low pressure zone that would effectively draw out the engine bay and speed air up through the intercooler/radiator shroud. Have I effectively muddied the water?

its very possible. i don't know how significant the removal of the air dam is in the flow of air going into the intercooler but its called an air dam for some reason and maybe its building a high pressure area below the intercooler intake to cause air to flow up into the intercooler area?

 

[SenorNoob]

I'm gonna guess it'll be insignificant on a truck. I've heard of cars with the lower bumper missing overheat because of the lack of airflow through the radiator.