Project "Snail's Pace": 1986 Ranger Rebuild

Most fitting name I could think of considering how slowly I'm working on it.

For all pics I post click the pic for larger.

Some of you may have heard, but many haven't, that I wrecked my 84 Ranger in October 2009. Driving into work and wrapped it around a pecan tree.



At the time of the accident it had 150-150K miles on the truck. I had recently rebuilt the 2.8L V6, and had all the parts I needed to lower it. Unfortunately I never got the chance to install them, or maybe it was fortunate since they didn't get damaged in the wreck.

Well I had my 99 Ranger, my motorcycle, and my 1996 Probe, but none could quite replace the joy of driving that truck, so I started hunting for a new body almost immediately. In February 2010 I found this 86 short bed for $500.

(I'm not a cowboys fan, that was from the PO, and is practically welded to the bumper.)

Current plans are to build it into what I wanted that 84 to become. Starting out with the suspension. Got everything pulled out. All the parts painted and waiting to go back in.



Will be installing these dream beams, Edelbrock IAS shocks, and all poly body mount and suspension bushings. I've also got a BII 1" rear sway bar and an Addco (I think) front sway bar, but both are currently still on the 84.



While I had the suspension out and no engine in the truck I decided that now would be as good of a time as any to clean and start painting the front portion of the frame. So I started cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning some more. Then I decided the hell with this, If I'm going to this much work I'm going to really tear int it and clean and paint everything so I started pulling the fenders, fender wells etc. Didn't realize how much extra room that would give or I would have done it first.







Then when removing the pass side wheel well liner, this is what I found staring at me:



In case you can't tell that is exterior side of the pass foot well. This is the only major "cancer" I have found on this truck, so far. I know this isn't bad rust compared to alot of vehicles out there, but I'm at a loss as to how to move forward form this point. I'm not a body man, I don't own a welder, and don't know any people who do that kind of stuff. Any suggestions on how to fix this rust will be appreciated.


I also found this CheckerPro Checkmate FX tonneau in craigslist for $150. I always wanted one of these for the 84, but wouldn't come off the cash for it. Glad I didn't now, never could have beat that deal.



As I the title suggests the progress on this will be at a snail's pace. Hopefully this quarter of school won't be to rough and I can work on it along. I'll also be off summer quarter so I should be able to get a bit done then. I'll add updates and more pics as I move along. Of course I think my next step will be striping out the interior to get a better idea of the rust damage and how to fix it.

Well I think I have a 5.0 Explorer lined up to provide a future engine for this thing. Guy I work with found out I wanted one for a future engine swap. Just so happens that his brother rolled an 98 model Eddie Bower Explorer since the beginning of the year, He only wants $500 for it. That phase of the build will be a couple years down the road, because I will be rebuilding the engine, plus have to get the transmission I want to put behind it. The engine/trans combo will probably end up being more expensive that everything else I'll have tied up in the truck, but I have a few years to work on that. Before going to the 5.0 I wanna put a little more wear and tear on this 2.8 V6.

Wow absolutely no feed back. I didn't expect much but was hoping for more than this... Guess it's better than all negative.

On to the updates:

I haven't been able to work on the truck since my last update post, but I did make a little progress on other things. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it's going to cause my plans to skip a few steps, and probably cause this thread to need renaming.

The explorer I mentioned above is days away from being in my possession. It has 180K miles, good maintenance history, third owner. The second owner was his mother who bought it either late 2009 or early 2010, and gave it to the brother about a year ago. I think the steering rack was damaged in the roll over. Cranked right up second try, I'll blame it on a weak battery (from my 99 Ranger) and that the Explorer had been sitting a couple of months. Cranked it up and let it idle for about 10 minutes. Ran smooth, the gauges looked good (for what that's worth), no odd noises, and the only leak I saw was P/S fluid. Best part the guy only wants $500 for it. Money will be exchanged tomorrow and I'm going to pick it up this weekend (hopefully, gotta wait on dad with the F-250 and flat bed).

Was planning to run my 2.8 for now , then rebuild the 5.0 and swap it later. As good as the Explorer is running (and knowing that it runs) I'll go ahead and do the swap now, and get all the bugs worked out. Then I'll later down the road I'll rebuild this engine or buy another block to build then swap them.

Now to find my manual transmission... If anyone knows where I can find a mid shift TKO-600 for a really good price please let me know.




I know! I know! All I have are cellphone pics, forgot to take my camera, but as soon as I get them on Photobucket I'll post them.

Here they are:

I'll have to watch this! I really like the name of your project, LOL.

Yeah, I suck at naming things, that's why I usually don't. I regretted this one as soon as I hit the submit thread button. It was named such because I bought the truck and "started" the project a year ago February, and the long drawn out pace I saw myself working on it. With everything else going on I just finally got the front suspension pulled out before winter set in down here, and tech school got heavy again. Well after this purchase I think my speed on the project will pick up a little.

cool project , do you plan to keep the 7.5'' rear axle or are you going to upgrade to something else

Will upgrade just not sure to what yet. I have the entire explorer so I have the 3.73 LS 8.8 from it that I would like to use, but everything I've read says that it is too wide for the first gens. More than likely I'll end up with a narrower 31 spline 8.8 or a narrowed 9" in this truck. What I may do, if the ring gears are swappable between the 28 spline and 31 spline 8.8s, is to install swap the gears and install the 31 spline w/LS in my 99 4x4 Ranger, and the 28 spline in this one. I want the LS and disc brakes on the 99, and I plan to convert to cobra brakes down the road on the 86.

Guess I'm going to have to start scrounging for a pair of 95-97 knuckles, and searching for a used set of 89-97 beams. I was planning it to be a couple more years before I needed to start collecting them. With the stock explorer motor I'll probably be fine with stock first gen brakes, but as soon as I start adding more go power, I want more whoa power to match it.

I made another thread about the rust damage, so rather than posting all of it here I'll link you back to that thread.

Short version: I pulled the rubber flooring last weekend to find it had been retaining moisture and caused rusting issues on either side in that area on the inside. Not bad compared to many I've seen y'all repair, but more than I was expecting to find.

Did not get anything done yesterday, spent it with my parents. They are more important than any truck so gotta do it every once in a while.

Today I started out by cleaning out the bed, it was full of the old 2.9L parts, radiator, etc. that were already removed when I bought the truck. Did this so that I can mount up that tonneau cover mentioned in the first post and have a place to store all of this stuff while making the repairs. Didn't get it installed though, have to buy some sheet metal screws and find the instructions on mounting the cover again. Once that was done I pulled the upper part of the dash to inspect for rust. Found practically none up there so at least I won't have to go too deep in there making repairs. Hopefully Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday I'll be able to make a little progress on getting rid of the rust damage. Bought a 4.5" grinder and a wire cup brush the other day, that should speed up that part a little.

Time for an update. Not a whole heck of a lot of progress has been made since last post, but a few goodies have been purchased, and one (of many) major decision has been made.

Lets start out with the progress, pics will be large because I don't feel like re-sizing them right now.

So since my last post I've been quite busy between work, school, driving all over the southeast (TN, NC, GA) to retrieve parts, and more recently a wreck. That said I have managed to make a little progress.

Pull but one trim panel out of the interior, stuck screw and need better drill bits or a die grinder with ball file. Have the latter just gotta drag the compressor to the truck to use it, and hope the extension cord will handle it.


I've stripped off nearly all of the OEM floor coating/sound deadner. Didn't want it hiding rust, and this way I can fix all problems I find at once. More is out than that pic shows. That is some slow work with a heat gun and putty knife.



Since I will be replacing most of the wiring anyway I pulled the dash to give most access for wire and rust repair. Also figured I needed to inspect further up the firewall.




Now for what I found and what I decided. These pictures (first two below) show the area under the windshield, no rust, no leakage. Yeah! I don't know if there is any other area I need to check out but from what I'm seeing I'm good to quit inspecting and start prepping for repair. The other thing shown in these pictures is the basis of the major decision I made on this project. I will be doing some sort of two tone blue and silver for the paint, I already knew this, I now know that this color will be the blue that is used. I didn't think I liked the color from looking at the outside of the truck, but man this thing was sharp looking when new.






As for the goodies I'll have to post them later, forgot I never took pics of them. Look for another post here sometime tomorrow about them.

EDIT: Crap I forgot that this site doesn't automatically downsize the pics to fit the window. Guess I'll be resizing those tomorrow as well. Might just do thumbnail links, probably be quicker.

RE-EDIT: changed pics to click able thumbnails, page should load better. Click for (much) larger versions of pics.

Now for the additional other things I mentioned in my previous post.

First up we have something I have never seen down here.



For those that don't know those would be first gen Ranger full door panels. I have to say thanks to Howlinghuskie for these, he shipped them to me all the way from Wisconsin. There were exactly 2 resaons I wanted these, first is mentioned above, want to be a little different and think I like the look better than the vinyl ones. The other reason is for me when driving a ranger my arm rest if what I guess you would call the window sill which is painted metal on both my first gens. As you can imagine that gets a little hot after sitting in the sun all day, so hopefully these will make my arm rest a little more bearable. Just have to figure out how I want to recolor them, definitely blue, and possibly silver since that is my color scheme for the truck. If I add silver I will probably do matching silver inserts in what ever seats I end up with.

The next item up is:



Needed the EVTMs for the 86 and 98 so hopefully I can figure out the wiring for this beast. Since I am planning to graft the Explorer's wiring harness into the Ranger I needed as detailed of diagrams as I can get. Been looking for this, and finally it on E-bay last week. Didn't need the other two books but figure they might come in handy somewhere down the line, if not to me then another member. Have the EVTM for the 98 Ex. on the way as well.

Then comes the biggest item for this update, or maybe I should say items:



89-97 DJM Beams (W/camber adjusters), 95-97 knuckles and brake components, 2" drop springs, and axle flip brackets. I have to than RangerSVT for these! Very good man who went out of his way to make sure that these got to me. We were planning to meet half way, but due to extremely unfortunate circumstances (which he may be able to discuss later) he was unable to meet me until Saturday. What was supposed to be about an 8 hour (max with traffic) round trip for me turned into an overnight delay and 800 mile round trip. After being up all night he was still willing to meet the next day to get me the parts. Never realized how important and demanding of a job being a Fire Chief is until I got the Rick saying why he couldn't make it, definitely earned a lot of respect for me.

Now for the one that made me feel like a kid at Christmas:

Can you guess what's in the box?


How about now?


You should know now:


These are brackets that will allow me to run 12" sport track rotors on my 95-97 spindles. They are about 50% of the reason I wanted the suspension components I bought from RangerSVT. I figured they would go good with the Explorer rear disk. They'll also fill out the wheel if I run a more open wheel than the ranger ones I have for it now. The biggest reason is that with the scheming I'm already doing for the future, I want the best brakes I can get (within reason) on the truck. The other 50% is that if the Cobra brake brackets come available again I'll be getting a set, and swap to cobra brakes and mach one wheels front and rear.

The last "present" I got is is the reason that I am now glad that my meeting with RangerSVT got messed up. This happened the day after I got back into town:



800 miles in two days battled road construction congestion on the interstate, Atlanta traffic three times, and a lot of congested mountain roads with out a scratch. Day after I get back that happened just after I left work. At least I got to spend that 800 miles enjoying driving it, and was back home before it happened. Guess mom will no longer have to worry about driving it and making that first scratch. She hasn't touched it yet because she's scared of that. Taking it around to body shops tomorrow, and if I decide on one it sounds like I should have it back in less than a month. Don't see how though looks to me like it tweaked the whole trunk area of the car, but I don't do body work either so who am I to say.

Subscribed....Nice to see you will put those parts to good use I do have some questions on that explorer though...What exactly are you planning to use off of that for the motor?? Is it AWD?? I might be wanting to do some trading with ya, as I have some (more) parts that could be of use to you (and make things easier for your swap) and you have some parts that I could use, if your interested
SVT

subscribed... for future updates

Planning to use most of the Explorer. Sorry but it's a 2wd. Let's just say when I finish there won't be another first gen like it. I suppose you would be able to call it Eddie Bower Edition Ranger if things work the way I want.

The motor is only part of my planned swap. For that part I'll be using the entire engine and transmission (for now) assembly. Will be using the axle as I believe that I mentioned when we met. I will be using the Explorer's EFI system. That's where the standard part of the swap ends. Don't rally want to spill all my ideas just yet, hell my dad only knows about the engine and dual piston caliper swap, and he's the one who will be helping me the most. He thinks I'm just going to adapt the engine harness to the ranger's wiring. Simply put when I done there likely won't be much more than a shell left, with some busted interior panels.

The only things I know I will not be using in the 86 are the seats, the AC system wiring, radio, disk changer, and cruise control. That said the Dad wants the radio to put in the "camper" he's building for the hunting club. I need the instrument cluster for my 99 because the lighting in it is messed up, two bulbs on the speedo have a mind of their own. I've replaced bulbs but they act up, think it's corrosion on the ribbon circuits on the back. The seats may go into the 99 as well since I just found that one of the crame bars across the lower back is broken at a weld. I plan to use the disk changer in it if I can find a cartridge, last owner's parents apparently lost it. Also want to save the electronic temp controls for install in my 99 down the line.

If you have something you want feel free to ask, but I probably will not know yet if I will be using it. Buy I'll warn you now I won't be making any more trips up there to exchange parts..... at least until my car is fixed.

Currently I know of only a few parts that will make my swap easier that I haven't listed. The first is motor mounts, and I already have a set of L&L Swap mounts. I need the double sump oil pan and related components, planning to buy new. Remote oil filter adapter, but I may have found a solution for that, just have to find what I'm thinking about and try it. Headers but since I'll be running the GT-40Ps can't get those right now. Once I build the next engine with aftermarket heads I'll get the headers that go with my mounts.

Oh! I know what I need. A TKO-500 w/ midshift kit so I can keep a manual transmission. Don't have the money for that at the moment, or even just the parts needed to install it. Could also use about three more bodies to get all of it done quicker.

4.0B2 said:

subscribed... for future updates

Click to expand...

Thanks!

They will be slow, but they will be coming.

Received my Explorer EVTM Thursday, working on my wiring in my spare time. So far things seem like they will be much easier than I thought. Surprisingly some of my wiring appears to have the same wire colors in 98 as it did in 86. Especially on the ignition switch, IIRC one wire color is different. Hoping to have this wiring figured out quickly, then I'll really be able to make some progress.

Got the floors painted up with rust bullet this weekend, and doing a figerglass repair on my rust holes. I know replacement metal would be preferred but don't currently have the means to do so. The way I'm doing it there should be no issues with moisture entrapment, which seems to be what everybody worries about. Figuring on one layer of glass on the outside and two on the inside will seal the hole from both sides not allowing moisture to get in from the underside. Once I finish with the glass there will be another layer or two of rust bullet going over that so it should be sealed up really well when I finish. On the outside there will be rubberized undercoating applied to the underside of the truck, which will also help block moisture from the repair.