04' Prerunner built Ranger

[subydrift]

Hey all, my name is Robbie and I just bought an 04’ 2wd XL a couple weeks ago. It has quite a bit of work done to the exterior already. I used to be a Subaru guy and built a 96’ Impreza for rallycross racing but have always wanted to build a prerunner out of a Ranger. I found this truck the day after I sold my suabru and just had to have it.

It’s an 04’ Ranger XL with the 2.3L and Auto trans. It is pretty slow but it has enough pep to keep me happy and it gets good gas mileage still. It currently has 157k miles which I didn’t like but I did some research and found out that these duratech motors are pretty strong so that eased my mind a little.

The current mods include:
- Fiberglass front fenders
- Fiberglass TT bedsides
-Custom front bumper w/ skidplate
- Custom rear bumper w/ fold down tire carrier
- American Racing Outlaw II rims
- 2" wheel spacers
- 31x10.50R15 A/T tires
- Front coil spring spacers
- Front shock spacers
- Overload leaf removed in rear
- Custom side exit exhaust
- Newer front end

It’s mostly exterior work. The PO put some cheap Pepboys spring spacers in which stiffened the front end quite a bit and it was topping out the front shocks so I put spacers under the upper bushing on the front shocks to keep it from topping out. He also had the rear shackles flipped and removed the overload leaf so the rear was super low. I re-flipped the shackles cause it was bouncing off the bumpstops and it rides much better in the rear. The exhaust is straight piped after the cats and comes out the pass. side rear fender so when I have the extra money I’m going to put a magnaflow in there to quiet it down some.

I want to build it conservative but still have it fun. It is my DD and I’m on a budget so 2k+ suspension won’t happen but I’m going to do little mods to make it tougher and allow me to do some rough desert and logging road driving when I’m out camping.

Future mods include:
- Magnaflow muffler w/ 2.25” piping (still side exit)
- K&N Panel filter
- Belltech rear shackles
- Energy Suspension F&R bump stops
- Fat Bob's 2" Spring Spacers
- Bilstein 5100 shocks in front
- ProComp ES3000 shocks in rear
- Rework front bumper and add light hoop
- 2 Hella 500 lights
- Window tint
- 8.8 rear axle w/ 4.56 gears
- Possible manual trans swap in the future

That’s it for now. On to the pics!!!

Here's how close the bump stops used to be...

Here is how the rear shackle was when i bought it...

I think they just used some 2" DOM tube scrap for the exhaust cause its pretty dang small...

Here's the ghetto coil spring spacers. They make the front end super stiff!

The custom spare tire carrier. It folds down to which is super nice.

And the front bumper. It's pretty basic so I'm gonna remake stronger mounts and add some side tubes and a light hoop with light mounts.

 

[railman]

nice little truck ya got there

yeah, i would definately re-do the exhaust....and get the new springs for the front ( hate the ghetto spring inserts )

keep us posted when ya do the up-grades.....

l8r, John

 

[droptopfox]

thats a sick truck needs some suspension mods but i think my next build might just be a prerunner truck it would be the only one ive seen around me but it will probly be a gen 2 to match my v8 truck

 

[ChrisR1S]

Really good looking truck! nice and clean. Be careful not to flex the front suspension too much while driving until you get the new springs; hate to see those hunks of metal come out of the coil and tear something up

 

[86 slo-vo]

nice looking truck but deffinantly do some suspension work

highly suggest going to 63' chevy leafs and some coil overs if you plan on getting any air

 

[subydrift]

The suspension doesn't droop enough to let the coil spacers loosen up. I actually tried to take them out but couldn't and was afraid of them rocketing out at me so I just left 'em in.

I don't think I'm gonna do any rear spring swaps right now or coilovers just because they both require quite a bit of fab work and extra cost with accompanying parts. I need this truck everyday for work so any mods I do need to be able to be done over the weekend or a couple days but still have it driveable.

I read on another forum today that the Springtech springs were just cheap steal and pretty stiff and I want the ride closer to the factory ride so I think I'm gonna run Fat Bob's 2" spring spacers with the stock springs.

http://store.fatbobsgarage.com/ford-ranger-2-front-spacer-lift-kit-2wd-1998-2007-p7591.aspx

They are Poly instead of the Aluminum ones on Ebay that I've read are prone to cracking. I'm also going to run Bilsteins in the front with ProComps in the rear. I figure if the Bilsteins are good enough for the Camburg 5.5 kit then they'll be good enough for what I'm doing.

I'm on a pretty tight budget right now so I want to keep the suspension affordable. I'm not going to be doing any jumps just dirt roads and playing around out in the desert. Once things settle down financially I'll look into getting a better kit like the H&M or Camburg.

And thanks for your comments!

 

[86 slo-vo]

the 63 swap can be done in a weekend pretty easily for under $200

if you play your cards right like me i pretty much did it for under $100 (but i did buy all new brackets because mine were rusted through pretty bad, you shouldnt have that problem)

this is exactly what i went off of
http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28793

 

[bcost882]

it looks pretty cool. but the suspension is kida hard to do. you might want to get rid of the wheel spacers though, if you have 3.75in backspacing they won't rub anywhere. the leafs will be easy to do flip the shackles back over and it will get you back up to where you wanna be. the front is harder to do. i got lift spindles for 200 off craigslist. give it time and piece things together and you can get some ok stuff. and ebay has steel spacers you gotta look for em i have a set

 

[Quartermile]

4.0 or 5.0 and suspension and it would be unstoppable. nice body on it though

 

[straycat]

One clean sweet looking ride!!! The only thing I would do was change the tires to 33's. That would look super!!!!

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

nice work man!!

im running ghetto coil spacers too lol, check my build thread, i got pics of them there.