I just discovered this thread, and I’ll be bold today and throw in my two cents…
I have an 87 four-wheel-drive, 2.9, five speed, short cab, short bed, 345 gears, about a 2 1/2 or 3 inch lift. 235/75/15 all-terrain tires. PERFECT!!!
After driving big cars and big trucks all my life, I absolutely love this thing. It’s like driving a go kart.
It has plenty of power for anything I would do with a little truck. If I have to haul, I have a 250. How often do you have to haul heavy stuff? You can rent a truck for a weekend, but this little guy does anything I want it to do that makes sense. Pretty good gas mileage. it handles really well, it’s got a great tiny turning circle, etc. etc. Trucks are a masculine thing, and this thing is all testosterone, it’s an absolute hoot to drive around.
I paid $700 and it was in primer, a few parts on the front end from a bronco, horrible dash pad, but everything was pretty straight and rust free.
Engine: When I got mine, with just under 300,000 miles, the engine was blown, rod through the block. The folks who had it before me used to charge through the woods with it. I don’t really do that. One of the reasons I pulled the trigger when I was thinking about it was because I had a (trust worthy) friend with a small Ranger, wrecked,!that also had the 2.9 engine. He had rebuilt it properly about 40,000 miles before he wrecked it. I made a handshake deal on that engine before I went and checked out the truck and towed it home. The rebuilt engine had the upgraded heads, and everything else was pretty much stock. The original heads were bad about cracking if you overheated the truck.
When I put it together, I got a new radiator with an extra core (two core?), pretty cheap on eBay. I put in a new clutch assembly, basic, and had to do very little else.
Rust: The truck came out of South Carolina, and was totally rust free except for one little spot about the size and length of my pinky above the passenger side bed wheel arch. Having lived in the south a long time, I cleaned it up inside and outside, splashed some rust oleum around on the inside to stop the rust from continuing, then bent the edges in a little bit, and filled it up with Bondo. Down here (ATL), that’ll last another 20 years. The other spots you see were little things or holes from old emblems or such.
I was lucky when I got it running that all the transmission and four-wheel-drive everything was all working properly. I put on new brake pads and brake shoes, but the metal surfaces were fine.
After a short bit of driving, I had to replace one rear axle seal, took about an hour. When I had the rear cover off, you could see that all the gears were OK.
Now, everybody on this site laughs at me because it’s painted with rust oleum, literally. Not rattle cans, painted with a foam roller! I’m not telling anybody ever what to do, but after doing a 90% job on the bodywork, I rolled it out with rustoleum rusty metal primer, which highlighted everything that still needed to get some attention. A tiny little bit more Bondo and sanding, and then I painted it red/black two tone.
You’d be amazed how smooth the rustoleum can come out if you thin it a little bit on the first coat so it flows everywhere, and then you roll it out with a foam roller for the second coat. It’s up to you if you want to do a third coat, but it lasts like iron. Again, a lot of the guys think I’m crazy, but it’s a beater truck for me, and if you’re going to be charging around through the woods, you can get a pretty good looking truck for very little money, the rustoleum is more durable, and you can touch it up with an artist brush if you do scratch it.
One thing I learned on vehicles over the years, if you have a little scratch or if it’s not the best paint job, you can spice it up with some pinstripe or other things like emblems, and it will pop. I striped the roof and put an American flag in the middle using a stencil. Most of the lines are within about 1/8 of an inch, nothing precision.
I used a reflective pinstripe yellow above, and a red reflective pinstripe below. I cleaned up the wheels a little bit, painted silver with rustoleum, and then with an artist brush I painted in the red accents. Again, nothing closer than about an eighth of an inch, nothing precision. I did the same with the center caps, all done with ann artist brush, and believe me I’m no artist.
Then I got real creative. I love the square front end of the first GEN before 88. I also own several classic Lincolns. Coincidental when I put the radiator in and I had the front end off it, I had just come from the pull apart, where I was scavenging some late 80s town car parts. I took the spare grill and set it on the Ranger bumper, and the rest is history.
if I add up the truck, the engine, installing the engine, the new clutch assembly, and everything else, I might have $2000-2500 in this thing. It runs like a top, and it’s a blast to drive. I’ve used it in foul weather, but I don’t really go off-road in the woods with it, although I’ve regularly been off-road on construction sites and such. And no matter where I go, all I get is smiles! People will joke about the rustoleum and about this and about that, but they’re always smiling when they do it.
I realize you’re a long way way up in Seattle, I’ve said it on the site many times, you can come down here and within a few days find a half a dozen rust free trucks to pick from on the street or in the salvage yard. I can’t imagine anything else would be much different here or there, mechanical parts, the engine and such. But I’ve always thought that starting with a rust free straight truck is 2/3 of the battle.
I’ve got the 4.0 in my 97, but it wasn’t available 87 an earlier. 2.9 was the big dog. I do agree with the comments that if you put bigger wheels and tires on it or have a different rear end, it may not be as fun and easy to drive. The only time I feel the power issue, is when I’m going over 75 miles an hour on the interstate and I hit a hill, other than that it does and goes anywhere I want to go. If you want a “classic“ that’s the 83 to 87.
After thought, but my dashboard was OK, door panels, even the carpet, I just cleaned all of them very well. I put in a junkyard 6040 front seat from a 93, and then.I put on a good set of custom seat covers for about $150.
The dash pad was totally destroyed. I stumbled up on a dash pad from an 88 that had a good size crack on the left and a good size crack where it steps down over the glove box, but otherwise it was in very good condition. If you dig out the bad foam, and you cut away the vinyl cover to where it’s not curling, you can fill in the gap slowly and tediously with a five dollar hot glue gun. Then you can sand it down with 80 grit, and paint it with a nappy roller with rustoleum, and nobody would ever notice that it’s not the original. After three years of sitting outside in the southern sun, only a little bit of the crack has returned, but nothing anybody would notice or complain about.
I also made a light bar out of a toolbox lid and some scrap aluminum angle, and through some floodlights up there and a yellow rotary beacon. Those things are fun, but they also pull the eye away from the rustoleum paint job, which shines in the sun if you keep it washed.
Anyway, all my two cents, hope it helps.
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