'85 Ranger Restomod

[Jim Oaks]

I have a gallon I'll sell you.

I asked a girl at Home Depot where they kept Flux Capacitor oil. She gave me an isle number.

 

[BlackBII]

Nice looking welds there!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Nice looking welds there!

Dad did it it all, he was pretty bummed when I took them all away...

I told him he can go nuts on the carrier, I just wanted to blend the main part of the bumper.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Compared bumpers:



Before:



Got the old bumper off:



New bumper is sitting roughly in place, it is about an inch low:



It doesn't stick out as much as it looks like it does:



How we do things on the poor farm...



I found a hunk of 100+ year old 1" dimensional lumber to shim it up to where it is supposed to be, the tube I have for the swingout is sitting on nuts to simulate its placement:



Backed outside, looks pretty good in the daylight.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

So what bed corners are you protecting??

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

So what bed corners are you protecting??

My future ones.

 

[Uncle Gump]

So what bed corners are you protecting??

Want me to kick him in the sack too? LMAO

My junk (truck) is showing it's age too...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Want me to kick him in the sack too? LMAO

My junk (truck) is showing it's age too...

She is in pretty good shape for the shape she is in.

Really wish I could find a nice bed though... at least the bed floor and supports are in really good shape... unlike some others.

 

[racsan]

It would be a needle in a haystack to find a gen 1 longbed in excellent shape. While the bed on my 94 is pretty good (actually a ‘97 box) the bed on the ranger trailer (which is really the original bed from the ‘94) looks decent from the outside, but nearly every rib underneath is rusted bad, several pinholes in the bed floor too.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

at least the bed floor and supports are in really good shape... unlike some others.

Sad part is that the bed floor in the 1988 is is way better shape than the 2011.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It would be a needle in a haystack to find a gen 1 longbed in excellent shape. While the bed on my 94 is pretty good (actually a ‘97 box) the bed on the ranger trailer (which is really the original bed from the ‘94) looks decent from the outside, but nearly every rib underneath is rusted bad, several pinholes in the bed floor too.

They are out there.

There is a bunch of them down south on autopart.com.

There is one a couple miles from my house that looks nice from the road, the whole truck looks mint actually. I would have to buy the whole truck to get the bed if they even wanted to sell it, I have never seen it move. A friend of mine inquired and they didn't want to sell it to him. I would actually be tempted to do a whole body swap if the bottom looked as nice as the top.

Long beds are few and far between as a whole though. Nice shortbeds are pretty easy to find because there are so many more of them. My private theory judging by the "average" longbed of today is most of those were work trucks and were beat up.

Sad part is that the bed floor in the 1988 is is way better shape than the 2011.

Underside of mine looks great, if I was more ambitious and if bodywork didn't terrify me my bed could be fixed with wheel well arches, rear rocker panel patches and some crease massaging.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Hinge is welded on the main arm of the gate:



And the nut that is going to end up in the tube is welded to the lock plate:



And I rumbled down the courthouse and renewed the license on both trucks today. Good times.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Threw what I have so far for the swingout on the bumper... that hinge is like butter.

 

[sgtsandman]

Have you done any load testing on it yet to see how much it will sag? I'm just curious since I'm seen other swing arms with more buttressing and a taller hinge post so the carrier has an upper stiffening bar that forms a triangle.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Have you done any load testing on it yet to see how much it will sag? I'm just curious since I'm seen other swing arms with more buttressing and a taller hinge post so the carrier has an upper stiffening bar that forms a triangle.

I can bend the tube down to touch the bumper by hand fairly easy. It is 3/16 tube so it isn't super light duty stuff. I just stuck it together at break and played with it a little. It is hard to get too rowdy or the whole thing wants to start flopping off the table.

I don't know if the flex is from the tube or the top flange of the bumper. When I get the actual bumper mounting brackets in I do plan on strengthening the top flange of the bumper by running a support just inboard of the hinge down inside the shell.

The actual design for what goes on top the tube is kind of in flux until I get the bumper on the truck and see how the spare tire fits.

The basic layout of mine was inspired by this one:

But I want the jerry can to sit flat against the gate. Just for carrying water.

Not sure what you mean by a taller hinge post. Most just run a single shear trailer axle stub with kind of mixed results.