89 Ranger GT Restoration

[MrE_Powers]

you maybe better off finding another ranger gt that has a bad engine and swapping in the engine

 

[1989LongbedGT]

If that were possible I would do that. But where I am in Eastern Canada. I havent seen any GT's east of Ontario.

Seeing that A Piller picture was surely discouraging....thats what happened on my Fathers old 92 he had.

Im heading down Saturday after work to inspect the cab and pull some interior out. Crossing my fingers it isnt rotten to death. If its bad and the fire wall is gone then Ill Probably end up getting a Cab for it.

Matt

 

[ZMan]

How common are rangers in general? Could you maybe just try and find another 2nd gen longbed and put the Gt bodykit on?

 

[1989LongbedGT]

around here...1st and 2nd gen rangers are getting pretty scarce. If you do find one most likely its pretty rusty as well. We have really shitty winters and cars rot really fast here.

I could put the gt kit on another ranger....but then its just a ranger with a GT kit on it. Id like to try and keep it as Original as I can. Even tho they werent much more different than a Ranger with a Ground effects package and a few other tweeks, id still like to keep the original chassis and as much as I can on the truck.

This weekend will really tell me what Im gonna do with the truck. She might be just too far gone to save it.

Matt

 

[longbedGTs]

Wow! Ive gotten a 3 GTs from the rust belt and none of them were that bad. Between the rust, neglect, and stupid repairs someone did, my only words are !!


Good to see the truck is in good hands! Major props for wanting to keep everything original that makes it a GT, but it all depends on how much work/time/money you want to invest to keep as much original sheet metal as you can. I had a white 88 I got from NY that I did a frame off on. No restoration, just r/r the rusty parts. .

It had right around 100K original miles. Awesome paint, no dents, perfect interior but...it was rusted to heck and back. I got it home and decided to just replace everything with rust free metal. Only metal that was original was the frame and the little stone shield thing under the grille. After it was all back together and looking like a truck, I didnt see it as anything other than a Ranger GT. Sure it didnt have many parts that were originally bolted to the frame when it was on the assembly line, but it still had the original heart and foundation...and that was the frame, so I didnt see it as anything other than a Ranger GT with some replacement parts.

 

[1989LongbedGT]

thanks for the reply. Yeah that makes sense, No different than someone restoring a old rusted out muscle car where they replace 90% of the body panels.

That certainly cleared things up!

The cab is the next thing to be stripped, and see if its rotted near the windshield. The windshield is cracked, but im not sure if thats from a rock or from a rust bubble forming and causing stress?

Stay tuned guys. Ill keep updating this as often as I can.

Matt

 

[1989LongbedGT]

Oh. Sorry LongbedGT's for sending you 3 pms...site keeps signing me out. lol

 

[1989LongbedGT]

Hey guys. Little bit of a update. Pictures will be up soon, Im having a issue with the camera im using. Very hard to get the pictures off it and onto my lap top. Anyways lol

Seats and Carpet are out to examine the floor. Surprisingly the floor is in pretty good shape, the driver side will need to be patched in areas which I will probably start doing soon to get that done and out of the way.

Pulled the front fenders off.
Pulled the front bumper and trim off.

Tried to have a peak up near the windshield corners, seen a bit of surface rust on one side but Ill really have to take the dash out to see how bad it is.

Rad support is gonna have to be replace.

Also I brought a couple of small parts back to reconditon or restore them. Have been picking at the headlights and signal lights. I will get pictures of those up soon as well.

Pictures will be up this week.

Matt

 

[1989LongbedGT]

Alright! FINALLY time for an update here. Holy cow I have been way too busy to spend some time to post it up on here.

So heres what I got done to the truck. Im trying to keep as much of the original metal as I can..but this is deff increasing the labour time on this truck. My father inlaw let me put the truck in his workshop attached to the barn so I can restore this thing properly without it rusting any further.

When I removed the carpet and the sound dedening material off the floor there was shiny newish steel underneath it all. I left the truck and came back a week later and the floor in those areas was covered in surface rust..... thats when I said "this thing needs to be in a dry place"

So the GT is now in a dry shop. Fenders, doors, front end, and complete interior minus the steering column, pedals and headliner were pulled.

Now we are cooking with fire

Had a few puffs, turn the radio on, closed the shop door and went to work.

Off came the drivers door to start working on the door jamb. Its wet with Penetrating fluid to keep the dust level down as I grind.

I started grinding away the rust to see how much good metal was still remaining...realized how much was actually bad so I marked where I wanted to cut it.

AH! to my amazement....more rust!

This loose piece of square metal is actually "glued" ontop of the rocker panel inside the jamb on an angle to help direct the water through the drain just passed that piece of steel....im sure it held the water better than it drained it. Out it came. I cleaned as much of the rust away as I possibly could and primed it up.

here you can actually see the water drains. The inside of this area still needs to be sealed.

Heres the new piece of steel cut out. and then later trimmed to fit better

Holding it in place to see how well it will fit

Had a few more puffs and started to tack weld it in place.

Finished tacking the whole thing in. then circled my pin holes left over after grinding to weld the holes shut, then grinded it off some more and threw a coat of primer over it to protect it for now.

The inside of the door jamb was in no better shape. The area near the rubber plug was pretty well rotten on the bottom. More grinding, cutting and cutting small pieces to shape the metal as best as I can to the original shape.

The passenger side is in good shape so I used that side for my templates and then just flipped them to cut out new steel and shape it the best I could.

Thats what I ended up with after I ran out of wire . It doesnt look pretty b ut the dimensions are pretty close to the original. It still has to be completely welded, then filled and shaped. Also the hole will be cut out for the rubber plug to go back in.

Im using very limited tools LOL its sad really. Also im completely new to making new body pieces and trying to shape them and piece them together. Its a fun learning curve.

I did a small patch on the floor as well close to where the seat bolts in. This too will be grinded and properly sealed.

And heres the next task.........ew

Thats all for now guys. Hope some of you are still following this build. I thought long and hard on a paint job and I think Im dead set on what I want it to look like.

Still trying to decide what to do for a power plant afterwards. 2.9 with a good tune up but im sure I would want it to be quicker eventually. 4.0 swap with some bolt ons or a 5.0 swap. 2.9 with a remote turbo or a small shot of nitrous, no more than a 50 shot. I really cant decide what route to go lol

What do you guys think?

Matt

 

[rockin86ranger]

My vote is 2.9l with remote turbo and small shot of nitrous, simply because its still close to original but a little pep too, plus its pretty unique. I've always wanted to build a 2.9l

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

IMO GT should equal 5.0.

When I did my swap I tried to keep it somewhat plausible that it could have been built that way. All major componants are Ford aside from the intake and carb... but those are often switched around anyway. I even got a '85 F-150 5.0 automatic emissions label for the rad support. Doesn't mention the model anywhere.

Good luck on your project, you have a lot of work ahead of you.

 

[1989LongbedGT]

Thanks for the comments guys. Still really dont know what to decide on lol. V8 would be alot of fun, but I deff have to do more research on that.

 

[rockin86ranger]

I've always been the guy that goes against the flow, if i see a 5.0l ranger its boring to me now. yeah it was awesome 12years ago just like a 350 s10 but theyre too played out to me. if i saw a turbo 2.9l you can bet ill look that truck over for a long time and take plenty of pics of it if i ever saw it.

Guess thats your call, but my vote is deffinately turbo 2.9 or a 3.0l out of a taurus sho.

 

[multiranger]

I just scrapped a cab in near mint condition I'd have given you if you lived closer...

 

[jas0n]

Lookin Better Man... Props to you for taking something like this on.

If you really wanted to go against the grain, you could do a modular swap. They are pretty intense though. Not many people have done them. I'm looking into a 302 swap because they are pretty common engines, and they make decent power. If I had the funds I would try out the 4.6...

I can't wait to see what you can make of this truck...