95 Big yellow mallcrawler

[transmissions]

Thought I'd start a thread on my build, document some things for myself, as well as ask and answer questions for anyone interested.

My truck: I've got a 1995 regular cab 4x4 3.0 splash
Paid 500 bucks not including title fees.
The story basically is that some guy bought it for his kid and put a lift kit on it and pimped it the hell out as a sweet 16 present or something.

I got it with a 6 inch lift
3 inch suspension
3 inch body
Rancho extended radius arms
33x12.5x15's
and I'm pretty sure i've got lift springs up front

Eventually he apparently beat the shit out of it and was broke and traded it to a guy for a dirt bike because he didn't have enough cash.
Sat in an alleyway for 3 years, and the last owner did a little work like putting new shackles on, and a new battery.

Now I've got it and plan on making it rust free, running a long travel suspension, driving it to college in Erie during the winter, and doing some mild wheeling
As much as I'd love to make it a full on prerunner with a full cage, glass, 302 or even an ls1 I haven't got the cash.

 

[transmissions]

Super Rad instagram bro photo at my dad's shop


Well. apparently my phone just deleted every single picture I had of my truck, thank you motorola, I guess this is going to be delayed.

Well, this write up is going to be short and sweet considering what I just wrote disappeared...

I wanted to remove the bed to work on the fuel pump and drain the gas, as well as needle scale the frame.
It'd been sitting for 3 years so the gas would have destroyed my injectors, and I wish I still had a picture but when I did pull the fuel pump out it was covered with crystals

I don't have any pictures of this part, but to remove the bed you have to remove the filler neck which can be done via the gas door and removing those bolts, disconnecting the tail light and trailer light connections by the bumper, and removing bed mount bolts.
I had a little caveat because of my body lift bolts not having weld nuts, as im fairly certain the oem bolts do and can be taken off with one person.
Long story short I was underneath on the creeper holding a wrench while the guy who's garage I was working on my truck at was in the bed with a torch removing bolts and heating the stuck ones.
We did end up torching the bolt by the gas tank out because there was no way to easily get to it.

Finally, It was time to clean up the frame, It all pretty much looked like this:




After some needle scaling the hell out of the frame for a couple evenings and possibly giving myself arthritis, I had this:

and this..... :l

This has pretty much been the determining factor along with another hole on the rear passenger section right under the shackle hangers that's put me on hold, but now that my truck isn't outside and I have a space the size of the shop it was at to work and keep all my shit, as well as a machine shop, presses and welders a walk away, things are going to get real pretty soon. I'm still afraid to weld the heat treated metal and did find a new frame for a 94 online from a ford dealership for $850
So, the next step really is to get the cab off, I got the interior out for the most part a few hours ago, and boy did I find shit below the carpet.
Lighter stuffed in the crease on the back wall, nuts under the carpet, 10 year old receipts, change, and I think a rat lived under the arm rest for a little bit considering what looked like a nest was there.

Removal: Seats

The seats come out fairly easily, there was just four 13mm bolts, one on each corner that needed to come out of each seat, as well as a wiring connector that needed to be disconnected after the seat was unbolted.
Back with connector:

Front:

I set them aside and began working on the arm wrest.
To remove the arm rest you need to pull the cup holder piece out:
remove 4 screws, two are longer then the others:

then remove the plastic panel on the rear of the arm wrest assembly, and remove 4 5/16" bolts, then pull the arm wrest off, and the assembly off of the substructure.
You're now left with carpet, seat belt clips, and the aluminum structure.


I found what looked like a rats nest in my little substructure :l
I then proceeded to remove the carpet and vacuum out everything, I can't give an accurate writeup of that because most of my trim panels are broken and it's straightforward, but it should end up looking like this

Oh, and why the hell is the back panel made out of cardboard?

I'm going to be taking a couple panoramic photos, getting multicolored zip ties, and using the program paint to label pictures and where things go before I go and pull all the wiring off.
The plan is to take the cab off and get it sand blasted, and clean all the rust off under the cab that I otherwise couldn't get to.
Will post pics up when I get to it, I can't wait to get the rust off this thing and use my rust converter on the frame and then slather a thick coat of undercoating on.
Once that's done I'll finally be able to run brake lines and fuel lines, put my gas tank on, new fuel pump, and do the rest of what I need.
What's coming:
Rebuild the rear suspension
Patch the frame
Clean and undercoat the frame
Running new lines
Probably installing these: http://www.dufftuff.com/James_Duff_70_30_15_Long_Travel_Shock_p/8120.htm
Fixing my leak under the hood
Installing the new door
New ignition cylinder
Rekeying everything
Installing the new fenders

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Sweet! Keep the updates coming!

 

[transmissions]

Sweet! Keep the updates coming!

Finally got it working kind of, pictures are being put on photobucket as we speak. Probably going to take more tomorrow.

 

[4.0B2]

subscribed..
stuff like that makes me glad I live in the south!
my 88 is basically rust free. More power to y'all!

 

[transmissions]

subscribed..
stuff like that makes me glad I live in the south!
my 88 is basically rust free. More power to y'all!

Thanks!
It's terrible, and anything from the south in the junk yards is sooo overpriced, I wanted a bed and it was cracked and dented but rust free and they wanted $800, and I might have to resort to a stepside again because the all metal beds are all rusted out.

Im going to live up in Erie for school next month which is going to kill anything, so I plan on putting on crazy undercoating and making this thing last forever.

Also, Has anyone seen my radius arms and brackets before, I need new brackets as there rotted away and can't find the kit anywhere.
What type of undercoating works the best for you guys?

 

[transmissions]

Little update:
Didn't get to work on the truck, left a friends house and went on a little joy ride exploring. I was going to head back home and work on the truck, but I ended up getting my truck stuck for an hour and having to get AAA to pull me out.
Thought I was just driving over a flat patch of grass and weeds and needed to make a U turn because there was no street left.


But What I didnt realize was that there was a ditch at the end, and nose dived into the ground and got stuck.
4 wheel low and hi didn't do shit even with boards under the tires and I just ended up burning rubber.
And the way I was sitting I almost ran out of gas, my quarter tank became empty on my fuel gauge.






At least the night before at the truck stop kind of saved the weekend


Update:

I did manage to get some work done tonight, after a long sweaty fight with 6 rusted bolts I got the bull bar off,sprayed them with PB Blaster friday and had to use a breaker bar and a massive socket wrench and could still barely get them off, they snapped and I almost burnt my hand on them when I pulled em out.


Went from this:


To this:



I also got most of the bolts off of the passenger fender, but the one by the bumper had the head rounded off so I'll have to get the torch out next time and heat it up.

 

[transmissions]

Does anyone know of a good decently priced winch that can be used in mostly emergency situations? After the fiasco yesterday I want one on my ranger.


And I just watched the top gear episode about saab where they dropped one on its roof, and it really got me thinking about putting some channel about 1/4" thick out of sight on all of my pillars rather than going for a cumbersome unnecessary roll cage

 

[4.0B2]

winches... you get what you pay for.
that being said, I have a smitty xrc8 and love it, it's worked flawlessly everytime. Runs about $300.

just google winch reviews and read all the threads on all the different forums, you'll get everything from winch "x" sucks to winch "x" is awesome. Truth be told... all "cheaper Chinese" winches are basically the same. Quadratec, Smitty, Rough Country, Rugged Ridge, Badlands, etc...

 

[transmissions]

winches... you get what you pay for.
that being said, I have a smitty xrc8 and love it, it's worked flawlessly everytime. Runs about $300.

just google winch reviews and read all the threads on all the different forums, you'll get everything from winch "x" sucks to winch "x" is awesome. Truth be told... all "cheaper Chinese" winches are basically the same. Quadratec, Smitty, Rough Country, Rugged Ridge, Badlands, etc...

I figured as much, when I'm getting ready to take the ranger on the road and have it all done I'm definitely going to pick one up so I guess I have time to reasearch it, I just never knew what companies to look at, Ill have to check the one you have out.

I need a winch with a rating that is higher than my vehicles gvw right?

They probably all come from the same factory.

 

[dhkonrad]

The badlands winch (harbor freight) has actually gotten pretty good reviews, and even came close to beating or actually did beat (I cant remember) a warn winch in a fourwheeler magazine winch shootout.
As far as winch rating, I had a 3k winch for a while, which is obviously less than my gvw, and it saved my butt a bunch. I did however max it out more than a few times....

 

[Schnot]

I use a 12k harbor freight winch everyday for a year plus and its been great. Never a problem.


Sent from my iPhone.

 

[Surrey]

I figured as much, when I'm getting ready to take the ranger on the road and have it all done I'm definitely going to pick one up so I guess I have time to reasearch it, I just never knew what companies to look at, Ill have to check the one you have out.

I need a winch with a rating that is higher than my vehicles gvw right?

They probably all come from the same factory.

Ideally, you want a winch with thats 3 times your gvw, but 2 is a good minimum.

Just think about how much "heavier" your truck is if your stuck in the mud, or having to winch uphill (or both)

Actually, there was a big write-up someone did on... Pirate 4x4 maybe?? on exactly this topic. He used a bunch of math to show how big of a winch you need (not sure how accurate his coefficients were and stuff, but its an interesting piece none the less.)

 

[transmissions]

That would make more sense, friction and all that and if youre getting pulled up a ramp or not will effect it. Pirate 4x4 always has some crazy detailed over the top guides to things.
So basically youre saying that a good winch can pull you 30* up or down hill out of sticky mud?

Getting some work done:



Pulled the front end, fenders, doors, and drive shaft off, the core support is going to need a bit of tlc and basically everything in the engine bay and cab is going to get sanded down and primed before it goes back together.

Basically planning to pull the cab off so I can send the frame out to be sand blasted and finally get the frame fixed and run new brake and fuel lines.

 

[wizkid00104]

It's looking good!

Where are you going to school at?

I used NiCopp line for my brakes. It's a nickel copper alloy. It's about $2 a foot, but it won't rust. You can bend it vary easily too. I bought brass tube nuts from www.allensfasteners.com so the nuts can seize. The tube nuts were super cheap from them. You need some 3/16" to 1/4" tube adapters for some of the fittings. I got braided stainless lines from James Duff for the remainder. They are nice quality and about $100 for the set of 3. Brinker bought his lines for $75 and they were for an XJ I think. His build thread has the info.

I did my undercoating with chassis saver from magnet paints. I haven't tested it in salt yet, but I was very pleased with it. If it sticks to the truck like it did to my hands, it will be great. 1bad did his super duty with por15 which he was very happy with. I've seen other people use fluid film with good results and I've talked to others that swear by spraying oil underneath. Anything from used motor oil to fish liver oil. I even met a guy who used wd40 and was very pleased with it.

Sent from my iPhone