Conversion-esque trim makers?

[Heather’s94]

Anybody else here make 1 off parts? Interior wood, interior/exterior stainless, etc?

Close to 30 years ago, was employed by a custom cabinet shop. Was allowed to keep any/all offcuts, regardless of the wood species. A scrollsaw and a router were all I needed to make armrests/door pulls, sunvisors, door card inserts, steamed/bent mahogany headliners… Seriously considering adding 97 and older Ranger bits to my “goofing off in the garage” time. The “garage” being a Model T era nightmare with bad lighting and a zap you outlet.

If you own an irl back in the heyday conversion Ranger… Was it all oak/ash/maple, or were there fancier packages? Solid woods or just veneer on a cheap base? I still have a bunch of alder, ash, oak, mahogany, purpleheart, even a small quantity of ebony scrounged from the old job and the old Freecycle site. Really want to backdate the 94 burgundy door panels to 92 gray with some solid wood accent pieces. Pics? Thoughts?

 

[JoshT]

I assume you're talking something like Centurion Broncos and trucks?

I'm not aware of any 93+ conversion company Rangers, if you did something with one of those it might be pretty unique.

Zimmer did some of the square body Rangers. Bigfoot and Seleen also did some custom trucks, but I don't think they did quite what you are thinking about. There may have been others, but those are the only ones I know about.

IIRC Bigfoot trucks mostly got exterior treatment, a lift package, graphics, bumpers, grill guard, rollbar, and a unique roll down back window. Seleen got a ground effects package, custom grill, maybe bigger swaybars, special (cloth covered) door panels, and racing seats (FloFit). Zimmer package got exterior graphics, dually-esque rear fenders, cab extension, and some other chrome doodads spread around. Sorry, I don't know what kind of special treatment the Zimmers may have had on the interior.

I know that there's a page on the Saleen somewhere on the site, maybe one on the Bigfoot and Zimmer trucks too. Unfortunately we haven't seen many examples of any of them to feature or get info from. The names might give you something to start searching with.

 

[Heather’s94]

This is all precipitated off a set of Procar touring seats with the headrests removed/thrown away. I can’t stand seeing seatbacks higher than the rear window sill.

Rear shackle flip. Good tires. Good bucket seats. Tolerable engine/transmission combo. Bushing and shock upgrades. All easy, off the rack nut and bolt tasks.

Cheap carpet. Cheaper vinyl. Steering wheel that photo degrades along with the dash top, sunvisors and headliner. Cheap cheap cheap looking cab plastics. Like a Ford beancounter looked at the gmt400 platform and said “miniaturize it”. Sure, could do the standard Epay, Scamazon, Temu, LMC, Duff etc “cheapy chi-com copycat consumer crap”. It works. It’s boring.

 

[Li'l Work Truck]

*quietly hides his cheapy chi-com copycat consumer crap*

 

[JoshT]

...and you lost me with your last post. I now have even less of an idea as to what your plans or goals are, but keep us posted and have fun with it.

 

[Heather’s94]

*quietly hides his cheapy chi-com copycat consumer crap*

That’s okay, I buy it too.

 

[Roert42]

I assume you’re thinking about something like this?

Sounds cool.

I wouldn’t mind a white oak center console.

 

[Heather’s94]

I assume you’re thinking about something like this?

Sounds cool.

I wouldn’t mind a white oak center console.

View attachment 146181

No console like that due to the 5spd.

The doorpull/armrest combo in a nice domestic hardwood. Leaning towards ash or birds eye maple with an oil finish, matching window crank knobs. The carpeted lower door coverings replaced with stainless edged solid wood. Custom carved shift knob. Wood rimmed steering wheel. Dash top redone in a thin leather, sunvisors to match. Doorcard push retainers replaced with rivnuts, stainless screws and trim washers (40s style). Plastic interior door latch handle replicated in polished aluminum. Quilted/tufted headliner covering.

Grew up with streetrods, vintage motorcycles and wooden boats. Been working on all 3 for the last 50 years. Building my 94 rcsb rwd on the cheap as a daily, but needs to be cruise night worthy as well. If that makes any sense. I don’t do “normal”, probably why I ride a Kawasaki Drifter instead of a Softail or geezer glide… And have 15” wheels on my lowrider C10 instead of the far too common 18-22”.

 

[JoshT]

Not a conversion piece, but saw this in the salvage yard the other day.

Nothing fancy, but someone put some thought into it. Actual sheet of plywood, probably nice stuff before the weather go it, with chrome finished rubber edge trim. A lot of custom door panels that I see like this just use exposed screws to holt it to the door, this one appeared to use actual trim clips hidden on the back like real door panels. The arm rest decently.duplicated the original piece in wood, even using the same mounting points. A little more work and it would have been a pretty nice custom piece.