Corey and Elise's 1983 V8 Ranger build - aka - Project Interceptor

[CoreyTilton]

So the seats came.
Cleaned then up, sanded and painted any rusty metal, lubed up the moving parts, and put them together. And boy are they cool. Very retro black on black vinyl look and super retro feel. Reminds me of my dad's old Econoline work van from the 80s when I was a little kid.

They have some cracks and rips and tears, but considering the price, not bad at all.

Excited to have these to put in when the truck gets running.

 

[CoreyTilton]

starting to get underway with the fuel system.
dropped the stock fuel tank with sender/pump/filler neck

which if anybody in the MA area is interested, is for sale. the whole kitten caboodle.


the 15 gallon fuel cell has shown up in the mail

and i began laying out the filter. - pump - filter setup. xrp 100micron pre, bosch 044 pump, xrp 40micron post. all with -10AN fittings. im putting these in a NEMA 4x rated outdoor electrical box with a clear cover.
i need to figure out how exactly im going to mount it up in the bed.

moving forward im going to pull out the old fuel pump wiring and plumbing and try to make sense of everything, then start running new fuel lines down the passenger side frame.

- corey

 

[CoreyTilton]

question,
what are people using for electric fans for these 5.0 swaps?
previous owner has an electric fan, stand alone, just kind of Hanging there, loose, infront of the engine and radiator, id like something that doesn't look like its going to be smacking the serpentine belt as we're driving, and ideally id like a fan shroud on there, but clearance between engine and radiator is TIGHT so I don't even know if that's possible?

any links or suggestions would be rad.

- corey

 

[CoreyTilton]

hey guys, haven't posted much progress up here as of lately. starting to get cold in Massachusetts, figured I'd play a little catch up.

figured before we started mounting the fuel system and battery in the bed we'd take the old plastic liner out and do a 2-part paint in liner.

 

[CoreyTilton]

we put rubber grommets in the bed where the new battery cables and PTFE fuel line will be passing through.

after that we ended up swapping out the headlights for a pair of black ones, and blacked out the other lights on the truck.

then we found a really cheap tailgate, that we primed to match the rest of the truck, and bed linnered the interior.

 

[CoreyTilton]

at this point we got sick of looking at the heating system that wasn't hooked up, was adding weight, and was going to just get in our way once we started running fuel lines and trying to trouble shoot things. se we yanked out the dash, and started tearing apart the heating system.

the we took some black rustoleum enamel to the dash frame, and decided to go at it under the hood as well with some fresh paint in the engine bay.

then we took some sheet metal to the firewall to seal up all the holes and then took some spray on FlexSeal to the the firewall

 

[CoreyTilton]

With the dash out, and the heating vents rendered useless, we came up with a solution to fill the holes. we cut some pieces of sheet metal and fit them to the old vent frames (took the actual vents out so we could possibly use these for toggle switches or something if we find we need to)

think they came out looking pretty sharp.
also found some speaker fillers off ebay for the dash.

 

[Angie]

Looking good. cant wait to see this is all going to set into the cab will be sharp with the vents closed in and cleaned

 

[CoreyTilton]

Thanks!
I'll be uploading done pictures of the dash face itself this week. Got the Sheetmetal for that cut, bent, and in place and its looking pretty cool I think.

 

[CoreyTilton]

so I got a good piece of 16 gauge steel, attempted to measure out the dash face 20 times, transferred shapes over to the steel, and did some cuts.
then I bought one of those cheap $60 sheet metal brakes, and very gradually attempted to match the 2 bends (one just shy of 90 degrees up top, and the bottom is more like 50 degrees)
the hardest part I had was trying to line up the screw holes and get them to fit, but it ended up working.

obviously haven't cut put for the steering column, gauges, or ignition switches yet, but getting there.




when I was pulling the steering wheel off, I thought I broke the steering shaft until I realized they have collapsible safety feature.
the bearings were pretty toast on the column/shaft anyway, so I dismantled the whole thing, welded the shaft back together in place, ordered new bearings rubber bushings and junk, and reassembled. I'm welding on a hex nut for a quick removable steering wheel.

also, I had a junkyard cut off the welded-on wiper cowl off another older ranger for me (and a good portion of the windshield it looks like) and I finally started stripping alllll the extra unwanted layers of sheetmetal off of that so it is Just the final top skin, that im then going to screw on, similar to how they attach on the econolines and f150s of similar years (atleast my econoline and f150 the cowl just unscrews and comes right off)

probably went through 8 cutoff wheels and 4 grinding disks.
but got it down to just beyond where the previous owner had cut the old one off. this slips right over it, and should look nice with a couple of sheetmetal screws and the windshield trim/molding on.

I also decided while I was grinding and cutting, I was going to weld the cowl vents shut, throw a little body filler over it, and sand it down smooth. again, the entire heating and air system has been completely removed and the firewall has been sealed shut. so the vents in the cowl really we're going to serve any purpose anymore.

 

[prymetime1]

Cool progress man! Diggin the smoothed vents.

 

[CoreyTilton]

got the cowl on.
have to do some serious adjusting. like i said in a previous post, im pretty sure this thing was in an accident, most of the body panels on the passenger side are knocked back out of wack, front bumper is all bent in and up on that side, rear quarter panel is all crumpled and pulled out, and i just realized that the passenger side door isnt the original.

anyway, gotta do some adjusting to get the cowl to sit right and still open the hood, but here it is for now.

i also started fixing the roof corners up by the windshield molding.
i used an angle grinder to take the corners down to practically nothing, then cut some scrap 16 gauge steel to shape, and used a hammer and some vices to slowly bang it into the rough shape i was looking for, then traced that shape onto the roof, and used the angle grinder to take the negative space down really far so the patch sits a little more flat.
i'm not confident in my but welds with really thin sheetmetal like this. i only have a cheap flux Core welder. so im overlapping everything and grinding it down smooth.

so this is what ive got. going to go over with a little bondo gold to smooth out the holes and rough spots, but im pretty happy. welds are strong, and no more holes.

also, im starting to sell off all the spare parts we're ripping out of this thing to get some funds for new parts. hahaha. if anybody is interested, selling red interior door panels in near perfect condition, no wear aside from the push clips, selling those white face gauges i had in there, vents, metal dash speaker grills, old door handles, window crank handles, old fuel pump and gas tank, washfluid and overflow resoivoir, going to be selling the 60/40 bench seat soon alot of dash trim pieces, literally EVERYTHING off the steering column. let me know if anybody is interested.

- corey

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

You've done a lot of work,

 

[CoreyTilton]

been doing what i can when i can.
this winter hasnt exactly been That cold, but it certainly hasnt been begging me to go outside and crawl under the truck.
trying to get it on the road for the 4th of july.

we will see though.
i think ive decided im going to rewire everything with the exception of the computer itself (for now).
might be biting off too much.
oh well.
hahaha

but thanks for all the encouragement everyone.

- corey

 

[prymetime1]

Spring is teasing us right now bud. Keep at it. July 4th will come fast. What are u needing to rewire?