dhkonrad's 93 ford ranger

[dhkonrad]

Hacked the body mounts off

Cleaned the frame up where the plate is going to go

Cut out some plates to run along the frame. Dubbed by one of my friends as "alien hands"

Got the outer ones welded up

And the body mounts welded back on

(fyi I assure you the welds look way better in person. except maybe the welds on the body mounts.... )

Got some plates on the inside of the frame

Had to do some clearance modifications for around the body

Same on the left

and some of my welds for good measure

 

[dhkonrad]

Got some new wheels

Im not too sure about a 10 inch wide rim with a 35x12.50... the rim is almost wider than the tread. Definitely gives it a meaner stance though.

Also got a new welder.

Pretty pumped about having a decent sized MIG, and an option of TIG.

Now I just need to round up the rest of the steel I need to finish the bumper...

Haven't found time for wheeling so I did the next best thing....

 

[dhkonrad]

Welp, because of school and life, its been a while since my last update, but the semester is done, and the stress of finals is over with time to get back to work
*forewarning* this post is pretty long winded and picture heavy
Finally got the metal that I am gonna build the winch plate and base of the bumper out of. Got some of the pieces tacked together and test fitted.

I am slightly concerned with the approach angle due to the roller fairlead sticking out so far, so I pushed the winch up a little further. I also may end up ditching the fairlead all together.
The winch is going to stick pretty far up into the grill, and well beyond the front of it, so I am going to have to figure out a custom grill once the bumper is said and done.

Then I got completely side tracked building a welding cart:

and I realized my passenger side TTB drop bracket had a crack starting, so I pulled that sucker off to fix it. (figured that was a little more important than the bumper)

I purchased the lift kit used, and it seems as though the bracket broke once before and was welded. This time it cracked right along the weld.
Cleaned it all up, and went to bend the bracket into the correct shape, and the weld broke the rest of the way. I had planned on grinding most of the old weld out and rewelding, then grinding the rest out, etc, but I guess grinding it all out before is as good a time as ever.

got it all welded back together and cleaned up, and added a few reinforcement plates

back to work on the truck...

ended up cutting a bunch more of the fiberglass core support thingy to get the winch as high as I could get it. I pushed it so high that the stock hood latch is not going to work anymore though, so I guess hood pins are in the near future...
got some of the plates that are going to go around the bumper horns tacked on

my friend was screwing around with the camera, so I got a few action shots

got the part that will encircle the frame all finished welding up

I tacked all those plates on when it was sitting on the truck, and there was plenty of clearance for it to slide on and off the frame, and kept test fitting after every couple of welds. I stopped testing when I started my cover passes though, and when I did those, it warped it enough that it was an EXTREMELY tight fit onto the frame, so I spent most of today test fitting, grinding, test fitting, grinding etc etc. ended up taking at least a few thousandths off the top and bottom of the frame to get it to slide on.
Somewhere in there, it decided to start raining pretty good, and I am garage-less like so many, so I set up and Easy-up. Made life much better.

That pretty much brings me up to date. Got the holes on the top of the frame drilled, just four more for the bottom and presto, the winch mounting portion of the bumper will be done

 

[stiluv]

You should go back to who sold you the lift and kick his ass. Haha

 

[dhkonrad]

yeah, I thought there was 100% satisfaction guaranteed!!

 

[Ford78]

Looks real good!!

 

[dhkonrad]

Thanks ford78!
Got a tad more done today. I got 6 out of 10 holes drilled and clearanced. bolted the winch in and bolted the whole shebang to the truck.

yes I know that paint job sucks, but it wasn't meant to be pretty. I just slapped some paint on there because it was raining and I didn't want it to rust. Ill go back later and actually try and make it look decent (like removing the cutting oil from the metal )

Even with the hood closed, the front looks pretty crappy with no grill, so I am going to have to do something about that pretty soon.



When I bought the winch, it came with no remote, so I bypassed all the wiring and wired a remote directly to the solenoid pack.
This picture is the solenoids before I rewired them.

I forgot to grab a picture of the remote I used, but it is basically a typical engine hoist looking remote.

 

[RANGERROD]

I've broken that same bracket on my truck when it was ttb 3 times. Youll get tired of all the repairs and straight axle it. Looking good though.

 

[dhkonrad]

I've broken that same bracket on my truck when it was ttb 3 times. Youll get tired of all the repairs and straight axle it. Looking good though.

Thanks!
I was kind of worried about that. Ill have to keep an eye on it, and like so many others before me, Ill probably end up straight axled before too long, funds allowing.

Tested out the winch by pulling my truck across slightly inclined ground. Obviously it isn't under much load, but it pulls fast. Almost too fast. Ill have to see how it pulls under loads and in situations, but I can already see someone getting squished lol.

I also noticed that my heims for my radius arms are a little noisy. Not noisy like there is something stuck in them, or a grinding, but more like a groaning. I don't know if that is normal, if they are bad, or if I did something to them to ruin them. Hope not, but I wondered if anybody else has had this same issue.

Also went on a little snow run today with another member

 

[dhkonrad]

Haven't done much, just finally got around to a bunch of little things I have been meaning to do
Cut the rear fenders, and kind of caught my fender on fire

I like the shape alot. I pretty much kept the original shape, just made it bigger

Being that my father is a sheet metal guy, he wouldn't let me just cut the fenders without at least attempting to roll them under, so I attempted. Came out a lot cleaner than I thought it was going to.
The only problem is that I didn't realize how much bigger it was going to make it by rolling the fender, so it made the fenders look HUGE and the tires teenie.

I also cut up a grill I had lying around and threw a coat of black paint on it. still not sure if I like it, but because the grill is a slightly different style, there is a gap at the top, so that would have to be rectified. I also got hood pins installed.

I also started on the front fenders:
Got the fenders off

modified the inner fender

Got the fender flares off and marked them using the same method as for the rear fenders

but ran out of tape so Ill have to continue later...

Also a video from snow wheeling

 

[n_bannerman]

truck is looking good! go lighter on the gas pedal and let air out of the tires and you will do much better in the snow.

 

[dhkonrad]

Thanks n_bannerman!
Yeah, I was just tooling around in that video trying to throw some snow and run over the snow man


Finished cutting a rolling the front fenders
I'm not quite sure about the shape of the front ones, but they are definitely growing on me, not to mention not having to worry too much about rubbing my tires will be a huge plus. The only bummer is that the fenders now make the 35s look teenie

The right rear fender was the first one I attempted to roll, and as you can see by the wrinkles in the fender, it shows. For anyone trying to roll their fender, my advice is work slow and be patient.
I also took some pictures of the underglow *ahem* I mean rocklights... once it got dark

Picture is with 13 of the led lights, attached, and I still have 7 more, so I may add some behind the grill so that I can see my winch controls better.
(I added one on the drivers side front, but have not added one to match on the passenger side front, hence the uneven light on the ground)
I also just have to say how much I am pleased with being able to turn the wheels all the way lock to lock without rubbing on anything due my radius arms

 

[dhkonrad]

Got some Warn hubs installed, as well as doing some minor surgery on my passenger side beam, as it was limiting flex.

Took it out to check the flex and see if the fenders cleared.

Due to all the extra weight up front, I am having no problem stuffing the tires all the way, they just wont droop very far.

The beam is still hitting the axle limiting the droop on the passenger side, but the drivers side seems to be unhindered.

The rear also flexes pretty good, but when the rear tire stuffs the leaf springs start to get into negative arch

All around I think the fenders are cut just about perfect for tires, except for the front side of the front fenders, they could use a little more cutting.

 

[nine-teen91stxranger]

no offence... i hate you lol. jan 11th and its sunny and looks nice -.- it was 35* and rainy yesterday

 

[dhkonrad]

lol I guess California does have 1 upside Although I sure wish it would warm up just slightly. It is really hard to paint when it is 30 degrees... I have to put cans of paint in a cup of boiling water just to bring it up to room temp.