Few pics of my old Ranger

[RRRanger]

Hi all...been lurking here for a while and I thought I'd share a few pictures of my Ranger that I'm just finishing up.

It's a 1985 base model Ranger with long-rod 306, c-4, and a spooled 8".
Basically, it's pretty much an "old school" swap setup as I first converted it in the winter of 87/88 after losing the head gasket on the original 2.0. That is a story for some other time though.

Everything has been rebuilt, drivetrain wise, new paint, tires/wheels and a little nicer interior put in but left most of the "conversion" parts and work in place as it was when it was first done. If nothing else, it's fun for me to look at and see how my fab skills have improved over the last twenty years or so. Some new mods have been done basically for more of an experiment than anything. Sometimes you have to try things to see if they'll work.

I know this site is geared more for the offroad enthusiast so no offense meant.

I have a few things to finish yet obviously, but it's close now.
Thanks for lookin'.

 

[danger88ranger]

therer are alot of guys on the site that have street trucks, as well as off road rigs too....nice ride

 

[-ROKTOY-]

Very nice truck!

I will be doing a V8 Swap very soon..

 

[silveranger93]

I love that truck...its so clean. Very nice work.

 

[samsonitesamsonite]

I love a nicley done gen1

 

[chvlfrk]

Hmmmm....................

Hi all...been lurking here for a while and I thought I'd share a few pictures of my Ranger that I'm just finishing up.
It's a 1985 base model Ranger with long-rod 306, c-4, and a spooled 8".
Basically, it's pretty much an "old school" swap setup as I first converted it in the winter of 87/88 after losing the head gasket on the original 2.0. That is a story for some other time though.
I know this site is geared more for the offroad enthusiast so no offense meant.

======================================
SAY WHAT??? Offroad enthusiasts.................I would say there's a pretty good mixture of Street & Off Road on here IMO..............

SWEET lil' truck ya got there!!!

So are you the original owner? If so, that's pretty KOOL within itself!

You gonna do a spray-in bedliner?
Is that a Roush exhaust tip?
Howbout some interior shots?

 

[RRRanger]

Thanks for the kind comments

chvlfrk, sorry not the original owner, but I did buy it with about 40k or so on the clock. It was a base model truck-rubber floor mat, bench seat, 2.0 liter/5 speed/7.5...nothing special to say the least. Hell, I don't think it even had a FM radio in it.
The swap came about from neccessity. The head gasket failed in the dead of winter, Dec '88. I was just out of school, poor as hell and working on a ranch in north central Nebraska. Essentially in the middle of nowhere and roughly 40 miles from the nearest town. Needless to say when you start to get hungry (started to run out of grocieries), you figure out a way to "make things happen". There was a wrecked 73 Mercury Comet complete with running drivetrain on the place so after a few measurments, the transplant immediately went into action.

All I really remember was how terrible cold it was doing the swap and how incredibly lucky I was to find a oil filter adapter in the shop. There was alot of usable stuff in the shop, unfortunatly, heat wasn't one of them. I still remember the thermometer reading -20 degrees a couple of nights.

The engine was dropped into place with a tractor loader as I didn't have a cherry picker and all I had to weld with was the typical, ancient 220 buzzbox arc welder found on all ranches. The other thing that amazed me at the time, was that the driveshaft from the Ranger slid right into the c-4. I was pretty tickled about that at the time too...one less thing. <wink> Except I couldn't run a pump driven fan on it at that point.
I still remember driving it into town 40 some miles with open manifolds to get exhaust put on it. What a bangin' headache I had when I got there. LOL

All in all, the swap "made" the truck. It stayed in that configuration for roughly three years until a few refinements were made. I kept a few of the "special" features from the original swap, like the upper radiator hose spliced together with tubing, aluminum oil lines, a trans crossmember fit for a tank and a few others just as a reminder that my future projects shouldn't be as desperate as this one orignally was. I'm sure it wasn't the first v-8 Ranger, but it was the only one anybody knew of for quite a while.

Before I forget (or ramble any more) the questions,

Not sure what to do with the bed yet. was thinking spray bedliner, make an aluminum tonnue cover or how about just flat black paint? Any suggestions, as I'm kinda on the fence on this one?

The exhuast tip I built from .080 sheet aluminum, bent and TIG welded over a couple of exhaust adapters. Turned out pretty good for a couple hours work. I just wanted something differant. It exits out in front of the right rear, kinda like the Lightnings do.

The interior is a gen 1 black and "chrome" that I got out of a junked 83 that cleaned up incredibly well so it was worth the fifty bucks it took to get all of it. Still need to get a couple of really nice buckets for it yet though. There are a few other new things I tried just to see how they looked/ worked too.

I'll post a few more pics, once I get the c-4 back in it and the door panels back on after getting the correct weatherstripping in it.

Sorry for the War and Peace epic post...

 

[Sunk]

Man that is a sweet truck. Its cool its got a story with it too.

 

[brendank]

all I had to weld with was the typical, ancient 220 buzzbox arc welder found on all ranches.

That made me laugh. I'm pretty sure my arc was built before Christ was born.





VERY clean truck BTW!

 

[red85]

Beautiful Gen 1. I've done a few V8 conversions and the first one will always be my favourite too. LOL I can remember a few cold nights too. My wife got me a propane heater for my shop and that helped quite a bit. Did you make the roll pan or did you buy it?

ps I think we both started with the exact same model truck!

 

[RRRanger]

Thanks again for the compliments....

That made me laugh. I'm pretty sure my arc was built before Christ was born.





VERY clean truck BTW!

Lol...is yours the multiple hole (pigeon hole) type welder? I'll give them one thing: they are dead nuts reliable and will always stink like burning mouse turds. lol

red85,

You're right, just having a little bit of heat can make things bearable rather than just plain miserible. Glad your wife looks out for you too, I know mine does....or I'd probably be dead by now. lol

I bent up some aluminum for the roll pan in a sheet metal brake, except I really didn't build a provision for a license plate...whoops. On the front, even though its hard to see in the shadow, I narrowed up a mid-nineties front air dam and mounted it to the body instead of the bumper as original. Wanted to add a little color under the bumper is all.

I did weigh it on the scale and it was about 2800 lbs (60/40 split) with me in it, but it was weighed on a big grain scale meant for tractor/trailer grain trucks so I'm really not sure how accurate it was. I havent put it on the race scales yet to figure weight distribution. Those stripped down optionless trucks were really lightweight.

Any thoughts on what to do with the bed?

 

[RobbieD]

Damn nice truck, man! Enjoyed the story behind it, too.

Love that blue color. Just do a spray-in bedliner, as that'll clean it all up good with the least hassle. Or if it's in good shape, no dings or major sctratches, just paint it black. I guess it depends on what your long-range plans are, for the bed interior.

And don't sweat the "geared more for the off-road" site stuff. TRS has a hard-core off-road population, but there's a full cross-section of people of all persuasions here, and it's a good web community, to boot. Great tech, not too much BS.

 

[brendank]

Lol...is yours the multiple hole (pigeon hole) type welder? I'll give them one thing: they are dead nuts reliable and will always stink like burning mouse turds. lol

Yeah, it is. As you said, the best part is that it's still really reliable and makes a great backup for the 220amp lincoln mig. That thing, on the other hand, is the biggest fuggen POS, excuse for a welder I've ever seen. You'd think over two grand new would get you something decent.

 

[red85]

I just painted my bed black. I'm planning a few modifications over the winter. Only the bedsides will be left by the spring. The frame is going to get a few mods too. I plan on keeping it street legal, but the plan is to make it more "go" than show. The bed is currently no more than an ornament and repository for the stuff that I keep breaking LOL

 

[tanbuddy]

THat things bad ass man! Those wheels look real famaiar, are they of an 02 mustang gt?