ForOffRoadDriving's 94 Ranger Build

[ForOffRoadDriving]

I should have bought stock in POR 15 for as many cans as I bought for this project. In the first picture I have about $600 dollars worth of parts in the bed of my truck!

Got my new leaf springs that I ordered from LMC truck installed.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

I debated whether or not to swap in an 8.8 out of an explorer I could get my hands on, but I decided that I'd just rebuild the 7.5 and save the 8.8 for another project (like the 2nd Gen BII I want to build for a winter rig). Here are the pictures of the axle rebuild:

My avatar!

Getting the axle back home after having the gears set up

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

touching up a few spots and putting a coat of herculiner on the doors.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

This is where things get complicated. I need to get the tops of the frame rails and the bottom of the cab cleaned for paint, but theres not enough room to fit a grinder on top of the frame and the cab is too low to comfortably wire wheel it. one of my friends was layed off at the time so I recruited him to help me "jack things up".

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

Since I had the frame out, i decided to put the fuel lines, wiring harness, and gas tank in since i could do them all from the top, instead of on my back. I also cleaned the tank out, replaced the fuel pump asembly, put POR 15 on the metal ring on the tank, the lock ring, and the filler assembly. I also gave the entire frame another coat of POR 15 since I could hit it all at once, and then hit it with a coat of Chassis Coat, which is a UV approved top coat.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

The same night I put the gas tank in my dad and i put the cab back on the frame. It was dark by then, so we brought all of my drop lights out (which didnt show up in the pictures) so we could see what we were doing and amazingly we got the frame in straight under the cab on the first try.

I originally borrowed the yellow crane from my buddy who works at a pump shop to lift the cab off the ranger, but the boom wasnt long enough and it almost tipped over on me! I did finally get to use it though when I noticed the core support wasnt lined up with my newly fabbed body mount brackets.....ooops.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

I was going to start taking measurements to make a trailer hitch when my friends mom said she had a present for me. Their family had just had a garage sale and they had a reese hitch off from their 2003 F150 for sale, but no one bought it and they didnt want it taking up space, so once again things fell into place for me. It bolted up just fine, but it was seven inches too wide, so I narrowed it and then painted it up with more POR 15.
The sticker in the picture (disposable camera made it too blury to read) said "DO NOT CUT, WELD, OR MODIFY THIS HITCH IN ANY WAY".... i did not take that advice.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

On my lunch break one day, I decided that I would finish painting my rocker panels, fenders, and doors with herculiner and then put the UV top coat on it to keep it from fading. It also makes the mud easier to wash off since it has a slippery oil-like finish.

With that rash of hurricanes in the summer we got some heavy rain that turned my barely peeling clearcoat into a now needs a paint job. also a tree fell on the bed a few years back and im still trying to come up with a plan of attack on that one.

I didnt have enough time to get the bottom of the bed done outside, so I decided to put it back on the truck for now.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

It was finally time to pull my manual trans out of the parts truck and get that part of the build underway. Its amazing how fast things go when you dont have to worry about making things go back together! who ever put the last clutch in this truck had a hell of a time though, as the plate in the floor pan was beat to shit from the shifter shaft. I used the block off plate from the automatic and traced and cut a new hole in it.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

Every ranger Ive owned so far has had a rotten core support and I was finally going to replace one, so I stripped the front end down to assess the damage and the work ahead of me.

while I was waiting for my trans to be rebuilt i decided to demo a new product we were selling in our store, a 3M headlight lens restoration kit. That thing is BAD ASS!

Only took me 40 minutes and a six pack and i was done.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

I got my trans back from the rebuilder and to my surprise they painted it! They did however, put new rubber plugs in the back of the shifter housing, which I later removed and replaced with freeze plugs.

 

[metalmacguyver]

This thread is getting awesome! It is rare that people actually go back and post up the build all at once like this. Its much harder than updating as you go.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

yeah tell me about it, i spent probably 10 hours on photobucket after hours on the work computer trying to organize this (not to mention having to scan all my 4x6 pictures from about 10 disposable cameras). I have been keeping track of the build in a real photo album and I decided that while I was out of money I'd keep focused on the project by starting a build thread. Its hard to follow through with a project this big, hell ive got a chopper I started building in high school that has sat in my shed for the last 3 years untouched, but this experience has taught me that I can do almost anything I want to if I keep focused.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

In these pictures I was just tying up some loose ends. My seat tracks had some rust around the bolt holes so I cleaned them up and painted them. I took the two Y- pipes from the two 3.0ls and put them in the shot blaster to see what condition they were in. luckily there were not rotted spots and the only thing that needs attention is the flanges. I took the engine wiring harness into the laundry room and gave it a good scrubbing and then put it on the motor, so that once i drop it in it will just be plug and play.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

this picture marks the begininning of a winter in the garage as this was the first snow of the year.