Its only money. 89 Ext cab

[Schnot]

Figured I'd start a build thread and try to be like all the cool kids. It'll be slow going and please pardon my ignorance. Ive worked on my own vehicles since I could drive, but never really "customized" any thing more than bolt on junk.

This is what I started with:


I bought it for the wifey when her car got repo'd. (Women and their credit cards...) It's an 89 ext cab 4x4 2.9L. Very little to no rust and thats what sold me on it. Brought it home for $1400. She had it for about half a year until the a4ld decided it didnt want to shift out of first gear. Had it rebuilt for $1000 since she refused to drive a standard. Six months after that and she tells me we are having our first kid. (Due July 4 ) So I got her an 02 exploder since its a lot safer and easier to put a car seat in. Since I dont really need to sell it and have more money wrapped up in it than its really worth, I adopted it and hope to make a fairly decent trail rig out of it.

The plans are pretty simple: reliable, safe trail rig that I can strap the wife and my new son into and have a fun day in the woods.

Started with a 3" body lift and new bushings from Duff. Had to make new mounts for the front on both sides. Theyre not pretty, but they work.




Then scored a 4" rough country lift from craigslist with skyjacker extended brake lines for $200. I know theyre not the best, but it will do for now until I can find a D44 or D30 for the right price.
After much fighting, cussing, hammering and a lot of beer, I couldnt get the bolt holes to line up in the drop brackets. So I welded them.



Axle drop bracket and also you can see I extended my Breather line. (Learned that lesson from my first ranger)

 

[Schnot]

I also did the 63" leaf swap at the same time. I picked them from the local yard for $20 each and put some new bushing in them. (I had already ordered the bushings from duff before I decided to do the leaf swap. They fit the chevy leaves perfectly)






Before Leaves with factory block.

After leaf swap with no block.

 

[Surrey]

I hear that you are planning on doing the f250 shock mount swap?

I am interested in seeing how that turns out, and thus, I subscribe.

 

[Schnot]

Relocated brake lines.


Added a steering stabilizer only because it was $13 from Rockauto. It actually helped my truck A LOT on the road.


Put 32" kenda Klever MT's under it and pulled it out of the garage. It squats in the back just a little without any block under the chevy springs so I have to put a block back in there.



I got bored one day and it was raining, so I decided to put some cab lights from a 95 f350 parts truck I had sitting in the woods. I did it all by eye and didnt measure a thing and they came out pretty good. And they dont look as stupid as I thought they would.




Tapped into the solid brown wire behind the headlight switch if anyone is wondering what wire to use.


The best place to mount a CB antenna is directly on the roof, so I drilled a hole and put it in. Its mounted on a softer spring so it has enough flex when going under low trees that it wont bend the roof. I may add a flat square piece of metal on the inside to spread out the load just in case though.

 

[Schnot]

I have some more done to it but dont have pics uploaded to Photobucket yet so I will put some more up later.

 

[Schnot]

I hear that you are planning on doing the f250 shock mount swap?

I am interested in seeing how that turns out, and thus, I subscribe.

Yes sir. I just need to figure out what shocks to use. I'll update when I get it done.

 

[doorgunner]

You've got a good start......sharp looking color too!

 

[FordRanger89]

Very nice.
I am planing on doing that leaf spring swap real soon as well.
I have all that parts and bolts, just no time.....
keep it up

 

[jhammel85]

Not bad at all. It's a super clean truck!

Also, that stabilizer sounds like a steal! *searches rockauto*

 

[Schnot]

Went to Rausch creek in April with my Brother (94 F150 stock height on 33's) and my friend (95 dodge on 33's with a bad clutch) and played around for the day. It was pretty awesome. Tons of jeeps of course. We followed several over some black trails and they were amazed that we did it. Lol dont underestimate the fords piloted by fearless rednecks.

 

[Schnot]

The inner u joint on the D28 was really loose and wore out so I took on the adventure of pulling the axles apart to fix that. I also had new bushings from duff that never got to changing so I put those in as well since I had it apart.

 

[Schnot]

Picked up some black 15x8 rims from a local jeep guy for $150 and played around with trying to flex it out.




Then played in the mud at a buddies farm one night.

 

[Schnot]

My brother was playing in the little trickle of a creek that runs between our fields one day and I got the itch to play too since I hadnt done anything in a while. Lots of rocks and low soft spots to navigate, but I made it about 4 times farther than him. Until I broke the D28...





I was down in there pretty good. Luckily we have a backhoe, because it would have been really tough to get it out with just another truck.

 

[Schnot]

After slight depression that I broke my truck, and much mulling over in my mind, I decided to try and find a d35 in the junkyard with a 4.10. Mine has 3.73 and a drop in ratio would be a great find. I also considered a d30 but I cant really be "wasting" money on the ranger since I just had my first son on July 5.

Well I was just researching parts for the d35 on ebay (lockers, ring and pinion, joints, etc) and came across an ARB air locked D35 with 5.13's, duff long arms, warn hubs, and extra axles by chance. I bid on it and won it for $425! I was pretty excited because its exactly what I was looking for with all the hard work already done.

Ill just have to get brackets and a crossmember from Duff and ill be set! And of course grab an 8.8 from the junk yard and regear it.

I got it home and pulled it all apart so I can sand blast it and paint it all up. Ordered new joints and brakes for it as well.

Now itll just be a waiting game until I can put together some cash to get the rest of the parts without the wife finding out! haha

 

[Beef52751]

Good deal!