Long Term '87 Ranger 4x4 Project Build Thread

[jhammel85]

No pun intended?

 

[dangerranger83]

Didn't realize the pun till it was too late.

 

[jhammel85]

Lol. Yeah I dug a bit more and I just keep finding more and more. Found some holes in the frame and more along the firewall. Seriously - how is this firewall not falling down on itself? The rain gutters above the doors are junk too. Covered by bondo. Its stacking up man....

 

[dangerranger83]

Doesn't look good for the truck

 

[jhammel85]

Not much new to report other than the truck has still been faithfully doing the daily drive to work and back, 60 miles a day. Unfortunately it won't be off the road until 2016 but I'm OK with that. Once it is, the interior will be gutted so I can see how bad the firewall really is. If its too much, I'm screwed. For right now though, it needs an oil change and It needs some work in the front end as I've noticed play on the drag link and the tie rods. I don't have those parts but I do have the radius arm bushes and a few others that also need to be done.

Today I removed the headliner. I was tired of it falling on my head and honestly wanted to see what was there. The interior will be the first to come out once another car is bought by me so I can retire this thing. Oddly enough, that moronic previous owner was here too. At first I worried that thye cut this for access to the back upper corners of the cab since they love bondo so much (and there are signs on the cab in that area) but it was clean...maybe they were going to put in speakers? All I know is that they didn't even cut them the same size and no marks are there from a pencil or anything. Go figure, more hacking. Guess I'll weld that up one day. Good news though, no hidden rust except for a bit around the windshield on the passenger side way up high. It's fixable so I'll add it to the list.

 

[jhammel85]

There you go...more Darwin nominations for this idiot.

 

[jhammel85]

Still trucking . I've been off the radar for a while but starting to get the itch again. Old rusty truck is still at it. We just had our second boy so I've been busy with that instead! Hopefully once tax season comes I'll have something else to drive so I can dig in and really see about that rusty firewall. It worries me a lot but I hope I can patch it up without having to buy another cab instead....we shall see.

 

[bobbywalter]

it just metal mang...


hack out the nasty shit and tack some not as rusty shit back in.


i know it sux, i was forced to do it to my front floors and outriggers for the mounts...my firewall is pretty porous these days as well. and of course the doors back is blown out.

i had hoped to get a new cab before having to deal with it. but if push comes to shove....out come the plasma.

 

[jhammel85]

Today I spent more time under this thing than I have in quite a while. I also fixed a few annoyances. One of which was a bag ground on a headlight. A few years ago I bought el cheapo ebayheadlights for it that came with haligenbulbs...so no more sealed beams. Today, when I had the lights on checking for a bag ground, that socket started smoking. Unplugged it and found the bulb itself was the issue all along. When I swapped headlights, the other side would get very hot as well. Plus, wiring wise, no bad ground. So nice new sealed beams are back in the truck and all's well.

I also fixed something else but still needs some work. The transfer case would have trouble engaging (manual) and once it did, it'd kick back out. This all happened after I dropped the t-case some time back, replacing the governor in the trans. My fix was to back the 14mm nut off on the fork a bit. The incredible hulk put it on. The shifter moves movh easier now and seems to stay in place. I plan to take it for a spin and see what happens. I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't totally the problem. The 3inch body lift made the shifter a little stubby so I need to look into that. Then again, who knows if I'll really keep it there once I pop the cab off its frame one day.

And Bobby, you're totally right. I looked around everywhere today. Giving myself a few months away from this thing made me realize how little rust it has in the grand scheme of things. Yes the gutters are gone. Yes the floor pan, bed floor and firewall has pin holes (except for that large part)....at least its mine and I know what it is. I do worry about when I really, really dig into the body though. Drip rails worry me a little because I can see the caked on putty but then again who knows how bad it really is. Probably just another reason for a new cab at that point