Looking for Some Advice on Sadly Selling my Old Ranger

[josiahsm02]

So I'm in sort of a rough spot. I bought my 2001 Ranger about a year and a half ago and had a blast fixing it up. This forum was very helpful with that.
Unfortunately the frame on my Ranger recently broke. It was rusty and finally quit. The frame split right in front of the driverside leaf spring bolts.
I recently moved to Salt Lake City for my PhD and I just don't have the time or the money to learn how to weld.
I took it to a reputable body shop and they said there is nothing they can do. Junkyard is only offering me $340 for it.
I've put a ton of work into the truck and about $1500 worth of parts. It's only got 127000 miles and the engine/transmission are great. The interior is almost perfect.
I would just hate to see it go to a junkyard, this truck has driven me a lot of places. I'm thinking of just listing it on facebook and seeing if someone who has the time and resources to really fix it would buy it from me.
How much do you guys think I should list it for? Any advice on what to do? I don't have the space to keep it until I could fix it.
I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing.


Here is a list of all the repairs/current problems it has for reference:

New taillights 122293 miles
New sway bar links at 122200
New brake pads at: 122195
New front left wheel bearings at 120500
New front left caliper at 120500
New 3yr battery at 120000 (this summer)
New sideboards at 119000
New wheel cylinders and rear brake lines at 119000
New fuel neck at 119000
Transmission and differential fluid at 118000
Upstream O2 sensor at 118000
Tires put on at: 115900
New shocks at 115600
New ball joints 117000
New control arms at 117000
New tie rod ends at 117000
New headlights at 117000
New spark plugs and stuff at 117000
New MAF at 117500
New fuel filter at 116600
New ac clutch at 115500
New right wheel bearings at 115500
New rear brakes and assembly at 11600
New coolant housing at 115000
Fuel pump retaining ring at 115000
Oil changes every 5k

fuel line from front of fuel filter is leaky and needs to be replaced
One gas tank strap is rusted out, currently using steel rope as a replacement,
p0171 code sometimes, engine runs well though

 

[bobbywalter]

if i had to use it i would plate it....bridge it and get a few more miles out of it if it runs good.


no welding....just some drilling and hardware with 10 ga or 1/8 plate metal.


truck isnt worth anything, the time to part it out and how that is handled only you can figure.

 

[Brain75]

I have to begrudgingly admit bobby is right... if you go to edmunds and fill you all the details (year, make, etc) that is it's honest value (they will give you 2 figures, dealer and private to private)... that is the best you could get from joe schmoe. Expect patheric figures - like $1700. If you think you could get more selling it as a clean engine/trans to a very interested party (i.e. a ford ranger enthusiast), then you might get more there (here).
if you admit to joe schome it has a bad spot in the frame then $250-500 is the best you will get, same as junkyard.

I too would plate it, or go to a high school that has a VoAg/VoTech/welding might get someone who will weld it for little bit of nothing (materials)... less likely from a trade school... maybe even a Jr (2yr) college.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

For liability I doubt a school will touch a truck frame. A lot of professional places won't touch one.

 

[Brain75]

yeah, I guess I am thinking more small town than big city... where I am, the local FFA guys would do it in the vo/ag shop, but that's a lot to do with the fact the hamet population is under 500....

 

[sgtsandman]

If you can't or don't want to do a frame swap in order to resurrect it, then parting it out is going to be most "profitable" way to get rid of it. It's going to require more work on your part since I wouldn't trust anyone to remove whatever part they want without trashing something else.

A salvage yard is only going to give you what they think they can get out of it as scrap, and selling off the parts that they can before hand to make a profit.

Selling it as a whole parts truck is going to only get you low ball offers.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So, I think this maybe can go to General for now since it’s kind of general questions.

Frame breaks suck. Really wish Ford would have done like Toyota and sprung to replace frames since the 98+ frames seem to rot pretty easy.

I have temporarily bolted frames back together, happened with my green Ranger when I first got it, I was dealing with limited mobility because of an injury so it went up to my buddy’s place who knows mechanic work. Shock mount broke, but when he went to replace it for me he found the frame was bad. He can’t weld yet and didn’t have anything other than a little flux core welder anyway. So he bolted a piece of steel across the break until we could deal with the problem properly. I’ve done a lot of frame repairs since.

Unfortunately a bad frame ruins the value, a lot of people don’t know how to properly deal with it and a lot of shops won’t touch it.

 

[bobbywalter]

most make it 6-7 years.

you need a reason to buy a new truck.

 

[bobbywalter]

its fixable as mentioned at least enough to ring the time to recover the money in parts.. as mentioned it is just a new failure point over time

 

[bobbywalter]

of course a frame swap can be an absolute 1 day cake job on these things for some and an impossible task for others.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

 

[bobbywalter]

made it to 10 min...back to work.

 

[josiahsm02]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll update the thread as things go.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll update the thread as things go.

Actually, come to think of things…. Maybe this helps?

1998-2006 Ranger Archives - autorust.com

Safe T Cap frame kits for 1998-2006 Ford Ranger 2wd and 4wd

www.autorust.com

 

[Bill]

This thing with trucks and frames rotting out has made me wonder if this is intentional. I say that because whatever that stuff they put on the frame that resembles black paint is worthless. I don't have problems with rust where I'm at, but at 17 years that black stuff has worn off the frame from road sand or dissolved off the frame where there is moisture on it for any amount of time. Also, I grabbed on to the frame to pull myself under the truck and the inside of the rear portion of the frame collected a half-inch layer of dirt and sand which would certainly accelerate the corrosion process in places where it's a problem. On mine I can see bare metal in places. Some of it metallic colored, a few places have that very slight surface rust, which fortunately, is as far as it will go here. It just seems like a quality paint instead of whatever they use on the frames could extent the lifetime of the vehicle.