My 92 short bed transformation

[RangerFabWorks]

So I picked up a 92 short bed a while back, to use as a parts truck. But after getting it home. I couldn’t cut it up. Had too many cool options to just toss aside. It’s the 1st Ranger I’ve owned with a factory front sway bar

so I bought it non running. Wiring a mess. Interior gutted. With rotted floors. That aside. The body was super clean. Bed is gorgeous. And someone obviously had just gotten frustrated with it. So I started to work on it.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Here’s the day I went to pick it up

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Wanted to see how it would clean up. So started paint correcting a few areas

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Here’s the rust in the floors. Seats. And the wiring mess.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Motor cleaned up. New brakes all around. New wheels and tires.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Floors welded in. And treated with chassis saver paint. And fitted some mk4 Jetta seats in it.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

I can’t stand a tan interior. So I dyed all the panels black. Laid down fat mat sound deadening. Then put a 1/4 heat proof padding on top of that. Redid the headliner. Rear cab wall. And laid down a new carpet.
Also installed a set of precision power 3 way components. Powered by a kicker 4 channel amp.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Swapped out the clear corners for a set of amber ones I had laying around. And swapped in a first gen explorer grille.

 

[Blmpkn]

#LimaGang
# @rusty ol ranger is jelly.

 

[RobbieD]

Nice work! I love how you did the interior.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Great work!

 

[JoshT]

Good save! What you've done so far is looking great.

My 85 is a similar story. Bought it to build a clone of what I wanted to do with my first truck, but after taking a closer look at it and options it came with I just want to do a resto mod. Realistically the main differences between the plans are dual tank instead of single, 2.3 (turbo?) instead of V8, and a little nicer interior. It'll probably be a few years before I can get started on it.

It looks like the tires are smaller, getting ready to lower? Did you up from 14 to 15 also?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I've got to say that I like the original wheels better. I like the chrome and black on that truck. If I needed tires and the truck was on 14s (describes my 85 perfectly), I wouldn't hesitate to run those until I found or could afford what I wanted. I'd probably be going 16 or 17 to support a brake swap though.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

I still have the keystones. But the tires are absolutely shot. I found these wheels and tires at Carlisle for 250 and the tires were brand new. I may eventually swap them out. But for now I’m ok with it.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

#LimaGang
# @rusty ol ranger is jelly.

 

[maddyn]

looking good. nice looking Ranger. How difficult was it to get the jetta seats mounted? look like they fit pretty well