New 1996 sapphire blue 2wd owner from the North East

[Ab_Reed]

I will soon be the owner of a well used, slightly abused 1996 2wd 3.0l 5 speed Sapphire blue/sliver 2 tone XLT super cab. I've always wanted to own a mini truck, have always had full size. I'm excited to have a manual vehicle back in my life. I race motocross for fun and I'm trying to keep the miles down on my 2021 Tundra so the ranger will be my commuter truck and track practice day rig and wherever else id like to take it.

I dont have anything wild planned for it. 3/5 drop, new shocks. It needs new headlights because they're faded, an upper ball joint and a right front brake line. And new lower exterior window trim. The Interior needs a good cleaning, previous owner was a smoker. Needs a headliner which ill look for a color to match the exterior paint. In the future id like to put in bucket seats and a center console from a newer ranger. Seems like everything will fit up to 2011. Also the rug has a hole in in so will go with vinyl because of al the dirt. It also needs a new cluster, for some odd reason mine doesn't have a tach, what years can I swap in, and will I need to wire something to make the tach work? Then after it's good and road worthy a set of wheels.

I don't think I'll ever get this far with it, but I've seen newer front ends on the older trucks and it looks good, I'm assuming its a direct swap? Fenders, hood, grill front bumper and headlights? Or do I need a core support too?

Any help or suggestion are always welcome! I've been doing my best to search about everything before I made an account.

 

[Ab_Reed]

Truck cap will be removed after winter is over. Maybe someone will be interested in it. Theres a rust spot at the bed wheel well. I will rectify that and the undercoat the entire truck, id like to have this last for years. This should be a fun project.

 

[SenorNoob]

On the brakes, whatever gets changed on one side should be done on the other. As for the seats, I think it was 98 had a different style of sliders. IDK if they will bolt to the floorboard the same or not. (I can't really see Ford changing the shape of the floorboard..)

 

[Ab_Reed]

On the brakes, whatever gets changed on one side should be done on the other. As for the seats, I think it was 98 had a different style of sliders. IDK if they will bolt to the floorboard the same or not. (I can't really see Ford changing the shape of the floorboard..)

I ended up ordering 4 new ball joints and both L&R front brake lines. I should probably do the tie rods while am down there.

 

[Ab_Reed]

So the seats in my truck are stained, smell like old cigarettes and have burns in them. They are currently 60/40 bench but id like to upgrade to buckets and get a center console too. I found a console which says it fits 91-01 rangers. Heres the 2 sets of bucket seats local to me. I know the 2000 ranger seats will fit with the console. Will the "next gen" mustang seats fit? The mustang seats look much more comfortable and theyre actually cheaper.

 

[SenorNoob]

Those look like fox body seats in the first pic. They should bolt right in using the current rails.

 

[Ab_Reed]

Those look like fox body seats in the first pic. They should bolt right in using the current rails.

Perfect, do you know if i can still use an oem ranger center console with the mustang seats?

 

[SenorNoob]

I can't see why not.

 

[Ab_Reed]

Well took a little time because the owner couldn't find the title. But I'm officially the new owner. I just ordered tie rod ends, window scraper seals, the 3/5" drop kit. It came with 2 sets of wheels/tires all steel, one set is for winter. Hopefully picking up those mustang seats this week.

Does anyone have the steal panel that covers the manual shift lever? Someone hacked mine up.

Future plans:
Ordering a new vinyl replacement "rug" soon after i do more research and find one I like.
New one-piece headlights to get rid of the faded stock ones and delete the orange corner lights.
Not a fan of the chrome above the grill, need to come up with a plan for that. Maybe something aftermarket.

 

[Ab_Reed]

Coming up on 3 months of ownership. I've done more stock replacement/reliability parts charging than modifying at this point. But id rather do all the work now to make it reliable than worry about it down the road. But here's how she sits currently. I'm really enjoying wrenching on it a few hours each week after work; Its been a good learning process. If you want to follow along my build progress the link is in my bio. Can't wait to drive it.