New 92’ Ranger - A great build and a lot of fun

[alwaysFlOoReD]

i remember the first version of this truck....i was blowing my boggers off and lurching with a eb on woodward and the cops....like six of them on bikes roared up and surrounded me and started chewing my ass .... and they had just water boxed that truck...it had smaller tires but was set up to launch...i was on the left lane side with no water.

he was with another guy from national that did my blocks that had a cleveland ranger with dodge dakota steering rack....and a guy with a 363 stroker nash....the engine came from my dads ranchero caliente swap...Brian Thomson did that engine...i dont remember the first owners name, only briefly talked with him because...thats how it is out there... but back then it had a bedcover that was custom so it was mysterious to what was going on. if i remember right there was a guy from lincoln park that helped with the tubs and walls.

i am pretty sure they were mirrored like some of the trucks i was working with back in the 90s

What does water box mean?

 

[bobbywalter]

its magical box full of water

 

[bobbywalter]

some of the businesses would have water hoses out....and lube the street up a bit.....heavy traffic at the cruise... its 3-4 lanes so water dont make it to the other side...


but...waterbox is drag strip terminology.

 

[BIGTIRE]

Ok I gotta break this down a little. You remember this truck getting built. It does have a line lock that works perfect...lotta fun just rewired it last night. What can you tell me about Brian and anything related to the motor or the truck? The first owner was a guy that worked for Ford from what I understand, then it went to his son when he passed, Art bought it several years ago and now I have it. The firewall moved back 5", wheel tubs and the trans tunnel are all great work they knew what they were doing that's for sure. I need more info! Regards, Dave

 

[bobbywalter]

i am 95 percent sure that is the same platform...

i didnt know the first owner guy personally, and dont remember a name....he was...or they were running together with calvin whom i was friends with....seen it over at the old ramchargers....and on gratiot cruises alot too... and i know from the couple of stops and convos he knew bob hyde and a few others. he did not know my dad or uncle ronald ...he knew the name LaFollete but not them directly..which is odd because they were working on the original romeo engines in development late 80's...

but clevelands are memorable...not a whole lot of them you see at the cruises.. you sure as hell can tell they sound different than a 5.0....so that rig is a stand out....most of the trucks calvin worked on had m2 frontends installed....but he did several i beams with dakota steering racks... if you could get it to leave on the wheels it was squirrely coming down....so he got away from the stock beams and just used the m2...

there was also a 400m truck that ran with calvin....

they were all prototype and developement guys...mostly ford and some mopar....calvin was out of carron and co and also worked at sts defiance periodically...they were working in allenpark at rousch at the time i am referring too when i first ran across this truck.... he eventually went to watson and then i dont know what happened to him after that....he retired...have not seen any of them since the covid crap... calvin did several Cleveland trucks and the 400 m...i had done a 454 and helped with a quite a few 350 gm swap trucks in the late 90s so they were always bustin my ballz......and when i first seen this rig was later in the 2ks like 2007 ish iirc...



the LS is closer to a cleveland than a windsor imo.....and i know brian jhonson and there is influence there back when they were developing them....he was my dads best friend when they were in highschool and was going over some of that at the funeral....


theres some cool stuff going on right now with some members of the forum that combines these awesome Cleveland's...

 

[BIGTIRE]

Man that's a great story thanks for sharing that. I think the build started about 2002 as that's the dates stamped on the rims. They would have needed those to mock up the frame, axle, rear tubs and the entire front end. From there I heard the build took a few years to complete so that matches your 2007 sighting on Woodward crusin. Art told me the same story that these were some heavy fabrication guys that worked at ford and they knew what they were doing. So you think Brian Thomson did the motor for him?...dude's a legend in these parts. Gauges show 3100 miles on it.