New from Texas

[AcesHigh]

Hello from the west Texas area! I’m new to the Ranger truck, but I’ve had a 2003 F150 and had a 1988 4wd Eddie Bauer Bronco II back in the 90s. Yeah I’m old. Just picked up a 1994 4wd 4.0 Ranger for sub $700. Auto trans is shot. Engine runs and that’s good enough for now. This will be a long term project, and this will be a new process for me. I retired about a year ago and have been wanting to try something like this for a while.

My plan for the truck, and I’ll be looking for advice from guys that have done this before if they would do something differently. Priority 1 - swap to the manual transmission in the next few months to get the thing moving again. I’ll be fixing other small things along the way hopefully. Priority 2: suspension update. It needs it. Priority 3: engine…. Ok, my hope is I move over to the VW 1.9 engine. I’ll play this by ear when I get closer to the engine work. I know it’s a ton of work and I’d have a ton to learn.

I will paint and redo interior as well, but I’m not sure how to tackle this in conjunction with everything else. I already have the bed off, and it would be nice to paint the frame. I will say the thing has very little rust. Even the frame looks really good. Guessing it’s been in Texas its entire life.

 

[SenorNoob]

Welcome to TRS! Looks like a nice project.

 

[superj]

Welcome!!

So you are going to swap to a vw diesel? Is that what you mean about a 1.9 swap?

 

[AcesHigh]

Welcome!!

So you are going to swap to a vw diesel? Is that what you mean about a 1.9 swap?

The VW diesel is the plan at some point, but that’s quite a ways out with as much work that has to be done before that happens.