Pheonix - '87 2wd Ranger

[Dustincoc]

Picked this up for $500 last fall, just got it home a week ago.


The day after I bought it:

Looks good on the surface but there's alot of hidden damage. Notice how you can't see the turn signal lights. Thats because the entire bottom of the radiator support is gone.

Got the front tore apart last weekend.

This a a drawing of what the beginnings I'm going to build to replace the radiator support. The blue is the existing frame rails and mounts. Green is the mount bushings. Red is 3/16"x3" steel brackets. Magenta is the center of a radiator support crossmember from an 88 caravan, basically a 2"x3.5" steel tube. I may add a rib on top of the red brackets to stifen them up if I don't think their stiff enough once I get it together. Everything is going to be welded together except the attachments to the frame.

I may end up building new frame mounts since the ones there aren't in the greatest shape, the holes are much larger than I would like, and their 1/2" lower than I would like them.

 

[90longbed]

wow, never thought I would see a core support more rusted out than mine!!!... mine was a coast rig for part of its life..... I am going to try to find a fairly rust free core support in a junkyard and cut it out to replace mine...