Rebuilding my father's old truck

[will1861]

Looking great. Keep up the progress

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[DaddysTruck]

Thank you. I'm progressing as much as I can with the truck parked 30 miles away from where I live, because I can't keep it at my apartments. Between work and a one year old, time to drive down and work on it is hard to come by. I try to pull as many parts as I can when I'm down there, and take them with me so I can work on them at home. At this point Im running out of parts to take, which is a good thing, and I just need to get the major projects done like the cab floor and pull the motor to rebuild it. I also have an Explorer and Mustang that are constant projects taking up my free time. Good old Ranger always comes first though As long as nothing crazy happens in my life, I think it will be on the road by next summer.

 

[Rangerx2]

I've always had a fondness for the first gen Rangers. They remind me of my Dad's old 86 Supercab that he let me use during high school. He taught me how to drive on that truck too. When the old 2.3 decided it had about all the torture it could handle for one lifetime we sold the truck in 1997. I've been missing it ever since. Glad to see there's one here that's getting the restoration it deserves. Keep up the good work!

 

[DaddysTruck]

Oh yeah, beyond this being a truck passed down to me by my dad I just love the Ranger. I wouldn't have put this much into some boring old sedan. I see many years of off roading and hauling stuff ahead. Can't imagine ever getting rid of it.

 

[Rangerx2]

To be honest, one of the main reasons I joined this site is because I want to track down and restore my old 86 Ranger Supercab if possible. I sold it nearly 20 years ago when the little 4-popper gave up. Been regretting it every day since. After looking at pictures of yours and other first gen's on here, I miss that simplicity. My 2012 F-150 is a great truck, I love it, but it's so complex with all its electronics and computer crap, that I'm afraid to touch the darn thing!
If I can't locate my '86, then I want another first or second gen, post-1986. I am spoiled by fuel injection
As far as locating mine, I have everything but the VIN. I have pictures, last known whereabouts from about 1999 when it was receiving a new engine, last known license plate from the state of Virginia when I had it. Since it was always technically registered in my Dad's name, I'm hoping he still has some old registration or insurance or something from it listing the VIN. But I doubt it...

 

[DaddysTruck]

The smog pump was in working condition. I took it apart anyway because that's what I do.

Lots of bearings inside there that were gummed up with dirt and old grease. I went through and greased everything that needed it. It turns so much more freely now.

 

[DaddysTruck]

I pulled the dash and found a lot more rust going on. Pretty much every seam of the cab. Working on getting all of that tackled so I can get my interior together.

Got the dash primered and ready for paint. Also picked up a black leather steering wheel out of an 92 Explorer. It's slightly different from the original, but I believe it's going to mount up the same.

 

[Rangerx2]

Are you doing a color change on the interior?
Must've been a bad leak around the windshield gasket for the cab to be rusting that bad behind the dash...

 

[DaddysTruck]

Yeah, I'm converting the interior from red to all black.

It looks like the 30 year old seam sealer cracked and started letting water in everywhere. I'm working on getting it all scraped out and treated. After that I'll get the leaks stopped and start patching holes. I think I caught it at a early enough stage to save it. A few more years and things would have been falling apart.

 

[DaddysTruck]

The '92 Explorer leather steering wheel mounted up no problem. The horn contacts don't line up, so I'm going to have to either reposition them or go back and get the one out of the Explorer. I think it looks great.

I figured out that the leak that's rusting out my cab is definitely coming from the cowl. I took both fenders off and flushed it out with the hose through the drain holes. I pulled out a ton of debris from the access panels. It's cleaned out now, but it's rusted out at the seam on both ends.

I guess I will have to drill out the welds and get in there to fix it. Wondering if I can just cover the cowl vent holes and be done with it.

I plan to replace the 60/40 bench with some nice black leather buckets. While I'm waiting to come across a nice set that I can buy, I went ahead and pulled the rails off to get them ready for the swap. They were equally rusty as everything else.

After a few hours of grinding, wire wheeling, and naval jellying

And covered them with rust reformer

I'm going to finish them off with a semi gloss enamel. Ran out of time for today.

 

[RayInStl]

I think your dad would've been proud. You're doing excellent work. It's nice to see a ranger getting treated so well.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I figured out that the leak that's rusting out my cab is definitely coming from the cowl. I took both fenders off and flushed it out with the hose through the drain holes. I pulled out a ton of debris from the access panels. It's cleaned out now, but it's rusted out at the seam on both ends.

I guess I will have to drill out the welds and get in there to fix it. Wondering if I can just cover the cowl vent holes and be done with it.

The cowl cover for a 89-92 is a direct swap but has 1/8" round holes instead of the huge leaf eating slots. Downside is to do it right you have to pull the windshield.

 

[DaddysTruck]

I think your dad would've been proud. You're doing excellent work. It's nice to see a ranger getting treated so well.

Thank you. When I think about how my dad would have felt about what I'm doing, I always remember the time when I was a kid and he walked in and caught me taking apart his vcr. He would probably get upset that I have his truck in 5000 pieces and assume I had no idea what I was doing. Lol

 

[Mark_88]

Thank you. When I think about how my dad would have felt about what I'm doing, I always remember the time when I was a kid and he walked in and caught me taking apart his vcr. He would probably get upset that I have his truck in 5000 pieces and assume I had no idea what I was doing. Lol

LOL...my mechanic friend kept asking me what I was doing and did I know what I was doing...I had my truck at his place for a while until I got the body swapped...I sent his wife a picture of the finished product but not sure if he saw it...

Anyway...looking better every day...I saw the other post about the steering wheel and think I commented on it...but that was a few hours ago...

 

[DaddysTruck]

I picked up a pair of black leather seats from a guy off Craigslist. He said that he didn't know what they came out of other than it was a Nissan. The drivers side is power and the passenger is manual. Both have side airbags, I'm glad I realized before trying to hook up power to them.

I knew I was getting myself into a pickle by buying non Ford seats. I've got some good ideas already to make it work.

I removed the hvac parts and found some interesting lost items in there. I needed to get behind it and check for more rusty stuff. Turns out to be pretty clean. The cowl only seems to have rusted out on the sides.

The worst of it looks to be behind the steering column. I really don't want to have to remove the steering column, which means I will probably have to remove the steering column.

There is another little access hole for the cowl behind the dash. It would be good for someone working on the wiper linkage.