Rebuilding my father's old truck

[AndyB.]

The picture you posted shows exactly what I was looking for. I have a spare set of cylinder heads I picked up 15 years ago, that have 2.9 rocker arms on them. Your's are the 2.8 rockers I was expecting to see. It's hard to tell if this has been apart before. The front cover has obviously been off, judging by the gasket sealant and aluminum cam gear.

It looks pretty clean.

 

[DaddysTruck]

Project is coming along. The motor is rebuilt, just have some things I need to torque together, and drop it back in. Decided to go with Caterpillar yellow on the block.

Interior is also in the works. I still need to weld in the new floor pans and patch up the fire wall.

I picked up a center console out of an 02 Explorer with a leather lid on it at Pull a Part for 30 bucks. Going to have to chop it up a bit for it to work with the 5 speed. I think it will look nice when it's done.

 

[DaddysTruck]

Finished fabrications on the buckets. I fitted/welded a couple pieces of angled steel across the bottom of the rails to mount the narrower Ranger rails to.

Sits at the same height as the original seats. The seat slide lever seems to work best as far as location and functionality, so I'm going to use it and cut off the original rail lever.

 

[DaddysTruck]

My subwoofer box came in yesterday. I didn't think it was going to be deep enough to fit the speakers I had, but they fit right in.

Working on fitting in the Explorer console. I want to keep it it's full length if possible, and do some fabrication to incorporate the shifters in there. There doesn't seem to be any replacement shifter options, so thinking about cutting and welding something without such a curve to it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Dunno what end result you have in mind but Core shifters makes aftermarket shifters with Hurst levers for some of the older Ranger transmissions.

Not cheap but look nice.

 

[DaddysTruck]

I saw that, but I would rather keep my 250 bucks and do something fun. I'll find a nice shifter on the cheap and just weld the two together. Would be nice to have a new one without so much slop though.

 

[DaddysTruck]

Engine is all ready to go

Decrustified the frame and painted with bed coat

99.9% of rust removed from the interior. Floor pans are ready to weld in. I'm about to buy some sheet metal and start reconstructing the firewall.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

looking good

 

[DannyG]

Any progress update? The build is looking fantastic. Miss my Gen 1 but still happy with my Gen 2.

 

[DaddysTruck]

I'm still at it. I've been working on getting the cab leak proofed and replacing the rusted out metal. I've got almost all of it done except for the firewall.

Auto dimming mirror mounted

Skid plates off a later model

 

[94b2300ranger]

Looking good!! I've been able to get the auto dim feature on the rear view mirror to work, had a diagram I drew up, need to find it.

 

[DaddysTruck]

I have the diagram for it saved somewhere, it looked really simple. Wiring will be one of the last things I do. Once the metal fab work is done I'll start putting everything back together.

 

[DaddysTruck]

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

 

[DaddysTruck]

Interior is finally all the same color. You would have a hard time finding any of the original red paint at this point.