The Orange Crusher

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Well, maybe a cage and steel top would be a better idea for you and friends....

 

[JunkCollector]

When you tell someone "dont try to slide it, its tail happy" youd think they'd take the hint...
Good news is, I get a rust-free body and a paint job for free.
Were slapping the smashed cab on a tube chassis and making my truck look near new.

 

[JunkCollector]

Passenger side roof was fine until we had to winch it out of the ditch. Already got a new body lined up. New bed has rust, but we're getting patch panels, and the rest of it is perfect.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I can almost see the body lines of an early 60's Comet Caliente convertible.

 

[planeflyer21]

Throw a Falcon body on there!

 

[JunkCollector]

We already have a 2wd '88 2wd truck lined up with a blown engine and trans that will be getting swapped on, gonna find an early tailgate, and already found the correct era of bright bittersweet paint. The '84 mix is darker than mine, but the '80 matches, yet the truck IS an '84. Ford is weird. My entire interior is going in and I'm going to just buy the paint myself, prep the cab, and get it all done while i have the whole interior out of it. It'll take a while, but will be worth it. Fixing my rusted frame from the cab back while I'm at it. Eventually rebuilding the engine and trans in the coming years, but for now, I just want my truck orange, and as it was when it rolled but with a little bit nicer paint and less rust. I need it back.

 

[JunkCollector]

Things are about to start shaping up for this rebuild. Both trucks are finally ending up at the same place, and we're gonna start stripping my truck as soon as tomorrow. Gonna take it on one last drive with the old body. You don't need windows, right? Hopefully this will be a good build thread.

 

[JunkCollector]

Well, current progress, switching these harnesses around and eliminating everything except the duraspark is gonna be interesting...

Gonna finish stripping what's left of the original cab and start stripping the parts truck. Also found a bad bend in the frame on the passenger side, looks like it was from a prior wreck we already knew about, worsened by the ditch it hit when it rolled. Got some gentle straightening with a tractor to do...I know we can't use heat on these heat treated frames.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I don't know about heat treated frames, I don't think they are. There is a ford body builder site and they show how and where to cut and shorten or lengthen frames and how to weld them back together properly. There is no mention of heat treating before or after. Check out a pdf;
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=9158&d=1358836447

 

[JunkCollector]

Ah, ok, thanks for the info. I thought I read somewhere on here that Bronco II frames were heat treated, so I assumed the rangers were too. Also, turns out '84 to '88 has a ton of tiny differences, including the tan interior color. Kinda strange, but cool.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I have been meshing the electrical of an '88 to the frame of my '85...

'88 has one big connector going to the back for the tail lights, fuel sender, dome light etc. '85 does the same thing with two smaller connectors. PO mine did this adaptation with a jumper harness full of butt connectors. I took both apart and repinned it so now the rear harness uses the same bigger connector the '88 dash harness uses. At Carquest (I think BWD) the pin part numbers are female CG30 and male CG31. They will give you a blank look when you ask and will never retain it if you go back for more, I have them saved on my phone now.

I tapped into keyed power at C102 and ran a wire from there to the passenger side fenderwell. I have that running power from the battery to a fuse panel to run all my added crap that needs keyed power. Ignition and the choke might entertain you, BTW a factory carb doesn't get straight 12V, it will open early.



C102 and C118 should catch most of your major problems.



I have a lot more going on than you do as far as aftermarket accessories go but you can kinda get the gist of what I am saying with the added fuse panel.



If the '88 is an automatic it will be a one year only search for a clutch pedal, they were changed for '88 and uses its own clutch position switch.

4wd indicators changed too, older uses one wire and newer uses two. May run into differences with charging indicators if one is a idiot light and the other has an ammeter also.

Electronically '88 is a transition year, a lot of new stuff for the second gen in '89 was starting to get worked in. Not really major stuff but enough minor stuff to about drive a guy nuts trying to mix and match things together.

If you get into a tight spot drop me a line, I just went thru a lot of this earlier this year and I have both '85 and '88 EVTM's. They run around $15 a pop on ebay and will make your life a lot easier with your soon to be mutant truck. They have been a godsend on mine.

 

[JunkCollector]

I'm straight up swapping everything from the old cab into the new one, gutting the '88 cab. I'm gonna switch every last part out that''s in the old cab into this new one so nothing really has to change. I figure that's easier than trying to splice the two harnesses and such, I can just switch the dashboards and harnesses out and call it a day. The '88 is a manual 4 cylinder 2wd no-tach truck with an ammeter and such. Every single part of the dash short of the framework is getting switched because it's an A/C cab and dash and my old one isn't.

 

[JunkCollector]

After stripping the interiors, turns out the two trans tunnels are different, so we have to swap those. Otherwise, it should go together.

 

[JunkCollector]

This build has been on hold, as I can't work on this at all at the moment. My shop's finally getting wired up, so it's not usable right now, and my buddy's shop isn't open to work on stuff now cus it's harvest season, so it's just sitting until I can get the cabs into my place to finish swapping the wiring and floor. Still have a lot of frame work to do as well. We're taking the body mounts off the parts frame since they're like new, as well as a few other bits and pieces, we also still have to straighten it and patch up the one rust hole, but it'll all pan out. We gotta find clean doors with the larger mirrors, rust-free fenders with the V6 badging, and a correct no-plastic tailgate as well. As soon as something happens I'll keep you guys updated, if anyone's still interested. I still intend on having this at the Anniversary meet.

 

[JunkCollector]

Got it home and in my shop, started cleaning everything up and found out the frame is gone behind the front passenger spring perch. Pretty much totals the project, but we've gotten this far, anyone have suggestions for a fix?