What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[SenorNoob]

Cinderblocks are NEVER safe!

I believe they can be if done carefully. But any metal contact and they'll crumble.

Note the planks between each block and a solid 4" block on top. Of course if you hit one with a metal part or tool while working...

 

[Rick W]

Ok, I don’t want to WOW you guys and make you faint with full pics yet, and this stream is what did you do today, so let me share this. On the 87, my dash pad was shredded, absolutely impossible to salvage. I was in the scrapyard and I found an 88 that only had a couple cracks in it. A little bird told me if you grind out the cracks, and you carefully fill them in with hot melt glue, you can then sand the glue and make it straight. Being patient, which is not my long suit, it came out great. I realize that if I sprayed it, you could still see the repair places, so then I decided to roll it with a nappy roller with semi gloss rust oleum. That added a texture, and it looks fantastic, and it cost $3-4.

worst slot, 1/2” deep 1” wide crack:

When I had the dash out, I always wondered what those two flat panels above the steering column were on either side. So I took them out and washed them. Did you guys know that there are gauges and a speedometer behind there?

Well, totally charged up at this point, I had a can of that upside down mark the street bright orange paint. I sprayed it into a tuna fish can and used a Q-tip to recover the needles. New gauges for ten cents!

 

[JoshT]

That dash repair came out pretty good.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, I had intended on trying to work on the green Ranger some today, but I was outside talking with dad for a few minutes and realized there was a decent sized dead white oak tree that was leaning towards the house and looked like it was cracked towards the bottom and with us supposed to get hit by high winds tonight and tomorrow, it seemed best to deal with that. So after a couple misadventures getting a line in the tree, I was finally successful and used some of what I’ve learned from experts and brought it down neatly and safely.

There was another dead snag right by it and I wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to try and get a rope in it where it would be useful, so I gave a try at carefully cutting it. Took my time with the notch even though it was leaning the wrong way. Back cut it pretty well through and it wasn’t moving, so I decided to try another trick from the pros and got a wedge and started beating it in the back cut on the side that was leaning and I’m looking at it as it’s starting to move and going there’s no way this is going to work and then it went and went exactly where I was trying to put it and neat as you please. I was pretty impressed that it worked out that well. I knocked a couple 4’ chunks to get the pathway in the woods opened back up but that was enough for the day.

 

[Rick W]

You’re just trying to be macho cutting down trees because I repaired my dash with a hot glue gun….

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You’re just trying to be macho cutting down trees because I repaired my dash with a hot glue gun….

I guess you missed the discussions awhile back, what I did today was kinda nothing as far as trees go. I did employ my air cannons though with getting the rope in the one tree, but not my climbing gear. Yes, I built a pair of PVC air cannons and I have a climbing harness, ropes and all. At some point I need to clear a couple dead limbs out of an oak over part of the driveway and I need to finish taking down a shagbark hickory in the front yard, it’s about 60’ to where it splits into 4 trunks for the crown and I’ve already been about 75’ up in it. These trees I knocked down today were probably less than 75’ to the tip-top, not a climbable to 90’

FWIW, I now have a hot glue gun that takes 18 volt Milwaukee batteries that I’ve been using for various things, lol

 

[scotts90ranger]

I just spent like an hour and a half cleaning up the oil pan area of the '90 Ranger, fricking gross... years of caked sand and oil grit since it was on a 1.5 quart of oil per tank of fuel diet for a few years with random oil leaks... took a scraper, about 2 cans of brake clean and a long air nozzle and made a complete mess... Of course I forgot to clean off the turbo oil drainback hose so I can change it... maybe I'll just check the hose clamps before I get too excited there...

Annoyingly I need to drop the oil pan as much as I can so things need to be clean, then I need to smear in a bunch of RTV around the rear main cap to hopefully help the situation, also need to reseal the oil pressure gauge sender stuff since it's leaking in that area too... I so should have pressure washed the thing before I pulled it into the shop...

 

[superj]

Ok, I don’t want to WOW you guys and make you faint with full pics yet, and this stream is what did you do today, so let me share this. On the 87, my dash pad was shredded, absolutely impossible to salvage. I was in the scrapyard and I found an 88 that only had a couple cracks in it. A little bird told me if you grind out the cracks, and you carefully fill them in with hot melt glue, you can then sand the glue and make it straight. Being patient, which is not my long suit, it came out great. I realize that if I sprayed it, you could still see the repair places, so then I decided to roll it with a nappy roller with semi gloss rust oleum. That added a texture, and it looks fantastic, and it cost $3-4.

worst slot, 1/2” deep 1” wide crack:

View attachment 90475View attachment 90476View attachment 90477

When I had the dash out, I always wondered what those two flat panels above the steering column were on either side. So I took them out and washed them. Did you guys know that there are gauges and a speedometer behind there?

View attachment 90479

Well, totally charged up at this point, I had a can of that upside down mark the street bright orange paint. I sprayed it into a tuna fish can and used a Q-tip to recover the needles. New gauges for ten cents!

View attachment 90478

Wow!! That came out great

 

[Lefty]

Wow!! That came out great

You never stop. Do you?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You never stop. Do you?

Gotta build your post count somehow

 

[Lefty]

Gotta build your post count somehow

I'm thinking about installing a second winch on my ranger. Does this help?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I'm thinking about installing a second winch on my ranger. Does this help?

Of course it does

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Even this counts

 

[Rick W]

I'm thinking about installing a second winch on my ranger. Does this help?

Don’t know, how heavy is the first winch?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Don’t know, how heavy is the first winch?

Not heavy at all, it’s an ATV winch