Yoopersteeze's Ranger Build

[YooperSteeze]

Gotten a fair bit done lately, tires on, fenders cut, front clip reassembled, various things removed such as sway bars and excess exhaust. All thats left is bumpers, swapping hubs, welding the diff, and addressing the leaves.

This is how the stance ended up, I'm pretty happy with it for being just stock suspension and 32's, nice and low. Door was off to remove the fender but it'll be back on as soon as I can get a friend over to help.

Clearanced inner fenders

Start of the front bumper, beefy piece of c channel that I found in the bed of the truck hahah. I have some rectangular tubing that I'm gonna come off the sides with and wrap around, that stuff isn't too beefy but it was free. I just can't stove er into a tree haha. Also its getting tow points welded to the front.

This is an issue. The front hanger on this leaf pack is also rotted to pieces... I love road salt. Luckily I have a line on some new leaves and some k5 hangers that I'll (hopefully) be able to make work.

And here is another issue, the sad state of the driver's floor. Seeing as it just going to be a trail rig I'm just going to cut a sign blank (1/8" aluminum) to fit and self tapper it down.

 

[racer1044]

looking good man. I got the flange from joey. If I have time today I will dig out my shed and grab those spacers for ya. As far a the leaf springs go see what everyone has laying around. I built a bastard pack out of a new set of stock leafs and the original set outta my truck.

 

[86MUDRCJ]

Why wouldn't you go to the jy and get a set of 63" Chevys and the drop shackles and then you get 2"of lift and they flex alot better.

 

[YooperSteeze]

I actually have both of those lying around... I was going to save them for my V8 1st gen prerunner build but that is taking a different direction and after pricing out new hangers I'm gonna go that route. 63s, eliminate stock block and if needed I'll add the beltecs. Also have some different bumpers coming my way, kid i know is parting out his nearly stock 92 and I'm getting the plate bumpers, front and rear for two 30 packs hahah.

 

[86MUDRCJ]

I was going to say if ya got them then use them. I might go that route when I sas but I haven't decided if I wanna push the axle back yet. Two 30 packs? Can't beat that. Well unless you get to drink it haha

 

[YooperSteeze]

Sorry I've been slacking on updates, I don't have much time to sit in front of a computer anymore hahah. Between building a race truck, building this truck, school and my girlfriend, life has been pretty hectic. But don't worry, I've still been working all this time, and am doing pretty good to be done by the time my neighbors want their garage back hahah.

She sat like this for a good while, got everything torn off the rear end in about a night hahha

Then all of a sudden, after working til the sun came up, some 63's, beltecs, and new hangers appeared! I had a hell of a time gathering all the proper hardware without emptying my bank account in the process. And yes, I used grade 8 for everything I put on.

I boxed in the front hangers for shits and giggles, and in an effort to make them outlast the truck hahah

Nice and shiny rear hangers, thank you Ben (Racer1044) for helping me out on getting these! I definitely need to get out to your place and give you a hand soon.

With space limited in the garage, had to get a little creative with my storage hahah

I discovered that the 8.8 in this truck had a plastic diff cover. My buddy had a brand new steel one that I could swap for, only catch was I had to move the full width axle, with tires, across town for him. My explorer fit it perfect! and I think she wants full widths, that axle did not come out easily...

Got the diff all welded up, spiders to spiders and spiders to carrier.

And the axle is back under the truck!

I got the interior completely gutted, carpet, panels and headliner gone. They were all pretty toasty. I fixed the driver's side floor with a large amount of self tappers and a section of xj roof, finally a jeep going to good use hahah.

Since these pictures, a buddy stopped by and helped me toss the bed back on. Once I get the coil spacers up front she'll be sitting nice and level. Also I dropped the tank to make the leaves easier, and replaced the brake line that runs along the frame from the RABS module to the flex hose, as it was rotted out. When I noticed how bad the line was, I realized this had no back brakes. The previous owner had replaced the lines on the axle, all new shoes and wheel cylinders, but was too lazy to replace that line and just blocked them off at the master with a nail, and daily drove it in that condition. Stuff like that baffles me, that people will drive a vehicle like that.. Thinking of brakes, I relocated the flex hose for the rear to the middle of the cross member to allow full droop. Also extended axle breathers front and rear. When the previous previous owner put this truck together from three or four rangers, he must have figured that a gas tank skid wasn't necessary as I don't have one. So my tank is getting mounted in the bed! Already extended the wires, just need some barbs to extend the fuel lines. All thats left on the rear is shocks, mount tank, extend fuel lines, bolt down bed, and bleed the brakes, which will be a royal bitch as I have to bleed the RABS module also. Oh well, the end is in sight. After the rear end is squared away, on to the front. Just need to do coil spacers and shocks (hopefully) and the truck is ready to wheel! Other than a few little things like wiring lights and bolting bumpers. Anyway, this got way too long and I have a midterm tomorrow, so thats all for tonight! Thanks for reading! Oh, and if you get a chance, check out our short course off road racing team on facebook, link is in my sig!

 

[bobbywalter]

hang on to the k truck hangers

 

[LIMA BEAN]

Lotsa work there, does it still fit out the garage door?

 

[YooperSteeze]

K5 hangers are kroussin's, I never ended up receiving them, figured I might as well just go factory to keep things simple. Still fits out of the garage fine, its still really low, which was a goal. Only gained about two inches of lift in the rear with the 63's and beltecs after I removed the factory block. Worked again tonight, got the fuel lines plumbed and she roared to life first try. After that, cleaned up bumpers and gave them a coat of paint, and gave the garage a well needed cleaning hahah.

Here is how the stance ended up in the rear, I'm very happy with it. Just bouncing on the bed made it clear how much travel and flex this set up has, even though its low. I'll be having an action packer and a spare in the bed so it'll squat a bit more with all that. Tailgate is coming off and I'll run a net of some sort for better visibility, plus that one doesn't open. We got lucky and it flopped open as we put the bed on the truck hahaha

Here are the bumpers, these suckers are beefy. Sorry for the awkward picture angle, I didn't feel like hopping in the bed hahaha.

And here is a slightly better pic of the new floor. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for the materials I used. Only thing is its slippery, I think I still have some grip tape around from my longboarding days...

And the best part, tank relocated. Why? Because race car. Hahah in reality, less to hit when I high center this, plus it lacked a skid plate. Luckily the p/o followed the standard practice of leaving me with a tiny amount of gas so it was really easy to toss around. This whole process was a lot easier than I expected. Only issue I had was seeing as I'm too broke to afford new line, I used some factory line out of an old f-150 my buddy had lying around, and it came up a little short for the return. I just rotated the pump in the tank and that solved that. I'm getting some plumber's strap tomorrow along with some rubber mats to mount it and isolate vibrations. Thanks for reading! And any feedback or criticism, don't be afraid to post hahah

 

[kroussinoffroad]

Hmmm similar concept to a couple of my first rigs. Light is might and less there is less to go wrong
that wheelin was fun but it's alot more fun Now. I also dont miss using the come along or straping every time u get stuck.i Remember before i had the come along i was using a highlift to winch out mosttimes a strap was out of reach.

 

[YooperSteeze]

Well, she got her first workout last night. Went to pick up a buddy to help me bolt the bed down (he lit his dodge on fire so he couldn't drive hahah) coming back up the driveway in my explorer, it was snowing, 2wd, back end slid into the snowbank. Tried backing down in 4wd, buried whole thing. So we just went ahead and got the everything bolted down, mounted the front bumper, and tugged it out no problem! Glad I had it so close to drivable when I decided to bury my dd...

 

[kroussinoffroad]

pics or it didnt happen

 

[racer1044]

Your truck is coming along faster then mine!! lol. Looking good man. When I get back from vacation your def gonna have to come over and help me get my truck back together.

 

[YooperSteeze]

Ben, rear end will be done as soon as you give me those shock off your rear! The ones you gave me were way short. When do you leave for vacation? I'll steal my girlfriend's car and drive out to pull them off hahaha. I thought about snapping a few pics but was more worried about getting it out before my neighbors called the cops on a noise complaint... or my mom did hahahah

 

[YooperSteeze]

Sad news... I'm selling it. My buddy really needs a new vehicle to replace his pile of a camaro, and I really need money to get me by until I have a job again come May. I'm really trying to finagle the deal so I get to keep all the good parts. I told him $800 returned to stock but he really wants it as is, but that'll raise the price to $1100 hahah... We'll see where this leads. Don't worry, I'll have another trail rig soon enough. Once the snow melts I'm going to get my v8 1st gen up and running and DD that, and the explorer will take over the trail rig duties.