Hello,

The name's Colin, I'm new to the forum. I joined because a friend of mine crashed his 1987 Ranger into a post and he's offering to sell it to me for cheap. He took it to an autobody shop that says the frame is straight, but due to all the replacement parts and labour needed, they quoted him many thousands of dollars. My friend is not very mechanically inclined, nor is he attached to the truck, hence his offer to sell it to me.

I went to take a look at the truck today. I've posted pics of the damage. To my eyes it needs the following: PS inner and outer fender, bumper, signal light trim piece thing, headlight and headlight mount. I know the core support is bent quite a bit, but I'm hoping I can pull that out and save myself from tearing apart the entire left side of the truck too. The grill is broken where it wraps around the headlight, but in my eyes that is merely asthetic and I wouldn't worry about it for now.

I should clarify, the reason I am interested in this truck is because I am starting a small scale farming opperation and a Ranger would come in handy for hauling feedbags, moving fence posts, etc. I am not looking for anything pretty but simply something cheap and reliable. I wouldn't paint the replacement panels to match.

I have located a guy with a parts truck with a rust free front clip. He's offerring to pull the parts I've listed above for me for a very reasonable price ($200). I figure if I can have about $500 or so invested when it's all said and done, that would be great. I'm thinking about taking apart all the broken pieces first, to see how bad / how much work it really is, before buying the new parts, just in case it is too far gone.

My main questions for you are: is this truck worth fixing? How much time would it take to replace all the needed parts? For anyone who has done front end clip conversions/or accident repair, is their anything I should need to know or any hidden parts that I should aquire?

Thanks for your feedback in advance!
Colin.

 

I'd do it. As long as you get the truck cheap it will be worth it

 

I agree, if you think you can get it done as cheap as you mentioned I'd go for it!

 

x3. i would budget another $300 just to be safe