Hello everyone with is Ram aka HistoryMaker from Oakland California. I'm a filmmaker and video instructor. The name of my company is History In The Making Entertainment and that's where my forum name comes from. I have been a member of several forums over the years and have even ran my own in the past.

I own 2 vehicles 1 being a 2005 Hummer H2 that I drive once or twice a month and the second is a 1993 Ford Ranger 3.0 liter v6 extended cab 2wd. The ranger was my fathers and was passed down to me when he passed away and it has been my daily driver for 10 years now. My dad bought the truck from an auction and it was a delivery truck for a company before, it's a basic model no cruise control or electric windows. It didn't have a tilt seeding column until it was stolen from me in 2006 and I recovered it myself with a destroyed column so now it has a tilt.

What brings me to this forum is for many years now I have wanted to update the truck and make it nice, it runs good and my transmission what rebuilt in 2007 as a result of the theft but the interior and exterior are not in the best shape. Both fenders have dings in them, the hood has 2 holes drilled in it from a hood ornament my Dad added to it. The bumper has 2 brackets welded on to it for a brush guard that was "Added" to it. The interior needs Carpet, the headliner and seats.

2 weeks ago I went to an auto dismantler looker for a spare tire and wheel with a friend of mine who know the owner of the company. My friend had told me that he called ahead of time and was told they had a wheel from a 1998 ranger they had there. When we got there I found out it was a 2006 so I asked about the interior and if it had good seats. I was brought into the companies yard to look at the interior and I saw a nearly perfect 06 standard cab with a blown engine. The seats were vinyl and in very good condition so I immediately purchased the seats. I looked at the truck and started thinking to myself this might be the opportunity I had been waiting for to update the exterior of the truck as well.

I asked the dismantler about buying the entire front clip and the mirrors. He quoted me a price I thought was affordable but he warned me that the radiator support would need to be changed and that it was welded in. So I went home to think about it and that's when I ran across this forum along with a couple other sites with lots of info about making the front end swap and the challenges of making it work with a 93-97 ranger. With that information I spoke to a friend of mine about doing the work for me and he told me he would do it. So I went back and purchased the front clip, manual black side view mirrors and the rear bumper.

The parts were delivered and 3 days later the front clip is installed on my truck and we kept the stock radiator support. I decided I want to make the truck look like an 06-10 Ranger Sport so I decided not to use the black mirrors and i have a set of the paint to match mirrors ordered. I also have a paintable front bumper cover and grille but have not installed them yet. The rear bumper I bought was actually bent and I didn't realize it. So I won't use that, my current challenge it the fender flares which a lot of you know are very expensive from the ford dealer. They are a little cheaper from TascaParts but still high. I'm on a mission and will get them I'm just not sure how yet. Most dismantlers either don't have them or won't sell just the flares.

So that's where I'm at now and I appreciate the wealth of information on this website. I'll post more updates as I do more.

 

Here are some photos.

 

Very nice, good luck on the build! Keep us posted with updates