*****This first post(s) are a culmination of a few updates I've posted on the TurboRangers forum*****





So, with the weather turning cold and we had the first snow of the year already, I took the Ranger off the road. This pushed me into starting down the long road over hauling the Ranger.

She was starting to show signs of "the cancer" on the top of the cab above the windsheild. This is the beginning of my project.




This is what the rust looked like. It had started a couple years ago, and I made some quick fixes by sanding down the spots and using touch up paint to fix them for the time being before they got real bad. At the time I didn't have the time or place to fix it for good. Now I do. The rust ran from one side of the cab to the other. Most were spots the size of a quarter. Not really sure of the cause. Maybe the paint was just tired and showing its age.







After I started grinding down on the worst spots.






All the spots on top the cab ground/sanded. Ground down to bare metal where the rust was. The rest of the area I only ground down to the Factory Sealer.










Passenger side rear cab seem. You can see where the paint is split along the seam as the factory body filler has finally gave up. Rust has started to form along this area. Not a lot, but I'm gonna finish weld the seem to avoid as much body filler as possible.






Driver side rear cab seem. Already ground down and old body filler ground out.





Passenger door lower rear quarter of it.
I had hit a deer a few years ago and it barely skimmed down the door. Only damage it did was to the lower rear there. It pushed against the inside frame and creased the metal. It can be fixed/pulled easily, but has some surface rust starting that needs taken care of too.





I'll be using this stuff for a sealer/base primer. Then I'll do the body work on top of it. Should halt any rust from ever forming on the cab again.
No More Rust






PLAN:
Next to happen is the windshield gets pulled and I grind the sealing area to kill any rust around it as well. After that, front fenders get yanked. Then, the core support, header panel, front bumper, head lights and valence are getting replaced with NEW parts. They are rusty pretty bad. Not as bad as Salatings, but getting there.

Engine/tranny will then be yanked. Frame will be also be treated to a grind/sand overhaul and treated to the Nomorerust as well.

Moving to the rear, the cab may or may not be completely pulled to attack the frame in that area.

The rear suspension will be yanked and a parallel true 4-link will be installed. Coilover's are yet to be determined as I need to figure out how to figure coil weights and what not. Rear frame will obviously be treated to a refinish as well.

Gas tank will be ditched in favor of a fuel cell relocated to bed or behind the axle, havent decided yet.

Rear bumper will be cleaned up and possibly rechromed. Not doing a roll pan as I actually want to return the body exterior of the truck to as stock as possible.

Tail gate will be replaced with new as well as the bottom drip rail has the Rot and is beyond fixable. Plus I shaved it year ago and I'm not liking that anymore.

Then, eventually it will be repainted stock. It's a unique tu-tone.









Fenders, header panel, and bumper gone!











The rust around the support mounts.







The garage where she is staying for a long time












Core support and hood are off.





















Not much of an update, but fender liners are off, radiator is out and I started removing parts of the wire harness and Alt and Alt bracket. I'm at a halt until I go buy some impact sockets so I can remove the stupid bell mouth exhaust, and the tranny mount bolts.

 

Glad to see you got it back to Utah. I will watch this thread.

 

RUSTY:



POR15:



YEAR LATER:



Daily Driver Omaha Nebraska Winter.

 

Yup, I'm killing the rust in its tracks. I plan to yank the cab and bed and do the entire frame along with all the body work. I've got the time, so I might as well do it all now.


Oh and marcaroni, thanks for clogging MY project thread with your pics already

 

I wish i could tear my 94 down to the frame western New York sure put a beating on it...good luck with it

 

Got the windshield out and removed the exhaust, turbo and header.

Found some bad news though when removing the header :(

When coming back from Pennsylvania a few years ago after hanging out at Quaker Steak and Lube with the guys it started to pour rain like never before. It was the hardest rain I'd ever driven in. We had popped over a hill and a river of water was rushing across the road, and I plowed through it before I could react. The truck instantly died and had problems running for a few weeks afterwords till she dried out. From then on I always had an exhaust leak. I figured I blew out part of either the header gasket, or turbo gasket. It wasn't till today that I found out what really happened....



I cracked the header at the weld between cylinder 2 and 3. :(










That explains the exhaust leak AND loss in power I noticed. The instant thermal change in the metal caused by the frigid water hitting the header must be the what caused the crack, its the only possibility.

The flange is still flat though, and I guess the header can be fixed? The turbo is perfect though still. No end play, and still very very very little side plan in the shaft. Not even close to touching the housing.






Window channel cleaned up and all rust ground out.



Passenger side core support mount. Worse than the drivers side :( Looks like I'll be cutting the tops off both of them and fabbing my own, should be easy though.



Pulling off misc engine parts getting it ready to yank the engine/tranny.











Engine and tranny are out! I might be at a stand still for a while though as far as the exterior goes. I have to make room for my Jeep in the garage so they can clear the road during the winter, which leaves me no room to remove the bed and cab really. Plus, I don't want to be out in the cold power washing the frame and grinding on it. So, these might be the last exterior updates till spring.


I do have an interior to rip apart though :)

 

Nice build, keep us updated!

Brenton

 

nice i gona do mine it the spring

 

Looks like a sweet project man, keep it updated.