I've been working on the rear lower bracket for the shocks lately. I finally got it all together and halfway painted.

At first I was just going to make two brackets (one for each shock on the back) but after thinking about it, I was going to need more support then I was giving myself. So I went ahead and put the bracket in between the other two brackets.
This is what I started with (after I welded a piece on the end cause it wasn't long enough)

This is it just set together.

This is after I welded it all together and got some primer on it. (sorry about the crappy picture)




I'll post some pictures when I get the black paint on.

 

Dang this makes me wanna get busy and start to restor my 84'! too bad I gotta go back to college.

I like where this is going! Keep it up!

 

idk how I missed this thread, good work dude

 

Looking good man. Would love to put a 351 in my truck

 

Ok. I got it all painted and put on. Now that thats done....time to start on the upper bracket.



Oh...and all that white stuff is dust. Yeah I know...I need to air it off.

 

I had to take off the original shock mounts (partly cause I wasn't going to use them.).


After taking them off, I took a 3" by 3" square tube and cut it at 7 1/2". The hight the bolt needs to be to hold the shock is 6 1/2" off the frame.



After that I found out that the position that I was putting them was at an angle. So I had to cut the tube at and slight angle to correct that.




In order to weld the tubes in I had to grind the paint off. And I tell you what...that was painful!!!



I have them welded in now...but I'm too lazy to go out there right now.
I should have some more pictures posted by the end of the day.

 

looks good. keep it up!

 

It's looking amazing!!! Keep up the good work!!!

 

looking good

 

I got the tubes welded in and all. I took a hammer and hit the sides of the tubes to see if the welds would hold up to it, and they did.




I have one of the rods that holds the shocks made. I don't have it welded in, though. I still have to make the other one before I want to weld them in.

 

Well I finally got the back shock bracket done. All thats left to do on it is paint.





Now its time to start on the bed.

 

I finally got some pics. Sorry its been so long. I've been pretty busy lately.

I got the bed pretty much finished. I just have a little bit of reworking on the cover.





I was going to get some chrome valve covers, but I don't have the funds to get one right now. So a buddy of mine and I took the old valve covers and cleaned them up and painted them black and put them on there for now.


I started shaving the "Ranger" emblem on the fenders and the antenna. I welded all the holes up before I smoothed it off with bondo. I still have some work on both fenders, but the antenna is finished and ready for paint.



I haven't really started on the drivers side with the sand paper, but here it is anyway.



I decided to see how much the top of the bed needs to be smooth and this is what I got.

The lighter spots are low and need to be straightened. So this basically means, I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Oh, and this is only one side, if you haven't figured that out by now. The other side is about the same.

 

Oh, I have a question for all you Ranger folks.
If I wanted to drag/race this truck, what transmission would I get? C6 or T5? I have heard many people say that I should stick with the manual. This truck had a manual before, so it already has all of the components for the manual transmission. But it really comes down to which would be better in a drag.

 

if i were you, i would just cut to bottom of the bed our and raised it up and welded it back, looks so clean when you do it and then you dont have that awful hump

kind of like this (it just has very small hump:



here is a the build for you to get hints from:

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/for...d.php?t=258029

 

^^^ yea i dont understand why you did all that work for just the shocks you could of angled them or something and hardly gotten into the bed. or gotten some shocks that were shorter. but other than that great build so far

 

Yeah I thought of that, but I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do if I did that. I'm going to build a pretty big speaker box for the bed and If I did do what you are saying, I wouldn't have the room I need. Plus, I'm going to be covering it all up with a bed cover. So you won't really be able to see it. (Unless you look from underneath)
Moving the bed up like that was more work than I was looking for, and I don't really like the way it looked.

 

If your looking to drag race the truck you would be better off with a built C6 than a T5. Manual transmission are very rare at the dragstrip. Personally I would go with the T5 because i'm guessing most of the time your truck will be on the street not the strip and the T5 is a real efficient transmission with less parasitic loss and has over drive. Not to mention its alot more fun to row through the gears.

 

Couple reasons I didn't angle the shocks.
#1. I would of had to put a fairly large angle on them to get them squeezed under there.
#2. I don't like the way angled shocks look.
#3. It would have taken about the same amount of time/work to angle them.

 

^^^ yea im not much for lowered trucks but i like how this is coming out.

 

I wasn't either. But since I started on this truck, I've kinda slightly maybe changed my mind. :P
Now as far as bagging goes, I'm still against that. I can see the advantages to that, but I can also see some pretty good disadvantages to it. But anyways, thats another topic for another time.
Thanks for your opinion though.