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Sold it. Technically it's still in the family though, my father's S10 is badly rusted out to the point where it was deemed unsafe to drive on public streets and my girlfriend convinced me to buy a Jeep (renegade, ugh, not the $45k wrangler I was looking at) for "comfort." Stealer offered me $100 for the Ranger, I literally laughed at them and said no thanks, sold it to my Pops for $4500 (with lifetime oil changes and tire rotations).
Did quite a bit. The inside of my truck smelled musty. I took the vinyl flooring out and discovered a bunch of damp rust. Water had been penetrating somehow. Looked like it was coming up through the grommets or something. So I pulled up everything that was rusty or loose. Hit it all with wire wheel. Sprayed rust converter. Primed. Did some fiberglass work to fill holes. Then bondoglas over that. Then rubberized undercoating on the entire interior including back wall and roof. Then fatmat sound deadener. Then installed a new stereo with new wiring and added rear speakers. I used factory plug and added factory style pins to run the rear speaker wires. Removed old tail lights and tinted some new ones but left the reverse section clear. Replaced the old ford emblems that were discolored. Took some old steel wheels and prepped and painted them metallic charcoal. Removed the awful plastic drop in bed liner. Removed all the rust with wire brush or cutting it out. Welded in new stuff. Spray converter. Epoxy primer. Sprayed in Raptor bedliner. Reupholstered the headliner. Cut out and welded in new muffler reusing the hangers after modifying. Added a full size spare. And probably more I’m forgetting. Looking good now though. Super clean ‘06 XL reg cab.
Last edited by cruisin_n_style; Jun 27, 2018 at 12:09 PM.
Reason: Adding text
Did quite a bit. The inside of my truck smelled musty. I took the vinyl flooring out and discovered a bunch of damp rust. Water had been penetrating somehow. Looked like it was coming up through the grommets or something. So I pulled up everything that was rusty or loose. Hit it all with wire wheel. Sprayed rust converter. Primed. Did some fiberglass work to fill holes. Then bondoglas over that. Then rubberized undercoating on the entire interior including back wall and roof. Then fatmat sound deadener. Then installed a new stereo with new wiring and added rear speakers. I used factory plug and added factory style pins to run the rear speaker wires. Removed old tail lights and tinted some new ones but left the reverse section clear. Replaced the old ford emblems that were discolored. Took some old steel wheels and prepped and painted them metallic charcoal. Removed the awful plastic drop in bed liner. Removed all the rust with wire brush or cutting it out. Welded in new stuff. Spray converter. Epoxy primer. Sprayed in Raptor bedliner. Reupholstered the headliner. Cut out and welded in new muffler reusing the hangers after modifying. Added a full size spare. And probably more I’m forgetting. Looking good now though. Super clean ‘06 XL reg cab.
New 31x10.5 R15 AT tires on my stock susp. and wheels.
Cleaned the MAF and changed the air filter.
Repaired the grill, and dipped it and the head light bezels!
You have your Ranger looking good. I am still trying to find a solution. My '94 is in mint condition, with 64,000 orig. miles. The 3.0 V6 power steering pump is loud. I replaced it with a cardone reman. It's just as loud as the original. I read somewhere that the reman's are not replacing part that causes the noise. The advice was to find a new old stock, pump. The noise drives me crazy. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Thanks
Just replaced my first transmission in my 02 4.0. It seems to be moving properly however being a novice I am worried about the torque converter not being filled up before I put it in since it was all empty when I got it. I've heard conflicting ideas on this.
I hate that there are no good phone mounts for the Ranger. The vent ones are junk...plus...they block the vent. Windshield ones eventually let loose whether they are suction cup or sticky. So I was tinkering in the garage and decided to whip up a phone mount out of some aluminum I had laying around.
SO much nicer! Attaches to the pillar handle bolts and has a magnetic pad. I have a thin piece of metal under my phone cover so it securely holds right onto the magnetic mount. What ya think?
Installed torsion keys (to level out the 2 inch lift in the rear).
Realized the stock shocks are too short.
Ordered new (longer) shocks.
Drove to work with no front shocks. Boy that was fun.
Finally drove the '99 Ranger to the shop to have a new exhaust system thrown in. First drive of more than half a mile in the truck since pulling the V6 in November for repair. That morphed into a quick 5.0 swap from a donor Explorer, which rapidly snowballed into a full rebuild plus lots of other projects along the way. Hoping to have it inspected and on the road for good by the end of the week.
Did some frame work :P My bumper had fallen off and took all of the rusty metal around it with it, quickly followed by my spare tire support, then the emissions canister. So I got the end of a donor frame, and we welded about 18 inches onto my truck.
I hate that there are no good phone mounts for the Ranger. The vent ones are junk...plus...they block the vent. Windshield ones eventually let loose whether they are suction cup or sticky. So I was tinkering in the garage and decided to whip up a phone mount out of some aluminum I had laying around.
SO much nicer! Attaches to the pillar handle bolts and has a magnetic pad. I have a thin piece of metal under my phone cover so it securely holds right onto the magnetic mount. What ya think?
That's genius. If you ever choose to sell those I'll buy two.
Originally Posted by CalebJ
Finally drove the '99 Ranger to the shop to have a new exhaust system thrown in. First drive of more than half a mile in the truck since pulling the V6 in November for repair. That morphed into a quick 5.0 swap from a donor Explorer, which rapidly snowballed into a full rebuild plus lots of other projects along the way. Hoping to have it inspected and on the road for good by the end of the week.
Haha sounds just like my truck. I finally convinced myself to buy a "reliable" vehicle, and then it turned into a summer of non-stop repairs before I could get it on the road. Going in for inspection tomorrow morning at 9am. How was the 5.0 swap? I'm likely going to be doing that next Fall.
Originally Posted by Fastcubesolver
Did some frame work :P My bumper had fallen off and took all of the rusty metal around it with it, quickly followed by my spare tire support, then the emissions canister. So I got the end of a donor frame, and we welded about 18 inches onto my truck.
Nice! I had to do the rear section of my frame as well, but I opted for the Dorman "frame repair kit", comes with 2 sections of brandy new steel, shaped and drilled to fit the truck. Only cost ~$20 on Amazon too. I don't think they're quite that long though.
That's genius. If you ever choose to sell those I'll buy two.
Haha sounds just like my truck. I finally convinced myself to buy a "reliable" vehicle, and then it turned into a summer of non-stop repairs before I could get it on the road. Going in for inspection tomorrow morning at 9am. How was the 5.0 swap? I'm likely going to be doing that next Fall.
Nice! I had to do the rear section of my frame as well, but I opted for the Dorman "frame repair kit", comes with 2 sections of brandy new steel, shaped and drilled to fit the truck. Only cost ~$20 on Amazon too. I don't think they're quite that long though.
I work at a junkyard, which is essentially a candy store for me lol I was able to get the frame for free as long as I trade back the pieces I cut off my truck. I had help because I don't weld so I paid my buddy in beer, all in all it was a pretty cheap job. Would have passed inspection too if it weren't for a bad wheel bearing -_-
I work at a junkyard, which is essentially a candy store for me lol I was able to get the frame for free as long as I trade back the pieces I cut off my truck. I had help because I don't weld so I paid my buddy in beer, all in all it was a pretty cheap job. Would have passed inspection too if it weren't for a bad wheel bearing -_-
No way, that sounds like a dream! I've been considering a part time job just so I can get parts on the cheap, but I barely get any sleep as it is.
Speaking of inspection, I failed too. Front pinion seal is leaking, so now I have another project for this weekend.
No way, that sounds like a dream! I've been considering a part time job just so I can get parts on the cheap, but I barely get any sleep as it is.
Speaking of inspection, I failed too. Front pinion seal is leaking, so now I have another project for this weekend.
Yeah lol it's pretty nice having Rangers come in and being able to pick bits and pieces (of frame) off of them. I actually passed inspection today lol apparently not everyone gives a hoot about the wheel bearing :P
Tower made eye bolt passing through coil spring spacer plus 1" grommet Eye bolts pass through Unistrut bracket for strength. Cargo net on inside roof, hooked to eye bolts.
Built and mounted a roof rack to the ARE Topper - not "today" but recently. I know there are a lot of different ways to make and install these, this is just the route I took.
Used Unistrut (aka Superstrut) for the rack frame, 1/2" eye bolts x6 for anchor towers, passed the bolts through hard rubber coil spring spacers and 1" rubber grommets for front 2 and back 2 towers. Found a pair of Yakima bike racks for $15 at thrift store and attached them to the rack. Hardest part was drilling holes in my topper - easy to do, but hard to actually DRILL HOLES IN MY TOPPER!
Have had this up for 2 weeks and made a 800 mile round trip with freeway max speed 90 mph with only issues being wind noise and maybe 2 to 3 mpg lost. Wrapped a bungee around the front bar, helped with noise a lot. No other issues. Transported bikes a few miles for a bike ride, so much easier than throwing in camper.
Next steps:
- Add 1/4" steel grid as a "floor" to the back end
- Possibly making a no weld EMT basket cage to go over floor.
- Paint it...gray? Black?
- Seal tower holes into topper with marine sealeant to ensure no leaks. I actually think the holes are fine with current rubber feet on top of a thin piece of tool box matt, but want to be sure.
- Fabricate a wind fairing for front bar to reduce wind noise.
- Install LED lights on front bar? Not sure about that...it's a 2wd so no serious off roading here!
Total cost so far is about $180ish.
I can add more pics if anyone's interested.
Haha sounds just like my truck. I finally convinced myself to buy a "reliable" vehicle, and then it turned into a summer of non-stop repairs before I could get it on the road. Going in for inspection tomorrow morning at 9am. How was the 5.0 swap? I'm likely going to be doing that next Fall.
The basic swap really isn't that bad. I ran into a few glitches where things don't fit as directly as I'd expected (air box, for example), small things I forgot to grab from the donor vehicle before I had to get rid of it (transmission shift cable bracket), and the incredibly annoying (trying to swap a 2wd radio bezel into my truck, only to find that the vent assembly from my '99 didn't match the donor '00 bezel). Other than that, the delays were just finding time to work on it and adding in an engine rebuild along the way that blew my timeline and budget out of the water. At this point it's all done except some detail work on the 4wd shifter and chasing down why the engine won't idle right. I suspect there's a bad injector causing it, but need to do some more testing.
Cargo net on inside roof, hooked to eye bolts.
Built and mounted a roof rack to the ARE Topper - not "today" but recently...
That's AWESOME! I just picked up a topper today, hopefully I can figure out how to add a photo...
Are you supporting it above the cab in any way? I'm looking to make a (much less "clean") rack, and I'm curious about how much weight the over-cab section can handle. Little red, back home after picking up the topper. Front torsion bars still need to be adjusted a bit...
Originally Posted by CalebJ
The basic swap really isn't that bad. I ran into a few glitches where things don't fit as directly as I'd expected (air box, for example), small things I forgot to grab from the donor vehicle before I had to get rid of it (transmission shift cable bracket), and the incredibly annoying (trying to swap a 2wd radio bezel into my truck, only to find that the vent assembly from my '99 didn't match the donor '00 bezel). Other than that, the delays were just finding time to work on it and adding in an engine rebuild along the way that blew my timeline and budget out of the water. At this point it's all done except some detail work on the 4wd shifter and chasing down why the engine won't idle right. I suspect there's a bad injector causing it, but need to do some more testing.
That's good to know. There's a compatibility sheet out there somewhere that mentions which bits you need to transfer over. I'll have to find that again before attempting it.
Sorry if I missed it in a previous comment, but what did you do for your t-case? It sounds like you swapped in a manual-shift from something else (I'm not familiar with what t-cases "work" with these trucks).
