My sons truck. 97 Ranger cab on 97 Explorer frame, interior being swapped as well.



Pretty clean for a 97

Explorer hood and gas struts

Explorer core support with part Ranger grafted on ends

Fully welded back in

Cab mounted, bed will come later

Explorer dash painted with Duplicolor flat black

 

Cool project.

Couple of questions, fuel filler/tank and wheel base.

 

Good questions, and 2 things that will need to be figured out :)
The Explorer wheelbase is about 3.5 inches longer, the initial thought is when it's all said and done, is have someone fabricate sheet metal/gussets on sides and top of box to close the gap to look like factory.
We left the stock tank in place, and my thoughts are to just route the houses to the original spot on the Ranger, as opposed to all the work of moving fuel door to back. There's lots of space to run the hoses between the bed and frame, and I think it should work but won't know for sure until we get to that point.
We're going to get the truck to the point of starting it and driving around the block without the bed on it, work out any issues that arise, then tackle the bed.

 

After months of not doing anything, we're back on this. Question is, how do you squeeze all the Explorer wiring into a regular cab Ranger :)

 

So I did an AWD 52 Ford F1 a few years back. I just sold it to do this same project as you. Just a couple of questions if you dont mind. Why did you have to use the explorer core support and radiator? Did you have to cut the floor pan for the AWD? Did the rear of the cab clear the frame rails? Where did you shorten the frame? Did you have to cut the driveshaft? Thanks for any input.

 

Good questions and happy to share what I've learned so far. We ended up putting this on hold again for quite awhile and just getting back into it.
The core support... I wanted to used the Explorer rad as I was worried the Ranger rad wouldn't provide enough cooling, Trying to get the Ex rad installed in the Ranger just seemed impossible and eventually I just gave up and swapped the core supports. The rad of course dropped right in, but created an issue getting the hood latch assembly to mount/work properly so have no ditched that and will install hood pins/locks.We also took the fan/clutch assembly off and installed a couple of 10 inch electric fans.
The frame has not been cut, the cab fit with no issues over the trans/transfer case. Everything is stock, not cut or modified to get the Ranger cab on there. The mods will likely come when the bed gets mounted because it is going to leave a sizeable gap between the cab, but my thoughts are that a good fabricactor can make something work to make that look good.
I did choose to cut the wiring harness on the driver door as the Ex connector was way to big to use the Ranger hole, so that was a couple dozen wires but it worked and didn't have to start cutting the truck to make it work.
I did also replace all the cab mounts with prothane ones. The front and middle mounts line up just fine. The rear one had to be cut/modified and rewelded to the frame. A good mobile welder came in handy for this
Hopefully can start sharing progress on this over the coming weeks/months now.

 

Thank you. Answered alot of questions and then some. Glad to know about the body mounts. Also the bed. I hadn't thought about some kind of filler, but that would eliminate the need to cut the frame and shorten the driveshaft. Thanks for the insight. I'm in Baldwin Georgia, and travel the southeast, if you are in that area and I can assist you in any way, please let me know. I have access to most all tools if I dont have them myself. Thanks again. Steve.