Hello; My name is Ron and I live near Gettysburg, Pa., I am 70 years young and a retired electrician. I have always been interested in cars, hot rodding, drag racing and such. My latest project was restoring a 1988 Mustang GT of which I am very proud, It's not a show car but it looks good and I did all the bodywork and paint myself (first time painting).
My new project or continuing project is my 2001 ranger edge 2wd step side 3.0 manual trans. This was my daily driver for 10years and I traveled 120m round trip per day. I retired in 2009 and decided in 2014 to upgrade the worn out 3.0 with a 2004 PI 4.6 w/ aod. The swap went well and I have enjoyed driving it and it has been a very reliable truck but now the body and interior is starting to need some upgrades.
Here's my partial plan
1. Shave tailgate, relocate handle to inside the bed. (completed)
2. French in the tag holder (done)
3. Remove bed and custom rework the fenders and trim. Modify the shape of the fenders, extend fenders out to cover new 15" x 15" tires and rims. Relocate gas filler for relocated gas tank. Do all body work required for paint. Install new wood bed floor. Remove step bumper and make new rolled pan in place of bumper which will hold new tail lights. ( In progress)
4. Remove rear cab window and replace with small oval window from 1948 GMC PU.
5. Body work on cab as necessary for paint to include new body line across side of truck to separate two tone paint scheme.
6.New dual exhaust to rear bumper, (currently running side pipes)
7. Front end rework to be determined.
So I've got my work cut out for me, I've been working on it for a while now and have the tailgate in primer and removed the bed from the frame today 1/23/19.
Here are a few photos of current progress

 

got it this time

 

well it came off pretty easy even for one person, just lifted it up with a couple come alongs and pulled the truck out.

 

I want to put new full dual exhaust on the truck but it looks like the gas tank is going to be in the way. Any one have photos of how and where they ran their dual exhaust out the rear of the truck.
I've been thinking of installing a different gas tank where the spare tire is located ??

 

Welcome to the forum

Your garage/shop looks like mine, not a compliment according to my wife, but I like it, I am 63 years young

Dual exhaust ran down passenger side then one crossed over to drivers side at rear axle, image here: http://www.heartthrobexhaust.com/2007440%20004.jpg

The old Bronco II gas tanks fit between frame rails, swap seen here: The Lone Ranger ? Bronco II 23 Gallon Tank Swap ? Midwest Nomads

 

Yea the shops usually a mess and now with all the body work sanding it's worse. My wife doesn't care about the garage, as long as she can get her car in on her side. Try as I might to keep it straight it just doesn't last. I finally got tired of it yesterday and did a little straightening up but that's just how I roll !!!
Thanks for the input on the exhaust. My issue is with the 4.6, one header (pass. side) falls outside the frame rails and the other is inside, that's why I originally went with the side pipes but while I have the bed off I'm definitely going to plumb them through there somehow. That's why I was thinking of relocating the gas tank to get some room down the inside of the drivers side frame rail.

 

Thanks for the lone ranger link, checked that out and it looked awesome, might try it ??

 

 

Started cutting up the fenders, I can't do the 18" tires without tubbing the truck so I'll stick with 15" but I'll still have to extend the fenders out 4". I laid out the rough cut line and cut it off. then I screwed the fender down to the table and made some brackets to hold the cut wheel wells in place. I'm using 2" Styrofoam as a filler and will use it to get the shape of the new fenders and also use it for the base for the fiberglass. looks ok, it just might work. I used some expanding foam to fill the tail light just to see how it might work. so far so good.

 

 

So I worked on the rear fenders a little today, filled in the rest of the opening and did some adjusting to the gaps. I was able to do some shaping of the fender to see what shape the new look will have and I think its going to be ok. I was looking at the new shape and I think I might reshape the wheel wells also, we'll see.
You can see where I filled in the rear tail light.
what do you think about this setup for reshaping the fenders ?

 

So I've been working on shaping the fenders to see how they look, I painted it blue just to take the bright contrast away. The comparison to the old fender is not real noticeable but gives me an additional 4 inches to fit those 15" wide hooziers in there. Not quite finished with the design yet, there are a few other thing I want to add or change. It's a process?