Ranger Tough Truck Build
 

It's an 84 Ranger that I eneded up with because the owner dropped it off at our shop for electrical wiring and when he found out his newly rebuilt motor was seized, he abandoned it. The truck has no title so it may very well never see street driving.

This is by no means a race truck. It's purely for fun and will be run at those amatuer tough truck competitions held at the monster truck shows. The goal is to use as much stock stuff as well as JY stuff to keep costs down. Bang for the buck is the name of the game.

Plans:
83-84 Rangers got stamped beams and some 84s got forged beams. I took a peak and they are definitely not stamped. Since it presumably has forged beams, I'm going to have these beams extended about 4-6" after the radius arm mount on the beam and plate them. The truck wont be lifted very much at all, maybe 4-6” with springs. I also found a poly bushing kit on ebay for this truck for about $170 that I plan on using.

Eventually if I find some F-150 front steer king pin beams and spindles for cheap I will go that route, but until then these are the plans.

Motor will be a 302 backed by a T-5, a 9” with 31 spline axles, 4.11 gears, spool 15x7 or 15x8??? Cragar Soft 8 black wheels, 31x10.5 BFG ATs. Cage, x-members, upper spring bucket reinforcement, and more stuff along the way as it comes up.

As far as my budget goes, it is somewhat limited, I start a new job in January once I finish school, and I will not spend $1K for a beam kit since this is a just for fun BS truck. Plus, I have a vintage Mustang build, and a future dirt track car build that require financial attention as well.

Giddyup.

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Definitely not stamped
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Monster 2.0L
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This is the guy who suggested the 302, his name is Windsor.
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Fred

This is the goal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzViGbzNaco

Not this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PVn4QjT_2Y

Went down to the shop and pulled the truck out of the weeds and into staging so that I could move the truck into the shop as soon as there is a little more room for it. Found some Fabtech springs I had laying around but they are only 2" lift and may not do so well with the 302. Also found a steering wheel quick release hub.

Tomorrow, disassembly.

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http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/steering.jpg

Work has not let up at all which is a good thing but it as not allowed me to bring the truck in and really get down on this thing. All I got done today was taking the grill off and giving the engine a good once over with a can of engine degreaser and a water hose. Turned out pretty damn good, too bad the engine will not be reused.
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Before and After the Engine Degreaser
Attachment 151301Attachment 151302

BTW, these thing don't work worth a damn!!!
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Fred

Took a perfectly good stock interior and made it look like this. :D
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working outside sucks!!! Gonna start the cage soon.

Not a bad looking Truck,
I like it!

Sounds like you got yourself a nice project on your hands.

Damn Monday!!!

Not a good day folks. Had high hopes on getting a good amount of work in on the truck today as I was able to finally pull the truck into the shop.... and that's when they day went to hell.

For starters, another car was dropped off for some electrical work and it was somewhat of a rush. Nice car though:
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Then to work. Started stripping down the engine bay a bit more getting ready to pull the old engine. Got a fenderwell pulled and was gonna start taking down the suspension when I started hearing a loud clatter, a pop, and some grinding, then smoke coming from my Crafstman compressor. Done!

Shut it off and saw this on the floor.
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Cylinder
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So this is all I was able to get done today.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...fenderwell.jpg

Fred

Thanks guys. I like that I have a reason to go out and buy some tools that otherwise the wife would have not approved. Got me a nice little pipe bender and pipe notcher. Looking to get a plasma cutter soon. :biggthump

Now I just gotta get the wife to sign off on it. :scared1:

Fred

nice... good luck with the build

Nice man. Good luck. I'll be looking forward to the finished project.

schweet. cant wait to see it finished. its gonna be awesome.

Very white.. lol have fun!

lol looks like a cool project. u need to upload some vids of u when u get the truck done!

I think its a shame to not restore that truck to a more original look, but perhaps with a lift and some 31s or something. Too bad to see an older one like that with a respectable body go to waste as a gimmick.

yeah gona be sweet when done, stadium tough truck is sweet

You mean tube?

omg....i wish i had that little truck

Unfortunately I mean pipe. I can't afford a tube bender. I got a killer deal on a Harbor Freight Air/Hydraulic Pipe Bender. I know its not supposed to be very good for for tubing but I did a lot of research on it and it can be easily modified to be a good tube bender. Yesterday I was messing around with it on some 1 1/4" .120 wall mild steel tubing and it did pretty well out of the box. There were some minor kinks but once I get the modifications done to it, that should solve the problem.

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Here is the kink caused by the rollers that are included with this bender.
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Once I get back down to the shop and do the modifications to the bender I will post up pics of them in case anyone is in the market for a low buck bender. This is the one I got. Regular Price $199, I got it for $75 brand new.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...7499/97468.gif

I would have had no problem doing that but the truck has no title and I'm not really looking to spend any money trying to get one for it. I'm currently in the market for a 70's F-100 or F-150 that I would like to restore as a daily driver. :icon16:

looking good, and definitely post up or pm the mod for the pipe to tube bender.

Cool dude! Just hope y ou don't tear it up, looks to be pretty damn clean for an 84..

looks like a fun little project, just don't cheap out on the tubing for the cage, my friend almost lost his life because of cheaping out on the tubing in his race car

Looking good man

Well, I'm actually planning on putting this truck on its roof it's first competition win or lose. I'm planning on building a pretty good cage into this thing to make sure it not only allows me to walk away from it but maybe re-use the truck for future competitions and some desert bashing. I'll start a project thread for the pipe bender once I get it done and get all the pictures taken. :tiphat[1]