picked this up on march 1st 2013 for $1100.... 1990 ranger S longbed, 2.3, 5 speed, 2wd, stock and rusty but ran and drove really good, gas guage didnt work ( still need to fix that) and tailgate didnt open




at first I thought about an offroad build, but it wasnt in the budget and I saw a rat rod ranger build on another ranger site and thought that a rat rod shop truck build could be done on the cheap

picked up a toolbox for $50.... found more surface rust.... with some work manged to make the tailgate work


started some poormans bodywork

 

its not in that bad of shape. looks pretty good for its age

 

telephone pole and a comealong work good forr pulling out bumpers.... heres some of the rust



the interior when I bought it

took off the tow ball and painted part of the bumper

more poormans bodywork


first shift **** I put on it.... more on that later

at this point was when I changed to a rat rod build.... painted the wheels fire red and removed the fender emblems

 

found a stash of emblems was gonne use a ranger emblem fron a 73-79 f series, it broke when I went to install it, but I had another one that would fit in the same holes I drilled

cut 12" off the antenna and put a skull on the end of it


at this point here is what the truck looked like


did a color change on the grille emblem


was missing a cargo hook on the rear and the front ones were usless with the box so I used one to replace the missing one and put the other on the tailgate

the letters were peeling off on the tailgate so I removed them

didnt like the look so I hand painted them

 

the air silencer and preheater were in really bad shape so I took it off.... the heatshield on the exhaust manifold was pretty rusty so I removed it too

made a trip to the local pick n pull and picked up a few things... a full size spare , a LF light bezel ( could only find a chrome one so I took it apart and painted it to match)

shift **** came apart so I changed it


also found these window cranks from an older ranger

found these one day while shopping with the wife

took off the stupid duralast plaque that was on the toolbox and raided ny emblem stash again

through some horse trading I got these mirrors to replace the floppy stock ones


on another trip to the junkyard I snagged this shiftboot from an older ranger and modified it to fit

also grabbed this headlight **** that fits my oldschool theme

 

the muffler went out so I cut it off and measured and headed off to the auto parts store


here is what I got for $46



got it put on and it sounds good

was hard to use the mirrors in the stock location so I moved them



neglected to take pics but I gutted the interior and got rid of 23 years of dirt, broken glass and change... only 26 cents


here is how it looks now

 

Looks like you've been busy!

The red wheels match the interior.

 

well I dont work( had a brain injury in oct), so I have lots of time on my hands...... sitting around doing nothing drives me crazy.... I did all this work for around $200...

 

Not bad for $200.

Keep up the good work!

 

yeah I used stuff I had laying around, parts from my local pick n pull, cheap paint from walmart, trading stuff I didnt need for parts I did, and a few parts from walmart automotive section

 

Diggin it!

 

was a nice day today and had nothing to do, so I painted the jack crank handle silver (didnt have any black) and used the last of the red on the hood prop


also painted the jack and lug wrench.... silver for the lug wrench and 2 tone blue for the jack

 

did some more painting parts today.... the fan motor and the brake booster had some surface rust on them so I sanded them and painted them.... also cleaned off all the dirt on the fan itself



also found the bracket broken off the oil dipdtick tube and the PO put it back together with zipties... I removed the bracket, drilled a small hole in it and put a rubberized holddown for plastic conduit around the dipstick tube and attached the bracket with a screw, had the stuff laying around so it didnt cost me anything


I also had a short in the licence lights... had to cut out 3 of the original solder connections because if you fiddled with them the lights would stop working...now they work fine after repairs

 

Keep it up. I love seeing older vehicles come back to life, especially in this '---- it, throw it away, buy a new one' world. My '95 is in similar shape and I did the exact same thing to the exhaust.

 

yep......buying an old ratty rig and fixing it up seems to be going away..... most kids now days want to get something in decent shape and throw parts at it........I have even been doing this on a very small budget

 

made a seat cover.....found this fabric at a thrift store for $2

 

bought these driving lights to put on the back of my k5 blazer as back up lights and ended up going another way , so I decided to put them on the ranger


mounted the toggle switch on the empty spot on the left side of the dash below the headlight switch.... also used a relay which I mounted near the underhood fuse and relay center

 

 

not the prettiest thing but it works and it was free to make

 

a few weeks ago the rustbucket rat was in a fender bender with a lowered s10...me making a left turn and he came speeding around a corner.... was ruled my fault because I was making a left turn even though I was stopped when he hit me


so I took off the air deflector and the broken driving lights and pulled the bumper off and beat the bumper back into shape the best I could


lost one of the hubcaps, so I took them off


bumper still didnt look right, so loosened it and put flat washers on the upper mounting bolts between the bumper and frame... much better


still need to get some driving lights and a few other odds n ends

 

Looks good man, that bumper held up well!

 

the s10 was low enough his bumper went under mine... his bumper bent the licence plate , broke the driving light and messed up the valence.... my bumper smashed his headlight, grille and corner light...another 5-10 feet it would have just been a close call

 

not much new here....fixed the damage from the wreck , put on some utility lights I had laying around from my k5 blazer.....did a budget fix on the windshield washers....hooked up to a toggle switch... had to get another tank, found one at the junkyard...today I made a skull headlight ****...

 

right now the ranger is the only driver at my house.... the other rigs we have are either not running or have expired tags......money is really tight , so driving my 4x4 is out and the tags expired last week....build is gonna be more towards a practical daily driver..... here is how it looks at the moment



stock 90 window cranks are back in because one of the old school ones broke...I am done working on my k5 blazer for now so I am working on the ranger ....gonna see what else I want to do to it... will keep ya posted

 

Good luck, I like looking at the progress u have made so far