Yeah... yeah. I know. I've been putting off the SAS for a good year now, and here I go again with another one. But this quite by accident (or so I'll claim).

So I've had the 07 for over a year now, and quite frankly, the Cooper tires that were on there were driving me bananas. So I've been searching for awhile now on something to get that would be an excellent road tire and I figured since the 99 is on hold, get something that would be a sweet looking wheel to make the 07 into something I could be proud of.

I ended up choosing a set of Black S Style Mustang Wheels from Americanmuscle.com (18x9) as well as 255/55/18 Falken Ziex Tires. So far these handle and ride extremely well. But I'm getting a head of myself.

So long story short, I picked up the wheels and tires this past week as well a new set of Edelbrock Perfomer IAS Shocks. Plan as of Wednesday 3/18/09 was to go home on Saturday , change oil and filter, swap out the new shocks, remove the nerf bars, and get the new rubber on.

Well, that plan only lasted until Thursday. I had free time and got anxious so I decided to put the new wheels and tires on.

Got home today, so all I really had to do was swap out the shocks and change oil. Went over to my Uncle's house, who just got a new shop built with a 5 ton crane and a hoist. Needless to say, it kicks ***. So we get the Ranger up on the lift and I've changed the shocks and oil in under 3 hours. Excellent. One problem I did find is that my passenger side front axle seal appears to be leaking so I have to get that fixed.

So I go back to the parents house (20 minutes away) and I start looking at the truck. And here's when it hits the fan. I start thinking, what the hell. I've been thinking about taking the flares off and debadging the thing for awhile. Lets do that, give it a good wash and see what it looks like.

3 hours later, I've taking pretty everything off the truck and I'm cleaning all the leftover sticky goop for lack of a better term off. So yeah. Now I have a pretty damn sweet looking truck, but another full blown project.

Why you ask? Because now I want to turn this thing into a show truck. So here's my plans.

CURRENT TO-DO LIST

• Lower the truck 1 inch up front and level out the back with the front (I will be asking questions about this shortly).
• Remove the mud flaps
• Fix the driver side mirror (I broke a piece of it awhile ago and forgot about it until I washed it)
• Weld up all the holes left from the Fender Flares
• Weld up all the holes left from the Tailgate Badges
• Weld up all the holes in the bed rails from the previous owner
• Fix up the dents everywhere
• Swap in a 05 STX Grill or 08/09 Sport Grill (might be the same)
• Re-paint the entire truck Screaming Yellow
• Look into swapping disc brakes onto the rear from an SN-95 Mustang

So yeah... I've got the bug again. Also, some problems I've already ran into.

Like I mention, front axle seal is leaking. Need to fix that.
When removing the front fender flares, there appears to be one full blown metal rivet. See picture below. Not really sure how to get that one out, but I'll probably drill it out when I'm closer to welding up the holes.
There are all sorts of holes and dents from the previous owner on the bed. He must have had a topper and actually drilled the topper straight to the bed rails. See pictures.
There is a ton of leftover glue and goop from all the crappy stuff the previous owner had on the rails. I should have taken the rail caps off sooner, but they seemed decent enough.
Not so much a problem, but I think if I had to do it again, I'd go with a 17" wheel. I love the setup I have, but I think a 17" would just fit the size of the truck a hair better.

Anyway, here's some pictures to help guide you through the process.

Original Truck a week after I bought in last February


Truck as it sat at 9am this morning


Truck as of 5pm








Odd Metal Rivet from Front Fender Flare


Drilled holes in Bed Rail


Glue and holes on other Bed Rail


Holes and Glue on Tailgate

 

truck looks good... nerf bars for sale?

 

Nice cant wait to see the finished product. I say stick a 5.0 under the hood.

 

Awesome Matt, looks better already. I know I couldnt drive it around stock for much longer either hah. SHould be a nice little daily when yer done

 

Maybe someday... but for right now, I'm not going to touch the drivetrain or engine. While I want it to look nice, it's still my daily.

 

r u getting rid of the flares?

 

I like the direction it's going. Can't wait to see it when the holes are filled. Ditch the mudflaps asap though.

 

Quick update for the day. Cleaned off the local Radio station stickers from the back window, followed by putting on the important sticker.



Haha... anyway, only other thing I did to the truck was put locking lugs on the wheels. Normally, wouldn't even bother, but I figured it can't hurt and if someone is going to steal the wheels, might as well make it as difficult for them as possible.

Onto the next step of the project. I want to lower this thing. Especially the rear. So I started looking at how the leaf spring setup is right now.



So as you can see, we have a block in between the leaf and the axle. In looking at it a bit further though this isn't going to be as simple as unbolt, remove lift block, re-bolt.

First, there appears to be a center pin going through both the leaf and the block. Second, the block does more then just lift. It's there as the bottom out spot for the bed. I'm not totally sure that will ever be an issue, but here's what I'm thinking for options.

1) Simply remove the block and not worry about the bottom out stopper. More then likely I'm never going to load up the setup enough to get that low again. This will, however, require new U-Bolts and will probably require something to be done about the centering pin (wouldn't really know until I took it apart.

2) Leave it as is. Pretty much not an option.

3) Third option which I'm leaning towards right now. Flip flop the block and the leaf. This would leave me with the stopper still in place (all be it higher), the stock u-bolts could still be used, and I wouldn't have to screw around with the centering pin.

4) Last option. Modify the leaf shackle somehow. I didn't even notice this until today, but it appears that my truck already has a drop shackle in place. Seems like this could be modified quite easily. However, don't know what it would take to do this. Here's a picture of the current setup.



So we'll see how it goes. I know a guy at work has a 06 Sport that sits level, so I'm going to look at his setup tomorrow to see his leaf setup.

If anyone has done this, by all means share your advice. I'll keep you guys posted though.

 

Yes, but I'm not sure if I want to ship and they aren't in the greatest shape. I'll PM you later.

Not sure yet. I'll let you know if I do.

 

just pull the block and get shorter u bolts. Dont worry about the bumpstops. The center pin shouldnt be an issue you'll see when you pull the block.

 

Agreed. There is a pin that goes through the leafs and there is only a little nub on the top of the block, not a pin that goes all the way through. Ditch the blocks and I think you'll have the height you want out back.

 

For the shackles, You can drill the rivits, and flip the shackle mount. But You have several easier options than to go that route.

 

This truck isn't 4wd is it?

 

Matt I say lose the block, the leaf will have a nub that will sit on the pring perch hole. So you will be fine. And maybe talk to D. about lowering that front end as much as you can. Taking the block out and/or flipping that rear shackle will be a nice drop and the front will have to come down quite a bit to even it out.

 

yep it is

 

You will not have any bumpstop issues if you take out the block. Instead of the bumpstop hitting the thing on the block, it will just hit the axle tube. You don't even need bumpstops anyway, my 4" blocks don't have them.

 

Cool then I guess

 

Yes. It is a 4WD truck. I already have a lifted Ranger and I really wanted to go with a nice street truck for my next one. I'm not looking to make this into a pavement scrapper, but I want it to look right and IMO the stance needs to be a hair lower.

I know this site caters to the lifted scene and trust me, I think that's cool. I enjoy a nice lifted Ranger as well as the next guy. Hell I am trying to SAS my other one.

But this is what I wanted to do for this one, so that's how I'm going to go with it. Sometimes this site kind of scares me with how one-sided everyone seems to be... with the whole if it ain't lifted, it's crap. I want the 4WD because a light 2WD truck like a Ranger blows goats in a MN winter. Nothing like sitting on a slight incline after a nice ice storm and never moving. So anyway, hopefully that quashes the bash posts for awhile. We all know it's 4WD... I only need it for the Winter, but I want it to be a street truck through and through. Never will see mud (unless it's a dirt driveway).

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked so back to the point at hand.... /soapbox

Thanks for the tips guys. I kind of figured I could just take out the block without worry, but my uncle seemed to think not having the bumpstop would be a big problem. I told him the odds of me ever hauling enough to make it droop that much was very low... and even if I did, I'd be aware to monitor the issue, but I figured it couldn't hurt to hit up the forums for info first. Hopefully, I can get that done sometimes this week. I'll keep you guys posted.

And Andy, as far as the front goes, I don't think I'll need more then an inch lower, so I figure I can get that pretty easy with just the T-Bars. I need an alignment anyway, so once I get the back to where I want it, I'll see what the front needs done. Hopefully I don't have to start investigating that whole custom control arm idea of mine.

 

Are you going to take the ranger badges off the fenders too?

 

yea deff let me know about the flares cause that would be great if i could get them from you because i wanna put a set on my truck

 

How about them bed rails....ya thinking about selling those off too? Maybe a little extra to pay off that reckless driving ticket?

 

Haha... the bed rails were just cheapo plastic stick ons. They weren't real Ranger bed rails. I already trashed them.

 

Where do you get the money for this stuff!?

 

he won the lotery!

 

This project has been relatively cheap so far. Just shocks, tires, and wheels. Plus this truck needed wheels bad. The ones that were on there were so far out of balance that I couldn't go above 65 without the steering wheel shaking so bad it took 2 hands to really keep it place (maybe a bit of exaggeration, but it was definitely getting bad).

So it was a partially necessary upgrade. I just decided to use my tax refund to add the wheels and shocks to the expense I was already going to have of the tires.

Other then that, everything else should be mostly just my time for this one. My friends have the welder and tools for doing the body work. The driver side mirror, rear disc brakes, and new grill I'm going to go J-Yard hunting for and hope to find a good deal. I'm in no rush to get those done as this looks pretty good already in my opinion. And the lowering will be free since it's just removing a block and maybe re-adjusting the torsion bars a hair.

I will have to pay for an alignment, but that's just $50.

And I suppose having a job as a Computer Engineer helps. I definitely have enough to keep me satisfied. Not saying I'm loaded and buy everything, but I ain't broke either. And the job security is pretty good right now for our company. *knock on wood*