Hey all. I have a post up on Fordrangerforum.com for my build but figured I would also make a thread here for extra feedback. Hope you all enjoy!

I bought my ranger in February of this year. It's a 96, 3.0 2wd extendad cab 5 speed manual, and I'm the third "real" owner (As the previous owner only had it for a year and drove it once). I bought her for 2500 bucks with 172 on the clock (181 now).
Here's a photo from the first day I actually managed to drive the 5 speed across town:


Now as for me, My name's Wes. I'm a 17 year old and I like tinkering with things. So having a truck I can really work on is a great thing for me. I also have a pretty awesome cat.


Onto the good stuff

The first thing I did was plasti dip the grill black:


And of course, pop goes the tires and the spare tire was introduced:


I added a new radio system back in april, and removed the cup holder (And eventually lost them ):
https://i.imgur.com/Ckne9Z4.jpg

I eventually got a little hooked on the plasti dip and ended up dipping the whole bottom half of my truck (and removed the dip from my grill). Came out looking pretty sick if I do say so myself:




Then I threw some new tires on in may-ish? Wish I had gotten something a little bigger. I'm thinking of grabbing some explorer rims and getting some larger tires next time I gotta replace 'em:



I bought a CB for my truck. It's just a walmart cheapo, not mounted and current sitting in my garage. Not sure why I actually bought it



Unfortunately, the plasti dip was peeling and hard to maintain. So off it came :(




Then came some 06 mirrors. F yeah!



Now, an issue with the previous owner was that he figured he could cover all of the trucks scratches with... Touch up paint. Looked terrible and it was all over the truck





So I attacked it with some laquer thinner and it's ALL gone! :D


Something I've always wanted to do is throw in a center console. So I did the 60/40 mod (needless to say my dad was PISSED but in the end he admitted to liking it :D) :

Got some seat covers and new floor mats while I was at it:


Then the bumper and grill got some REAL paint :O



As she currently sits (photos may be before the paint, but f it I like these photos:



Current plans are to get an explorer center console, explorer seats, roll on bedliner, a tool box/camper shell/roll bars/whatever comes first, and anything else that happens to come to mind.
Thanks for reading this whole post, hope you enjoy the build!

 

I'm going to head to pull a part today, I eventually want to get a new cluster with a tach and a center console, can anyone give me a price range?

 

Can't answer on the ohc, but clean truck man. Mine is about the same year and mileage so it's nice to see older Rangers still in nice shape and taken care of.

Kind of a dumb question but I'm curious where you got the bigger floormats in your pictures, when I search online most I've been able to find are the smaller ones that don't stay in place well.

Also thanks for the idea on the lacquer thinner also, I've got some touch-up paint mistakes I need to fix :)

 

Truck is pretty clean for the age! I'm glad to see another young guy on here! Best of luck! Looking forward to some future mods.

 

Still havent made it to a pull a part yet. I may head to one in Huntsville in a couple weeks, but in the meantime I got a steering wheel cover so I guess you can say things are getting pretty serious.

Hey man! Thank for the kind words. I got my floor mats at walmart lol. I think they were on sale for like 20 bucks? They look pretty good haha. And good luck with the lacquer thinner1

Thanks man! I've got some plans ahead. Just a matter of getting them done

 

Decided to paint the wheels. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.
Also, was heading home from the gym today and a check engine light popped on. Looks like an 02 censor went bad. I'll head to autozone in the AM and look into it.

 

Trucks lookin good man

 

Thanks!

Just made a deal with a guy for these today. New headlights, I'll upload a photo from my of them when I'm at my pc, wont let me upload from my phone

 

Sorry for no new posts! Got some new headlights! And thursday I'll head to pull a part to get some explorer **** :)

 

Looks much better! Good luck on you're search for the explorer stuff. I can't wait to install my OHC! Getting explorer stuff is kinda addicting

 

Step 1. Buy ranger
Step 2. Replace everything with explorer parts
Step 3. Ignore people that tell you to just buy an explorer

I'm thinking seats, a center console and maybe a cluster with a tach. I may go crazy and replace my old cupholders if I dont get a full length console

 

I'm focused on my lift right now, but seats/center console are in the near future. Lifting is expensive!

 

I have a cluster with a tach and LEDs for sale in the classifieds.

 

I knew you were going to say something about yours for sale

 

Lol what can I say? Just trying to be a good salesman and help a guy out. I have too many parts coming in and not enough going out haha

 

I got ya, I just wanted to give you a hard time.

 

It's all good. I'd honestly like to keep it, but with everything else being so custom, it seemed easier to just make my own cluster. The gauge swap is definitely one of my favorite mods.

 

I definitely like the custom one a whole lot more than the old one!

 

I spent all day thusday at pull a part, I picked up a cluster and leather explorer seats.

The seats are in pretty good condition, they have a few rips but nothing that bothers me/cant be fixed. They could use a good cleaning though.




-50,000 miles!

 

I got the cluster in today! I just forgot to put in the black cover for the gear shifter. So I'll put that in in a few days

 

What is the 60/40 mod you speak of...you just changed the driver seat?

 

Its cutting the side off the drivers seat to make it into a bucket instead of having that little seat beside the driver

 

Anyone have a write-up on that?
Sorry to polute youre threa Wes

 

Check the how-to section.

 

https://www.ranger-forums.com/interi...ket-seat-8285/
You're welcome