looks real good!

how about some finished interior pictures!

 

Trucks looks good nopt a bad height but I know you werent aiming from being on the frame when aired out.

I would just set your ride height up front and let the back down all the way driving. Roll it Cali style.

 

I think it looks really good. Personally I'd go with a ride height maybe an inch higher then your completely aired out, but its your truck and I bet it rides like a Caddy now.

Looks great though.

 

OK Which of you guys sent the cold, wet weather to the So. Calif desert?
It's 1:30 P.M. and the hi for the day is only 51. I'm freezing my buns off.
I had to dig out the long pants. It's supposed to be back to normal by Saturday.
Mid 70's and sunny. I'll try to get some good exterior shots then.


Here are the interior shots.
I know the seats don't match. Truth is I just ran out of money.
So new covers will have to wait until my wallet recovers.




Center console with air gauges.




Speaker box, CD changer and Amps.




With the storage area lid in the up position. This is where I keep my extra CD magazines.




Overhead console. The compass appears to be working fine.
There is a little ritual I have to go through to make sure it's accurate.
The outside air temp appears to be working normally also.
It seems to be a bit slow to change temps though.
It's only been in the working mode for 1 day now so hopefully this will improve.




My 7" video screen. With the GPS on.

 

Very nice looking, you've got a lucky grandson.

 

very nice....

what are those seats out of, or did i miss that already?

 

Page 1 post #9 shows the Explorer seats I had planned to use and what went wrong Maurice.
After getting burned on that deal, my fault for not doing my homework,
I decided to buy new seats from a custom shop here in So. Calif.
About twice the cost of junk yard seats. But they came with a guarantee for both fitment and workmanship.
If you're interested I can dig up the bill and get you the web address.

 

thanks, i was just curious!

 

I don't know if you have thought about doing this next to the truck...putting white face gauges and same with the HVAC....and a wood grain steering wheel would look bad a$$ too! just an idea...love the truck!

 

Very very nice i like it looks like you got your moneys worth!

 

Great looking truck! Just sat here and read all 5 pages, great build and very nice work! I think its great that you can spend your time doing something that you love and at your own pace. Pretty cool

 

OK Guys, Here are the final 5 photos of this portion of my build. After the hit my wallet just took,
it will probably be another year before I can afford to start on the next phase.
Of course that could vary depending on how good, or bad, the stock market is to me.

This is with max air in the bags. Slight nose down attitude. I MIGHT be able to bring the nose up a bit more,
but the gauge was reading 150 psi and still being new to me I was nervous about adding any more.




This is what the truck looks like when I'm driving it.
I've been running about 90-100 psi front and 20-25 rear.
Looks and feels about right to me right there.
I've only put about 60-70 miles on it since I picked it up. All local city driving.
Nothing above about 50 MPH. Haven't yet had it on the freeway. Will probably do that tomorrow.
I'll put 75-100 miles at 65-80 MPH just to see how it feels/handles.




ZERO air. Again a slight nose down rake to it.




Back wheel. ZERO air. This is EXACTLY what I was after in the looks department.




Front wheel. ZERO air. This is about 1.5" - 2" lower that I wanted.
I was hoping it would look like the back wheel.
That is, wheel well opening about even with the top of the tire.
But I can live with it this way.





Well that's about it for now. Next will be the exterior mods. Some future plans are.
Remove the radio antenna from the passenger side front fender.
Install two 4' CB antennas on the bed between the bed and the cab.
One antenna will run a splitter and serve both the AM/FM radio and the CB I plan to install.
The other antenna will be a dummy for looks only.
Remove "Ranger XLT" emblems from the fenders. Paint the door handles and mirrors to match the truck.
I've thought about shaving the door handles, but I've heard so many horror stories that I decided to just paint them.
Forward tilt for the hood. (maybe) Clear corners and Euro tails. (maybe)
So far I haven't seen any that I liked better than the stock units.
Some sort of screw jacks at all 4 corners of the tonneau cove.
Remove the handle/lock and hinges from the tonneau cover so it's nice and smooth all the way around.
Whith those mods the tonneau cover can be raised straight up to a hight equal to the cab roof.
Of course a COOL (do you young'uns still use that word?) paint job.
I just bought "photo shop" and if I can find an "adult ed."
course around here I'll play with different paint schemes. With and without graphics.


Wow it's a good thing I'm retired. I don't have time to work.

 

Looking geat, Sir!

 

Looks real good, but the mud flap looks really out of place on there.

 

love it looks very good
nice work and good luck with you future modding

 

It does look good wish you would of went lower but if your happy thats all that matters. I would ditch the rear flaps. Im just suprised the rearend doesnt come down anymore even with a bolt in notch Im lower in the rear with a 7 inch drop and no notch. Is there something holding it up?

 

Drool...

 

The mud flaps were supposed to be gone. I picked up a cold about a week ago and just don't feel like doing anything right now.



Only thing I can think of is Oscar welded in a pair of bump stops over the rear end. (see photo 1, post #62) That might be doing it. I was told there would be about 1.5" - 2" clearance with no air in the bags. Maybe that isn't the case.

 

Was just wondering. With no air in the front bags, as expected the truck has neg camber. With about 100 psi in the bags. About where I normally drive at. There still seems to be a slight neg camber. Is that normal? If it is normal won't that damage my tires? Should I take the truck to a front end shop and have it alined? I've only put about 100 miles on the truck since I got it back so it's to soon to tell with the naked eye.

 

I would at least go get the alignment checked, it wouldn't hurt anything. If it even looks like theres negative camber there probably is and that will destroy tire life.

 

Thats the problem with bagging on stock control arms with the DJM's you wouldnt have such an issue with negative camber. DJM's arms and balljoints offer you more balljoint travel in the suspension movement as well. DJM's Upper control arms are longer than the stock control arms helping to correct the camber as you go low.

What most people do is set a ride height they like at and have the truck aligned at that. Say you set your right height at 100psi go and have it aligned at that height so when you hit 100 psi you know your good and not going to drive around and eat up your tires do to negative camber or toe issues.

But yes negative camber will eat tires up on the inside rangers are horrible for camber compared to other minitrucks and being on stock control arms isnt helping either.

 

Was looking for some ideas for the next phase. Asked the guys over at RPS to photoshop for me.
I think he did a great job. I think I'd like to go with a darker brown. Or maybe a copper color.
I just baught the program, but don't know how to use it yet.
The idea for the 57 chrome strip and color combo is just 1 idea I'm toying with.
I'm also thinking maybe 55 or 56 chrome. I'll have to try those and see what they look like.
As soon as I can take an adult-ed class, I'll go to work with some ideas.
If any of you guys have PS, feel free to jump in. Get as creative as you like.
At this stage I'm just playing around and looking for ideas.

 

I think Dodge's 'Gold Mango'(paint color) would look real good on there with the interior color.

 

Thanks trigger. That's close. But it looks like it has a bit more orange in it than I'd like.
I'll have to go to a Dodge dealer and look. I saw an Infinity at the dealer that looked good.
It was on one of those elevated stands, so I couldn't see what the color was called.
Being Sunday they were closed. So I'll go back tomorrow and ask.

 

Looking/thinking back I have to agree it's a little to much orange, but I love that color. I want to say Dodge has more of a coper color too that would look good.