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  #1  
Old 12-16-2013, 05:10 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default The Driver & the Project 5.0?

My daily driver was a 2001 Pontiac Bonneville SEE. Inspection was about to run out and it needed a few things. About 800$ in parts, plus some minor bodywork from everyday life. So I went on the hunt for a winter beater while the Bonneville was in repair.

I found a 2002 Ford Ranger Edge in the local classifieds. Inspected for 2 years, but the crank was shot..., for 500$. After another week, it was lowered to 400$. A week after that, I threw 300 cash at him and drove it home.

After checking it out, and driving the snot out of it, I was impressed. New brakes, rotors, front end, starter, driveshaft, exhaust and rustchecked its entire life. THE BAD: A worn rod bearing causing piston slap and a bent pushrod. Rusty bumpers and box. The search for a 3.0 donor begins.



----------

2 weeks later a 2003 Edge shorty finds me. Bright red with no body rust and a perfect drivetrain. Frame needed work to pass inspection. After a lot of haggelling.... I dropped 400 cash and drove it home. Now, for 700$, two running rangers, and one inspected. Not bad. 5.0l efi bells were ringing in my head with all the spare parts...



Stay tuned for strip down, chassis clean up, engine swaps, box swaps and a lot of custom work.

----------

Gettin some work done, after a blizzard, of course.

Tore into the inspected Ranger, ready to change motors and bumpers. Possibly rad support.

Pay no mind to my garage, I didn't get it quite finished before the sow fell. Its slightly unfinished. Hole in the floor is to add more blocking under the I beams its sitting on. For now, its a roof over my head in snow season. Unfortunately no heat yet in there. My xmas vacation from work starts this Friday... A lot more will be accomplished.



Stay tuned!
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  #2  
Old 12-16-2013, 05:58 AM
Redneckstone Redneckstone is offline
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Default Re: The Driver & the Project 5.0?

Interesting��
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Old 12-16-2013, 07:11 AM
Vblueranger Vblueranger is offline
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Default Re: The Driver & the Project 5.0?

So you bought a truck because the other car was in need of work and your doing more work on the truck ? Thats classic haha

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  #4  
Old 12-16-2013, 07:34 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default Re: The Driver & the Project 5.0?

Yeah, lol. Thats basically it.
The Bonneville had inspection left and was running well when I found ranger one. Then the cat clogged solid and made it undriveable.

I bought the first one just because it was inspected and so cheap... I knew from the get go it would need a motor, but then the wife liked it so much she put a rush on me gettin it into daily driver status! I gave her the choice of truck or car, and she chose the the truck. I never planned on it being so immediate! Then when I found the red one, a short wheelbase to boot..., I knew my 5.0l project was situationally underway.

I had planned on a 5.0l ranger build in the past, so this just worked out.

Happy wife, I'm happy. Now to find a 5.0l Efi donor.
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  #5  
Old 12-18-2013, 01:51 PM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default The Driver & the Project 5.0? part IV

Work appointments were cancelled today due to weather, so I took some time and removed the box from the black ranger.

Box off. Frame rails in great shape, just need a good cleaning. Drivers side spring hanger is broke, but frame tails are good. Gonna blast/scrape em, paint em, bedline em, and undercoat them in the spring. The structure of the box is solid, 85% good, but fenders and wells are terrible. Will replace with box off the red truck.

Have to get some rust paint and undercoat on the rails for now, after a good scrape. Enough to last the winter season. Two more days till Friday and my Christmas vacation!

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  #6  
Old 12-21-2013, 04:31 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default The Driver & the Project 5.0? part V

So its now my vacation. 2 weeks free of my work, and i couldn't be happier. Now i have 14 days to work on cars, lol. Yup, i said it. 14 days of work on my 2 week vacation!!!

Today i pull the engine/tranny out of the black ranger. Then tarp up all the open metal and frame and push it outside. Then jumpstart the red ranger and drive it in the garage for the teardown and pull.

I am going to do it as follows:

front clip removal,
front rad support welds drilled out
rad support removed
engine/tranny/ypipe pull in one shot

Then drop the new motor in the same, BOLT the rad support in through the drill holes with stock bolt/clip hardware and reassemble. I think this will give me greatest ease if ever swapping again, or if i need to replace rad support in the future.

Hoping to drive the 2003 "daily driver" 3.0 auto stock Ranger out of my garage on Monday, Tuesday at the latest.


Also:

The short wheelbase ranger edge donor is getting this treatment:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/for...-bolt-key-flip

With flipped key adjusters, new keys, removed blocks, rear flip (or axle over spring), then all the necessary steps after to make it look like this:



Then it's 5.0l efi swap and 5speed. Explorer front bumper, Boss 302 style striping like this:


So, now the work begins.
Stay tuned, it should be an exciting week!~
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Old 12-21-2013, 06:52 AM
johnday johnday is offline
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Default Re: The Driver & the Project 5.0?

Why can't I get deals like that!?!?! 'Scribed, have to see this.
1what's with the beams in your garage?
Where in Ca.? It's a big place ya know.
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  #8  
Old 12-21-2013, 08:21 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default Re: The Driver & the Project 5.0?

Hey.

I live in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia. About an hour from Halifax.

The deals on 1/4 ton trucks around here are crazy, but usually because the climate kills the body before any other parts go bad. You can get great deals, but it's balanced out by the work needed to put back into it. I love working on vehicles. I am a carpenter by trade, and would much rather have wrenches in my hand than a hammer in my spare time. I also weld and have done bodywork for years, so theres not a whole lot that scares me away from a great deal.

My garage didnt get finished before the snow/nasty weather hit. I had planned on getting the floor finished as soon as i added extra blocking under the i beams holding my floor. However, situation called for me to do the daily driver build first. So it is what it is, lol. It's kind of embarressing to say this, but it's been some useful jumping down in that hole to work underneath my truck!!!!

I also have a 1978 Camaro Z-28 thats getting a Vortec swap in my other garage. I have a rust free 1992 GMC Sonoma (1st gen), with fiberglass box that is recieving a vortec treatment as well. I just had to sell off my 1974ish Ford f250 highboy with 78 front clip as well.

Well, it's dinner time. Then back out to the garage for more Ranger progress. Will be constantly updating.
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  #9  
Old 12-21-2013, 11:32 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default The Driver & the Project 5.0 part VI

Ready to pull. Everything is free and unbolted. Have to get my 4" chain reciever and motor chains. And clean up my garage!!!!!! I've let it get too cluttered already



Rad support is also much worse than i thought. I hope to hell the one on the red ranger is better!~ Will find out by tomorrow. Drill those welds next.
Coffee break, clean up, drill welds, hook up lift, get it out by this evening.
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  #10  
Old 12-22-2013, 06:55 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default The Driver & the Project 5.0? part VI

Motor out. Now to back the black truck out and start all over again with the red one.

It was a bit tougher than i had hoped. There were WAYYYY to many welds to drill out of the rad support, so i said f**k that for now. If i have to weld/patch the rad support, so be it. I need to geth this on the road!!!

Also, my ceiling and roof system was so low that i had to remove the front wheels and drop the front frame right on the ground to clear the doghouse. PITA!!!!

Anyways, heres some pics.






Now, time to get the donor truck in there and pull that motor. Hopefully be ready for pull by this evening.
Stay tuned.
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  #11  
Old 12-22-2013, 07:17 PM
shawn97 shawn97 is offline
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Default

How did you get to know so much about working on trucks?
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  #12  
Old 12-22-2013, 11:39 PM
casey.mikl casey.mikl is offline
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Default

That radiator support looks exactly the same as the one in my explorer donor for my 5.0 swap.

image-1515326445.jpg



image-1999048711.jpg



image-3349433672.jpg



image-3204713773.jpg

It's a 96 2wd 5.0 with gt40 heads. Can't wait to swap it in. I'm keeping auto. And the explorer has a limited slip rearend. I got it for $500 the kid flipped it on it side and damaged the roof and windshield frame. Can't be fixed unless you have a donor roof section. It's perfect for my swap. I can't wait. It's gonna get a new cam though.
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  #13  
Old 12-22-2013, 11:58 PM
01RamblinRanger 01RamblinRanger is offline
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Default

Loving this thread, keep it coming!
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  #14  
Old 12-23-2013, 03:15 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default Some History of Me

Thanks everyone for following/having interest in the thread! I'll answer some questions with some pictures. lol

Quote:
How did you get to know so much about working on trucks?
-Shawn97

My father was a carpenter for 50 years (yup). He was one of those types who would only do things the right way, and didn't like to cut corners or be dishonest. Because of this, he ended up working for himself his entire life. This man could do anything. Build, fix cars, landscape, weld, paint, garden, electrical, you name it!!! One of his side businesses was even having a scrap/upick junkyard. Fixing cars and following after him came easy.

This ranger is not my first. I had a 1994 xlt about 8 years back now that i bought from my dad after he abused the s**t out of it. I had to replace the motor/trans, fix the box, change the rad suppport, and so much more. In retrospect it wasen't really worth it

Here it was:



The entire sides of that box was rivets and fiberfill. I did the wheel arches, then had to do the lower front quarter, then the rear quarters...it was endless. I also installed a 1996 Mazda b3000 valance (that was my parts donor)

This is another truck i just recently sold after i got it running. I built it from parts i had around my fathers/my yard. Leftovers from the scrap business days. Built it as a plow truck, but got a great offer and solt it.
Started with a 1974 Ford f250 Highboy frame (that was under a 1983 hunk of s**t) and combined it with a 302/c6 i had, and a 1979 ford f100 body.



And now it's gone, i miss that badboy.

I've worked on many vehicles, and have more than one project on the go now. My second gen Camaro is the big one, and it's getting a fully modern retrofit. Full vortec swap and modern electronic interior.

Anyways, much more work to do to the Rangers today. Will keep updating as much as i can. And will post more pics when i find a host! I just ran out of image room on this board.

Patrick.
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  #15  
Old 12-23-2013, 04:29 AM
trickgh83 trickgh83 is offline
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Default More Background

Hey, i found out that if i added another album, i had another 60 pics i could upload, so heres some more work on the highboy. This was the miserable box i had to work with (remember it was just gonna be a yard truck)



And a Corvette one of my bosses put into a tree i had to fix:



Thats also my current 1993 s10 vortech build in the background. I have a fiberglass box on it, and its now highly modified.

Heres some odds and ends



That was my first car!!!!
This Cavalier was my second, thats my brother jacking it up



Here was my Dads project (1940 Chev 3 window coupe)


My old Trans Am in the background and now:

My favourite truck, the 1960 C10 i posed with:



And finally, my Camaro:



So there ya go!!! Hope you enjoyed the barrage of pictures. Its almost daylighht now, time for me to get out in the garage! Stay tuned
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