Redneck Rebuild

Well this is a real cheap wheeling project me and my dad started, it's an 88 regular cab longbed. My dad had been looking into getting another 4x4 since the first time I took him wheeling in my Ranger, and when I built up the Fordzuki project, and took him out wheeling in it, he really started dreaming of what he wanted in a truck. So we'll go back to when he got it, he found it and an old travel trailer on Craigslist for $800 for both, and after going out to check them out, we picked up both, the Ranger for his wheeler, and the travel trailer (which was just a frame and axles, with title) got a rebuild and beef up to haul the Fordzuki around on. We started him out by throwing my old Ranger tires and wheels on it, just some 235-75-15s, which were a little bigger than the tires that came on it. This worked enough to get him around the trails for awhile, then like I said, I took him out in the Fordzuki, and he wanted bigger badder, and cheap. So when I got my income tax check back, I bought some new tires for Fordzuki, and mounted up the old 33x12.50x15 swampers on some other rims we had laying around, and mounted them up. Well, needless to say, without any lift, there was some "minor fender trimming" to do. I fired up the plasma cutter and took about 3 inches off the fenders and bedsides, and things started to fit.

Once done with the fender trimming, I took it out to the ramp, and tested things out, and soon the swaybar got ditched, and I came up with another problem, something I remembered from wheeling my Ranger, the rear bumper hanging way too far out there. So we brought it back into the shop for stage two of the budget build up. We decided to bob the bed by 14 inches, and take 10 inches out of the frame, bringing the end back to just at the back of the rear spring hangers. I got all the cuts made tonight, and got the rear section fit back on, tomorrow night I will do a little trimming, weld up the bed, and cut the frame off.

Before the fender trimming


After


First cut




The section cut out


Refit

You missed Valentine's Day by a few weeks there, backwoods lover boy.

Edit: I kid. That's bad *ss that your dad wants you to build him a kickin' RBV. I had a '90 Isuzu Trooper with 6" of lift on 33's sitting at home while I was at college. My dad made me sell the damn thing.

ejholmgren said:

You missed Valentine's Day by a few weeks there, backwoods lover boy.

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And you came up with this where?

Got the bob all welded up tonight, as well as lopping the frame off. Gotta get some new clips for the bedbolts tomorrow, and pick up the rear drums that are getting turned. Then it's time for the ramp again.

damn, i guess im just lucky ive got the deals i have on my truck, got it all pretty much done and built for under 1k, that includes a 4.0 swap, new clutch set and flywheel, d35, and newly built 7.5 welded with 4.56's, 5.5" susp lift, 3" body lift on 38" gumbo mudders(measure 35) should go liek a raped ape when tis all done

mhughes165 said:

damn, i guess im just lucky ive got the deals i have on my truck, got it all pretty much done and built for under 1k, that includes a 4.0 swap, new clutch set and flywheel, d35, and newly built 7.5 welded with 4.56's, 5.5" susp lift, 3" body lift on 38" gumbo mudders(measure 35) should go liek a raped ape when tis all done

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Well, so far, aside from buying the truck, we're in this one zero dollars.

I finished welding up the bed last night, got it mounted tonight, put the drums on, did a little grinding and threw some paint over the bare metal. While we had the rear tires off, we took the overload springs out, and cut them down to the size of the block, ground a radius in the ends, and reinstalled them. After reinstalling the taillight wiring and taillights, I took it out to the ramp and gave it a shot. Did a little better this time, but theres definately some room for improvement. I'm thinking of making up some lift brackets for it, and throwing some xj coils under it, along with longer shackles in the rear.
This weekend, I'm going to cut a piece of 2"x4" steel tube to fit between the framerails in the back, to replace the rear crossmember that was taken out with the frame shortening. This will double as a rear bumper, and include a reciever and some tow points. Also, I've got some rocksliders that I made up for my ranger, that will get shortened and mounted up. Probably gonna pull the rear diff cover and do a little welding as well.

Here's some pics of the finished bedbob.

nice work!!

Now I really want to bob my bead. Its a good thing I dont have te proper tools in the garage, cause otherwise I would say, "screw sleep!"

Lookin good on such a limited budget. Nice pics!

Thanks for the compliments, I had been wanting to bob the bed on mine, but being a supercab (shortbed) there isn't much to gain from it, but the longbed had so much hanging out there that it was just begging to be done.

almost makes u want ot have held out for a shortbed ranger, unless he wanted the better wheelbase of the long bed ranger

mhughes165 said:

almost makes u want ot have held out for a shortbed ranger, unless he wanted the better wheelbase of the long bed ranger

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For the price we paid for this one, I don't think we would have found a better truck, It runs perfect, the body's beat enough to cut on, and it even passed emissions. The problem with a shortbed is it still leaves more overhang on the back, and with the longbed cut down the way I did it, it's shorter than my shortbed. This gives it the longer wheelbase, but shorter overall length than a shortbed.

ya im gunna bob my short bed this summer so i get a better deparcher angle, keep up on the pics like it.

Well, this one has been put on hold the last couple days, but saturday I got the new rear crossmember welded in. I'm gonna make a couple d-ring shackle hangers on it for tow points, and then it's on to the rock sliders. I'll get some pictures up when I make a little more progress.

Not a whole lot of progress, trying to get two rigs ready for the summer is time consuming. I got the rear crossmember/bumper welded in last weekend, and this weekend added a half inch shackle mount to the middle. I was going to put two in, but decided one would be enough, so I just centered it, cut a slot in both the rear and the front of the crossmember (2x4" rectangle tube) and welded it in on both sides.