Pictures of my 97 XLT splash

Hi, I've had my 97 Ranger XLT flareside for a few years and it now has 132K miles on it and I've just rebuilt and detailed the engine December 2014. I've updated some of my pictures. It was stock when I bought it [other than some aftermarket orange and silver sport decals ] I've added splash parts as well as aftermarket parts to get my truck looking the way I want it. I fixed a few small dents in the body, I added 93/94 Splash stripes, Ford grille emblem back ground colors painted to match splash stripe colors, XLT decals on the rear 1/4s, Crown Victoria body side door molding to the doors. New head lights and tail lights, new door handles and locks, a new Ford windshield with the Ranger logo, black antenna mast with rubber cover, LED day time running lights, tail light louvers, rear window louvers, 3rd brake light bezel painted body color, new body color grille, Xenon front air dam and body color outside handles. Dark blue Ford wheel center emblems on 98/00 center caps, Cooper Cobra tires, Street Scene door mirrors, 2.3L emblem on the tailgate, changed the gray plastic bumper trim to black, installed a bed liner and a black aluminum DeeZee storage box in the bed. I've done some clean up and dress up under the hood replaced the yellowed washer bottle and master cylinder, added a under hood light, foil under hood insulation and installed a K&N air intake with heat shield. Under the truck I've also done some clean up and installed KYB gas shocks, added a rear sway bar, a dynomax cat back exhaust, chrome rear end cover and a matching aluminum wheel for the spare. I installed two inch lowering shackles because the rear of the truck sat too high. Inside the Ranger I installed a new headliner and carpet, NOS Ranger floor mats, a wood dash kit, aluminum gauge bezel, a Autogauge tach, splash decal on the shift indicator block off, aluminum knobs, 1979 XLT Ranger dash emblem, 2000 Ranger XLT door panels without carpet on the bottoms, a Pioneer stereo and speakers, a Ford emblem on the steering wheel and I change all of the gauge and controls back lighting from blue to green. I just installed a black vinyl shifter boot to replace the stock rubber boot. I still have a few changes and improvements to make on the truck I love my Ranger and enjoy fixing it up and driving it.

I had changed the door panels in my Ranger to panels off a 2000 Ranger because I like the look of the panels that don't have the carpet on them. Now I've installed new 04/11 black level 2 armrests because I like the way the black armrest blends into the black inside door handle bezel. Ford also fixed the problem the earlier armrests had with the lower part of the vinyl coming loose. The newer armrests will fit the older panels, the older armrests mount to the panels with three screws and three hooks. The new armrests use six screws, so I just added a washer to the three lower screws to mount the new armrests to the panels.

I think you may be the only person on the planet with 4 Mustang II's lol, looks like a couple of them might be cobras II's? I've always thought they were kinda cool despite the bad rep, Nice truck too, the wood dash kit looks pretty clean and it seems like you're thinking out your mods. Keep it up

Wow, what a beauty white truck.

I had seven restored Mustang IIs. I had to sell three of them to pay off my X-wife. There is a good size group of people at www.mustangii.net
that love Mustang IIs and many of them own more than one.
Thanks guys for the positive comments on my Ranger. I will post updated pictures as I get more done on my Ranger.

I've just made a few changes under the hood of my Ranger. I installed a K&N air intake kit. I went with the K&N because it's smog legal in CA. I have also installed silicone heater hoses, new heater control valve, new radiator hoses, radiator cap and thermostat. I added chrome wiper motor cover to go with the other chrome parts that I've added in the past. I installed new aluminum looking under hood insulation and a factory type under hood light. I also wrapped my P/S pump in dynamat to reduce the Ford P/S noise.
New engine pictures are posted at the top of this thread.

I've never been much of a fan of lowered street trucks, except old cheyennes, but yours is beautiful, I wanna change my gage lights from green to red because I like red better... what auto parts store would I be able to buy them from? Or would it be junkyards only?

Overall looks good, but can't say I care for the wood grain dash stuff. Can't say I care for wood on vehicles even when it comes stock, that is of course referring to vehicles made in the last 4 decades. You truck and if that's what you like then rock it. Aside from the dash I like most of the visual upgrades you've made.

I have got one big issue with it though. Why Splash? It's not a splash, it won't be a splash. That said if you want to dress it up like a splash, lower it like a splash. They came from the factory lowered. Some 2" drop coils and a hangar flip would go a long way towards making it more splash like, and wouldn't require different tires or shocks.

I would recommend a 2.3L Turbo down the road but that would probably be an issue with the CA emissions testing.

ricardo93 said:

I've never been much of a fan of lowered street trucks, except old cheyennes, but yours is beautiful, I wanna change my gage lights from green to red because I like red better... what auto parts store would I be able to buy them from? Or would it be junkyards only?

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It looks like your ranger is a 1986, if that's correct it will be easy to change your gauge light color. Just remove your instrument cluster, remove the lens and gauges, Then remove the blue/green plastic bulb covers. Auto Zone sells red # 194 bulbs to replace your clear bulbs with, this will give you the red gauge lights you want.

JoshT said:

Overall looks good, but can't say I care for the wood grain dash stuff. Can't say I care for wood on vehicles even when it comes stock, that is of course referring to vehicles made in the last 4 decades. You truck and if that's what you like then rock it. Aside from the dash I like most of the visual upgrades you've made.

I have got one big issue with it though. Why Splash? It's not a splash, it won't be a splash. That said if you want to dress it up like a splash, lower it like a splash. They came from the factory lowered. Some 2" drop coils and a hangar flip would go a long way towards making it more splash like, and wouldn't require different tires or shocks.

I would recommend a 2.3L Turbo down the road but that would probably be an issue with the CA emissions testing.

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I'm not trying to make a fake Splash, that's why I always call my truck a XLT Splash because it's a mix of the parts of the XLT and Splash packages I like. I went with the 93/94 Splash stripes because I think they look great. I didn't go with the body color bumpers because I like the chrome. I feel the white Splash mirrors stand out too much, so I went with smaller black aftermarket mirrors. I'm not into lowered trucks, I have been thinking about lowering the back a little with shorter shackles. I don't like the large gap above the rear tires. I don't want the truck to be lower it the back than the front, it's 1 1/2" higher now. The shorter shackles would lower the truck 2", then I would have to lower the front. The truck rides nice now and I still use it as a truck with many trips to home depot. I think Ford set them up high in the back so they can haul weight. I've seen lowered small trucks going down the road and they look to have a very poor ride, bouncing over small bumps in the road.
As for the wood dash kit, it maybe one of those love it or hate it things. I love it and think it makes the interior look much better than it did without it.

It's your truck if you like that then go for it. Not my preference, but it isn't my truck. Most folks don't understand why I want Mach 1 wheels (I'd prefer Magnum 500s), Mach 1 buckets, and a V8 in my first gen. They tell me just get a mustang, but the truck is what I want.

What the harsh ride you see on either trucks is because of the way its done. You can do what you want and still have a good ride. No short shackles available, instead you flip the rear hangar and it gives you about 1.5" in the rear, there's an article in the tech library. If you can find any locally the splash came stick with 1" drop coils. You could also cut part of a coil for a small front drop.

Many of those harsh rides you see are because they heated the coils, removed leafs, running wrong shocks, and/or sitting on bump stops. Cutting coils doesn't weaken the spring like heating does. Flipping alters spring location, not spring rate like removing leaves. Ranger shocks candle an inch of drop no problem, IIRC they can handle 3 inches. With 1" you shouldn't be hitting bump stops, but if you are they can be trimmed.

I have just installed the 2" lowering shackles that I bought on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-1997-Ford-Ranger-2-REAR-Lowering-Shackles-SET-RB-Style-SILENT-Bushings-/261276091599?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model:Ranger&hash=item3cd544c4cf&vxp=mtr, they only lowered the truck 1" at the rear wheel wells. It still rides good and I'm happy with the way it sits now. I've also painted the outside door handles and tailgate handle body color. I think the body color handles give the truck a cleaner, newer look. I posted the new pictures at the top of this thread under to the original pictures I posted, for a before and after look, not a major change but small details that I feel improve my Ranger.

Definitely an improvement. Those shackles are new to me. Used to be no one made them the only "lowering shackles" were the Chevy lowering shackles after doing the hangar flip.

Keep an eye on those shackles. They may be fine, but I'd be worried about the lack of bracing between the tabs.

Here are pictures of my Ranger a few weeks after I bought it.
I have moved the pictures of the way my Ranger looked before to the top of page one of this thread along with the newer pictures of my truck. I think they will be easier to find this way.

I have added a bike mount to my tool box so I can take my bike to other areas to ride new trails. The next thing I will do to my Ranger is install new seat upholstery, I'm just waiting on more fabric samples. The first samples I received I was happy with the colors.

This is the seat upholstery I'm looking at

I want tan in place of the gray and black in place of the red. The company said they will do custom color combinations.