87 Ranger "Rough Restoration"

[dddvis94]

I've wanted a gen 1 or gen 2 Ranger for a while now, and after putting around 30 thousand miles on my 2013 Mustang I saw an opportunity for a new daily. I found one semi-locally on craigslist that I liked, it was a little rough around the edges but I wasn't too worried about it. Drove a little over an hour to check it out, and when we got there it wouldn't even stay running. it turned over, but that was about it. Talked the guy down to under half the asking price (got it for $500) and hauled it home. After a battery and an in-line fuel pump, it would barely stay running, and smoked like a chimney. Decided to pull the engine and trans and do a complete rebuild since I have another vehicle and a top of the line shop to do it in (I'm a Mercedes tech). I'll post pictures through the process, maybe I can get some pointers along the way. Any tips help! Thanks for checking out the build!



















Some pictures from the ad and pulling the engine, trans, and transfer case. some engine tear down too.











Found a donor for the interior for sale for $200, 89 2WD. Also has a 2.9, so I'm thinking about using harness and everything for an EGR delete.

 

[dddvis94]

Block and heads are currently at a local machine shop, and I just finished stripping the interior out of the donor yesterday afternoon. Going to clean the pieces up and do a cheap spray to black with some Dupli-color vinyl and fabric spray. Will post pics of the process and results, for both the interior pieces and engine components!

 

[adsm08]

Looks nice. I would hate to have white tile floors in the shop. As much as I hated having bare cement at the last shop I would hate white tile even more.

Dark red or gray paint, that's the way to go. Easy to keep clean, doesn't show the dirt.

 

[dddvis94]

Yea the tile definitely gets a "shadowy" look very easily haha our floor machine is put through its paces for sure. As far as paint, I wasn't sure if you were referring to the truck or the floor, but if it was for the truck I found an article from hot rod magazine I believe about a quick paint job they had to do. They ended up using this paint from a company called TCP Global called Hot Rod Flatz. The kit is roughly $200, and with it being a satin paint I figured it would be harder to mess up. I'd never try my hand at a gloss paint job, I already know the result would be awful. I picked out a charcoal gray for it, I figured with black trim and some black steelies it would look pretty nice. Now if you were referring to the floor the whole time, I apologize for all the unnecessary information haha.

 

[adsm08]

I'll talk paint on floors, cars, trucks, kids, dogs. Pretty much if it gets paint on it and isn't a house I am in.

I was talking about the floor, but I think that color scheme will look good on the truck too.

 

[dddvis94]

After realizing the donor truck has a low mileage 2.9 in it and was parked due to a transmission issue, I've decided to pull the engine out of it, replace some gaskets, seals, and basic accessories, and toss it in the 4x4 while I'm rebuilding the original motor. I figured I could be a little lazier with the rebuild if I'm able to get this one up and going. Going to attempt some "frankenstein-ing" to convert to a single pump fuel system since I'm using the newer harness and computer. Already started cleaning parts off of the other engine to put onto this one, and other parts have started arriving. Should have everything by tomorrow or Friday.

 

[dddvis94]

Since I'm swapping the harness from the newer 2.9 out of the donor truck, I had to figure something out about the dual to single fuel pump change. Under the assumption that by the time power reaches the in tank fuel pump its just battery voltage, I got an 87 sending unit and retrofitted an 89 pump to it. All I had to do was widen the hole on the mount where the strainer would connect to the bottom of the pump and swap the power and ground wires (I guess with the pump upgrade in 89 they swapped the size of the male connections on the pump). Once I did that it all buttoned up nicely, and I was able to get it in the new tank. Again I'm not familiar with the way the fuel system works what so ever, so hopefully it's a pretty rudimentary set up. I'll bypass the in line pump once the bed is off for the tank. Looking at getting the engine out of the donor truck this weekend.