New to me Ranger

[griz700rocket]

Became a member here a while back when I bought a 99 Explorer Sport. Look up this same username at explorerforum if you want to check it out. It's getting retired from daily driver into a weekend play toy. Hopefully do a SAS on it sometime when funds allow.

My new daily driver is a 96 5 speed with 58k original miles. As it sits the back is almost 4 inches higher than the front so I bought washers and alignment adjusters so my first real mod is going to be leveling it out. And since everyone loves pictures. Don't hate on my tie down job, it rode home 8+ hours like that.

 

[TexasRebel]

Sweet looking truck! Welcome to the station.

 

[griz700rocket]

Was originally just an introduction thread but I'm going to change this into a progress thread. I bought this for a daily driver and plan on keeping it for the foreseeable future. So begins project long term comfort daily driver.

So far I've all done a few maintenance items, added in washers under the coils to level it out, removed front and rear sway bars (I won't be towing or hauling anything heavy) and modified some front bilstein shocks for the front from my 99 explorer that now has coilovers.

I plan to swap in the power seats from my explorer as it's only going to be a mud toy so it doesn't need fancy seats. Also thinking I might add in some insulation in the doors and behind the side panels in the back. I swapped in some pioneer 3 way speakers in the doors and I'm planning on an aftermarket radio along with a small sub/amp to fill out the stereo.

I'm open to any suggestions to improve the ride/comfort. Overall it rides fairly good but I'm wondering if there are any springs I could swap in the front to soften it up? I thought about taking the overload leaf out of the back and replacing it with a spacer so I don't lose any ride height. What about shocks? I have had good experience with fox and bilstein but I'm trying not to spend much on this so I have more money for the solid axle swap I'm doing on my explorer.