Forum member ‘TexasDuck66’ (Shane) purchased this 4WD 1988 Extended Cab Ford Ranger from an older gentleman in Fredericksburg, Virginia who had religiously taken care of it. The truck had about 106,000 miles and was all original, including the paint and interior.
The first modification he did was upgrade the small 1-core radiator to an all-aluminum 5-Core Radiator which helped out immensely with heat soak and temperatures.
The truck needed a little bit of body work and rust repair. Shane decided to buy the patch panels, outside rubber, tintable bed liner, and everything that was needed. He took it to a body shop that a buddy had recommended to him and had a brand-new paint job done.
While it was in the body shop, Shane took an original Ford Ranger STX brush guard from his previous Ranger and had it powder coated silver. The grill guard came out great and he was also able to later find an STX Rollbar on Facebook Marketplace which he had powder coated silver as well.
As for the paint job, Shane stuck with the factory upper and low two tone. Unfortunately, he was not able to find a NOS pin stripe kit, so he had the body shop hand paint them on. He went with Light Blue (3F/3170) and White (9A/8731) for the pinstripe which is 100% custom to the truck now.
After an extensive search Shane was able to locate a new grill on Ebay. Shane wanted to add some period correct KC offroad lights but felt that they were too expensive. Instead, he chose to go with Hella lights who still produces and supports all of their vintage / old school halogen lighting. The lights on the grill guard are Hella Comet 550 fog lights. The roll bar received a set of Hella Jumbo 220’s.
Shane was able to locate a set of JBA 2.9L headers and y-pipe and had them powder coated before installing them.
Lastly, he found a guy on Etsy that 3D prints new hub knobs for manual locking hubs and decided to snag a pair to replace the faded and cracked ones that were originally on the truck.
Happy with the way the Ranger was looking, Shane took it to a car show and received an outstanding build reward.
The forum members here at TheRangerStation.com liked the Ranger so much that they voted it as our July Truck of The Month. I personally love that he went with an original STX grill guard, roll bar, and period correct lighting. Those grill guards and roll bars are not easy to find these days.
If you would like to see more photos and details of this Ford Ranger, check out: 1988 Ford Ranger 2.9L 4×4 ‘5 Speed Restoration Project
