Restoring the Ranger!

Well, today was the Rangers first day out on the road. Everything is running good. I went and got new tires, new lugnuts. Ordered some new center caps that are on the way so I will post pics when I get them on. Went to pep boys and bought a diamond metal black tool box for the bed that I will be installing in the next few days along with a black tailgate net. Got some dupi-color spray on bed liner... basically looks like spray paint. Did that today as well.

Here are some pics of what is going on so far.

This is the way it looked when I first got it.



So I took out this crap rubber drop in bed liner out of the bed as it was just collecting water. Cleaned it up a bit and figured out what I was going to need.

Here is a picture of my stock tires and wheels.



Now here is a picture of it today after I got my new tires installed.



Ok then I took a close up of the tires. I got new lugnuts with the tires and I have new chrome center caps on the way off ebay. Will post new pic when I get them.



Ok next thing is the bed liner. This is what i started with.



Removed the tailgate and going to sell it on ebay. Bought a black net to put in its place that I plan on installing in the morning.



Next is the bedliner. I washed the bed down with Acetone and scuffed up the bed with a scuffing pad. Did a final wipe down to make sure it was clean. Taped up the edges with some painters tape and started it up.





After 4 cans of the stuff at 8 bucks a pop.. I was done. Now I Just wait till morning and see how good it dried on there.



removed the tape and bam the final product.



There is much more work to be done.. the net.. the tool box.. center caps.. and refreshing the paint.. but its a good start for one day.

 

its an 88.. got it for 500 bucks.

 

dupi-color spray on bedliner

 

worked better than I expected. Just remember its all about the prep. Acetone to clean it and then scuff / sand it down before you apply this stuff. Wipe it all down so there is no dust left also before application. It may even work better with a primer but I can't say about that for sure. All I know is its 7.99 per can at autozone. You could prolly do a sub box with 2 cans and get 3-4 coats on it.

 

this is it right here. You can also get it in liquid form and roll on... but I choose to go with the spray. If I were to do it again. I would do a combo of both. Roll on the large areas and spray in the hard to get places.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/truckbed.html

 

Well currently is has the old 2.3 4 banger in there. Nice dependable little motor. Plus nice on my wallet. If the engine ever gets to a state of unrepairable I will prolly just throw a 5.0 in there.. pretty common practice with rangers.

Anyways, I got a paint quote today. Going to have it paited for 256 bucks from this shop down close to my work. Heard good things about them so I decided to check it out. I am going to remove the metal fender trim and use the bed liner black on them while its being painted. Going to have him also replace that red pinstripe with a black pinstripe to match everything. Should have some more pics at the end of the week when i get it back from the shop.

 

lol Viking, let me finish it up first then we can talk numbers haha.

As far as color Pedro. I kinda wanted to bring back that original tan that it was supposed to be to it. Still give it that old school look. But I am going to be changing a lot of the metal trim to black trim just to get a less flashy appearance. So he is replacing the red pin stripe with black. getting that dark cream / tan color back. I am going to take the fender trim off and paint that black. Then going to paint the front grill black. The bumpers are next after that. Not sure if I want to finish those off black or just leave them be. I will see after I get the other stuff black.

I did drop it off today so the guy said it should be ready by Thursday or Friday.