POSFORD 1991 Ranger Trail and Mud Build

[posford]

Got the bandsaw working better last night. Made new legs out of PT decking I had Pulled the guide bearings, the motor side guide bearings were shot, the idlers side felt new, so I swapped them around. They use an eccentric bushing to align them, with the super thin hex. I rummaged and found a factory tool kit from a 4 wheeler I sold a decade ago, the little sheet metal wrench fit perfect to adjust it. Took a few attempts but have it cutting pretty damn straight for what it is. Had to adjust the idler pulley to get the blade tracking right as well. New blade showed up later, old shit blade seems to do fine with everything adjusted.

I spent a little time trying to work out a plan, looks like the bends I have won't work since it'll put the muffler too far back. I decided to do the passenger side first, tacked it all in place, slide the coupling apart, weld it out on the floor, and slid it back in with a ziptie hangar until the hangers come in (Saturday according to ups)

Now I can set the back half of the driver side pipe to match, and fill in the gap. I might have to fuck with the brake line to make sure it can't flex over and touch the exhaust.

Still need to finish the floorpan, but I've intentionally not done that as I have great access to the exhaust through the floor at the moment

 

[Provience]

well that's a perfectly reasonable looking exhaust

being cheap is worth it, some of the time I did waste $10 on new seals for my brake master cylinder just to end up with a leak and ordered a new/refurb unit anyways. Doesn't always work out

 

[arse_sidewards]

being cheap is worth it, some of the time I did waste $10 on new seals for my brake master cylinder just to end up with a leak and ordered a new/refurb unit anyways. Doesn't always work out

The 99x/100 it does work out make up for it though.

 

[posford]

Saturday was pretty productive, finished up the driver side exhaust, welded it all up added a few hangers. Fired it up for a few and it sounds much better. No pics might get a video when it goes outside.

Also got the floorpan scabbed together. Used a lot of seam sealer to fill the gaps, which would up running down to the exhaust. When I did the start up it started smoking so I had to wait until it cooled down, clean it off, and add some more clearance back to the exhaust. I feel like this is going to be a problematic area.

Ran into town for some parts, grabbed a cargo area mat from Advance that was thin and shitty enough that I cut it up for the trans tunnel, hides a lot of the ugliness and cleans it up. Passenger seat amd center console went it, along with the trans tunnel cover. Reallllly need to go back and get pictures when I get going between things I'm focused and don't think about pictures haha

Heater box went back in, reconnected heater core, which leaked like hell as soon as I started the truck, hard to get any purchase on the hose clamps at the heater core.

Had the garage door open when I had the truck running, so left it open for a bit as I pulled the winch out of the bumper and went over that. Found the source of my winch problems due to making an assumption about which terminals were which on the winch motor itself. A set of jumper cables and a spare battery, I got that sorted. Hooked the contactor back up, tested, works as it should I thought I fucked the motor up when the bumper fell off the truck during disassembly, one stud took hell. Tightened the lower nut about 1/2 turn, it snugged up, I think it'll be fine.

Test fit the bumper on the truck without the winch, mind you it was meant for 2" more body lift, it completely blocked the lower valence. Pulled that off, mocked it up again, said fuck it, put the winch back in the bumper, man handled the whole thing up into place and bolted it up. I don't hate it

Bumper got sanded and a couple coats of black added on Sunday morning

Sunday wasn't as productive, pulled the visor off the cab, put nutserts in, and globbed on some black RTV before screwing it back on

The rest of Sunday went to shit, I got a call around 2 that someone was stuck, and wanted to know if the Ranger was ready. Said no, wife wanted to go run errands without the kids so I was going to be stuck on dad duty with the 9mo old. Wife got home around 4 and I called to see if they had gotten out, they hadn't. Remember how I had just painted the bumper of the Ranger? I only have 1 fairlead, and 2 winches (it's on the list to order) so I had to go pull the fairlead off that and put it back on the 8274 on the front of the diesel, grab some straps and other assorted recovery gear and head out. Comanche on 38s playing in a wet spot got fucked up with some ice, had to stick a highlift jack under, snatch block from the truck to a tree, and pulled with the jack under it to get it up onto the ice. The bumper was 36" off the ground once he was out, he was in deep

 

[Levigarrett76]

love the sound of an 8274

 

[posford]

love the sound of an 8274

I was contemplating swapping winches around, M10 on the diesel, 8274 on the Ranger, but I was going to have to cut the majority of the grill out to do it.

I also have a pair of these winches in the shed. I've thought about mounting both of them on a piece of 6" channel (foot forward mounting, but weird pattern) and mounting them side by side in the bed like the pair of Ox winches on King Kong's front bumper

 

[posford]

Everyone likes pictures so I took a few this morning of the most recent work done.

Interior buttoned up, you can see the mat I used ont eh tunnel and the new tunnel cover. Didn't have any black paint so the tunnel cover got color matched Need to figure out a tcase shift knob. I'm going to pull the passenger side back out for my first test drives to see if there a problem with the exhaust being too close to the floor.

Front is about finished, waiting on turn signals to show up and I'm going to add a 4 pin plug on the front to plug in my wireless winch controller. Big shout out to Grronk for hooking an Irate up with a roller fairlead of cost of shipping to finish the front up

The rest are couple shitty pics of the exhaust and the bootyfab piece to cross over to the driver's side

 

[Levigarrett76]

I dig that Camel sticker, whats the big block chev over there for?

 

[posford]

I dig that Camel sticker, whats the big block chev over there for?

Sticker came with a sticker pack from the place I buy my flat brim hats webigmoto.com

The big block is a 454 from a 79 C30, I horse traded for it to put in my M715, but decided that nothing behind the flywheel would live long with the 454 out front, so I swapped a Ford 300 into it instead. Waiting for the right roller to come up for sale to drop it into, like a K30 wrecker or something.

 

[Levigarrett76]

Got pics of the m715? 300-6 a cool swap

 

[posford]

Got pics of the m715? 300-6 a cool swap

Here's a couple that it'll let me upload, old phone toom yuge pics apparently and need resized.

 

[posford]

Today it finally made it out of the garage! Went and drove it the stone wall to try to burp more air out of the system. Think it will be good now. Let it idle and watched the temp gauge, all was good. New turn signals kinda suck but we will see how they work longer term. The exhaust and the floor is an issue. The floor was averaging 180⁰ with a max of 200⁰ where the exhaust passes under. Any suggestions before I cut out a chunk of floor? Currently it has around a fingers thickness of clearance, so 3/4"?

Had to have a celebratory cardboard burning after cleaning the garage old rusted out stock tank burn pit, pried it up and slipped one of the old cherrybombs under it for airflow

 

[posford]

Bonus: exhaust clip. Not bad for a pieced together system on a stock 351w

 

[Levigarrett76]

I love that old school sound

 

[posford]

The exhaust and the floor is an issue. The floor was averaging 180⁰ with a max of 200⁰ where the exhaust passes under. Any suggestions before I cut out a chunk of floor? Currently it has around a fingers thickness of clearance, so 3/4"?

Back to this a little, sold the house, have 1000 other projects, but I want to be able to do something with this turd at least once this year.

I have one of these showing up today, going to snake it up between the exhaust and floor hopefully, and see if it makes a difference.

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[BigBurt]

lol funny….I’m pretty sure that stuck Comanche keeps coming up on marketplace for me but it’s far enough away that it doesn’t get past my internal debate of how many projects are too many projects.

 

[posford]

lol funny….I’m pretty sure that stuck Comanche keeps coming up on marketplace for me but it’s far enough away that it doesn’t get past my internal debate of how many projects are too many projects.

Don't think its the same one, dudes been driving the fuck out of it lately, seen it around more than I used to.

I have one of these showing up today, going to snake it up between the exhaust and floor hopefully, and see if it makes a difference.

Wouldn't clear the floor, need to get the floor jack and a 2x4 and fix a spot in the floor. Too many other projects not enough time.