Ford Ranger - Suspension

Today on trucks, Stacy's pulling the bed off a 95 ranger for project prerunner

and with some big new meats and cool new fenders, he's gonna turn this tame truck into a street legal desert flyer.

Then we're going to the annual Street Rod Nationals for a look at some of the hottest and coolest show trucks on earth.

And finally, Stacy's got new trick parts for your ride in truck gear.

That's all today on trucks.

Hey, how you doing? Welcome to trucks. Got a great show planned for you today.

It involves this 1995 2 wheel drive for Ranger.

What are we gonna do to it? Well, I'll tell you that in a minute after I tell you a little bit about this truck,

what we have here is a perfect example of what you can find out there in a well worn late model used pickup. Now I'm calling it late model because it's less than 10 years old. Now, it's got 100,000 miles on it.

The paint is faded. The warranties are history and of course the interior is well worn. So picking up something like this is pretty inexpensive that makes it the perfect build up project, something that you can throw a little bit of money at, keep it in a reasonable budget and still have a great time with. And that's exactly what we're gonna do.

Now, this truck originally came with the lowered street suspension. So it was a street cruiser

and you can see it also spent some time as a construction worker.

We're gonna change all that. We're gonna go a totally different direction. We're gonna take it up in the air, but we're also gonna make it into something that will fly through the air.

Yeah, we're gonna make it a pre runner, a street legal prerunner.

The first thing that we're gonna deal with is the body.

Now, since we're gonna be running a much larger set of meat,

that's pretty big for a ranger. We have to modify and flare the rear fenders. So we went to fab tech motor sports and got a set of their fiberglass rear fenders.

Now, as you can see, these are not just a skin, this is a full fender replacement

goes right in place of the stock steel fender.

Now, they're made out of hand laid fiberglass, so they're very strong.

They also have the tail light buckets and

a three inch flare built right in.

We also picked up one of their bed mount spare tire carriers. So we have a place for our spare tire because

I guarantee you one of those big fat suckers is not gonna fit in the stock location.

Ok?

To take these fenders off, the whole bed needs to come off

to do it right.

So, first thing we're gonna do is pop off these funky aluminum strips. Follow that with the tailgate and then the bumper

next, we'll get rid of the spare. Now, don't be surprised to find some crazy stuff like this telephone wire holding the spare on

Jerry Rigg.

The tail lights also need to come out and those just unscrew from the body, but you wanna make sure and keep those and all the hardware together

because you're gonna need to reuse that.

The last thing to come off and the one that most people forget is the gas filler neck.

Now this has to come off

or you'll never be able to lift the bed off.

There we go

while you've got everything apart. This is the perfect time to drill your holes for your spare tire mount.

Now, once you have it centered up how you like it,

go ahead and mark and drill your holes. But one word of caution,

make one look up underneath to make sure you're not gonna drill through a fuel line or wiring harness or something like that because that will definitely ruin your day.

Then just unbolt the bed and lift it off. We are gonna use this really cool tool called the truck bed lifter that we got from brute manufacturing. Now, notice it slides under the bed rails and allows one person to lift the bed off using an engine hoist. Very cool.

Another slick piece we got from brute manufacturing is the bed dolly.

Now, this is a wheel dolly that you can set the bed on and then you can roll it around while you're working on it.

What a difference the right tools make.

All right now comes the tough part and that's getting these old fenders off because

they are spot welded all the way around this outer edge,

all the way down the back. And that's why we had to take the bed off. Now, don't even attempt this without the proper spot weld cutter.

These are available in most welding shops and they allow you to cut through the weld

and the top panel, but not down into the bottom panel.

Now, if you try to do this with a regular drill bit, you'll just fight with it

and you'll end up ticking yourself off. So

what you wanna do is take a pen

and mark each and every spot weld. Now make sure that you're being careful because believe me, one little tiny spot weld

will keep this whole fender from coming off.

They're hard to see.

Put the cutter in the center of the spot weld and drill until you're through the top panel. A screwdriver will help you separate the panels.

Now, once all the spot welds are cut carefully, pop the fender loose and set it aside.

Now you wanna be careful and not damage these because a good use fender is valuable. You can actually

offset a good chunk of this project by selling these, but

they're not worth deadly if you bend them all up when you take them off. So be careful

with the fender out of the way, dress up the inner flange with a grinder

and finally spray a coat of primer on any bare metal.

We had a little bit of a surprise on the passenger side fender.

It was held on with adhesive, not spot welds, which means

this truck's been wrecked and this fender's been replaced. Fortunately,

none of our mounting surfaces have been destroyed. So we don't have to fix those, but all this old glue will have to come off so that fender will sit nice and flat against that surface and once you have it all cleaned up, it's time for the fenders. We'll take care of that

after the break.

Next. It's bedtime for Stacy as he's finishing up the back half of project R runner.

And later we're checking out what's Cool Radical and just plain weird at the street Rod Nationals in Louisville.

Welcome back to the shop. We are right in the middle of doing a prerunner treatment on a 95 Ford Ranger. Now, I've got the old steel fenders off. The new fiberglass ones are mocked into place.

As you can see, we're gonna have to do something about this inner wheel housing. These new fenders have a much bigger opening and that thing's just gonna hang there in the way.

Now it's spot welded to the inner wheel tub.

So we'll just drill it out and get rid of it.

And you can see these fenders taper up in the back and that is very cool, but that also means we need to do something about this bracket, which does not look so cool. So we're gonna go ahead and mark

and then cut it off with a plasma cutter.

Now, once everything's trimmed up out of the way, the new fender drops right in place of the old one. But we did need to do a little bit of trimming up here on the corners,

so everything would slide right into place.

All right, we've got a problem. Obviously, we can't weld fiberglass to steel. So

how are we gonna mount them?

Well, I'm gonna give you two choices and glue is not one of them.

You can either use rivets or screws. Now, I'm gonna use aluminum rivets for a couple of reasons. First of all, the aluminum will rust.

Second of all, a really nice even line of rivets will look a lot better than screws down this side

with your fenders lined up and clamped in place, just drill your holes and put in your rivets.

Now, I'm putting them about five inches apart like the spot welds were so we have plenty of support.

Ok. We've put on these big old flared fenders. They look awesome,

but we still have to support these corners

to keep them from flopping in the breeze, especially since we lost the support of this wheelhouse. Now, the original brackets, now we can't reuse those. They're too small. So we're gonna have to make something. First thing you want to decide is your mounting points on the fender

and the bed,

then we'll bend up a template using an old coat hanger.

Then we'll transfer the shape to an eight inch piece of one inch flat stock

drill

and finish the ends,

then

just bolted on. Oh, yeah.

Now this will support your corners. Now, remember you've got to do it for all four

and that is right on

once the bed's all together, it's just a matter of lowering it in place

and bolt it down.

We'll finish it up by putting in the tail lights and the gas filler neck. Now, don't be surprised if you need to come in here and do a little trimming and fitting to make everything just perfect. This is also a good time to put on a new spare tire mount since we already drilled the holes for that.

Just a matter of bolting it on.

Well,

you can see what a difference the flared fenders make to the look and the stance of this truck

and that's only the rear after the break. We're gonna do the front.

Well, you didn't think we were just gonna do half of it. Did you stay with us

next? We're moving up to the front of our ranger as the fiberglass continues to fly. Stay tuned.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to the shop and project prerunner. And we spent the first half of the show replacing the stock metal fenders with these big flared fiberglass ones. And it was pretty involved. We had to pull the bed off, drill some spot wells do some trimming a little bit of fabricating to make everything look just right

now, replacing the fronts is a heck of a lot easier

and this is how to do it

start by removing the turn signal lights in the corners, save these and the hardware because you're gonna need to reuse them.

You'll also want to remove the chrome trim.

Yeah.

Next pull out the fender bolts inside the engine compartment,

pull out the plastic inner cover

and move the bumper.

Finally, don't forget the little bolt in the door jam,

then carefully lift off the fender. Now, remember just like the rear, these are great swap meet material, so try not to damage them.

Ok. For the new front fenders, we also went to fab

Tech. Motor sports, got a pair of their fiberglass replacements

with a big old three inch flare built right in now, just like the rears,

they're made out of thick fiberglass,

have a much larger wheel opening for bigger tires and more suspension travel.

But you'll also notice they don't have any mounting holes that's for you to take care of.

All right, the first thing you need to do is set the fender in place,

then line it up back here with the door,

then with the hood down this line

and then finally up here at the grill. Now take your time here because this is the step that'll determine just how good this all looks.

Once you're happy with the fit,

go ahead

and mark

and drill your mounting holes. Now, make sure that you make these big

because you wanna have a little bit of adjustment in here.

That is why a fender bolt has such a big washer on it.

It covers that adjustment hole and it also spreads out the load on the fender,

then

bolt the fender on,

making sure to continually

check your gaps

because of the size of these fenders. This original plastic cover that went inside here. Well, that's useless, but it is a good idea to have some sort of shrouding to keep mud and rocks from getting inside the engine compartment

and back inside the fenders. Now, if you're not gonna

with that, at least put a nice thick layer of undercoating in here,

finally put on your trim and your lights. Now you'll notice I don't have the bumper on yet because I

haven't really decided what I'm gonna do there, but we can still step back and take a look at it.

Wow. What a difference four fenders makes. Now, the fun part is showing you how I'm gonna stuff 33 inch tall tires on this thing.

But, oh, man, we're out of time, which means if you wanna see more of this project,

you're gonna have to come back next week. Don't you just hate that

after the break, Stacy's got some spring in his step during truck gear

and then he's causing trouble at the street rod nationals. So how do you feel about guys that trailer their stuff in?

See, you can say that, I can't say that.

And now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities

in the world of towing and hauling trucks and suvs are king. That's what they were made for,

but that doesn't mean that they couldn't use some help. And that is what super springs are for. Now, these bolt right over the top of a standard leaf spring over the axle

and when the spring flattens out under load, that's when the super spring kicks in and acts like an overload spring. But what's different

is the shackle and roller and

makes everything much smoother than an old standard bolt on overload spring. Now, installation

is just a few bolts

about 20 minutes and of course, 250 bucks

and that's a pretty good deal for better load handling capacity and stability.

One area where your truck can really benefit from a custom touch is in the grill. Now, there's a lot of really nice custom grills out there. But one of the best comes from trends.

Now, this features fully polished build aluminum bars that are very close together for a really nice custom look and it comes with all the bracketry and hardware to mount these in and that is another trends, trademark. These things fit.

Now, the application

almost any truck or SUV out there, heck even cars and the price,

you know, that depends on your application.

One of the cool things about being a gearhead is you get to play with a lot of cool toys and you get to go to a lot of neat shows. So we went to the street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.

You're not gonna believe what we saw. Hey, Randy, roll the tape.

Let's get started with Dell Divers 1948 Laser Red GMC that took him 12 years to build

and is a lesson in customizing.

Now, the grill's been widened as it goes down

and flows into 97 Explorer parking lot.

The front bumper is a combination of a 97 Explorer, a 98 ranger and a 68 Mustang.

Well, at

least he kept it all Ford. There's an electric hood that opens from the side to reveal a fully detailed, really nice 350

the top was chopped 3.5 inches

and to get everything really slinky. The cab and the hood were section four inches.

Of course, with that much metal work,

you know, you got an all steel custom bed and the fenders were widened one inch.

If you think those exhaust tips look familiar. You're right.

78 Trans

AM.

The rear end is just as crazy with 91 Acura integrate tail lights mounted

upside down

and a 54 Chevy rear bumper narrowed eight inches and of course it's upside down too.

And the spoiler

Pirated from a 78 Accord somewhere

and check out this interior. Awesome.

And the Nationals isn't all about trucks. Now, this is cool, an original police car

assume the standard position that you always get on something like this. This is how you have to look at an old police car.

You go around it with your hands like this.

I love it.

Ok,

so you say you want something a little more hot rodding maybe so you can outrun that old police car.

How about Dwayne Smith black 34 Ford.

That's packing a 392 hemi

with a six pack of Hollies on top

and 100 and 50 horsepower shot of Nitrous. Now

you're talking,

but just having an engine

isn't enough at the Nationals. You gotta have a truck wrapped around it

starting with a handmade hood covering the

hemi,

the top was chopped five inches while the grill and windshield posts were laid back. Seven inches. A

64 Chevy donated the metal for the top and the cab was extended 7.5 inches while the cow got an additional three inches

to give you more leg room. Of course,

the doors are suicided and they open up to a beautiful leather interior and finally

a custom painted nitrous bottle hides under the dumping bed. Now, that's sneaky. Of course, there are a lot of distractions at a meat like this and check this out. This is cool.

Oh, no, no, no. You gotta see this, check this out,

an original surfer wagon,

untouched, unrestored.

Look at this man, original wood,

original surfboards.

And you might be wondering, yeah, this isn't a truck. Yeah, it is. Use your imagination. It's a wagon. It's close enough.

This is like a PT cruiser. It's not a car,

it's a truck.

Now, of course, if you think a project like the surfer wagon is a little over your head, there are some easier options out there. If I was looking to build my very first older car, I definitely get a pickup.

The restoration market forms booming with parts that you can replace. All the rust with.

You can get after market parts for them. Now, suspensions are easy to bolt on. You don't need to do a full front clip like you used to. I mean, there's a lot of reasons to build a truck right now

now. You're probably thinking all these trucks, they're just trailer queens, but that's not. So, so how do you feel about guys that trailer their stuff in?

So you can say that I can't say that,

I don't know. You

feel

these things to drive him to have fun with. Don't, I don't get off uh

looking at it in the garage or looking at it on the trailer. I mean, you don't wipe it down with a diaper. No, I don't.

The Nationals pull in almost 14,000 pre 1948 custom vehicles from all across the nation

and the very best are here.

So, if you're even remotely interested in custom trucks,

you gotta check it out.

Yeah, I thought you'd like that and speaking of checking it out,

here's a little taste of next week,

next week on trucks, Stacy's going from this to this as he finishes up. Project prerunner by adding a 5.5 inch lift front and rear.

Then it's Mad Max revisited. We're taking the blown street sweeper out to do a little pavement cleaning.

And finally, Stacy's taking us out to a truck show to check out new parts in truck gear.

That's all next week on trucks

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