kishy's 1985 Ranger

[gadget73]

The aftermarket tow mirrors on my truck have a passenger side that is overly magnified, so I understand what you mean. Very annoying.

[kishy]

Ah, the Ranger, my old friend.
A conundrum has arisen.

I've spoken here before about how the truck is catastrophically rusty. The frame is reasonable and has life left in it, as does the structure of the bed, but the outer bed sides and the cab as a whole are totally ruined. It was a rusty truck when I bought it and my repairs to get it past a safety inspection (recall: required by law only one time in Ontario - at time of vehicle ownership change) were of a quality that was decidedly "just good enough" and not intended to permanently fix the truck. But, mechanically the truck is top-notch. The brakes have been gone through time and time again and are excellent. The powertrain is bulletproof. The suspension and steering is tight and well-behaved.

I had internally decided that the truck needed to make it to its 10th anniversary with me before I'd let it go, which would be May of 2025. I just got my insurance renewal and the premium for this beast is going up by a thousand dollars for next year. The renewal is pretty much aligned with the calendar year for that policy. Most, but not all insurance companies in Ontario will ask for the provincial safety inspection to be done before they'll insure a vehicle - so even though not required by law, makes it impossible to take a vehicle to a new insurer once its condition degrades extensively.

So I am faced with a decision that has many inputs/considerations. I think I've simplified my options down to:

1. Buy a first-gen Ranger or Bronco II, particularly a rust-free/southern US truck, perhaps with inoperative powertrain, cheaply. Swap various items from my truck to complete/fix the new one and roll from there.

advantage: significant parts on-hand, and existing powertrain is rock solid
disadvantage: the size/format of this vehicle has always been limiting and something with more passenger capacity would be great (Bronco II would help with this)

2. Buy another unrelated vehicle to be the winter sacrifice vehicle and part ways with the Ranger as a vehicle format entirely.
Stick with period Ford, or go unrelated - models of interest: Honda Fit, Mazda 5, Ford Focus, or Ford Fox platform sedan/wagon
Also have an offer from a friend of a 2006 Jag X-Type, cheap, and needs very little before it sees the road.
Not super fond of this option because I don't want to be net +1 vehicle, and I don't want to scrap the Ranger immediately, as it needs to remain as a container for the big stash of Ranger parts (plus its powertrain) for a vague plan cooking in the back of my head to return to the Ranger realm down the road.

3. Rotate one of my other vehicles into winter beater duty.
Candidates:
Acclaim. Likely to degrade quickly once exposed to salt. Minimal resale value now, certainly none once rusty which it isn't currently. Mechanically imperfect and seemingly needy on an unending basis (latest development: steering rack is leaking).
84 Town Car. Has already done winter duty for me before, was in fact purchased for this purpose. The car is rough in certain ways already and realistically would have trouble finding a buyer if I tried to sell it - it's derby fodder otherwise.

Both of these options are very very near to being able to pass a safety, so it's not a big deal to bounce them between policies.
Acclaim is more friendly to remote start as CFI will require a pedal push.
The Lincoln windshield defrost/defog was quite weak as I recall, probably due to broken HVAC door hinges, so that might demand some attention from me to be sustainable.

I'd be content to ride out this winter with the Ranger and deal with it next year, but the increase in insurance cost is a motivator, and the (very likely to exist) requirement to submit a safety along with taking the Ranger to a new insurance company makes it basically impossible to do that.

Currently leaning towards 84 Town Car. It has a hitch, so via my trailer, it has the same capacity to haul things as the Ranger does. Its list of needs to return to the road is reasonable and I have all the bits to facilitate it by the time the policy renewal comes.

[gadget73]

I'd like to find a not-rusty Ranger for similar reasons, but I have a V8 swap in mind. Completely senseless, no traction so it would be sketchy normally and utterly useless in the snow but I've got a perfectly good HO sitting around and no more entertaining use comes to mind. No inspections here on anything made before 1995 so basically any box Ranger fits the bill. 2wd for ease of swap reasons and find a T5 to stick behind it.

[Tiggie]

I miss the 87 I sold for the family friend a while back. It was completely impractical. 170lb me and my two little kids couldn't fit in the front seat and still shift gears. Why there was a seatbelt in the middle of those trucks remains a question I don't have the answer to.
Values are trending up. The local school board just sold what I considered a junkyard fodder Bronco II for over $3000 on govdeals. Cheap twenty year old repaint, sunburnt and torn interior. I saw it in person and no way would I pay that for it. They have a 9C1 box caprice in similar condition.

I would winter drive whatever is already significantly-yet-life-remaining rusty.

[Mainemantom]

I like the idea of a ranger/bronco swap. You should be able to find a good body somewhere where rust isn't an issue. Undercoat the heck out of it before doing the swap.

[kishy]

Ugh, this is a (small) mess.
So, we know the Ranger is near the end of its life but its powertrain isn't. We know I already intended to find another vehicle to swap those parts into, in an ideal world.

We know I wanted to make it to mid-2025 with this truck in service, then retire it if condition dictates so (and it certainly does).

Then the insurance premium hike prompted examining this topic sooner.

I've been watching Marketplace as well as posted on a Ranger forum in search of a replacement truck. I've been focusing my search on inland southeast US. Currently pursuing a 1987 supercab Ranger near Atlanta. Roller with no engine - cosmetically imperfect but seemingly rust free. Plan would be to haul it back on a dolly behind the wagon. Waiting on some underside photos from the seller to know if I want to proceed.

Insurance renewal is Dec 29. If I haven't found a new vehicle that can pass a safety to enable taking it to a new insurance company, I'll have to pay the increased premium, and then either ride out that policy for the year at the increased premium, or do a mid-term cancellation (subject to a fee coming out of the refund) when moving to the new company whenever that does happen.

The option to bring the 84 Town Car back to winter duty continues to exist but after reviewing in my head some of its to-do items, I don't really want to deal with that between now and the end of the year, so I think the current Ranger is going to ride out this winter unless a replacement Ranger gets here fast enough.

In the grand scheme of things, rushing to get anything done just to save a thousand dollars for the year is probably foolish and loses sight of what my own time is worth - I just dislike overpaying on principle.

[Tiggie]

But if it's fun an entertaining and puts your money in something parked in your driveway, as opposed to the insurance company's pockets... I see a bunch of green lights?

[GM_Guy]

1000 bucks is a pretty big hit. What about the other cars, they also getting the rate jacked?
Safeties now is a bugger for beater mobiles. Need to stumble on a sale for gallon cans of bondo. Ranger just needs to look solid. ;-)

edit: just went looking at body filler prices in Canada. Holy Crap! What happened with the price of that stuff!? CTC and PA don't even have gallon sizes any more.

Find a clean US truck. Or an identical one and swap your current dashboard into it <cough>.

[kishy]

But if it's fun an entertaining and puts your money in something parked in your driveway, as opposed to the insurance company's pockets... I see a bunch of green lights?

True! So we'll see how it goes. Georgia guy never got back to me, checked the ad a few days later, found it marked sold. So that's out.

1000 bucks is a pretty big hit. What about the other cars, they also getting the rate jacked?
Safeties now is a bugger for beater mobiles. Need to stumble on a sale for gallon cans of bondo. Ranger just needs to look solid. ;-)

edit: just went looking at body filler prices in Canada. Holy Crap! What happened with the price of that stuff!? CTC and PA don't even have gallon sizes any more.

Find a clean US truck. Or an identical one and swap your current dashboard into it &lt;cough&gt;.

Everything else moved to a different policy earlier this year and is insulated from this increase; this vehicle had to stay on this policy for a couple reasons. The increase is a combination of the company simply raising the premium combined with the loss of the multi vehicle discount, but off the top of my head I'd guesstimate the discount at 100-150 bucks...inconsequential really, and wouldn't on its own have been enough to motivate me to make any changes. The frustration of changing insurers is worth 150 bucks of my sanity.

---

Currently pretty far along in chats with a guy in southern, inland Virginia. 88 supercab, V6 auto 4x4. Cosmetically imperfect but he took a couple videos for me of the underside and it's exactly what I'm looking for in terms of body and frame condition. More than I want to pay but it's been listed for sale for a while so I'm going to try to talk him down. Difficulty is, with a 9 hour drive, I can't really negotiate in-person - what am I gonna do, turn around and go home empty handed? No, he knows if I show up, I'm hooked, and he can just stay firm on the price at that point. OTOH, most people respond poorly to negotiation through messages.

There's a difficult balance to find here.

Buy something, maybe for too much money, not in my desired configuration (I want 4cyl, stick, RWD) that I can put in service basically immediately and retire the existing truck. In doing so, save some money on insurance.
This option likely necessitates keeping the old truck hanging around longer to facilitate the desired eventual powertrain swap

or
Run the existing truck through this winter and keep browsing. Buy something for hopefully less money, but realistically will need more work and take longer to put in service.
Spend more on insurance in the meantime.

Absolutely do not want the truck to be V6, absolutely do not want it to be auto, and absolutely do not care at all about 4x4. But I could drive it for the first winter in that configuration and tolerate it.

[gadget73]

Don't buy a 4x4 and convert it into a 2wd. Thats a lot of pointless work, and I think the frames may actually be different anyway.

[kishy]

Don't buy a 4x4 and convert it into a 2wd. Thats a lot of pointless work, and I think the frames may actually be different anyway.

Not an option, and the frames are the same. Gotta be 2.3 or I don't want it, and gotta be TK5 or I don't want it. Can't make that combo be 4x4 without parts that I won't have because neither my truck nor the target truck will have them.

I have long considered 4x4 swapping the existing truck and would gladly take 4x4 - but I need a 4x4 extension housing for my trans to make my trans be 4x4 capable. Most supercab trucks don't have my trans.

[packman]

That's the problem I have had with all of my mini-trucks. My 1st Ranger (1992) had a lot of rust, but the engine ran good and the frame was in good shape. It was workable; but it got totalled before I could do anything with that truck. It's replacement was a 1992 S-10 standard cab pickup. Nice paint; covering a lot of rust and rot. Gas tank falling off clued me in to how bad it was. My Dad made me get rid of that truck when he discovered that I was riding on 2 of the 6 cab mounts. I found what seemed to be a clean 1991 Ranger. I immediately looked underneath to see what kind of shape the frame and body mounts were in. Everything looked good. It ran like doo-doo when I 1st got it. But I replaced the upper intake and all of the associated gaskets; and sorted out the vacuum lines. Ran awesome. The problem I ran into was discovering telltale signs of a serious collision that went unreported (clean Carfax). Passenger side suspension was a little crusty; but the driver side was clean. Then I saw the paint marker writing on the back of the core support. I knew at that point I was on borrowed time.

All in all; I would love to find a clean Ranger or S-10; just not happening in Jersey :-(

[kishy]

The answer has been found!



1989 Super Cab. RWD, 2.9, 5 speed, bought as a roller with no engine or transmission. Kentucky/Tennessee border area truck with some cosmetic faults but not a single spot of structural rust underneath that I've been able to locate. This will be an excellent place to put my existing powertrain.

Loose goal is for this to be a project for the spring and I'm targeting the 1985 truck's 10-year-anniversary date in May as the date to cut over to the 1989.

[sly]

[VicCrownVic]

Nice! Make sure to get some undercoating done. Going into my 5th winter with my '98 and annual Krown application has it still looking really good. Fluid Film or PB Blaster's Surface Shield are great options based on what I've seen other people share.

I have an aunt in the area this truck came from. Pine Knot, KY.