36 Ford truck on Ranger

[MercuryMac]

Hello. I'm going to start a thread on setting a '36 Ford PU on a Ranger frame, I think. The computer is scaring me more than the build. Anyhow, I aquired an extended cab 1987 Ranger pick up and striped it of its cab, box, motor and transmission. From reading Ford books I found the '36 wheel base and measured the Ranger wheel base. Whoa, 14 inches too long. It turns out that a regular cab, regular box Ranger frame works like a charm, too late smart, me. I left a tab sticking out the front on the back part of the frame and one facing back out of the front part. I figured out that if I cut the chunk out of the frame near the back of the cab, that the front frame would just slide inside the back part and the two tabs that I left would be good fishplating.
I put new tin all of the way around the bottom of the cab and doors. Both doors came off of a wrecked panel truck in B.C. The rest of the truck had been thrown away and the doors should have been too. I got them a little cheaper.

[skull]

sounds like a good start.



Later

[Old Iron]

Real nice start

[Dirtyrat]

It does look good, cool idea on the fish plates too!

[kenny c]

on some ranger pickups the frame is riveted together just behind the cab. you may be able to shorten it there if your frame is that style.

[Sam_Fear]

Are you planning run fenders on the front then?

[MercuryMac]

Hi. Thank you for the interest shown, guys. KennyC,this one didn't have the connection that you mentioned. [see picture below] I now wish I could have taken an inch or two out of the back end behind that middle Z but then the spring would have been too long or the rear end would have to go back too far. The way it sits now, the box and the cab are about 3/4" too far apart.
Sam fear, Yes. In fact just before suppertime today I hope to put the right hand one on, as I already have the righthand rear bolted on and the runningboard partly bolted down. Many people have warned me about mounting fibreglass fenders, because of warping over time. Well, I'm here to tell you, They weren't lieing this time. But we're jumping ahead in the story.
[second pic unprimered cab very little body work done.]
[primered cab, different doors, the drivers door was wrecked beyond repair but it's all I could find at the time. The window hole was leaning back quite a bit and the doorskin was caved in badly and rotten at the bottom.]
[flathead mounted in the ranger frame and a 79 Mustang Borg-Warner RAD four speed. There is a homemade adapter between the bell and the trans.]

[Country Misfit]

Looking good

[kenny c]

I like it

[MercuryMac]

I'm going to go back to the frame with the flathead pic for a minute. I mentioned a spacer for mounting the transmission, so here's the technical part of that: the bottom two bolt holes were the same, RAD trans and bellhousing, but the top two were quite different and I needed 5/8" spacer because of a longer clutch shaft. I cut the back end out of the Mustang donor bellhousing and filed down a few bumps to make it 5/8" thick, and bored some holes in the adapter to match the top bellhousing holes then bored some countersink bevels in and bolted it to the bell. The clutch shaft slid right into a NOS friction disc for a '53 Merc car. The motor is a '53 Merc with the 4" stroke. I didn't like the woussy little gearshift on the Mustang transmission so I cut it off and the long shift rail that runs all the way back to the back of the extention housing. The shift rail runs inside a small housing on top of the extention housing so I cut that off too. The little crank on the back of the rail that the gearshift turns is now welded onto the much shortened rail. I welded an older gearshift and tower on to a plate and bolted that to the top of the trans, so it looks cool now, and stock.