Project StormTrooper

[dirtech09]

I am fairly new to the forums and I am now a Ford Ranger owner and I love it. So here's the story.. I am good friends with splat on the forums and help him work on his truck here and there so doing that just gave me a huge interest for turbo rangers.. So after much looking on craigslist for a ranger that I could buy I finally found this one.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00071.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00073.jpg
it needs quite a bit of body work but the 2.3 is solid and runs great with 136,xxx mi on it. This thread will pretty much have pics and updates about everything I do to this truck until it is finished..which could be like in 10 years haha but anyways I want to get the interior and body work done first before I start doing the engine work, but I honestly can not wait till I get a turboed 2.3 in this thing.
I dont have it plated and on the road yet but in the mean time me and splat went to junkyard and found some bucket seats outta Ford Explorer to go into my truck since the bench seat in my truck was in pretty rough shape...so here is some pics of the bench..and when i took it out.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00079.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00085.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00092.jpg
after i took out the bench i found quite a bit of rust on the floorboard and decided that i might as well fix that now..
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00091.jpg
i worked all day just on cleaning it up and grinding down the rust and finding all the holes in the floorboard....went to lowes and bought some sheet metal and next weekend ill be welding it in and making sure that its solid.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00096.jpg
i will definitely post pics of the new floorboard when its done.
heres the bucket seats and some more pics of the truck.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00098.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00087.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00083.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00082.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00076.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00074.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/ford%20ranger/DSC00075.jpg
so there she is.. this is now my new life! i have soo much to do on it! i am very excited and feel like i will never be able to stop working on it! if you have any questions about my truck or the project just ask.
thanks

[splatranger95]

Lookin good steve! Ill be down next weekend to help ya finish the floor boards and get those buckets in man! This truck is gonna be very sweet. Nice to finally have a fellow ranger guy in toledo.

Very cool truck.

[AJ_Fritz]

looks like you got your work cut out for you. im sure you will enjoy it, splat keep the whip handy.... :)

[dirtech09]

oh yeah i got alot of work to do on it. i like doing it tho so im really excited!

[splatranger95]

For sure AJ, I keep it behind the seat! HAHA. It'll be nice to have something to work on since my truck is pretty much done except for a few minor stuff that costs waaaaaay too much at the moment.

[dirtech09]

just now starting to fabricate the sheet metal for my floorboard.. should be welded in tonight. ill post up some pics! I got new corner lights too! just waiting for the mirrors to get here. and i have to figure out how to put these explorer seats in and hook up the power to the seats.. i plugged them in but they didnt seem to want to work so ill have to play with it a little bit! hopefully splat can figure out the problem with that lol

[splatranger95]

Steve, you're slacking on posting some pics Bro.

[dirtech09]

Well i got the new floorboard in and everything back together...new mirrors new corner lights. time to get her out on the road. heres some pics.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00147.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00150.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00153.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00159.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00160.jpg

[splatranger95]

So I thought i'd share a little speaking for steve.... We had a little mishap on the highway today. Rear drivers side wheel fell off. All 5 studs sheared. bent the rear quarter, but its fixable. It was quite scary.... Got alot of work ahead of him with this truck so some encouragement might be nice! HAHA.

[dirtech09]

yeah fixed the wheel in a evening.. wasnt too bad really, basically just put new studs on..new lugnuts..new wheel cylinder. also gonna replace the other studs on the other wheels tomorrow morning... yeah its a project but i have been enjoying it i guess! once i find another job ill be doing crazy work to the suspension. wanna do a 4/5 drop on it and make it handle corners like really good. im pretty excited about it! i try to work on the truck almost everyday lol

[dirtech09]

i put new tires and a new hood on the truck since these pics. i will update that soon and post up some new pics. sorry about not being on here for quite some time. splat was gone and stopped motivating me haha. now he is back in town and im getting excited about the truck again. me and him have been working on a sick nasty sub/center console install. its coming together quite nicely. looks really good. here are some pics. ill keep ya guys updated till she is all put together within the next couple weeks.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09910.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09913.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09914.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09916.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09917.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09920.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09918.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09924.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC09927.jpg

so there are all the pics. thats as far as we got tonight. its going to be a project but we are very excited about this. and more than likely we will be doing the same thing to splats truck. i will keep updated pics up here as we continue to work on this throughout the next week or two. (: i am very excited.

[jfive]

Your box for your woofer is made out of plywood. MDF is cheap, and the right material. That box looks almost to small even for a sealed box. I do like audiobahn though. Haven't seen much these days about them. I was gonna get there solid aluminum woofer but they quit making them after one year. I put a rockford 8" in my ranger, but it just doesn't hit the right frequecys. I'd use MDF for your console too.

[D94R]

Plywood for the box is OK. The 7 layer stuff is better than the 5 layer obviously, but what you absolutely don't want to use is that chip/particle board stuff. I prefer MDF like Jfive though.


J, if you're not hitting the right frequencies with your 8" and not getting the sound you think you should it's cause your box isn't designed right. If you want some help with the audio make a thread, I'm sure some others on here can help you out, me included.

[th3cavalry]

is there any damage on the old hood? i kinda liked it ^.^

[splatranger95]

We made the box out of plywood because I made my old box out of plywood and I was going to use part of the old one. This box should be a good size since I based it off of a premade box from mtx for the ranger. Also, when I had that sub in my truck with a very similar box it sounded awesome. We'll see how it goes' but I think it'll work out ok, but ya mdf may have been better. Its going to be covered in blue suede with polish stainless. It should be lookin very good by the weekend

[jfive]

I built the box to rockfords specs. Might need some filler or something. I really think its just the output of an 8". It doesn't hit the lows, and it hits smoe stuff thats too big. I agree you can build a box out of plywood, cause it doesn't flex like other things, but you better seal it with wood glue or something, and i would use oak plywood, or some type of hardwood cause of the less flex it would have. Another big reason to use MDF, is no slivers.

[dirtech09]

well thanks guys for all the advice. i like hearing opinions. i will give this box a try.. if it doesnt sound how we want it then we can always go back and change it.. really not a big deal to me. i just enjoy playing around with it. we will seal that box up good tho for sure. and ill go read more about it elsewhere on the forums. but i just wanted to say thanks. ill post up more pics as we continue to work on it.

[dirtech09]

also yes that hood was absolute crap. im currently using it as a sled to pull behing my quad(= haha.

[oldcarfart]

Well i got the new floorboard in and everything back together...new mirrors new corner lights. time to get her out on the road. heres some pics.
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00147.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00150.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00153.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00159.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk173/photodude09/DSC00160.jpg

don't forget the seam sealer!!

[dirtech09]

well the sub deff needs some work.. we hooked it up and it doesnt quite sound right, but its all good.
i was thinkin either i can get it figured out to sound good or i could just go the easy route and buy this?
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/r_18324_Kicker_07TCVT10-4.aspx
this seems like a cheap solution and im sure it would do the job that im looking for.
let me know what ya think.
thanks.

[Ron83ranger]

do you have poly fill in the box. you normally use about a 1lb bag per 1.0 cu.ft. of volume. you can get it anywhere, walmart, etc. that definitely makes a difference especially if your box is a little undersized which it can be almost 10% with the fill in there. that show i do them to tighten the bass up some and handle a little more of a beating

[reggioisme]

x3 on the polyfil its great when you have an under spec'd box it really makes a difference...also i dont know if you caulked the shit out of that box or not to make it air tight....but next time your at the store go to the sheeted wood and knock on the wood and see the difference between 3/4 mdf and any other type of wood the sound will tell you a lot on how that sub is going to sound