First up we needed a donor ranger bed. Do I cut up the nice blue one?
Pros: less bodywork, this bed is flawless no dents and it’s already blue.
Cons: it’s a perfect 07 bed with high end linex . Cutting into it would be a shame! But it would have saved me/us some work…well lots of work.. but it would have also created other problems like cutting through linex and perfect paint, and leaving linex exposed at the cuts not optimum, edges and part of box would Likely still need paint when all is said and done etc etc.
eventually it was decided no way am I cutting up the 07 bed. I was back and forth on this until the time came to actually modify
In comes the donor bed. I have a black bed from a 2002 ranger we put back on the road. We scored a “less” dented bed from the junk yard to use on that truck… red and we have to paint that truck anyways so…
This Black bed had a huge dent in the side, otherwise very good shape… perfect donor
Getting my hands on a good ranger bed is not easy, they are valuable around here. It looks like this one was destined to be ours for this truck… so we make it so
Once decided the bed was brought into the shop so it could thaw, get stripped and cleaned up, then finally cut for fiberglass
The 07 bed has been put in storage lol
Turns out picnic tables are perfect for holding ranger beds
I am able to easily move these with the forks on my tractor, I’ve gotten quite good at it!
The black bed sat outside for 4 months before finally coming in… had to melt the ice and remove all forest debris
Really good shape! On this side
Huge dent over here
The box is still straight as an arrow
Dent city
Time to clean it and strip all 02 hardware. Of course one fastener had to strip
Grinder made short work
The box is straight!
Couple of dents and some metal repairs to be made, these would be the only “cons”
Of using this bed vs the blue one. It needs some fixing to be perfect for the new linex and some Blue paint
I scraped all the goop out and did an initial clean and wipe, I was very happy with the results this bed will work great, better than expected.
Couple of dents
Metal will be straightened
Lucky for me I have the best metal body paint dudes around on my team!
This is the only real rust spot on this bed, it has already been cleaned and treated with rust oleum rust treatment that stuff is amazing! More on that later
It was time to plan our initial cuts, the goal is to leave the bed sun structure in tact and only remove the bedside… without the tedious drilling of all the spot welds. Plus doing it the way I am, leaves much structure behind which makes the new glass bits and the remaining metal box much stronger the. If we had cut all the spots welds.
As Mentioned before glass bedsides going onto a ranger has been a thing since 1983, so no need to reinvent the wheel
Cuts were made freehand with my 220v plasma torch. I used a magnet and straightedge just like I was taught in art school. The plasma is just like a pencil
Did I mention not only did we get a 1940s Quincy air compressor and set it all up we also scored a used Alladin diesel 220v Hotsy for $500 and got it running. The Hotsy is soo good at stripping all these parts in prep for paint
Only pic I have of the Hotsy? Our buddy Earl getting ready to clean his old skid steer we fixed an huge hydraulic leak…Earl is 78 and works harder than any 20 something I have ever met. They make ‘em tough up here in north Idaho that is for sure
