99 Ranger Repaint

I figured I would start this thread here. This is the first time I have posted any project related to this truck. I bought it in December of 09 with 76K on it. I have driven it daily up until a year ago. I decided a month ago I was going to fix all of the minor rust starting to show up and repaint it.

Scope of the work includes:
Replacing the core support
Replacing the right door with a clean junkyard door
Replacing the tailgate with a new aftermarket one
Repairing a small spot of rust on the left rear wheel well
Replacing both cab corners.

I will be repainting it the original color again, black with the PPG concept line.

I don't have a great "before" picture but I will show them in order of how the project started.

Bed removal

Bottom of bed before sandblasting

Bottom of bed after epoxy primer and paint

Core Support

Finishing up body work

There was a dent on the right front corner of the bed when I got it

Replacement right door in the background

That is how it sits right now. Hopefully a week from today I will have it painted!

 

[RangerX]

The rust looks familiar! Can you tell me where you got the new core support?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

not bad andy. make it pop a little and put so gold pearl in the clear

 

[ahodges]

Believe it or not I got the core support off of amazon.com. It is an OEM ford core support and I got it for $120.

I am by no means a professional body man, even though I am having 2 people help and taking advice from a guy at work who restores $100,000 cars. We were tossing ideas around about ways to make it a little different, pearl would sure do that! We were also thinking about some subtle stripes on the hood or fenders but so far haven't agreed on an idea.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well, if you decide not to go pearl in the clear, what about ghost strips. or a ghost shelby stripe down at the bottom that will follow the bottom edge of the door and go up about 3 inches.
another thing you had said was your replacing the tail lights. how about replacing them with 07 and up lights? i have seen a few guys do that and they do look better imo. and also clear turn signal lights up front?

 

[ahodges]

I like the ghost stripe idea. We talked about maybe ghosting something like this:

http://www.vettestripes.com/c6fender/fd7.jpg

 

[vroomzoomboom]

not sure if i am a fan of that or not (its also not my truck, and not my call). the reason why i say that is if you are putting it on the fender (i assume) the fender has too much surface area for a stripe like that.

 

[ahodges]

Finished

Well I didn't do any strips or pearl coat. I was short on time and needed to get it done. I took it to work on Christmas Eve, which is where I needed to paint it, and finished it last night. I still need to do some finishing details such as put stone guard on the bottom of the rockers after the paint cures for a week or 2.

I had a couple friends help do the prep and painting. My dad and I did all of the wet sanding, buffing, polishing, and reassembly. We had a run in the clear coat on every panel to greater or lesser degrees. We had to re-clear the right door and spot in a couple other spots that were light.

We wet sanded most of truck with 2000 grit and then used rubbing compound and polish.

The paint is PPG DBC9700 and the clear is PPG Concept DUC2021.

The first pictures are after we sprayed the high build primer and were blocking it out. After this we sprayed a dark gray sealer over the whole thing (Shop Line), then the color, and clear right after each other.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the results.

 

[toypaseo]

Nice job

 

[vroomzoomboom]

for a guy who doesnt do bodywork on a regular bases, AND painting a black truck to boot, looks like it came out pretty good! btw, sucks having to paint when your exhaust fan cant keep up eh? lol

 

[kevinspann]

Came out great. How much money did you have in paint and prep materials?

 

[ahodges]

Thanks guys! Pretty much sucks having to paint without a spray booth. We had 1 fan running the entire time but just about the time I took this picture I turned on a second exhaust fan. It was in the 30's (Fahrenheit ) and raining (we got 2") the day we sprayed it . I was trying to not pull all of the heat out.

There are some dirt specs in the hood that may have blown out of the cowling but not too bad.

Paint with the primer and sealer ran right around $1,200. The paint I used on the underside of the bed was excess from work. I borrowed the blocks, and used a friends sand paper for most of it. The paper and plastic I used from work so that helped reduce my costs some. All in all with the junkyard door, core support, cab corners, and the free tailgate I probably have around $1,500 in this project, plus a lot of free labor!

 

[MONMIX]

Painting everything off is pretty ballsy !!!!

The results look great though. Job well done.

 

[ahodges]

Thanks man. With it being a solid color I figured it was worth getting the jambs cut in as nice as possible. I would never try to panel paint a metallic.

 

[delexploder]

Very nice , now when are you dropping in the boosted stroker

 

[ahodges]

:shifty_ey

Don't think the conversation hasn't come up! For a while now I've been "joking" around about putting a similar engine that is in my Explorer into this thing.. Only, I would probably do a high compression n/a 363 in this one, 5 or 6 speed Tremec, tub the rear, and probably do another Moser 9". Ever since I stroked and boosted my Explorer, I have been thinking, "how much fun would this engine be in a 3,200 lb Ranger vs. this 4,600lb+ Explorer

I've never been serious enough (out of fear I might actually do it) to look into any specifics on the trans or to see if there are any off-the-shelf header options for use with a 302 in a coil spring Ranger. Do me a favor and don't tell me!

 

[delexploder]

Lol baby lighting! You already have a nice looking ranger it might as well perform as well as it looks ,

 

[vroomzoomboom]

hey andy, https://www.google.ca/search?q=ligh...=JZeNVqjqMsjIeuCEseAH#q=lightning+bolt+ranger

 

[ahodges]

Holy crap! First off, I didn't think the 5.4 let alone the 4R100 would fit in a Ranger! And it's all under the hood with a supercharger too! Best part is, if a 5.4 fit in there, that means a 5.0 coyote can as well. Obviously I'm going about the Explorer all wrong..

Here is the really sad part. My Explorer has almost that much power to the wheels and it still isn't quite that fast.

 

[delexploder]

hey andy, https://www.google.ca/search?q=ligh...=JZeNVqjqMsjIeuCEseAH#q=lightning+bolt+ranger

Yes exactly the one that came to mind