RockRangerII Refresh

[RockRanger]

On the passenger side behind the headlight is a nice large open area. This is an area that I originally had my winch solenoid box mounted.

20151108_182121 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

I am not sure if some AC stuff sits there on more optioned trucks or if all trucks have this open area. On similar year explorers this is where the battery is but on rangers the battery is on the driverside. I decided it would the perfect spot to store spare fluids. A little cardboard cad and measuring I figured I could fit 4 quarts of oil/atf and a quart of gear oil. A little time on the computer and I had this.

oil storage boxv2 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151108_182428 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151108_182420 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151108_182059 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151108_182103 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

As you can see the gear oil comes out the bottom so that the top is flat to clear the hood. The gear oil is just able to sneak between the radiator shroud and the air intake tube. My rivet gun broke before I could get it assembled so I will have to install it later.

 

[mounty71]

That is awesome!

 

[Kirby N.]

That is really cool. I hate having fluids inside my truck or even outside in a tool box. If they leak then life sucks. Usually they are floating around with chains and other random junk so they eventually leak. This is a great idea. They are secure so they probably won't leak but even if they did it wouldn't matter. No room for antifreeze though?

 

[RockRanger]

I have had more then a few bottles of oil leak in toolboxes which is one of my reasons to get them out of the tool box. I doubt a gallon antifreeze jug would fit unless that is all that I put there. In reality I am not sure if I ever carried extra antifreeze. If I spring a coolant leak I can use cooler water or drinking water to get me off the trail. I rarely go wheeling in below freezing temps. Even when I do mid 20's is the lowest I might see. All our mountain trails with camping close for the winter. Plus where I live it doesn't get below freezing so even if I sprung a leak and drove the truck home on pure water I can park it overnight and not have to worry about it freezing.

 

[BKennedy]

If you make one that fits in the Explorer passenger side quarter panel, I am in.

 

[RockRanger]

Are you talking about where the factory sub goes? Are first and second gens the same in that area?

 

[RockRanger]

Got the oil mount painted just before the rain.

20151109_144044 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151109_144035 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

One side mounts with two 1/4" bolts thru the inner fender well. You can see where the factory air intake remain intact so I stay smog legal.

20151109_145435 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

The other side mounts with two quarter inch bolts to the side of the radiator opening. It has to mount at a slight angle so the lover bolt has an extra nut mounted between the bracket and body. Gives just the angle needed to clear everything.

20151109_145542 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

A view from the top with no bottles in it.

20151109_145525 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

I put 2 quarts of ATF and 2 motor oil as well as one gear oil.

20151109_145627_010 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

Lid on ready to go.

20151109_145908 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

 

[Rick]

Nice work!!

 

[BKennedy]

Are you talking about where the factory sub goes? Are first and second gens the same in that area?

That's the space, but I don't know if the gens are the same. If you made one that took up that space and went out nearly the body, there would be room for several quart bottles. I can get four in the pocket now (I don't have the sub). It could easily mount to the flat floor behind the panel.

I will post a picture of the space with a ruler for reference tomorrow.

 

[RockRanger]

Got the tool box installed. The paint ended up a bit messed up because it got rained on while it was drying. After getting the fluids out and under the hood and being larger then the old box I have plenty of room to store more items.

20151110_165511 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151110_165426 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

 

[RockRanger]

Picked up Stic-o old seats and swapped them in. I did have to tap two holes in the base of the seats to fit my sliders. The hole was already in the seat I just had to run a tap through them.

20151129_112138 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

 

[BKennedy]

Those seats look great in there.

 

[RockRanger]

It cleaned up the look of the interior a ton. Working on a metal center consul to replace the ugly wood one. Called around for metal and 18ga material is almost twice the cost of 16. It is being built out of 16.

 

[Stic-o]

Picked up Stic-o old seats and swapped them in. I did have to tap two holes in the base of the seats to fit my sliders. The hole was already in the seat I just had to run a tap through them.

20151129_112138 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

Glad they worked out

 

[Rick]

I love how the parts get around.

 

[RockRanger]

Yeah parts get around. I use to have a seat from RangerX's truck at one point in this truck.

Started on my new center console. I took measurements from my old wood one and made adjustments to it. Then I drew up the pieces on the computer and cut it on my plasma table.

center by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

The pieces are tabbed with holes on each piece that after bending on the relief lines (because I still do not have a decent brake/press) allow the holes to line up and a pop rivet to be installed. The white spots in the pictures are each rivet.

20151130_175205 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

The lid has both a latch to hold it securely closed when off road and a lock in case I want to lock valuables inside it.

20151130_190256 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

Here it is set in the truck for a test fit. I still have a few adjustments to make then it will be ready for paint. I also am going to add an upholstery top to the lid.

20151130_191115 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

 

[Kirby N.]

That is over the top cool. You should clear coat it.

What is the advantage of rivets over welds? It seems like I am always grinding or drilling rivets and that sucks, so I rarely use new ones!! I suppose welds would be worse to remove.

 

[RockRanger]

Easy to remove is the biggest benefit over a weld. Do not need a bunch of clamps to hold it together during assembly. Other then a few bone head layout mistakes I made in the drawing the whole thing can be assembled with out the use of a tape measure. In theory when the two holes line up put a rivet in and pull. Due to my crappy brake I can't get repeatable bends. They are close but have just enough variation to sometimes cause headaches. I might go back and pull the rivets and weld it together. See how well the rivets hold up.

 

[RockRanger]

I was able to get my center console painted and installed today.

20151201_164247 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151201_164312 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

20151201_164539 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

My wife's CJ7 has a similar setup and the seatbelt is always falling between the seat and console. To hopefully solve that issue. I added two holes on the side and ran a bungee cord thru the holes to hold the latch side of the seat belt in place.

20151201_164259_001 by Matthew Dresselhaus, on Flickr

 

[Tbars4]

...Looks Great...Need to build you an upper tray in that console. .