The Fresno State Ranger.!

[Car-Dog]

A couple years ago I was searching for 4x4 Ranger Supercab for around 5K. I found a 1998 4x4 supercab 4.0 v6 on cars.com that was at a local ford dealership but by the time i called to inquire about it they had already sold it. I called about 4 hours after they had posted it to begin with. Feeling kind of bummed that I had missed out on the "Perfect truck" I dejectedly began searching again that night an almost identical truck for less money was posted for sale about 200 miles away from where the first one had been listed. by almost the same i mean same year same color same pretty much everything. The one I wound up buying is a 1998 4x4 4.0 OHV with 86000 miles on it for only 4900 bucks. It was listed at 6000 but because it was missing half of the front bumper, the dome light, and a centercap, and had 4 bald miss matched tires, and had chrome rims which were so dirty and covered in brake dust they were black i was able to talk the guy down quite a bit. I had originally found the truck on cars.com and it was listed as being sold by a dealership, which i thought would be a good thing, turned out that the "Dealership" was a guy selling about 6 cars in an alleyway behind a Midas Muffler shop. Anyway aside from the purchase price i have spent about 3k replacing and upgrading stuff, and im no where near done.

What I have done so far
1. Replaced the front valance and fog lights.
2.Purple Powered and chrome polished the rims
3.put bed rail caps on
4.added a JVC stereo, and infinity speakers
5.added a tow hitch receiver
6.added fog lights on the tow hitch receiver for hooking up trailers at night( I seem to do alot of this)
7.K&N cold air intake
8. new windshield which already needs to be replaced( I have the worst luck)
9.New ball joints and control arms
10. painted most of the frame black( it was really really rusted.
11. new brakes one was missing. go figure
12. New shift motor for the transfer case.
13. and other things that I cant think of right now
14. Gibson Exhaust
15 Air Horn
16. New Trailmaster Shocks

Things I want to add soon
1. Body lift prob about 3 inches
2. Projection headlights
3. bigger tires don't know which ones yet (any suggestions?)
4. Air compressor and tank
5. HID headlights( because I live in the middle of nowhere, and it is very dark)
6. Strobe style emergency lights(Because there seem to be alot of dangerous situations, at night, out here in the middle of nowhere)

IMG]http://i736.photobucket.com/albums/xx8/car-dog/03262010212.jpg[/IMG]

IMG]http://i736.photobucket.com/albums/xx8/car-dog/03262010219.jpg[/IMG]

http://i736.photobucket.com/albums/xx8/car-
dog/03212010203.jpg


Decked out for a Fresno State Football game. Go Dogs!!! ( this is also before i had the ball joints replaced you can tell because it sags so much in the front.)

IMG]http://i736.photobucket.com/albums/xx8/car-dog/10312009097.jpg[/IMG]

Btw the flag in the back is aprox 6x4''

 

[Car-Dog]

A couple more pics

My JVC Deck

My Bluetooth system So I can talk on the phone while I drive. Stupid Cali Laws.

My Garmin GPS is on the right

And last but not least... MY Kick ass Red White And Blue Custom painted ice chest

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice ranger u got

 

[Car-Dog]

Thx

 

[Car-Dog]

New Exhaust

So for my 21st B-day My parents bought me the Gibson Exhaust that I have been wanting. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GIB-19715/

I love the way it sounds. Nice powerful sound, but not too loud, and dos not drone. It is nice to get rid of the old rust bucket of an exhaust system that was on my truck. The hardest part was getting the old exhaust off but a sawzall made short work of it. Anyway Here are some pics.

SHINY

A couple days ago I finally got around to installing my air horn.

http://www.amazon.com/Wolo-845-Warrior-Chrome-Plated/dp/B000R8SLWY

Its crazy loud but I do have plans to add an air compressor and tank at some point. Took a couple hours and some minor fabrication to install it. anyway I put it under the drivers side behind the tire.

Pics from underneath looking up

Custom plate I made out of some stock to bolt the front foot to. the hole on the frame that the plate is bolted to was already there.

There just happened to be a handy hole there to mount the compressor on.
I did have to drill the hole for the air supply line though.

This is where I have run all of the wires for the horn and my aux backup lights into the cab. I just punched a hole into the stopper and ran the wires under the carpet. Then I siliconed around the wires to keep water out of the cab.

O and this is where I put the button. a little double stick tape and a zip-tie and its done.

 

[Slowlyvverot]

i like the air horn! i've been wanting to get one for my truck...you make the install seem pretty straightforward.

 

[BrianDye]

How loud is it compared to stock? (Is it a little louder, or is there like NO comparison lol)

Im looking at something simaler at like Meijers for 50$, has 2 different horns, and that small compressor thing, but I dont know if I wanna risk it lol

 

[Car-Dog]

It is way louder than the stock, but it isn't just that it is louder it has a better deeper sound. I think the fact it is a metal trumpet helps with the sound quality. I will get try to get some audio tomorrow for a comparison, dont know how good it will sound on my SH!@ camera though.

The hardest part of installing it was figuring where to put it. it is just about 2 feet long, but that spot worked perfect I only had to drill 2 holes in the brace, and then fab the bracket. Also because it is a direct drive compressor I didnt have to run air lines into the cab, I just had to run a ground for the button

Thanks

 

[Ranger Al]

Nice truck, Car-Dog. Mine look similar but orange color with hard top on the bed. Need any part let me know I have a spare engine! lol

 

[Car-Dog]

Hey thanks. Is it that burnt orange color? I love that burnt Orange color. I got ? for you. How do you like the Bilstein shocks? My truck is at 107700 on the original shocks so I am thinking its time to change them out. Where abouts in the No are you? I am east of fresno in the foothills.

 

[Ranger Al]

It is call Manderine orange, not cal-tran but nice orange color. I bought the Bilstein from a guy from back east. I had the original Motorcraft on it and it is like from night to day after the installed. I am in Central Fresno next to McLane High school. From the look of the pictures, are you from Prather areas???

 

[Ranger Al]

Here is a pic.. hope I can post it..

/Users/philipcolett/Desktop/Ranger.JPG

 

[Car-Dog]

Good guess with prather but i am up the 180 towards kings canyon. And that pic dosent work. Do you have it hosted somewhere like photobucket?

 

[Ranger Al]

I can send you the pic directly threw your e-mail.

 

[RockRanger]

Cool another Fresno State fan. Alumni here. My wife's family is still up there.

 

[FloridaState]

There's only one FSU, and that's Florida State University! GO NOLES!

haha
But really, that's a nice truck. Is that Air-horn one of those obnoxiously loud train-like horns?

 

[Car-Dog]

I wanted a train horn but this sounds more like fog horn/ semi than a train.

 

[Car-Dog]

There's only one FSU, and that's Florida State University! GO NOLES!

YOUR RIGHT there is only one FSU! It's technically CSUF or Cal state university Fresno. But everyone calls it FSU cause its shorter.

 

[Car-Dog]

Cool another Fresno State fan. Alumni here. My wife's family is still up there.

Don't know if you follow football, but I am hoping to come down and watch Ryan Matthews play for the chargers next season. I was so stoked when SD took him 12th overall! It just gave me more of reason to root for my favorite NFL team. Go Chargers! Go Dogs!

 

[Car-Dog]

Well over the weekend I decided to go ahead and replace my stock shocks (they had 108000 miles on them) so I installed a complete set of Trailmaster shocks on my truck.

http://www.partstrain.com/store/det...T/6_Cyl_4-dot-0L/T5473440.html?location=Front

here is a quick pic of the shocks

Don't have a pic of them on the truck yet.

The ride is soooo much better. The stock rear shocks still had some bounce left in them, but the front shocks were completely shot. when i compressed them they would stay compressed. Now the ride is nice and firm and smoooth so far I am very pleased with these shocks.