# Haven't been posting much, here's what I've been up to:



## Jwest7788 (Oct 26, 2015)

Haven't been posting much, I bought a new truck, and have spent the last few weeks working on it. making good progress so I figured I would post a log here, haha. Here's the story:


So my old (little, red) ranger needed brakes, and a new radiator, and basically all basic maintenance, it was time to put her out to pasture and get a new ride.






(Pasture = Off roading till she dies. She bombed around huge dirt bike trails for 6 hours yesterday, lost both front shocks, and brakes are shot, but still drives some how. Going to picknpull with her tonight.)

Bought a new (to me) 2003 Ranger, fx4 level II (off road package):






She needed some work though. Rust spots and dented:






Fender flares pretty faded:






Even the tailgate rusted through the bottom:





(Shout out to @Kris Jensen who is using his awesome welding wizardry on the tailgate)

The box upper edge, and body lower 1/3 edge were both dinged up, pitted, and beginning to form rust.
Mechanically sound, but damn the body needed work.

Figured it was a good opportunity to learn a little bit about body work and sheet metal.

I got rocking and rolling and (didn't take pictures) of:
Removing all rust with wire wheel, Angle grinder.
Banging out big dents to be relatively flat
Applying POR15 rust preventative to anything that previously had rust (this kit took days by itself)

Bondo, sanding, repeat X4:






Taped off and painted (Primer X2, colour X3):






Clear coat X3, sanding with 1000, 2000 grit to hide the colour transition. (Not shown)

Here's the cool part, bought a kit of roll on bed liner, this stuff:






Taped off, and sanded (120 grit) the target areas till white:






Took a break and a beer:






and rolled bed liner on the aforementioned lower 1/3, truck box top edge, and fender flares:






Tape removed, to show nice crisp lines, also shown here is the rust spot from before:







Will post more updates as they become available.

Pending: Replace gas door (rusted through). Finalize tailgate , Decide whether or not to bed line the plastic parts of the bumpers...
Take more full truck photos once truck is free from the garage. (This stuff takes 2-4 days to cure enough that water wont cause damage, so shes staying safely inside for now.)



JW


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## Alexander (Oct 26, 2015)

Nice looking rig. I hope you were able to get airborne in your old truck while you were off road.


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## Jwest7788 (Oct 26, 2015)

Alexander said:


> Nice looking rig. I hope you were able to get airborne in your old truck while you were off road.


Sure did, it's actually amazing how well a 25 year old truck can do when you don't care if you damage it. We were outperforming purpose built off road vehicles. (At the cost of the truck's ability to function, haha)
Brought a tow dolly to get the truck home after.


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## Jwest7788 (Oct 27, 2015)

Fender Flares put back on the body:






Also, Disaster struck. Apparently the "dupli-color Perfect Match" color code matched paint dissolves in xylene. (Xylene is the solvent that was used to clean the body. I was using it to remove a few drops of splatter from poorly protected paint during the rolling process)

Interestingly, the factory paint has no issues with xylene, but the rattle can stuff melted right off.

Taped off and getting ready for more painting:


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## Jwest7788 (Oct 28, 2015)

Out to can tire to get some polishing compound for the body.

She needs a wash, but I'm happy with the bed liner fix!








 Better shot for seeing the body's need of a clean, the recent paint patch that needs blending, but really shows off the new trim well:


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## Alexander (Oct 28, 2015)

Hey that looks great. Nice paint work!


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## Kris Jensen (Oct 30, 2015)

I guess I should finish your tailgate now good job!


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## Jwest7788 (Nov 2, 2015)

Kris Jensen said:


> I guess I should finish your tailgate now good job!


Thanks! Coming together for sure!

Looking forward to it!

JW


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