Some of you may know me from TRS or Pirate4x4 as the owner of this ranger:



^ I've still got her, but she's getting rebuilt. In the meantime, I needed a 4x4 truck for the winter so I started looking for a full size 80-96 Ford truck.

I ended up with an '89 F150. Drivetrain consists of a 5.0, 5 speed, and BW transfer case. I picked it up for $825 out the door. Plans are to fix the body up, do a single stage paint job on it, level the front, Dana 44 TTB 8 lug outers with a Dana 50 4.10 chunk, Disc brake sterling rear, and beef up the rear suspension.

I'm posting here to show my progression throughout my "build".

The truck:



The floors (both sides were like this) :



New sheetmetal installed and sealed with fiberglass bondo:



Interior is in great shape:



So far, I've installed new rough country N2.0 shocks in the rear, fixed the rotted off EGR tube, installed flowmaster muffler and tail pipe, fixed vacuum lines in the engine bay, fixed floorboards, new speakers in the door, fixed radio, fixed speedometer and transfer case linkage, and ordered ball joints.

 

Looks good and welcome! Pirate is a great forum too. I'm a lurker over there and have been for many years.

What vehicle is donating the Sterling rear?

 

'89 F250. It's also donating most of the body. It's a shame it's only good for parts. Has 89k original miles on a 460, auto trans, and BW t-case. The frame's shot and so is the cab.

 

You may have to shorten your driveshaft since that Sterling is larger than the 8.8.

 

That's no problem. I'll probably end up using the F250 shaft since it already has 1350 joints in it. The F150 only has 1330's

 

No pics, but I changed radius arm bushings in the truck Friday night. Turns out they were still the OEM ones. No wonder the truck would shake and wander all over the highways. Everything's nice and tight now. I reamed out the rivet holes in the frame to 1/2" and slapped some frame bolts in there. $17.00 in parts and 6 hours of my free labor. I absolutely HATE those rivets....