I have a 17 year old son that I had bought a 92 Mustang 5.0 for. Great deal on a 26k mile car. Problem is it is literally in showroom condition and way too nice to be his daily. So it stays in the garage.
He finds this 2002 Ranger Edge regular cab 4x4. 215k miles 3.0 Auto 4x4. We drove it, I looked it over, and bought it. Problem is- I didn't look enough. I had seen a rusty cab corner, front bumper, etc but for age and miles I figured no big deal. Then it went south.
We were ripping out the half-working lights, removing several light bars, etc and I decided to crawl under it to fix the loose tailpipe.
And I got sick. The rear frame is gutted. The rear spring hangers have been replaced but behind them there is nothing left. I found another spot plated. The cross-members are barely hanging on. I do mean it's a mess. Then I saw it is a two piece frame.
Visited a local junkyard, told them my dilemma and the guy literally finished my sentence and said they keep several rear Ranger frames.
Went into the yard and picked out a replacement. Bought it, the bed, and front bumper for $300. And lucked out being a white Edge.
So- just got done prepping it for surgery. Drilled out all 16 rivets (they cut it from the front section) and removed the front crossmember and spring hangers. It's sitting in the garage waiting on the por15 to dry. The old bed is ready to come off after 3 bed bolts snapped off.
It goes under the knife hopefully next week. Have grade 8 bolts to put it together. Oh- I have to buy a rear bumper. It's rusted completely out under the plastic.
On the plus side, I put the front bumper on and all new smoked headlights and foglights. Truck looks good. Has Dick Cepek rims and 31's.
I'm trying to be optimistic here.
Sorry for the book. Thought I'd start a post sharing my first Ranger project. I've had so many Ford's I can't believe this is my first time working on a Ranger. Pretty simple truck.

 

my 94 had quite a bad frame, its not repairable the same way yours is, i found some channel iron that would fit over the frame rails and patched mine together, then tied the rails together with another section of channel, put a 24" long 2" hitch receiver bar on the crossmember to make a hitch. so far, so good. i didnt know my frame was this bad until i was removing the spare tire carrier and the vibration from the impact gun litterlay had the frame falling apart before my eyes, it looked like someone had fired a shotgun at cardboard. my bed and trailer hitch are now structural items now, but everything is holding together good. i coated everything with a product called por-15. that will be a good test to see if it really keeps the rust at bay.

amazingly bad, never seen one this bad before:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/154582078@N03/38636631816/
patch mostly done here, hadnt done the crossmember/trailer hitch part yet:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/154582078@N03/24820186328/
this picture was taken during my 4:10 rear axle swap, you can see where i had to make a new left side top shock mount, as the factory peice had broke off. (and it broke while i was going to pick up the newer axle)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/154582078@N03/38636695206/
rear axle coil helpers, since i have those single leaf fiberglas springs, i thought i might need a bit more suspention. good thing is that unloaded (running empty) the springs dont quite touch the frame, ride is stock when empty and not stiff and solid like a 3/4 ton would be.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/154582078@N03/36378740603/

 

It's amazing just how bad this frame is. I pulled the bed and I think it (the bed) was holding everything together. The front frame looks fine but can't tell where the two meet. If the overlap is bad, I have the sections cut out of the main frame of the donor truck to have welded in there.
The replacement is on jack stands with por15 coating it. The replacement doesn't look too difficult. We will see. I'm in too deep to quit now.

 

Well- the old section is off. It was junk. The main frame where it overlaps is rough on both sides. Using pieces from the donor frame to reinforce this area before bolting on the new rear frame. Not too bad of a job so far. I recommend those of you with good frames to get some paint on there.