I thought I'd start a thread on the work I'm doing to my Ranger. Since this truck is an ongoing work in progress I felt this would be a good way to chronicle my progress.
I also felt that for those of you that want to follow my progress, it would be easier if all the photos were in one thread. Instead of scattered throughout the forum as they now are.
My truck is a 2002 Ranger XLT, 3.0L, automatic, extended cab, 4 door. The engine has been "warmed up" a bit with a K&N cold air intake, Granatelli Mass Flow Sensor,
SuperChip programmer set for 87 octane mileage. I can also program for 91 & 93 octane performance when I'm in the mood to play.
Magnaflow cat back exhaust system with single 2.25" in/dual 2.0" out the rear of the truck into 4 Gibson rectangular chrome tips .

My ranger about a week after I purchased it in 2002.
I had already installed the CB you see in the photo below. -----------------------------------------------My first upgrade. An A.R.E. hard tonneau cover.



My first audio upgrade. A Kenwood MPV 619 H/U. (this will be replaced this fall by a Pioneer AVIC-N3
In-dash DVD receiver with navigation and 6.5" video screen.) I'm mainly after the navigation part. My sense of direction sucks.
This was followed about a year later with a 10" JL sub, MTX amp and a Kenwood 6 CD changer you see on the right.



About 2 years ago I lowered the truck 2"Front/3"Rear. ---------------------------------------------------- Then I added 18" Baccarat wheels and 235/50 GoodYear Eagles'.


New front end. Cowl induction hood, bumper cover with fog lights,
upper and lower Speed grills. ----------------------------------------------------------- Roll pan, tailgate cover with handle removed, spoiler.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note 3rd brake light removed from roof of cab and placed in spoiler.

awesome looking ranger

__________________
"Foolish man give wife grand piano,
Wise man give wife upright organ."

Work begins on the interior of my truck. What you see below left is almost $1,000 worth -------------------------- Below is the drivers door, with the panel removed.
of sound deadening, 125 sq.ft. of SecondSkin's "Damplifier Pro," 5 gals of "Firewall" -------------------------------- The Pioneer 3-way speaker on the right has been
used for both heat and noise reduction. I'll use it inside the cab. Plus 5 gals of "Spectrum" ------------------------- replaced by an Infinity 6810cs component set.
a noise and vibration coating I'll use outside the cab as an undercoating. The black stuff
on top of the Damp Pro is called "Overkill-Pro" According to SecondSkin "This vinyl based
filter not only dissipates airborne sound waves that are able to penetrate the layers below
it, but because of the rubber content it enhances vibration damping results." I have about
60 sq. ft. of it and I'll use it to cover the back wall, floor, firewall and wheelwells of the cab.



Here are the Infinity Reference 10" sub and amp, I have 2 of each, that will replace the current set up soon. My neighbor is building a box to house them now.


This is a close up of the openings in the drivers door with the speaker removed. The heavy tube running through the middle is a reinforcement bar. To protect the passengers in a side impact crash.
The bar is exactly where I needed to glue the below speaker pad. So I glued some 1.5" thick styrofoam above and below the bar so the pad could lay flat.



On the left is the styrofoam covered with "Damplifier", as you can see there's just a slight hump around the bar. On the right is the speaker pad installed.
The Speaker Pads get applied to the inner skin of the car door to absorb and redirect the rear wave away from the speaker.


The finished door with tweeter flush mounted. Sounds good, but it's a bit underpowered.
The current amp only puts out 60w RMS the speaker specs call for 90w.
The new amp pictured above has 111w.

Thanks Chenny. In case I forget, Happy 35th Birthday next week. How's it feel to be almost middle aged? :eek:
My room mate and I will be in your part of the world in August.
We'll be in Knoxville for the "World of Outlaws" sprint car championship's.

Yeah knoxville is only about an hour away from me, you could come down to my clubs car show in Fairfield on the square September 16 would be nice to meet someone from the site face to face. As for the almost middle aged well I have two kids that put me over the hill long ago but I wouldnt trade it for anything. May have to do a photoshop pic of your truck.

__________________
"Foolish man give wife grand piano,
Wise man give wife upright organ."

To bring you all up to date. These are photos I took yesterday. So from now on the photos will come more slowly.

On the left is the stripped cab. On the right is the current sound deadening, "Dynamat." I'm going to strip it all out as I did with the doors and roof. While it helped some,
the cab was still noisier that I wanted. With a heat gun it comes out rather easily. The real problem is getting the glue residue left behind off. That part is a ROYAL P.I.T.A.
I figure the "Dynamat" removal and the subsequent residue cleanup should take me 1-2 weeks. Depending on how I feel and how much time I can put into the job each day.




On the left is the "Damplifier Pro" installed on the ceiling. On the right is the spray on "Firewall" (white area) covered by something SecondSkin calls "Luxury Liner."
SS claims it "is a highly effective barrier and absorber composite mat consisting of a flexible vinyl barrier and acoustical grade open cell foam." With just the doors and roof done,
there was a noticeable drop in noise level. Not as much as I had hoped for but still very noticeable. The doors and roof only account for 40% of the cab surface. So I'm hoping the work
I'm about to do will get me to where I want to be noise level wise. I decided to go with "Overkill-Pro" on the floor because it's less expensive. Also according to SS it "help eliminate road noise,
engine noise, exhaust and wind noises as well as distortion causing reflections." I'll also be putting 5-6 coats of "Firewall" on the floor, back wall, inside firewall and wheel wells. To help control heat.
About 2-3 times as much as I did in the doors and roof. I'm hoping this will help with the engine and exhaust system heat, as well as the usual summer time heat we have around here from June to Sept.
I'll also be putting on 5-6 coats of "Spectrum Spray." Something I didn't use at all on the doors and roof. I figure installing the sound deadening will take me another 10 days to 2 weeks after I finish
removing the "dynamat" and cleaning up the mess.




The humble beginnings of my speaker box. On the left my room mate is laying out the 4' X 8' sheet of MDF he's using to build the box. On the right are some of the cut pieces.
When completed the box will be 38.5" wide X 17.5" high X 20" deep. It will house the 2 new 10" Infinity subs, 2 Infinity amps, plus a 12 disc Pioneer CD changer.




On the left I'm trial fitting the Explorer center console. On the right, the Explorer heated, power, bucket being trial fitted. I also have an Explorer overhead console
that goes over the rearview mirror. I had read many times that the Explorer buckets were a drop-in conversion for a Ranger. I made the mistake of thinking
2002 seats would match my Ranger color wise and be a drop in. Mistake, BIG mistake. I learned to late that while Explorers were built on Ranger platforms originally.
That all changed in 2002. So the seats from 2002 and later Explorers no longer "drop in" to a Ranger. They can be made to work, but it's a great deal more work.
So if you're thinking about this swap, BEWARE.

Gee Chenney, I'll be sorry to miss that show. We went to one in Pella last summer and it was great fun. Met some really nice people and saw some really nice rides.
By Sept 16 we'll be in Florida however. We have to go there to take care of some annual legal stuff for my room mates aunt. She's in a nursing home there.
Then we have to be home by the 1st week in Oct. We'll be in Knoxville for about 2 weeks or so. Maybe we can get together for a cup of coffee or something.


I know the feeling well. I have a boy and a girl myself. My girl will be 40 next month, and my boy will be 37 in Sept. I also have 6 grand children.
Unlike their parents, they're what keeps me young. One of them is the reason I'm building the Ranger. It's going to be his 16th birthday present.
However, I get to drive it until then. He turned 1 last month.

If you do could you please two-tone it for me. I'm trying to make up my mind and it would help if I cold have some idea of what it would look like.
I'd like it White on top, and Mocha (not to dark brown) on the bottom. Maybe Mocha on the roof, white in the middle and Mocha again on the bottom.

Thanks

Wow great project. I can't wait to see the finished project! Love the pics! :thumbsup:

An awesome Ranger! It's great to see all the steps involved!

__________________
...... BRIAN ......

Nice work M. Keep those pics coming! Great to watch this project unfold! :thumbsup:

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Hope all you guys are patient. I have almost 15 years till I have to deliver it. So it's going to be a while before it's finished.

Come on man. Keep it under 10

Ok Badass. For you I'll try to keep it under 10. But I want you to know I wouldn't do this for just anyone.

Well my luck is running true to form. If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. After beating, banging, drilling, grinding and sawing on the passenger seat
for almost a week I finally got the seat to fit. Then I started working on the drivers seat. Instead of 2 connections with 7 wires, I found 3 connectors with over 20 wires.
After finding the correct wires I applied power to the seat and tested it for the first time since buying them. NOTHING happened. :eek:
After checking further I noticed the inside track was bent. This truck must have been in one heck of an accident. It was bad enough to cause to entire mechanism to jam.
So even if I could straighten the bracket out enough to mount it in my truck, I doubt seriously if it will ever operate properly again. That is go up/down-back/forth, etc.
So I just learned another very expensive lesson. When buying from a junk yard check that EVERYTHING works before you hand over your money.
The yard told me if I had a problem I could bring it back within 30 days. I've had the seats since last fall. So I'm stuck with them and I'm back to square 1.
It took me FOREVER to find the seats I have. Which are now useless. I checked more than 2 dozen junk yards on the net as far away as eastern New Mexico. No luck.
So looks like I'll have to go with custom made seats at 2-3 times the cost. I sure hope my grand son appreciates this. At this rate he's going to inherit a $250,000 truck.

Well got out the remainder of the old "Dynamat" today. The black stuff in the photo below. Tomorrow I'll start on the original factory sound deadener.
The honeycomb looking stuff at the bottom of the photo. It's messy but not really difficult to remove. It consists of an 1/8" thick tar paper like material.
From the looks and feel of the stuff I removed from the roof and doors the product is primarily made of asphalt. That's because it's cheap to produce.
I've found if I soak it in turpentine for about a minute or so it devolves into a sticky goo. I then heat it a bit with a heat gun. Then scrap it off with a putty knife.
This method will remove about 90% of the stuff. After that it's old rags soaked in turpentine and lots and lots of elbow grease.
This part should take me about 5 to 7 days, working 3 to 4 hrs a day.

I also ordered new seats today. I decided to go a little crazy and I ordered custom leather, buckets. The seats will have fully adjustable electric lumbar supports,
and a massage system. According to the literature it has eight transducers, to provide deep penetrating massage action to the, upper back, lower back, hips and thighs.
You can choose relaxing vibrations from all transducers or select any single point. It also has infinite vibration intensities. If it's only hals as good as it sounds,
I may have to schedule a round trip to Florida or something to check it out. They only have to come from Los Angeles, so they should only take a few days to get here.

Got about 25% of the Ford factory sound deadener out today. Worked on the truck for about 3 hrs or so. In the photo below on the left in the gray area is
what was left of the factory sound deadener after I used the heat gun and putty knife on it. The white area is the glue residue from the "Dynamat."
On the right is what it will look like after I clean off the remaining factory deadener, gray area and glue residue, white area.
It's slow tedious work, but I feel it must be done. I've had several guys on another forum tell me it was a wasted effort and to just go ahead
and apply the new sound deadener over the stuff on the left. I feel if I've come this far, I might as well spend the extra time and effort
to make sure the jobs done right. After all I'm planing to keep this truck in the family for quite a few years. Those other guys were
probably only going to keep their rides for 4-5-6 years. So if the stuff comes loose and falls off after that it's not their problem.

Oh well. Different strokes for different folks.

Wow this thing is probably going to be the quietest Ranger on the road when you are done!

__________________

Well fan. My goal is to be able to get on the interstate, set the cruise control on 70-75 mph and if the radio's not on, all I'll hear is my heart beating.

You haven't lived until you've listened to the "William Tell Overture" coming through your speakers at 100 MPH. :eek:

Progress Report:
Well finally got the last of the residue off today. Most of it anyway. Probably about 98% clean. Still a few nooks & crannies that have some glue residue remaining.
Don't believe that'll create any problem. Took me 4 days working about 4-5 hr per day to get the factory insulation out.
Took me almost a week to remove the glue residue. That's because we hit triple digit temps about a week ago. It's been 108-112 every day.
So I could only work until about 10-11 a.m. By then the heat and the smell of the turpentine, started getting to me so I'd call it a day after working only 2 hrs or so.
There was very little wind to blow away the fumes and after only an hr or so I'd start getting a headache from the fumes. So I'd quit.

Below left is the stripped cab with the drivers side (upper part of photo) still covered with "Dynamat." Passenger side (lower half of photo) still has factory insulation in place.
Right photo is with all of the "Dynamat" removed and factory insulation removed from passenger side.







Below left is the drivers side after clean up. If you look closely, you can see some residue here and there. Not enough to cause any problems. (I hope)
On the right is the back half of the cab. This is where the speaker box will go when complete.




Tomorrow I'll start installing the first of 2 layers of "Damplifier Pro" The foil and rubber insulator similar to "Dynamat extreme."
When that's finished I'll spray on 4-5 coats of "Firewall" a heat and noise insulation.
The final layer will be a 3/8" thick closed cell vinyl/rubber foam called "Overkill."
If the heat doesn't let up I figure this phase will take me 2 or 3 to possibly 4 weeks. We'll see.

Couple of shots of the first layer of sound deadener on the back wall of my truck. With luck I'll get the floor done tomorrow.
It's only suppose to get to 88 so I should be able to work longer. We hit 104 at noon today so I called it quits.