5 vehicles in less than a year- Off road bike hauler!!!

[outskirtscustoms]

Well guys I had to do it, I said goodbye to my sticker bombed '92 Mercury Cougar... (Got an offer I couldn't refuse)


So I was on the hunt for a different car with 8 bills in my pocket and stumbled upon this 1994 Buick Le sabre on Craigslist. So me and my nephew went to look at it. Nice interior, runs great, and rides smooth. Few missing trim pieces inside and a sagging headliner allowed me to haggle and bought it for 6 bills and drove it home.

Clean!

Comfortable

90's luxury at it's finest

Trunk is bigger than a new york city apartment!


Then my nephew and his fiance asked if I'd trade my new 1994 Buick for her pickup truck. (They have a new baby and wanted a 4 door car) so I got a 1992 Ford Ranger now. Perfect bike hauler! And I got to help my nephew in the process. It's a good day.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Nice work! That Ranger will be great for hauling bikes!

Luke.

 

[partsguy]

Burn and turn!

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Nice work! That Ranger will be great for hauling bikes!

Luke.

And being an extended cab I bet I can fit an extra 3 bikes behind the seat. Or a toolbox so I can disassemble on the spot. It has a few cosmetic flaws outside like the hood and grill but its 99% rust free and runs great. Not to mention the little 3.0 v6 can't drink that much gas.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Is the tray mounted a bit crooked or is it just the way it is parked in that first photo?

Luke.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Is the tray mounted a bit crooked or is it just the way it is parked in that first photo?

Luke.

It's just missing a body mount bushing for the bed on that side. I'm not too concerned about it.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Finally decided on a color scheme for my '92 Ranger. I'm going to save up and have it done by a local shop. I'm going to be using colors taken right from the new 2014 Ford color pallet. Panther Black and Lunar Sky with a Ruby Red pinstripe to separate it and complement the burgundy interior. I think it will look classy for a truck and will go nicely with the interior. Then I'm going to lower it a bit. Probably drop it 3 inch in the front and 3-4 inch in the back. Not super low just drop it a bit and get the center of gravity lower so it handles better.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Well just an update on the truck, still have it...lol. Still running good but the plan has changed slightly after driving it a bit, it's growing on me in its stock form and Indiana has horrible pot holes so forget lowering it. I found out a jeep wrangler \ Cherokee has the same bolt pattern so I'm going to find a set of nice 15" 5 point steelies from one of those to replace the ugly aluminum wheels on it now and I'll probably keep stock ride height. Then build a mini camper in the back under the topper... Mainly just a bed for camping trips with a small air mattress I have laying around maybe line the bed in indoor \ outdoor carpet. Maybe a roof rack on the topper. Wanting to find a fiberglass topper though. Just looks better. Still going to go for the same paint scheme of black red and silver. Also going to install some goodies I've got for it now that the weather is clearing up.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Sadly... Embarrassingly... There has not been a single bike in the ranger yet. That will change this summer.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Here's one I found with the type of Jeep rims I want and a topper similar to what I want.

And this is what I'm shooting for

And for the bed something like this:


And a roof rack on the topper like this.

Maybe add some lights too.

Kinda an outdoors-man vibe to it.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Here's some of the goodies I've got going into the truck:

Dual head unit with AM/FM, CD, MP3, WMA, USB,

This cool little do-hickey mounts to that tab on the CD player with a ball and socket mount so it is fully adjustable and holds your cell phone so you can access all your music from your touch screen phone easily. High tech baby!

And for those camping trips... DVD

Excuse the junk in the bed but here's a basic idea

With a small air mattress...

For now I'm stickering up the back window for that Farm truck look. When I get a different topper I'm going to just tint the windows. You can also see the start to my airbrushed skull tailgate mural.
Also till I paint my truck it is affectionately called "White Trash" as you can see below the Ruff cycles stickers.

And since I have never shown the inside of my truck here's a few shots

Yes I have a Redneck sticker on my windshield... That's not on the seats.

Dash is perfect the stock radio is on the floor, putting my CD player in soon.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

This should be great! I have had a couple of trucks with the camper on the back, best one was steel frame with roll up vinyl sections, you could open or close depending on the weather and hang mosquito nets if needed...

Luke.

 

[kingfish254]

Hey buddy! Where ya been? Picked up anything new in you hauler?

 

[user 15387]

I dated a girl whose brother had one of those Buicks. It was like riding around on a living room couch on that front bench seat. One of the most comfortable cars I've ever ridden in.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I've been around, trolling the forum from time to time. I traded off my 92 ranger extended cab and got an 84 ranger 4x4 regular cab. Manual transmission, carburetor, lifted on 31 inch super swappers, and so retro cool. I love it. I've been slowly getting it sorted out and customized the way I want it. It runs great I just have to get a battery. So far I've added fog lights, painted the bumpers and grille black, painted the entire truck a desert tan color using rustolium bed armor (kinda a military/tactical look to it), refurbished the original center caps for the rims, did a custom confederate flag headliner, rebuilt the carb, replaced the sun baked taillights, and gave it a good cleaning inside and out. I'll post some pics in the morning if I remember.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

As far as bikes go I've done a few bike flips but nothing worthy of mention. Shockingly I am down to 3 bikes in the yard, my nephew's next bmx bike, my girlfriend's 68 schwinn and my 57 schwinn rat rod that is finally getting some patina going. So I only have one bike... weird I know. Still got some part bins tucked away in the back but no plans to join the build off this year.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I've been around, trolling the forum from time to time. I traded off my 92 ranger extended cab and got an 84 ranger 4x4 regular cab. Manual transmission, carburetor, lifted on 31 inch super swappers, and so retro cool. I love it. I've been slowly getting it sorted out and customized the way I want it. It runs great I just have to get a battery. So far I've added fog lights, painted the bumpers and grille black, painted the entire truck a desert tan color using rustolium bed armor (kinda a military/tactical look to it), refurbished the original center caps for the rims, did a custom confederate flag headliner, rebuilt the carb, replaced the sun baked taillights, and gave it a good cleaning inside and out. I'll post some pics in the morning if I remember.

Need pics!

Luke.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I remember the forum rules... pics or it didn't happen. So here's some pics. I'll kinda go in order from when I first got it to now.

But first I'll give the specs of the truck:
1984 Ford Ranger regular cab 4x4
2.8L V6
4 speed with OD manual
2 inch lift with 31 inch super swampers
135K miles
select hubs
new floor pans done by previous owner
and entirely painted in bed liner by me




You ready....?






Prepare for the ugliness






really ready?




OK











I also got to keep my topper from my old truck, it doesn't quite fit but it keeps rain out of the bed for the most part and I can probably trade it off or sell it to offset the cost of a different one.



I know the brownish orange "deep fried turd" color is ugly as sin isn't it? So I went for something meaner. I thought what is meaner than a military truck?



So at first I was thinking of tan paint but I was at autozone a few weeks earlier trying to fix my nephew's leaky windshield on his S-10 and we happened across the bed liner in a can section. They had 2 colors black and tan. We bought 2 cans of the black bed liner and did his roof and the windshield seem and it fixed the leak great and was easy to apply. But I didn't want black for my truck so I got the tan and it turned out great! used about 6 cans. I'm going to get some black bed liner for the bed, floors inside, and I'll probably undercoat it in black too to keep any rust at bay and keep it all sealed from the weather.









And my new headliner (sorry to all who get offended by the flag even though technically it's not, the center is a david mann image)



This is the same image that is in the center

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I dated a girl whose brother had one of those Buicks. It was like riding around on a living room couch on that front bench seat. One of the most comfortable cars I've ever ridden in.

It was comfortable, I only owned it for half an hour before trading it for the truck. Unfortunately my nephew's girlfriend was going a bit too fast for a dip and scraped the oil pan on a country road and it oil starved and locked the motor up.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I also kept this out of my old truck to go in the new one