ford ranger question

[Stevie-D]

ive got a 91 ranger that was given to me because the body is in pretty bad shape and the oil pump needs to be replaced. so im going to use it as a camping\work truck for around the house. anyway, i want to take the bed off of it. there are 4 bolts holding it on-1 at each corner. does anyone know if these 4 bolts are all that hold the bed on? is it welded to the frame at all? it seems to me that there would be something like 6 or usually 8 bolts that hold it on.

[beak7707]

The bolts are all that hold the bed on. The torques heads usually strip out, so you may have to weld a nut to them and back them off with a wrench.

[Stevie-D]

well thats a relief. its a lot easier to do body work/ paint the box when its removed from the truck. im still deciding it the bed is worth fixing. the right fender is rusted to chit and so is part of the bed rail.

[beak7707]

I have a 86 ranger long bed, that i started to fix. The longer i worked on the bed the more rusted and rotted spots i found. The older rangers didn't have very good beds on them. If you can find a cheap bed, I'd go that route. But I'm not that great of a body man either, thats just what I ended up doing.

[Stevie-D]

you're right about ranger's having crappy boxes on them. the cab and fenders are in great shape, but the box is kinda rusty. i plan on replacing just the part of the fender that is rusted away. instead of buying a replacement fender i am going to use an old road sign (sheet metal:devil: ). im simply going to heat it up a bit then bang it into shape with a BFH, rivit it on, then slap some bondo on to make it look like nothin ever happened. as for the rest of the rust im just going to grind it away and fill the sheet metal in with bondo. ive been working at a body shop for bout 7 months, so ive got basic skills at working with rust. it will most likely rust again, but i dont really care. im going to paint the body camo, so the body doesnt have to be perfect.

[beak7707]

sounds like a plan.