Scruffy49

98 and up Rangers and Explorers have the better brakes. I have 114" wb 92 and 108" wb 94 Rangers, 2.3l/5spd and the rear brakes are a farce. Tiny drums, tiny shoes, very weak springs and wheel cyclinders. Fragile parking brake mechanisms. Rear end ratios unknown. V6 trucks had bigger drums and better gear ratios.

Door creases on my 49 don't go all the way back. Doors have never been off the truck.

1954 and 1st series 55. The front door edge is not straight 2nd series 55 to 60.

Any good trailer shop will have them. Just carry your hub/drum in with you. I even found aluminum brake cylinders at the trailer shop that would work on my 49. Haven't got them yet, but they had them.

Mine was like Dodgeb4ya's light but no letters. Both sides. Both buckets crumbled to dust when I took them off the truck years ago to strip and refinish them. Truck was stone stock with the optional second tail light and bracket (sheetmetal, NOT the cast ones). I may still have one of the lenses, traded the other one for a spare parts starter. I'll probably run cateye lights on the back to be different.

I wouldn't chop a Pilot House, they are already lower than same year Ford or General Mistake Company. By roughly 4". Look at the pics of your trucks thread on the Pilot House forum. 2 toning isn't all that rare.

Yeah, that's the basic idea for mine too, but with a nice 2 tone paint job. Something to advertise with at the farmer's market. Maybe haul my color matched motorcycle around once in awhile, bad back, sometimes I can't ride for months. Mine is a VERY long term project truck. Hasn't been licensed since 1974.

Well that sucks. I'm only 38 and walk with a cane quite often. I cut down a 7/8" ball headed oak curtain rod and added a chair leg cover to the end. It will knock out a pit bull with a fast enough swing (know for a fact, friend's dog went after me). Had to get a steel plate in my shoulder after a motorcycle wreck in 08. Broke the joint ball into 4 pieces and snapped it off my upper arm bone. Mobility is 85% and still improving. Dad has had a coupe knee replacements, on the same knee and needs it replaced again. Don't let the V.A. do it. Brother in law had a double hip replacement. 100% mobility within a month.

P15 skirts would match my engine, but not my fenders. I was just razzing you a bit anyway, I would love to have mine back to that condition. My truck was grandp'a cow and firewood hauler, then spent 20 years as a potato storage bin in the barn. Then another 17 years as yard art.

Well, I see a 76 ball, curb feeler, visor and spotlight. Where are the fender skirts? Looks good to me. 3 years is nothing, mine's sat since 94. Outside. In the Seattle area. Now I'm in the Memphis area. At least you still have color on yours.

You can get suitable replacement shafts from Mack (the truck maker). R series tractors used the same shank size. 1940s Fords also used square shanks. Good source for window and door handles too.

Poisonous here are rattlers, mocassins, copperheads (all pit vipers) and coral snakes. And black widow and brown recluse spiders. I've been bitten in the same year by a western diamond back rattler and a black widow. Back in 92, went to college in eastern Washington AND worked on a horse farm/stable. Lots of predators getting the mice in the barns. Like I said in an earlier post, we had a "pet" 6 foot copperhead here. Something is killing off the local snakes and snapping turtles though. Pond is full of harmless mud turtles (never had those before) and the manor house has mice. Must be a reptile virus making the rounds. I worry more about the fire ants than I do the snakes. Damn things keep building nests in the stock racks on one of my trucks. And in the tractor seats.

Nice project truck. Doors don't look too bad. Hood hinge is an easy fix if you don't need it to be stone stock concours perfect. Piano hinge from Home Depot, where they keep the angle iron and such. Just short tack it on with a mig. You can get up to 4' long pieces. My 49 1/2 ton stock had 16s with 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern. Tubeless replacement is a 215/85-16. Currently has 1978 Ramcharger wheels, perfect offset and backspacing. Will be running 1978/9 L'il Red Express slot wheels currently on my 69 Dodge 1/2 ton. Any STEEL Ford car, mid-large Dodge car or truck from the 70s is a viable donor wheel. If you want aluminum or magnesium rims you need to convert to modern wheel studs, stock are too short with the wrong seat taper. Locator pin is no problem either way, pop the drum off, lay it open side down on a flat surface, smack pin with hammer. They pop out pretty easily. For what it is worth, Ranger spare wheels are drilled for the pin...

Saw a really cute yellow belly water snake at the pond yesterday. V8s and riding tractor engines bring them to the shore. The mocassins get shot, the others don't. Only reason I shoot the mocassins is my father in law is 85 and still working his pecan orchards. And the old guy from down the road who comes fishing is 83. He caught a nice pound to pound and a half crappie out there today. Kansas is above the line, but the snakes are moving west and north with the changing climate. When you start seeing armadillos, you'll know you've had mocassins for awhile.

When I rebuilt one of mine I found a bronze bushing the right size at Lowes or Home Depot. Bench test it put out current like it was brand new. I filled the factory bushing recess 1/2 full of grease and tapped in a bolt that would just fit. Bolt pushed on grease, grease pushed on old bushing, bushing fell out. That gen came off a Ford Falcon Ranchero, not sure if it would work on our gens.

I've got one of those trailers parked on the edge of one of my fields. Come get it, you can have it. Has been parked since the second World War, was a clandestine card room. Local moonshiner ran the games. I think it is a 1938. That way you can have a pair of tractor trailers from the era. Beautiful find. Pomeroy huh, I've been all over that area, can't believe I didn't see it...

Mine has an AC Delco glass filter on it. Takes a Fram paper cartridge. Tractor Supply has the right ones for Delco and Carter filter bowls. I think the Delco element is $6, Carter about $10. My 1020 John Deere takes the Carter type. If you don't have the filter at all, you can get one brand new at Tractor Supply, Chevs of the 40s, or Ford dealerships in farm areas (if they have a savvy parts guy). They all function the same.

I've seen them curled up in old tractor tires. And in the currently decrepit swimming pool. Got a turtle in the pool the size of a 5 gallon bucket lid. You should see the snakes in north Memphis right now, the flood brought them out by the thousands. Lots of harmless brown water snakes, lots of mocassins. Any standing water below or near the Mason Dixon line will draw mocassins if they are in the area. And those no good, fish killing, bait stealing, ugly as sin snapping turtles. Once they get bigger than a bucket lid the .22 doesn't cut it.

That's about the same shape my 49 3 window is in. Nice clean rear bumper on your spare chassis, mine has a wrap-around. Don't let anyone park in front of your truck, a good bump will loosen the center bumper guard. Nice truck, you should definitely see about getting the other cab. Build yourself a stocker and a hot rod.

Not sure about the bucket seats, but the paint is alright. But then again, my Pilot House is getting two toned so I may be a bit biased.

The only snakes I shoot on purpose are water mocassins. Because they are unpredictably aggressive. Same with the snapping turtles. When we lived on this same property 10 years ago we had a "pet" snake in the greenhouse. "Sneaky" lived between the layers of the pallet floor. Never a mouse in the big house (father in law's 1840 plantation manor house). Sneaky was about the most laid back snake you could hope to run across, he'd completely ignore you, even if you stepped right next to his head. Good thing too, one bite would have killed a full grown adult. Sneaky was a 6 foot long copperhead (pit viper, aka, rattlesnake with no buttons). I kind of like having the snakes around. Keep the rodent and insect population in check. It's hard to keep up the mowing on 50 something acres of orchards, outbuildings, gardens and mixed hardwoods.

In 1992 I bought a 54 Buick woodie (off a pond bank) for the princely sum of $50. Bought their neighbor lady's 33 Willys coupe (parked since 1943) for another $100. Drug it out of a chicken coop. Can go pick up a 37 International drag line equipped 2 ton anytime I want, for free. Bought 3 49 Hudsons, including a former Daytona beach racer, for under a grand. My 69 D-100 V8/auto was under a grand. Just have to know where to look, not be afraid to get dirty, and be honest with them. That Plymouth is nice, too nice. Probably going back into a museum for that kind of money. I've never understood that.

Looks like a corn snake to me. Or rat snake. Or gopher snake. Different names for the same snake. Non-venomous. BUT I am NOT an expert. Since you already croaked it, open its mouth and look at the upper fangs (even safe snakes have them). Short and U shaped = non-venomous. Long and triangular = good call on shooting it. If the mouth is white, double good call, but unless you live near water you shouldn't have any cottonmouths (water mocassins). I shoot 2 or 3 mocassins every time I wander down to my pond. Hollow point .22 out of an old Marlin Glenfield model 20 squirrel rifle. Got a 6+ footer last week, it was 3/4 of the way across the pond, swimming. 2 acre pond, got him on the 3rd shot.

48-50 are top hinged. Lift front of seat base, pull forward, detach seat back hooks from seat base loops. Pretty common to have "frozen" pivot rods. Later series seats fit the framework as well, so your base cushion may not have the loops.

Five inch difference in spring outside to spring outside, and that was with the 94 daily driver. Ranger seat is 9" narrower. Measuring off putting the core support in the same area, it's only off by a couple inches. In my favor, parts junker 92 is a 4 cylinder. Ranger frame looks like a weak sister toy though compared to the 49 frame (which itself looks like a toy compared to my 69's frame). I honestly would prefer to keep it a flattie. I like the exhaust note. If I can make the Ranger steering work in the 49, I can trade the rest of the Ford off for other stuff. If I can adapt the trans and rear axle as well, so much the better. Don't need IFS anyway.