The Ranger Frame Buggy
We recently picked up a Ranger frame that even though it was a single cab, turned out to be a long wheelbase frame. In order to use this frame later on with the Mustang for the upcoming Truckstang 3, I will have to shorten the frame to make it match the Mustang wheelbase. Luckily the frame is made up of two sections that are riveted together at the front spring shackles. Once the rivets for the shackles on the sides and the extra rivets at the top and bottom were ground away, I was able to separate both the spring shackles and the frame rails. I was able to knock the rear section of frame into the front section up to a certain point but the ends of the frame rails on the front section were angled as such that the rails could only come together so far. As a result I will either have to separate the two frame sections and trim the ends enough to allow the two sections to come back together closer, or remount the front spring shackles farther forward, causing the rear shackles, which pivot to draw the rear end forward an inch or two to achieve the desired wheelbase.
The rivets holding the front spring shackles also holds the two frame sections together. Two more rivets hold the frames together at the top and bottom, and those had to be ground just as well. Most of the rivets were tapped out of their holes with the remaining ground flush and drilled out to allow for tapping out.
To help in determining when the desired wheelbase is, the old style 5 spd transmission we sourced is staged on the crossmember with the mount resting in its holes. The short driveshaft I grabbed from the junkyard is inserted into the tail shaft of the transmission and as the frame is brought together I can determine if we reached the desired wheelbase when the rear of the driveshaft is able to reach the rear end yoke while still having some in/out play in the front yoke.
The front section of the frame has a taper that allows for the overall line of the frame to be straight front to back . After tapping the rear section into the front section, I can only get the rear section as close as we see here due to the angles of the rear section of the frame rails keeping the ends of the front section from going farther into the rear section.