Truckstang 3
With the completion of Truckstang 2, I was free to finally be able to go from the planning stages on the upcoming project that will be Truckstang 3. This build will be built off of the old 69 Mustang that we played with for some time over the last 10 years or so. The car starts off with a 200 small block 6 cylinder engine coupled to a T5 5 spd manual transmission. Whie this car saw a lot of road time, it has sat for the last 5 years give or take.
The plan here is to mate the 69 body onto an old generation Ranger chassis. Unlike Truckstang 1, instead of just using a raw frame, I will be using a truck chassis with a chopped down cab and bed, leaving just the floors of both body members. The belly of the 69 will be chopped out and the body grafted to the Ranger floor/chassis. This will provide a more solid mounting, utilizing the stock body mounts that the Ranger cab and bed used, compared to the more improvised mountings of the Truckstang 1 body. Also the choice of powerplants for this build will be the same as a stock Ranger - a 2.3L 4 cyl coupled to a 5 spd manual transmission. This will provide a simple powerplant that fits like a glove in the chassis and, just like the 6 cyl, provides an economic vehicle that still has flair as well as utility.
Of course the 4 cyl powerplant will not be the end all to this build. Because the 4 cyl engine is an OMC boat engine, its actually the heavy duty version, using a D-port head, same as the turbo 2.3L. Obviously this means that there will be a turbo or supercharger in the future for Truckstang 3. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves here, we have to actually build the damn thing. In order to build the damn thing I have to tear down the old car until all that's left is a stripped down shell.
The first thing that had to be done to the donor car was strip the thing down to just the unibody. This involved pulling all detachable panels, pulling the powerplant and gutting the interior, leaving just the rolling chassis. As we did with the previous Truckstangs, the plan here is to slowly remove the running gear at the front and back, supporting the unibody with blocks, then using the engine crane to lift the front of the body up to place a 2x8 board supported on a couple plastic drums, then repeating the same for the rear.
With the unibody supported on the drums and boards, the next order of business is gutting the belly of this beast. This involved cutting out the floors from the cab area, along with the trunk area, which was actually a patchwork of scrap metal to begin with. From there the subframes and torque boxes had to be cut out, using a great number of cutting discs and saw blades. Once enough metal was cut out from the rear and the cab area, I moved on to the firewall, cutting out the lower third of the Mustang's old firewall, up to just below where the steering column passes through the firewall. I also chopped out the front subframes and a portion of the shock towers, leaving just the side panels of the engine bay and the remnants of the shock towers. This caused some weakness with the front third as the side panels were barely hanging on to begin with and the core support just added more weight. With the Mustang body prepped, the Ranger rolling chassis was rolled in place under the elevated body. More metal was cut from the Ranger to facilitate the placement of the Mustang body. The Mustang body was attached at three critical points. First are the two Ranger core support stubs at the front, which were welded to the Mustang core support restoring the overall rigidity of the engine bay side panels. The second is the cab area itself, where the Ranger cab floor was welded to the inner rocker panels of the Mustang body. The third is the very rear of the chassis, along the taillight panel where angle iron was used to attach the rear of the Mustang body to the rear tip of the Ranger bed. With the two bodies united, I can proceed with further closing everything up all around the body.
I closed up plenty of gaps on the body to complete the overall car as I intended it to be. I closed in the openings between the Mustang and Ranger firewalls, welding up a small framework to support the sheet metal panels, which will hopefully help stiffen the overall firewall so the sheet metal isn't vibrating excessively. I welded some iron stock between the rear of the cab floor and the front of the pickup bed, effectively making these two members one, further stiffening the Ranger base and by extension, the Mustang body. I installed all the removable panels that were part of the old car; doors, fenders, hood, bumper and valance panel and headlight bucket sections. I also went past the point of no return when I cut out the rear of the body as part of the ute conversion. From here I had to weld up another framework with angle iron in the pickup bed area, creating side walls along both sides of the bed and even creating boxed corners at the rear of the cab. This resulted in a couple of dead spaces on the sides just under the side windows. These areas will possibly be used as storage areas for parts or other supplies while the open areas at the top may later on be fabricated into speaker holders, placing the speakers at head level just behind the occupants. To top things off I took the trunk lid and cut off the last few inches and welded it in place at the rear, and cut a sheet metal panel to fit over the rear of the bed, evenly covering the area from the trunk lid piece down to the bed and covering the side walls of the pickup bed. All of this allows the bed area to have clean lines while also maintaining the Mustang rear.
With the entirety of the Truckstang body completed, our next move is getting the interior assembled. Since we no longer have the rear seats or anything associated with the rear, the interior was nothing more than getting the dash frame and pad installed, along with the carpet, which was actually cut to fit the smaller cab floor, then topping that off with the center console, cut up to fit around the differing contours of the Ranger cab floor. For those who might cringe at cutting up seemingly valuable parts, fear not, none of this stuff is in good shape by any stretch. I had to be careful cutting up the center console as it was already broken and cracked in multiple places and was at risk of further damage as I trimmed material to fit the assembly. As for the seats, that was another shitshow by itself. Because the Ranger cab floor has a hump at the rear where the last few inches of the floor raises up by about 4 inches relative to the rest of the floor. Because of this, the existing seats had to be mounted on this elevated section of the cab floor, with tube metal legs bolted to the front of the seat frames to support the front of both seats. While this is all fine and dandy, what it does is raise the seats high enough that they have to be reclined for anyone other than a midget to sit in them. Otherwise, our heads are going to hit the roof of the car and the driver's legs are going to be almost pinched between the seat and the steering wheel.
After the fun with adapting the interior to fit to the Ranger floor the next move is the powertrain. Since the theme here with this build is to make this car a Ranger underneath, it's only fitting to give it a Ranger powerplant. We have an OMC 2.3L boat engine, which is basically a standard Lima 2.3 car engine with parts that are exclusive to marine powerplants. The transmission is a standard 5spd manual that came standard in Rangers. Because of the choice of powerplant, installation is quick and easy. The motor and transmission mounts are standard, the exhaust system bolts right up, and even the driveshaft bolts right up. As for the exhaust, one cool feature is the fact that the exhaust manifold is more of a header, so the exhaust will have a better airflow compared to a restrictive iron manifold. Along with the Ranger powerplant we will retain the large aluminum radiator that was used in the Mustang. That radiator was made for use with V8 engines so it will have no problem with cooling the little 2.3L engine. There is a bit of a problem however. The problem is that the placement of the transmission under the Ranger floor, relative to the placement of the Mustang body has the shifter sitting under the Mustang dash frame. The stock shifter that sticks straight up from the transmission would not work in any manner.
The option here is modifying the shifter so even though it still mounts under the Mustang dash, it angles back and up, clearing the dash enough to allow for movement of the shifter. This was a simpler matter of cutting the shifter near the base then welding a couple of angled pieces of tubing to the shifter stub, with the last angled piece having a long straight section that angled back up. The shifter was topped off with the shifter ball base, welded to the end of the tube. The new shifter mimics the long oddly angled shifter you would typically see in an old truck. With our shifter in place and confirmed functioning, the next move is to get the important parts of the car done, that is the steering, brakes and the clutch system.
The steering incorporated pieces from the Ranger steering shaft, a universal joint from a Fox body steering column and the rag joint from the original Mustang steering column. With these pieces put together, the hybrid steering system is strong and capable of being able to work the Ranger steering box with no effort. As for the brakes I was actually able to bolt a Ranger brake master cylinder right to the same mount on the Mustang firewall, with the piston rod linking up to the Mustang brake pedal with no real problems. As a result, I was able to directly hook up Ranger brake lines right to the master cylinder. With that and a bleeding, the brakes are ready to go. As for the clutch system, since the system is a hydraulic system, I had to install a fresh clutch master cylinder and plug it to the port on the slave cylinder. The systems are sealed so when the two are plugged up there's no need for bleeding, the clutch system is immediately functional, which is cool. The only other thing left was mounting the master cylinder. This is the only thing that took a little effort, given the fact that the Mustang never used a hydraulic clutch system. I had to cut a bigger hole in the firewall to accommodate the port on the master cylinder as well as position the unit as close and level as possible to the clutch pedal. I had to be able to have the master cylinder piston rod at a level position when it's connected to the clutch pedal so it won't bind when the pedal is depressed. With the clutch system all done, the next move is the electrical system.
