1947 ford ranger...

well thats Tapatalk maxed out, I’m now VIP after upgrading 😂

One slight problem with the bedsides is they’re 7 foot long, and my brake is 6 foot two.

Cue a bit of improvisation.


You’ll notice the panel now has some swages in too. That’s because I paid my mate a few quid to machine me these up on my lathe whilst I did something else. They exactly replicate the size of the swages on original bedsides.


Actually swaging them was a bit of a palaver, they’re so big it took 3 of us to do em, one to crank the wheel on the beadroller, one to guide the panel and another to hold the other end up! So there’s no photos of that bit.

Bedsides back on once the folds and swages were done, and I could finalise the rear wing position.


I then drilled (most) of the wing mounting holes, and filed em all square to take coach bolts like standard, once I found a supplier of some that weren’t stupidly long.

Turns out I can’t do vids on tapatalk. That’s annoying. Hopefully I’ve just uploaded one via the forum?

Here’s attempt 1. Connect everything up, but it’s keylocked and therefore immobilised. That’s what the little flashy car symbol means.

EDIT- nope. Doesn’t work?

Fabulous work and fascinating as well Dez. I really wish I had paid more attention in metalwork at school, but they didn't give us much to work with. Instead they seemed to want to concentrate on us making key rings and the like...

Bookmarked.

Speaking of learning, it was at this point I spoke to an auto electrician about something else (replacement key for a Lupo) and we then discussed this.

He looked at the transponder ring, and because it only has two wires he thought it was just a sensor of sorts, rather than coded. He thought it would be possible to just code a key to the original ECU and immobiliser using the replacement transponder ring off the second hand steering column I’d bought, so essentially just treat it as a lost key.
He could order the code to do this from the chassis number direct from ford for £30. What he didn’t know was if it had to be a new key, or if a used one could be recoded. He ordered the code anyway (takes a week to be issued) and we decided to have a crack with the old key.

So a week later he turns up with the code, after me flapping about to fix the OBD port cos I thought he’d need it to code it.
Turns out he doesn’t need it at all, the code is inputted entirely through key clicks! This is why they have a second key sensor as well as the ignition switch. It’s a rather primitive system to say the least, but after a bit of faffing around inputting the code, we have this-



(I do listen to things other than black sabbath at the workshop, honest!)

As you can see, all the gauges and warning lights are working. The fuel pump is still knackered though, tbh I’m surprised it started at all. I’m rather pleased with that though, it could have been a far bigger headache than it turned out to be. And it turns out you can reprogramme used keys so you don’t have to give ford £60 for a new one 😉

Next job, weld the bed rails on. On an original bed they’re rolled as part of the bedside, but I don’t have the facilities to do that (not that I can figure out how they did it either) so I just bought some tubing the right dia. and welded it on. A mere 14 foot if welding and smoothing out after!







That slight bow will be pressed out once the bedsides are welded to the frame.

Rolled it outside for another looksee.


Then I cut and shut the original 47 truck shifter with the ranger one.


Also replaced the lower boot, straight from the Mazda parts bin. The entire shifter setup is the same as an mx-5.


Then I spent quite a lot of money on all the bits to make the steering setup. There’s over £100 in those two UJs alone. With the steering box, idler and pitman, plus all these bits, the steering setup is knocking on £600. But it’s gotta be right so no skimping.

i really am seriously anti the fun-police and this is an inspired and clearly well thought out build...but...are you likely to run into issues with deleting airbags and abs while retaining the donor identity? hope not.

This is brilliant. Thoroughly enjoying reading thanks.

This is going to be one seriously cool work truck.

Following along for sure. Just love the proportions of this truck...its definitely in the "what Ive always wanted" category!

JP