1947 ford ranger...

I have a similar ethos with my T5 van, although central locking is nice, it's a tool for a job to be used as such, and as much as I like it to look nice and be comfortable I'm still going to load it up with curse word and use it. Over here air con would be great in the summer but I'm not spending 100% of what I spent on the van to get it!

With the motor in, I could start refitting other stuff. First I got the motor and box actually
Bolted in.





I cleaned all the burnt on oil off the exhaust manifold, it was collected on top so only real culprit can be rocker cover gasket.


I didn’t bother painting it as it always just burns off, especially when turbos are involved.

Speaking of gaskets, I have a new set. This was rather expensive, but oddly every single one is a single use pressed metal one, even for non-heat applications like the inlet and water pump. Which I guess justifies the price. (Best part of £100 for a kit!)
Here is a new multi-layer exhaust gasket going on.


Oddly the exhaust manifold bits are nord-locks. I have never seen these used in an OEM application ever. Maybe that had issues with them undoing?


Turbo was also given a rudimentary clean, regasketed and refitted, and the appropriate plumbing connected up.


Continuing working down this side of the motor, I spent far too long looking for the bolts for the thermostat housing before I realised they were actually meant to be studs and nuts.


The cleaned up housing went on, and was all connected back up. Next job was the lower rad hose. I’m using the back half of the original, then once it goes straight towards the rad it needs cutting and a jointer into a silicone reducer (enlarger? 🍆) to connect to the rad.


Like this-

Id bought all the bits ages ago, was just waiting til it was in bits again as access is tight when fully assembled.

There’s not too much left to do on this side of the motor now, I’ve got to clean and paint the alternator and that’s the last major bit. I’ve also got to run a hose from the thermostat housing up to the heater, but I think I might partially hardline that as it’s got to go past the turbo/exhaust and there ain’t much room.

Jumping over to the other side for the top rad hose, I found this random hose in the box of random discarded hoses from other jobs.


I have absolutely no idea what it was off, and it has no markings. But it’s nigh on perfect, once chopped in half. It steps from 47mm to 42mm, and the subtle double bend is close enough to right to work. Would be nice to know what it was off in case I ever need another though!


Here I’ve marked up the engine cover for a minor trim so it doesn’t rub on it. I’ll be running the full cover, wouldn’t usually be my thing but it fits so well here.


If the hot side of the motor is fairly neat and organised, the cold side is er, very much not.


As well as the inlet and emissions stuff, this side has more or less everything heat sensitive mounted on it, so is fairly chaotic. There’s all the wiring, brake and clutch lines, all the fuel lines, filter housing and pump, all the power steering stuff and all the vac system stuff too.
At least the steering box isnt this side anymore as well!

I’m slowly working through this stuff prioritising the routing for each system, and neatening everything up. Much messing about to do so though...

More bits have turned up so I could finish some things off.
First the unfeasibly small screws for the fuel sender. Bl00dy m4 thread!


Although first I remembered I still had 25l of the diesel I’d drained out of the tank still sat around, so I emptied that in through the big hole first.


New sender was then bolted in.


I then connected up the fuel lines, and repaired the wiring plug. The terminals were corroded and broken but I managed to pry them out and replace with some new ones.


It obvious from the corrosion to the sender and wiring that this area acts as a water/dirt trap between the top of the tank and the bottom of the bed, so to prolong the life of the new bits I gave it all a heavy coating of spray grease.


The hose and jubilee clips to attach the filler neck had also turned up.
You always end up with a few bits where you end up proper backed into a corner on a build like this, and this was one of them. I had to cut the hose down to only 2” long to go between the cab back and the tank, then wiggle it in and get two clips on it whist also bolting down the filler neck mounting flange. This was the huge amount of space i had between the cab back, the bed frame, and the tank!


From the inside of the cab (under the seat) this is all you can see.


So that’s the fuel tank related bits and bobs sorted.

I’m just waiting for some of these things to turn up-




To clip down the rest of the rear end wiring loom, then I’m about ready for the bed floor.

M1.2 😂
I class anything under m8 as ‘small’...

Assuming 1/10 scale, technically that's M12!

Still really enjoying this build Dez.
Hypothetically if I won the lottery what would it cost to build or buy this??
Roughly.

Forging on, a few more jobs off the list.

First I fitted up the gearstick with the new doctor Mx5 parts silicone boot to replace the knackered old one, and refitted and tidied/ziptied up all the gearbox related wiring so this area was tidy before doing the next bit.


Next job was refit the biscuit tin-

As you can see from my scribbles I’m still not 100% happy with this, but I needed the handbrake lever on before I made any further changes.

This is said handbrake lever. Those two mounting holes on the lower right usually bolt up to the gearbox on the 47, but as that’s long gone I need to Formulate a bracket that emulates the position in relating to the floor/gearstick, but that clears all the stuff on the ranger chassis, mostly the gearbox.


Some offering it up, taking some measurements and some CAD gave me this-


As you can see I started with the major mounting holes and surfaces, then played with the shape til it looked good.



This was then transposed to some steel, and some mounting bolts sorted out-


Although it looks fancy, the curved shape actually serves a purpose. It allows the linkage to clear the bracket when the lever is pulled all the way on-


Test fitting. It’s all pretty tight, but I knew it would be.


The lever sits in a sensible place though. Just ignore the wiring for now 😂




Then I got carried away as usual. I needed a gusset as the backer is so tall. So I made one.


It goes here-


But that made the bracket look a bit pain so I gave that a fettle too before welding the gusset on.




Bear in mind this is a bracket that is basically
Hidden inside a transmission tunnel and will never be seen 🙄😂

But, here it is ready for final welding to the crossmember.


This is how tight a line it threads between the edge of the tunnel and the edge of the gearbox.


Angle of exit on the linkage to attach the cable to is perfect though, through the only gap there is.


The front handbrake cable will require some drastic shortening and a roller to change its direction, but I’m happy with where the lever sits now. I ran out of time to finish it off, but it’ll get welded down as the next job.

Could you have a turn down exhuast so it's hidden, like most modern diesels?

Made of rusty 6” gas pipe, with random bits of chain and cut up sprockets welded to em, like one of the Kool Kids Klub?