1947 ford ranger...

I made that bracket to terminate the brake/clutch lines on the firewall. Well I didn’t 100% make it, I reworked the old one.

It started with this bit facing up that I chopped off. The bit that’s clamped in the vice is what I’ve added.


The new mounting tabs I added as one piece, even though they needed to be separate. It’s easier to weld one bit on then cut the slot afterwards.


Slot cut, mounting holes added, corners rounded.


The notch is to allow the longer central line to pass down behind the bracket.


This is why I reused half the old bracket rather than starting from scratch. Although the main bracket is straightforward, it has these anti-rotate plates welded to the bottom side so it’s easy to do up the unions, which is the important part.


I’ve painted it and that’ll get fitted when I take the front end off again, as it’s another bit that’s Impossible to get to with the front end on.

Seeing as I had the flaring kit out for doing the brake pipes, I decided to do the power steering hardlines too. These are harder as they’re bigger diameter (8mm and 10mm) and I had to salvage, clean up and paint the fittings off the old steel pipes.
With that done I used some steel wire (think old coat hanger type) to rough out the length and bends needed before cutting some line. 10mm kunifer is difficult to work compared to the 3/16” (4.8mm) of brake pipe that can be bent by hand. The box end needed some pretty tight bends too.

I use a fairly ancient Sykes pickavant flaring tool, mostly because out of all the ones i had it’s the only one that covered all sizes, so I sold the others off. it gives good results too though.


For the bending I use a super cheap eBay special bending tool like this. For the price they are I was sceptical at first, but I’ve not broken it yet and you only have to get one bend kink up before you’ve wasted more in materials than you saved in not buying the tool, so everyone working hardlines should have one. I have the Sykes pickavant pliers type ones for doing sharp bends on brake lines too.



This is the box end all in place. You can see the pipes aren’t quite parallel where they go under the rad, but that’s becuase they’re not clipped down yet, and I can’t get both hands in there to do the final tweaks, so again that’ll be a front end off job. I’m prettt happy with how they’ve turned out though.


They then cross the car on top of the front crossmember, under the rad. This is a tight space-

You can see there where the smaller one meets up with the hose off the pump. I’ve kept the standard hose rather than modifying it in case it ever needs replacement.

The return then kicks back inside the chassis rail and has a rubber hose up to the reservoir. Again this all needs clipping down and hose clips adding, but the fundamentals are in place with all major components fitted so I know of anything gets in the way or anything else, and it’ll be finished off with the front end off.


So that’s another bit loosely put it place, if not fully ticked off just yet.

Another bit that was ticked off was reattaching the towbar hitch, as I got fed up of tripping over it. Some new m16 bolts (as I had to cut the old ones to get it apart) and now I can bash my shins on it instead 😬
It means I can now do all the wiring on the back end now though.

Very neat lines indeed.
That rear glass breakage would have pissedmeoffnoend

Don’t come looking for a refund if you’re not happy, i can’t be dealing with that amount of outlay 😂

If you’ve ever used one of the big plumbing pipe benders for 15/22mm, they’re just the same to use.

Funnily enough, that was what killed mine. Went back to vice handles, bike frames, and beer bottles for forming curves after that...

Do I recall a blanked egr being an mot fail nowadays? Or so long as the check engine light is mapped out and the blank done neatly is it unlikely to be noticed?

Just make it look like it was never there, and it's fiiiiine.

I knew you’d know 🤣

Tbh that factory Ford plate gives an air of credibility over a bit of random steel plate. I still think it’s funny as f-k they sell em.
It has a cat that’s still there at the moment (but a pukka decat downpipe that looks factory is like £40) and doesn’t have a DPF.
Tbh all I ever see is bolloxed, coked up EGRs, I really doubt if they actually have any environmental benefit at all. All it does is remove a marginal amount of pollution from the tailpipe, store it up then put it all over my workshop floor in big claggy lumps 😂
If I do remove the system as it’s compromised. I’ll get it mapped to make maximum advantage so it’ll Probably run cleaner anyways.

vitesseefi The ‘kilo of soot out of the inlet’ sounds familiar. Basically what I had to do with this to get it clean enough to weld when shortened.

I’ve always regarded EGR setups on diesels as nonsensical. They work quite well on petrol engines, but a diesel is a much different animal, and show me a diesel that doesn’t sludge up its EGR system. They ALL do it, especially when the PCV fumes meet the EGR fumes and it all turns into a sooty, sludgy mess.

In my ongoing quest to fit 2 pints of curse word into a pint pot, I’ve now got to sort out a battery tray.

It’s going to go in the gap between the back of the head and the firewall, over the top of the gearbox.

The first set do brackets I made didn’t work as they mounted it too high, so I flipped them upside down and hammered out one of the folds, then fitted them to the sides of the battery tray instead.




This worked in one respect, but failed in another. It dropped the battery down which was what I wanted, but it made the tray a fraction wider so it didn’t fit in the recess. At this point I was still trying to reuse the original ‘47 tray I had saved.


So I had a look online at some battery dimensions, and decided I could make it 3/40 narrower and still get an adequate battery. Rather than narrow the existing one, I just made a new one.




It’s just some 1.6 sheet, but made appropriately fanceh by the medium of holesaws and dimple dies.

Battery fits (well one the same dimensions, the new one will be only a fraction taller and wider but much higher CCA, but this one is sufficient for mock-up).


I then welded it rocketed, and Here’s the first half decent pic of where it will sit.


It was then levelled and squared, and tek screwed into place


It’s tight on the other side 👀


It’ll have spreader plates on this side, and bolt all the way through. Once I’ve made em anyway.

It’s actually really unobtrusive once fitted, and quite a sensible location in terms of wiring.




There’s also still room under/around it to mount things to to hide em away. So it’s worked out quite well. Just got to lengthen the cables a bit (only about 6” or so) to connect it up.