This is from when I first bought the truck in October of 2007. I got him for just $900. At the time it had 144k, scrape going down the left side, bad oil leak, coolant leak, and a busted shifter linkage. I fixed all three breaks for...... free! The tires were almost bald and I didn't have any money for studs, so I took the Ranger off the road for the winter. The previous owner said the scrap was a hit and run at Lowes, which is more than likely bull due to the pattern of it. More like they were driving drunk and hit a guard rail. The grill was cracked and the front valance half torn off, along with the rear bumper being bent. I hate drunks. If you can't respect your vehicle you shouldn't be allowed to drive.
This would probably the first slight mod I ever did with the truck. I broke my bug shield cleaning snow off the hood and when I realized that a new one was expensive, I just stitched it together with wire. First I drilled holes, and then ran the wires through. It broke again a while after that, so I had to add in some more stitches. But hey, at least it looks cool. And my truck now has a name. Stitch. Not to bad of a way to end off a year in December, 2007 either. Its a bit of a downer to have a broken bug shield on, so I'm currently looking for a new one in the same style as the old one. It had a logo of "GTO" on it. I wish I could find out who makes them.
January rolled around pretty fast after taking the ranger off the road, I only drove it a few times that winter when it wasn't too icy out. Snow started to come deep but not often, so the roads were clear a lot. One day coming out of the gas station I thought to myself "Hmm.. that grill looks plain..." So, I decided to fab up a custom billet grill using the stock grill, and it came out looking pretty nice. So far it was my favorite feature of my truck. All it cost me was about 6 dollars to do. You can find stuff for pretty cheap if you look hard enough. You can also see the crack in the grill from what I'm guessing the previous owner did when they had a drunk run-in with a garbage can.
After Winter disappeared around March I got sick of that big ugly cap that made my MPG suck. I took it off, wasn't too hard. Just a few clamps. I don't think its been off in the past 10 years at least. Nuts weren't rusted at all because they were never wet but they were stuck as all hell. Only age can do that. I noticed about a two mpg increase, and better climbing ability for up steep hills. Sometime before this next winter I hope to get a tonneau cover on it. Then I'll sell the cap to make up for the cost. Its a nice cap, I'd sell it for around $200 minimum. Oh yea, and did I mention that my roof and side windows open? That's amazing for summer time. Keeps it cool without the wind going in your face.
Got bored with some photoshop and decided to make a Disney-Pixar Cars picture. Did a pretty good job with only spending about 5 minutes on it. Had to edit the color of the eyes though, they were too red and didn't blend well with the truck before. While doing this a random though popped in my head, I should paint my rims black. Possible next picture? No clue. This is a slow build and my budget is TIGHT. Might not do it at all. I've also got a clean up for the lights on my mind as well as clear corners. We'll see which gets done.. I also have painting the front bumper, fixing the bed, adding a fog valance, and replacing the rear bumper on the list. I also need to fix the oil pan because it's leaking again. I got a new bumper put on and it looks nice. I still need to do brakes and ball joints as well as buy rims to mount my snow tires on. Goodbye 2008.