Project 2000 Ford Ranger

This truck came to us already lowered a little bit with bags on the rear. The front engine crossmember was dragged through on the bottom and bent badly. We did the same on this one as we did on the 1998 Ranger. We cut the crossmember completely out and rebraced it. we took about 2" out of it and welded it back together. We reinstalled the crossmember in the truck 3" above stock level.

Yea it was that bad! The engine crossmember was all bent up and as you can see had been all dragged through.

This is the front of the Z where the frame is braced. We welded it up and then grinded the welds down. We were going to sand, fill and black primer the frame welds here.

This is the upper mounts raised on top the frame. Notice the DJM upper arms fit the mounts.

The above two pics are where we relocated the wiring that had been grinded through by the tire. We rerouted all the front end wires and tied them up where they wouldnt rub anymore. We also relocated the fuse box and brake lines.

We didnt do anything to the back of this truck. It came to us at a time when BYC was very busy. We ended up finishing the front and having the customer come get it. He got tired of waiting for me to finish it. I wish I had been able to finish it. I moved the upper arms up higher on top the frame and made tubular arms for it.

This truck was also used as a test prototype for the BYC Ranger tubular arms. I wanted to know if I could make one length arms and have them work on trucks with a stock frame or a raised frame. I also wanted to know if the customer raised the upper arm mounts, would the BYC arms still be the right length. It turns out that the arms can be used for either truck. I however wanted to make the Ranger upper arms adjustable anyway. This would eliminate any chance of the parts not working on any truck.

Notice the BYC upper arms fit nicely in the mounts.

This truck had a 4 cylinder engine and we were going to make a kit to install a York compressor on the engine. There was plenty of room since the customer pulled the A/C unit himself. He wanted to go with a street rod unit that mounted under the dash and didnt stick out into the firewall area.

This would have been a nice truck to finish also. The customer was going to leave it in black primer and go for the rat rod look.

Thanks Brandon for allowing me to work on this truck and Im sorry I didnt get to finish it. Trashing me in a forum when you know the work was good isnt very nice.

I will let the pics speak for themselves.

You know the price was very good as well. Its working on trucks like this, doing lots of extra for pennies, spending extra time that got me away from building arms and spending too much time on projects that was a factor in my having to close BYC.

For more info on this or any of the other projects on our projects pages, please feel free to email me at

Mike@Dallashotrodparts.com