Time to put a few hours into the ol’ Ranger again. I cleaned up the surface rust on the chrome bumpers using a brass wire brush. The front bumper has a hole from the rust though and I’m not sure how I want to repair that. I think to keep cost down I will use some JB Stik-Weld and then hit that spot with some “chrome” spray paint or something.
I also need to do an oil change (5,500 miles on it now), replace the serpentine belt (I think it’s original w/140k miles), rotate the tires, clean the rust off the rocker panels and then undercoat them and then have Peter weld up a small hole/crack in my frame near the bolt hole for the driver’s side rear shock absorber. I should really replace the heater and radiator hoses along with a new t-stat soon too.
Good times.
That said, the truck has been mostly trouble free. It started fine in -20F weather for a week this last winter even on the 10 year old battery (then that died and I put a battery in). It also went through more than a foot of unplowed snow on several occasions when our road wasn’t plowed and I had to get to work. I’ve towed 2,000 lbs with it before, had 1,500lbs of fresh cut firewood in the back and I’ve also done some off roading. Guess I can’t complain she needs a little love every now and again.
