The Little Blue Ranger

 We ended up buying a 2000 Ford Ranger from youngest son Al when he kind of got stranded trying to get back to Washington State from his Air Force school in Texas. It had some mechanical issues and had been in an accident but we got it pretty much straitened out thanks to a come along, some whacks with a hammer and block of wood, and many new parts. Its a 4x4 with a 3.0 liter V6 and an automatic with 85K on the clock. If you know anything about Ford Rangers the 3.0 is gutless and the automatic transmissions are prone to problems but so far it seems to be running okay. It makes a nice grocery getter for Judy and Holly and it does get better mileage than the big trucks (but not as much as you would think).

The body has no rust and is in pretty good shape except for where it slid into a snow bank on the drivers side.

It has the 4 door option and had new tires and brakes.

The front bumper on the drivers side was pushed in and the turn signal module was broken. I took a come along and tied one end to a tree and bent the bumper out and replaced the turn signal module and it all works now.  

It had slid into a snow bank and guard rail and the front corner was dished in and rubbing against the front tire and the rear clip behind the rear tire was all dished in.

This is about the best its going to get until I replace the front quarter panel. Before we pulled it out this was pushed in about a foot.

Still a ripple and I may try and get it even better but this was really concave before.

The 4 door option is very handy.

The interior is in great shape but I wish iot wasnt an automatic.

This is the DPFE sensor that I replaced that was causing the rough idle, lack of power (well it still lacks power in my opinion) and the check engine light to come on.

And it was boiling over and spraying radiator fluid all over the engine compartment out of the over flow tank so I replaced the thermostat...solved the problem.

And finally, this little bugger is a cheap pot metal fitting to the radiator that had corroded through and had to be replaced which solved the radiator fluid leak. Now if I could just figure out how to get a little more power out of it it would be a good ride.