Project Growth

bigburl · Post by **bigburl** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:45 am

Is it usual for the 5.0 swap to grow from a simple swap to a full blown project? In the beginning I just wanted a bigger engine. But then the old faded blue paint started to look too bad to live with, so I'm stripping everything from under the hood to paint the engine bay before we go any further. The seats in my donor Mustang are the wrong color but they are in better condition than the old bench in the Ranger, so I'm looking at reupholstering them. And then the carpet is almost 20 years old so it will need to come out. The dash pad is cracked and I've been measuring the dash in the Mustang and I don't think it would have to be modified much to fit into the truck. It would be cool to have the 140 speedo and other gauges in the truck. Someone several months back said that their truck had been done that way and I'v been intrigued by it ever since. I thought this would be a couple of months going together but I've been chatting with you guys for about six months and started tearing things apart about three months ago and I don't have any idea when this might get finished. Is this normal?

94stranger · Post by **94stranger** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:15 am

it sounds about right I was the same I took the stock motor out, engine bay was faded and some rusty spots you can see in my pics, pulled my motor back out and spent a week cleaning preping and painting the engine bay. my $1500 swap became a $4000 swap! my ranger is a '94 and I'm still pondering about putting the mustang dash in but it would have to be '94 and up cau its a nicer looking dash, I think my ranger dash is nicer than the fox body stangs. also '94 and up stang got air bags so theirs some money! I got a really nice mint condition black '94 dash at work I'm just uncertain as how easy or hard it would be to get it to go in my '94!

GregR · Post by **GregR** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:03 pm

I actually planned for my Ranger project to grow in stages. The first stage was to get the 4.6 in the Ranger and make it a dependable driver that could be taken to the drag strip on the weekends. Now that all those goals have been reached it's on to the next stage.

Stage two is to strip the Ranger down to the bare frame and clean/paint everything. The truck is also getting a flairside box, new interior, lowered ride height, and some other cosmetic changes. I'm also going to make some mods to the drivetrain to help improve the performance.

I'm only to the point of cleaning the frame so it's going to be awhile before it's back on the road. Hope I can afford the gas once it's done.

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:58 pm

My swap started off as a full blown project to not just get the motor into the truck, but to beef up the suspension, rearend, and get the truck to where it could handle the new found torque the motor brings. At one time, I considered getting into the motor to replace the cam, but decided against it. My budget and time limits pretty much kept me right on schedule and kept the project creep under control. The plan was all along to repaint the truck and get some rims on it. But now, the 2nd phase has crept to including a 331 stroker upgrade. I thought I was on the way to getting that project started until the contract I had on my house fell through. So, all my hopes and aspirations for the truck are back on hold.

But at least I have a V8 to drive until then which is better than what I had and for that, I'm thankful.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:08 pm

I'm sure a lot of us have found that what started out to be a simple, quick motor swap turned into what you describe. Think Malcolm started out with his red truck just to fix the body damage, ended up with a great body off restore. I keep changing trucks.
Dave