After years and hours, I am just about there.

Well guys and gals, I had some physical setbacks over the last month and a half. Right around May 5th I was suddenly stricken with severe leg pain emminating from my buttocks. Unlike Forest Gump, I was NOT shot in the buttocks, nor did I get much ice cream. :D It turns out I had a disc in my lumbar area had found its way out of its home and pushing onto my nerves running all the way down to the my foot. In a whirlwind 10 days I had some x-rays, MRI and finally some surgery to get that fixed up. The surgeon told me to take it easy for a month until we followed up with him and DON'T LIFT OVER 5 pounds. So, with that in mind, I set off to build my SRB pair that is lacking from my shelf. I know you haven't seen photos of my Sand Scorcher and that is mostly because it isn't quite the way I want it to be, so it will be coming along soon I hope, it too needs proper paint for the look I am going for.

I think I can safely say for now that my Ranger project has come to a close. I am not much of a painter and that is why it isn't in the final color of my choice, but I feel that will be remedied in the future at some point.
Onto the story. I bought this body off our favorite money pit for a princely sum of $35 USD Shipped wayyyyy back in 2006, yes you read that right. It was rough and incomplete, but it was a true blue Ranger body, even though it had been painted this near French Blue color. It had the normal illnesses that Rangers and Blackfeet have, broken fender wings and missing a taillight, but, it was a Ranger and not a Blackfoot. For the rest of the parts I believe I was collecting them up until 2013 here and there. Someone here on TC undoubtedly was where I got the driver's base and the sunroof, both in true blue and the windows also came from another member that can be for sure. If you remember that trade, speak up as I like to give credit where credit is due. I think Old Skool fixed up the rear taillight and somehow the tailgate never was painted, so now I wonder if it came with the body, but my memory isn't what it used to be. Lastly the driver's head, you probably recognize it from the Sand Rover driver, I bought it off eBay mostly because of the cowboy hat and the fact it was already painted. :D The chassis came from a DFW area hobby shop that I visited ages ago, haven't been there in a while now, sure hope they are still there, but who knows. The chassis had some dry rotted tires and no body, but at least it was a Ranger chassis with the correct rear hoop and front body post, so that helped that cause. I think I paid $75 for that chassis and I don't regret it as it has given me all the patina this model shows, included was that front bumper.
It went into the garage with the body for some time, even a move and recently it has come out to see the light of day. Over the last few years, I found via evilbay or mostly TamiyClub trades, the rest of the parts I wanted to add to this truck, most notably the RC Channel rear suspension set with cage. I must say, for aesthetics alone, it was worth the investment, you can see that in the side by side photo with the Super Champ. Never could stand that wild camber angle on a truck, especially one that I grew up seeing all over the state of Texas, so I had to knuckle down and buy the kit if only to make my Ranger 'look right'.
Back when TC was younger and another member by the name of Old Skool was on more often, he and I spoke about this Ranger amongst other projects. He told me he had some Stainless steel socket head screws that worked on it, so I asked him to get me some as well, he also heard my idea of an SRB without the radio box installed, and told me that the radio box was something that gave a bit of strength to the chassis, so I asked him if it could be that a thicker FRP plate could be used in place of the radio box and I would figure out where to put all the electrics. Dale(Old Skool's name)told me he could get some thick FRP and would cut out an example from a Super Champ since they had been drilled for the steering servo to be installed on the chassis plate. There will be more of this story on my future SRB post, I promise, but I said all that to say this, I ended up waiting so long that the RE REs came out and made the radio boxes a lot more affordable in complete and unbroken form, so I bought one for this Ranger as well as found someone willing to trade me for the black colored aluminum chassis plate, which I think looks really cool. Before you all yell at me for yammering on, the other bits added that are away from stock are coil overs from unknown makers, set of black for the rear and a set of aluminum colored with 2 set screws in each for the front. Also bought a reproduction Black gearbox guard for the bottom of this chassis and added ball bearings throughout.
As I am certain everyone will ask, the tires came to me sooooo long ago that I don't know where they are made or who made them, I am sorry for that, but it was these tires that once I looked at them, I knew I had to have them on the Ranger, unfortunately they are TOOOO Big and TOOO Wide to fit under the front wings of the fenders without breaking them clean off again, so in the end, I do have the original wheels with some new rubber on them if I ever get the urge to run this model. For shelf duty it is the BIG BEEFY Turbo Blaster 550s because I still like them a lot. They are placed on RE RE Brat wheels since they were a lot whiter than any of the vintage wheels available. I simply added a red mark around the dish like I remember so many 'wagon wheel' steel rims had BITD.
I think that about does it for this one, let the photos start the talking now and I am always open to hearing your comments, so let's have them, good or bad.
Chris