Drive It Hard
(Page 2 of 2)


In August 2011, the gas gage suddenly began reading empty constantly. Pepe limped along until he could go home to Dad for repairs. The final determination was that the float needed to be replaced. The access to the sender is on the top of the tank. We decided it was easier to pull the bed off than to drop the tank.

Dad tried out the new H frame lift. It worked well for this short bed.

The top of the gas tank and the frame. Just the usual surface rust here.

The back frame section - still just surface rust. Ok, inspection over now to the repair. This was Sunday and the local parts place didn't have a float. The dealer wasn't open and Pepe had to return to college for classes Monday. Dad compared the float out of the Ranger with the one from his '56 Chevy Wagon. Surprisingly, they were the same. Slip the old float out and the "new" float in - repair completed.

A better shot of the H frame.

While Dad worked on the float, she decided to practice pinstriping skills by outlining the F O R D on the tailgate.

The completed tailgate.

And by adding Pepe's name to his hood.

The completed hood.

While she was at it, she left a message for all the drivers between home and college.

While we worked on the gas tank, we noticed more developing problems with Pepe. For Christmas, Pepe received new window anti-rattle felts, new door seals, and a new seat cover. The felts required the door panel be removed. This is the driver door panel. Since the door panel was off, we could fix the speaker wiring.

The completed message.

One reason for the new seat cover, though this didn't get covered in the end. To put the seat cover on, we thought it would be easiest to remove the seat. Boy were we ever wrong.

The completed seat cover. It's a horrible fit and didn't take into account the split sliding bench, even though it was supposed to.

But while the seat was being removed, that allowed time to replace the leaking door seals.

Yep, that should stop the water from getting through.

 

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