The New Ranger 6 Build Thread

#1

This all came together a lot faster that I thought it would. I got an '87 that did some GTS2 races a couple yrs ago and has been sitting under tarp since then. All it really needs, I think, is for the front springs to be put in, and for the radiator and hoses to go back in.

It’s not much to look at right now, but it will turn out just fine. I’m leaning towards a tan or sand colored paint, and using black decals.

Pic from a couple yrs ago:
http://www.motorsport.com/roadracing/photo/main-gallery/1987-bmw-325is-mike-2/

#2

That’s always how it goes. Congrats!

#3

Congrats Scott.

#4

Outstanding! I’m looking forward to progress posts and completion.

#5

I’m no expert, but aren’t those plastic bumpers? You might have an 88 or 89 on your hands.

Regardless, congrats!

PS - The top several cars in December were all small bumper cars. I expect to see you right there in February. :woohoo:

#6

The new car arrives at our house. The engine had not been run in 18 months. I got it running and drove it into it’s garage. It will emerge some months from now looking fabulous.

The first thing I’m going to do is clean the rust off the the cage and paint it. The cage is solid enough, but the rust looks bad, especially on the feet.

@Steve. Someone upgraded the bumpers to late model. I’m going to put aluminum bumpers back on.

#7

[quote=“Ranger” post=61712]@Steve. Someone upgraded the bumpers to late model. I’m going to put aluminum bumpers back on.[/quote]Dibs on the take-offs. :slight_smile:

#8

[quote=“Steve D” post=61714][quote=“Ranger” post=61712]@Steve. Someone upgraded the bumpers to late model. I’m going to put aluminum bumpers back on.[/quote]Dibs on the take-offs. :)[/quote]Forget Steve; he’s selling out! I really need a front bumper to set mine right after whacking the Mustang at the Toy Race!

In all seriousness, if it’s for sale, I’d be interested.

Also, I see on FB that the new car was on the trailer, so where are the remains of the old #6? Hope you dumped it in front of neighbor house and not your own – a great way to stir up conversation on the street!

#9

you get the rear bumper, i get the front
[attachment=1702]adfhga.jpg[/attachment]

#10

Re. getting my old bumpers. Once they come off they’ll be available cheap. One or both of them is less than cherr. What I need is a front diving board bumper.

Re. Old #6. It’s in the driveway up on jackstands with a car cover over it. Not enough light on weekday evenings to do anything but as the weekends come and go I’ll start stripping it.

I called Schroth today re. harness reweb and recert. They don’t do it. Bummer. That’ll be $340.

#11

[quote=“Ranger” post=61730]I called Schroth today re. harness reweb and recert. They don’t do it. Bummer. That’ll be $340.[/quote]I’ve got Schroths in my Miata and Safecraft in the E30. Something about the Safecraft design makes them so much easier to tighten and loosen. I won’t go back to Schroth.

#12

can’t just go by brand, our lump car has g-force that are a bitch to tighten and ever harder to loosen. and then i’ll get in another car with the same exact belts, same install type, etc that work perfectly. to wit, the schroths in my car are incredibly easy to tighten and loosen.

#13

I got myself CROW Enterprises this year, I thought of all the brands and then found out that CROW not only re-webs, but will also take in other brands and sell you their in exchange for a discount.

#14

I looked at Crow and Safecraft and I don’t see any FIA belts, just the SFI cert that expires in 2yrs. What am I missing?

#15

Am putting in 3hrs/night starting once the kids go to bed. This was the 2nd night of using a rotary wire brush to clean surface rust off the cage. The rust wasn’t deep, it just looked really bad. This gave me an opportunity to closely inspect all welds.

The good.
-NASCAR bars on both sides.

-The welds and feet are nicely done. They aren’t “art”, but everything is stout.

-There’s a lot of bars behind the driver for extra stiffness.

The bad.
-The bars could be closer to A pillars. It’s not as bad as the pic makes it look, but still…it could be better.

-Some holes were put in the roof to provide access to the top of cage joints. That’ll be some sheetmetal repair.

There’s likely one more night of cleaning up the cage. Then I’m going to cut off the plate that holds the kill switch on and reweld it. It looks like it was welded with flux instead of inert gas and it looks too bad to be tolerated.

Then I’m going to weld on some kind of dead pedal, and also weld on something that will raise the shoulder harness straps about 2" higher then the bar behind the driver.

I removed the dash last night and cut off a lot of excess wire. At least I hope it was excess. The dash off also give me access to the steering column support and I’ll have to figure out how to lower it. Anyone that’s done that knows that getting the bolts out of the steering column mounts is a bastard.

The old car had a knee bar right there which gave me something to anchor the steering to, but this car doesn’t have a bar there so I’ll have to do something different.

#16

Can you post pics of your dead pedal solution when you get around to it?

#17

Are you looking to lower the steering column or the column support brackets? I lowered my steering column down, but it’s using the the stock bracket/location.

#18

Easy button for the steering column bolts is to tack weld a bolt to the cone section and use a wrench to remove. Usually a 1/2" spacer works great. Chuck

#19

@Trackrat. At this point I don’t know. I just need to get the column lower and securely located. How I get there is still up in the air.

@Chuck. Ahh, good idea that.

Today I got the paint for the cage. After a rediculous amount of internal debate I decided to do the cage in the same gloss “desert” paint color as the exterior of the car will be.

I liked the way the yellow cage bars stood out on the old car, so I was kinda oriented on a relatively light color for the new cage. I did some research on abrasive resistant paints and found that most of them are some variation of Alkyd Enamel. The most common one in our circles being the expensive POR15. I found a Benjamin Moore paint that belongs in this family for a helova lot less than POR15, it was available locally and it can be tinted. It’s glossy.

If I like this paint I’m going to try spraying it on the car’s exterior and see how it looks. If it’s a fail than I’ll easily be able to get an automotive paint outfit to match the color and get automotive specific paint. Alternately, I could just get MAACO to do it.

Before I paint the cage tho, I have to deal with the sunroof. It’s going to come out and I’m going to skin it and weld brakets for it to the cage. If I’m unable to skin the SOB than I’ll slap a piece of sheet steel on top.

#20

I prefer to weld in the sunroof skin. It isn’t that hard to do if you are careful and don’t bend the roof while taking out the cassette. The forward spot welds if not completely eliminated are the usual cause of roof bending. They are are find and you don’t find out that you have missed one until the rest of the cassette is free. That can result in a bent roof.

I used to drill out the spot welds, but I got smarter. Now I cut through the lip all around the sun roof opening (three sides). I leave about 1/8-3/16" of lip on the roof. Then I cut the side supports for the sunroof and drop the cassette.

Before skinning the panel I wrap a 1/8" rod around the panel as a gap filler with the top of the rod just below the top of the panel. Tack welds every few inches are are enough. Then I skin the panel. You need a helper to weld the panel in. Hold one corner as flush as you can and tack it in place, do the same with the other corner on that side. Then move the side where your helper was holding the panel and tack those corners. The tack welds should be from the filler rod to the roof.

Check to make sure that panel alignment is good. If not cut the tacks and try again. Once you are satisfied with the panel’s position place tack welds every few inches around the panel. The grind down any protruding weld beads.

To fill the gap use making tape around the seam on the bottom to form a dam. I fill the gap with a metal filled body filler as it is a bit stronger than bondo and won’t transport water or oxygen from the inside the car to the weld area under the pain. Bondo will and rust can form and blister the paint.

This whole process doesn’t take as long as you might thing. I think we did the last one (on Chris Tuttle’s car) in about three hours, maybe four.