Ford F-150 Ranger

[Street Rod]

Ok, here we go! I haven’t built a model since about 1990 so this will be my first time out of the gate in many years. I had a couple of these kits back in the day, and, like several of the kits in my stash, I wanted to build them again and try to build them much better than I did then or even just get them built, lol.

I picked kind of a “blah” kit to start off with. This first post on this thread is just some pictures of the initial dry assembly.

Some things I see right off, looks like the rear axle needs to move back about a 1/16” to center the wheels in the wheel wells which won’t be a big deal. The engine looks like it’s going to sit low in the engine bay, I’ll have to see more about that as I go. I think the front inner fenders are incorrect for this body style,   (maybe previous generation truck), but I’ll be leaving that alone. The firewall and inner fenders need some fillers added to close up some gaps.

This kit is a study as far as details go. Some areas like the dash and door panels have pretty good detail, under the hood and on the body they were trying, but elsewhere, especially underneath, is the “kinda blah” part.  Thus I’ll probably not spend a lot of time on this area, just paint it black. 
 

This will be a good kit to start honing my building skills, though. If anyone has built this kit and know of anything else I should watch for feel free to chime in. I’ll have the first progress update in a few days, hope y’all will check in.
 

 

[espo]

The engine should become a little taller with the heads and intake manifolds installed. 

[slusher]

I built one of these as a teenager.they was fun kits, Monogram. Sounds like you have a good plan…

[Street Rod]

On 10/7/2023 at 11:34 AM, espo said:

The engine should become a little taller with the heads and intake manifolds installed. 

It’ll help for sure, test fitting just the bare engine block doesn’t really give the best sense of the space.

[Street Rod]

20 hours ago, slusher said:

I built one of these as a teenager.they was fun kits, Monogram. Sounds like you have a good plan…

Thanks Slusher! I hope the plan works, lol. I figured this would be a good simple kit to practice on. I built a couple way back when, my Dad cut me some 1/4” thick pieces of oak for a flat bed on one of them. Overall, they’re not bad kits. 
 

I need to get back to it and get a progress update posted.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Street Rod

[Street Rod]

Been busy with work but had some time this afternoon at the bench to do a little work on the truck. Didn’t accomplish much, but I did get the ejector pin marks sanded off the underside of the hood.

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Street Rod

[slusher]

Nicely done, looks much better!

[Street Rod]

I’ve been trying to get a little more done on the truck. There was a small short shot on the front fender.

I cut a small piece of .020 styrene and glued it to the front edge, then a little putty to shape it up.

 

If you notice the marker light missing, I tried to scribe around both lights to sharpen up the edges for better detail. The driver side looked ok, but the passenger side was molded a little bit bigger and didn’t look right so I just removed both lights and will scratch build some a little later. Meanwhile, I will get the fenders puttied a reshaped correctly, which I started working on this afternoon. 
 

On the hood, the Ford letters looked like they were pressed into the hood and the plastic mushed up around them. Kinda shows up in the picture.

 I tried lightly scribing around them and they looked fairly ok, then I noticed there was a little bit of a low spot around them, hard to see now but  would definitely show up after paint.

After I saw it I needed to find a good solution for the goof up. I found that the PE set for the 1960 Ford Starliner has letters that are an almost perfect match to the molded ones on the hood. So I’ll use them instead.
 

I removed the letters from the hood and put a little putty on to fill any low spots. I’ll have pictures of the corrected and finished bodywork next time.

[av405]

Good work, I look forward to your next post.

[Street Rod]

On 10/15/2023 at 10:21 AM, slusher said:

Nicely done, looks much better!

 

On 10/21/2023 at 8:17 PM, av405 said:

Good work, I look forward to your next post.

Thanks Carl and Alberto! I’ll try to get another update posted tomorrow night.

[David G.]

You're off to a great start on this one.

Little details can make a big difference in the end.

David G.

[Street Rod]

Thanks, David! I’m trying a lot of things I’ve never done on a model before.

[Zippi]

Nice little project on the Ford Ranger.  I like the detail work that's going on.  

[Street Rod]

On 10/27/2023 at 5:58 AM, Zippi said:

Nice little project on the Ford Ranger.  I like the detail work that's going on.  

Thanks, Bob! 

[dragcarz]

I’m liking this project Doyle, I like your attention to detail ! 

[Street Rod]

Thanks, Roger! I haven’t been working on it much lately, but am going to get back to it tomorrow and get some updates posted.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Looks like you're back in the groove my friend. Taking care of those little nuances. Great attention to details.