06-28-2007

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  Interior shot with the 1979 Ford Ranger Custom Supercab split bench seat, not fully mounted. I made a mistake in my measurements though. The seat is a bit too wide (by about 2"). I did find a split back bench seat out of a 60's International pickup truck that was just under 54" wide, but the seat backs where only about 26" high, which is roughly 3" shorter then the factory seat. So, I may just cut about 2" off the width of this seat. BTW, this seat will be getting reapulstered to a different color.  
  Factory light truck grille guard. The grille support was replaced, as the outter support brackets where missing. The grille assembly itself was not bolted to the fenders when I got the truck. The radiator lower baffle was missing & the upper baffle was butchered. Both have been replaced since then.  
  I managed to pickup a set of NOS Teleoptic King 5 3/4" fog lamps, model 101. Too bad one of the lamps is missing.  
  Suprisingly enough, the 7" round headlight bulbs are still fairly common in newer cars today. I originally was considering just doing a non-sealed beam halogen headlight upgrade using a H4 or 9004 bulb. But with their being so many options for 7" round headlights, I'm considering upgrading to DOT approved, HID projector style headlights.  
  For some reason, the previous owner removed the interior door rubber retainers. I'm currently looking for a replacement set. The earlier year trucks had these rails held in with small screws, so I'm probably going to try to find the earlier year rails. Then, attach them with some small screws instead of attempting to weld the later year rails in. The rails are made of some pretty thin guage steel & are fairly easy to damage.  
  More of the interior door window rubber retainers that where removed.  
  You can see the original interior stainless steel door window mouldings that came off a 1951 pickup truck. Their different then the 1947 through 1950 mouldings which edges are more square & lack the vent window cut-outs. Stainless steel mouldings where not originally offered in 1953, due to the Korean War.  
  Several accesories I managed to pickup over the years. To the right is the windshield stainless mouldings, deluxe panel fender stripes & jack. In the middle is the accessory running board safety plates, interior radio grille & tissue holder. The the big box to the left, is the original radio.  
  When looking for a replacement bench seat, I found that the late 70's & earlier Ford bench seats seem to be the strightest. One of the problems with a lot of the GM bench seats, is that they have a indentation located at the front center of the seat to accommodate the hump in the floor pan for the drive shaft. 1970's El Camino bench seats are notorious for this.  
  Their are a few companies that make folding back & split back bench seats for these trucks, but their prices are usually out of sight. They typically sell them for $600 without padding or covers, which is rediculas. Especially, when a used seat can be purchased out of a junk yard for around $100 or less. I bought this seat for $40 as is. Even if I need to modify the seat to fit properly & have it recovered, it's still a long ways away from $600. I just couldn't see spending over a $1,000 for a replacement seat.  
  One of the other advantages of this seat, is that the sliders are located roughly 6" inward from the seat end, on both sides. This is nice as it hides the sliders, as well as the mounting points.  
  I still need to find out what happened to this filler panel. Somewhere along the line, I lost lost it when I moved.  
  The previous owner did a poor job attempting to remove part of the seat riser. The metal is torqued & bent where it met the cab. I have started to drill out the welds, so I can remove the original seat riser.  
 

Additions:

  • 2 original heater ducts
  • Driver's side door window guide
  • Door felt retainers for both doors
  • Exterior door window stainless mouldings
  • Center interior moulding clips (the top clip was missing)
  • 1979 Ford Ranger Custom Supercab pickup truck split back bench seat
Bold items indicate original dealer or factory parts.

I finally got a real camera, so I'll be adding more pictures & can finally take some half decent picture for once. I ran into a couple of problems so far. As you can see in the pictures, the door rubber retainer rails are missing on the inside of the cab door openings. These where originally welded in place on the later year cabs (such as this year cab). However someone opted to remove them for one reason or another. The seat riser had also been cut on both sides where it attaches to the door openings. Fortanetly, I'm not going to be using the riser, so it will be disgarded. The cab will need to be renforced.

The seat is sitting at an angle because the seat riser is in the way. The seat cannot sit on top of it as the cab sides narrow as they get closer to the top of the cab. I should be able to remove the riser in another week or so. Then we can see trully how well this seat will fit. It's going to be a tight squeeze but I think it'll make it.