Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

    So this is the page that will be devoted to my wee beasty as I refer to it! If you must know, its a 1987 Ford Ranger S and there is history here that I have to share with you all so that you understand the method of my madness. After I get through that, there will be some pictures of the truck, what it looks like now, what I would like it to look like and some of the parts that I have collected so far. It is currently laid up, waiting for funds. It runs, poorly because I don't feel like screwing with it and spending any more cash on the 4 cylinder. It'll go but it won't stop. The brake line to the rear has split right down the cent of the tube. No pressure, no stoppage. But that is what this page will be based on.

    First off, the origination of my Ranger. It was built in October of 1986 as a 1987 model. Its official designation is a Ford Ranger S. The S stands for Special. Its the fleet model. It had radio delete but the power steering and air conditioning were added anyway. I am the 3rd owner nearest I can tell from the title. The truck has 127,000 faithfully served miles. Its been to hell and back and back to hell again and has gone more places than I can remember of care to. It was also my first vehicle and I grew so attached to it that when I bought my Thunderbird, I couldn't bare to let it go. So I parked it and drove in every so often. The Japanese carb on the motor finally went south and I pulled the pile of crap and slapped on a high-torque intake and a Holley 350 2 barrel. The Holley has proven to be a challenge. While it has the same body as every other Holley 2 barrel carb out there, this one seems to have armatures and such reversed. On top of that, it has a manual choke which makes it incredibly bitchy. But that isn't the point.

    Ok, why "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"? Well, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was a book my mother used to read to me when I was very young. She says it was one of my favorite books. She gave the name to a trip I took with her in the truck. I have to state something important to the story here. I am involved with the Boy Scouts of America and I have been since I was about 7. Anyway, on a trip to the local camp for a family night for my troop, I brought my mother with me because my father and brother were already at the camp and it was raining. My mother was fearful of the dirt roads in camp in the rain and was nervous about driving. Me, being the wonderful son that I am, left camp, went home, picked her up and brought her back to camp. On the way into camp, there were a couple of very large and deep puddles that were at the bottom of a hill. As we were traveling down the hill, I warned her that I was going to be traveling through the puddles quickly to avoid get stuck in the silty mud. As we rounded a bend in the road and approached the puddle, one of the not-so-bright boys in my troop popped out of the woods infront of me waving hi to me. Since the road was muddy, evasive action proved futile and I barely missed the boy and slid into the puddle. A wave of muddy water covered the entire truck. I could no longer see out of the windshield and the rear tires were not getting traction to push us out of the puddle. I downshifted and floored the pedal to get the truck moving again. I finally got the windshield cleared and finally got out of the puddle. We arrived at the building in camp where the meeting was being held. When my father asked my mother how the trip was she said "It was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"! Since my plans for the truck are pretty wild, I decided that it should also be the name of my project. I'm hoping that when finished, I can get someone to pinstripe Mr. Toad's Wild Ride on the tailgate. Also, last I checked, MR TOAD was still available on a license plate in NJ.

    So what's so great about the plans? Well, since I don't have much done to it right now, I can only talk about it. Its alot and probably very unbelievable to most of you but they are my plans and I have more than half of the parts I need. So I'll get to the point. The Plans:

Engine: 327 Windsor Ford (stroked 302)
Transmission: T-5
3rd Member: Ford 9 inch HD w/ disc brakes
Airbag Suspension system