So I am in school full time (40 credit hrs. a week....not a typo) right now in my paramedic class for those of you who don't know. The class started October 13 and won't be done until next March. Then I have clinicals for 2 months and will be all wrapped up around next May. It runs Monday-Friday and goes from 8AM-5PM. I am confident that I made the right decision.

It took a lot of sacrifices for me to do this; I had to quit my full time firefighting/EMT-Basic job in Northern Michigan in order to go back to school for the 6 months that the program runs. 6 months with no income living off my savings so that I could have a shot at getting back around the Detroit area and have a worthwhile shot at getting on a Detroit area fire department full time. Since they require Paramedic license, I had to go back to school to get this training since I do not have my medic training. Normally, medic school takes about 12-18 months to get. But since my program is an accelerated one, mine will be done in 6 months. This doesn't change the fact that the money situation is tight as fuck for me though. And being the stubborn fuck I am, I don't want to have to take out a Student Loan in order to pay for all this.......so here's what I've done so far.....

I had to sell my 1 ton axles, my doubler setup, all the link parts I'd been saving for my 4 link, the 2-14" coilovers I had bought for the frontend, the tubing, my 44's, the rims, everything. All so I could pay for the $5,000 paramedic program.

And now it is coming down to it and I am out of money. So the last thing I can sell and maybe get $500 out of is the remains of the Ranger. Yea, It's sad.












Moment of silence.....

Alright, so here's where I'm looking for some pointers.......

I had always planned on building up the Ranger to a fully dedicated trail truck. After looking at the condition that it is in though, I am really thinking that selling what's left of it and starting over with something that actually has some potential might be a better idea. The body is getting real rough, rusting out all over, the cab corners and floors are rotting. When I was looking at the truck real close earlier tonite, I just saw that stuff on the truck is just starting to really look like it's going to need a TON of work in the next year or so if I want this thing to stay together and be a reasonable trail truck.

I am considering just starting over again from scratch. New truck. New parts. Totally new direction. So I am considering my options and rigs for a buildup for the 2nd half of 2009. Here are the parameters.

-The rigs gotta be sporting a blue oval on the frontend.
-The rigs gotta have a decent amount of parts available for it...(junkyard, salvage wise, not neccesarily aftermarket)

That's a pretty broad spectrum if I do say so myself. My old man has a 51 Ford F100 sitting next to our barn that's been there for years that I have thought about what I could do with it many, many times. That might be an option, but again, it will need quite a bit of work to be worthwhile and usable.

So if anyone has any suggestions or anything out of the box that might be worthwhile, lets hear them. I'm looking for a unique rig and something kinda out of the ordinary. It will probably be getting one tons and definitely a new suspension, but I want the base to be something pretty cool and somewhat out of the ordinary.

Zach

I would go with a mid 80's mid 90's f150 or bronco , for a few reason, SAS is easy enough to do, they came with an v8 5.0 or 5.8, you can find tons of parts at junk yards. They are old enough to where you can buy them cheap, and they won't have a whole lot of cancer on them.

buy another ranger, like 93 or up

I would buy a solid Ranger with the 4.0/Auto and start with that. Light truck with a snotty little engine yet dependable.

I'd start with a late 70's Bronco/F150 or F250. I've always loved this body style, and the running gear is pretty stout for a stock truck. Parts are cheap.

Guess it's biased advice