2020 FX4 Salvage Rebuild

[IdahoRanger]

That's because they aren't your trials and tribulations.

Good point. Looking forward to the rebuild though.

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[XionUAV]

Well guys, it's MORE FRIGGEN DRAMA.

I'll start with that and share the halfway good news last.

Most aftermarket parts suppliers specify whether the fender or hood is aluminum or steel based on the year of the Ranger. So I figured Ford would do something similar and send the part specific to the year of the vehicle. WRONG.

The fender I ordered and almost picked up today from the dealer not only wasn't aluminum, it didn't have the mount attached at the front. When the fender was ordered, the parts guy showed a picture of the fender with the mount. Apparently the picture was actually of an aftermarket fender.

After 4 parts guys, including the parts manager, were all crowded around the terminal clicking the mouse and looking at different screens, the parts manager tells us all that Ford doesn't make an aluminum replacement fender, only steel. And the part that attaches to the front of the fender has its own part number that only shows up in certain parts diagrams, probably made after Ford went to the steel hood and fenders. So they gave me a refund and I now have no fender.

Bit irritating that Ford isn't more descriptive or thorough with their parts systems. Yes, it's a massive system with zillions of parts, I understand that. Still irritating.

Then when I get home, I realize my doorbell cam showed a freight truck showing up while I was gone. Usually anything freight is a prescheduled delivery. The only thing big enough to need a truck at this point is the hood. Then I panicked because I'll bet the friggen OEM hood is steel as well. What's wrong with steel? Absolutely nothing if the parts you're replacing were steel. All I want is the same parts that were original to the vehicle. Doesn't look like that's going to happen going OEM.

Contacted Mid-Tenn Ford where I got the hood from, told the parts guy the "steel" story and that I was now concerned that the hood is going to be steel instead of aluminum. He said nothing in his information showed either way. That means it's likely steel. Weight shows 34 lbs., which is pretty light for a hood but I don't trust any information from Ford anymore.

Having a steel hood would be fine but having one fender aluminum and the other steel is just annoying personally. Would it affect anything in the grand scheme of things? Probably not. It's just seriously irritating the lack of consistency and accurate information that makes things that should be fairly straight forward not so. If I want consistency and matching fenders, I'll need to order an aftermarket, aluminum fender.

At least I now have the OEM radiator support. The construction appears a little more precise than the CarParts version, although it still has scratches, rubs and other areas of bare metal, not to mention a minor bend here and there. I'll sand it, shoot it with some automotive paint, let it cure for a few days and schedule the truck for the frame shop first of next week. Fingers crossed I'll at least get that far.

 

[IdahoRanger]

Imagine working in a body shop.?

 

[got3fords]

Dude, less typing, more wrench turning! Just kidding. This is rather interesting.

 

[Trigganometry]

My XLT built Nov 2020 has them. If I remember right another said they were changed to steel on early 2021. Only way you’re finding Aluminum is out of salvage. Ever try https://www.partrequest.com/
It searches all the yards associated with them. Don’t pay for the searches. Key in on what you want and search those first. It will email you all the listings and where they are.

 

[XionUAV]

My XLT built Nov 2020 has them. If I remember right another said they were changed to steel on early 2021. Only way you’re finding Aluminum is out of salvage. Ever try https://www.partrequest.com/
It searches all the yards associated with them. Don’t pay for the searches. Key in on what you want and search those first. It will email you all the listings and where they are.

Haven't tried that website but did use another parts website to find the steering assembly.

The fender is glued to the body by an elastic foam that has to be cut very carefully. If not properly done, or if the panel is forced, the metal can be bent or creased. Many of the salvage dealers want as much or more for a fender as new aftermarket. I'll search again but will likely just go aftermarket unless I get super lucky.

Got the radiator support prepped and painted. Looks good.

 

[XionUAV]

Dude, less typing, more wrench turning! Just kidding. This is rather interesting.

Oh I'm wrenching. Just not on the Ranger.

Removed the front forks on my CRF250L to have them rebuilt. Used to do forks but they're a hassle. Have a suspension shop do them now. Ordered a Race Tech spring kit for the damper fork and a Hyper Pro progressive spring for the back. Then there's the Pro Taper bars, new hand guard mounts and so forth.

But the best one is the Nissan Frontier. Holy crap what a pain. Won't get into all of that only to say I installed a 2.5" Rough Country strut lift to get rid of the 2.5" lift spacer and leaky cartridges. Installed adjustable upper control arms to help reduce the negative camber. Had to remove part of the steering just to get one of the bolts out. No issues installing the bolt the other direction (roll eyes). Took an hour to get an ornery steering junction back together. The strut towers will get trimmed for clearance to move the upper ball joint farther in.

But the best part is installing the new camber bolts. Or not installing them, as the case may be. Front bolt on the driver side lower control arm is fused stuck bonded to the sleeve that's bonded to the rubber bushing. Even tried a sledgehammer. Won't budge. The only way to get the bolt out is cut it out, which means cutting up the lower control arm. They're rusty anyway.

Ordered a heavy duty pair from Z1 Off Road and in the description in red letters it states that the 'hardware may be seized and cutting the control arms may be the only way to remove the bolts.' Yep.

And Rough Country put the wrong rear shocks in the "Frontier" box. Bottom mounts are way smaller than the original with about 3 big washer's worth of space between the shock mount and axle mount. Picture on their webpage looks correct with larger mounts than I got. Emails to Rough Country customer service over the past week have gone unanswered. Time to start calling them.

Have used two cans of Rust Reformer on the Frontier so far. One more can should do it. That spindle used to be dark red.

 

[XionUAV]

Quick update. The Ranger should be going into the frame shop next week. The shop was scheduled out this week.

Hood should arrive tomorrow. Finally ordered a correct fender from Parts Geek. It's an Action Crash brand but it's CAPA certified, aluminum and has the proper front mount attached. At least it shows the mount in the product picture. Now I'm just hoping they show up undamaged.

In the meantime new lower control arms arrived for the Frontier. Why? Because one or more of the control arm bolts are seized. Need to get them out to install cam bolts. Only way they're coming out is by cutting them out. Gotta hate rust.

 

[XionUAV]

You know, I was excited to start this project because I could visualize the outcome. But the longer it goes the more I wish I would have just stuck with the Frontier. Yes, the Frontier has been a bit of a hassle fixing up as well, but not remotely as frustrating as the Ranger.

The last two big pieces for the Ranger were the fender and hood. Fender is on its way. Hood arrived Friday. While the driver was pulling the box from the trailer he said, "You'll want to make sure you inspect it because a lot of these hoods show up damaged." Great.

Sure enough, both sides of the hood from about the mid-point forward are bent under slightly where the hood banged against the edge of the box. It's made a crease where they've folded against the edge of the support underneath. There's also a ding on the left side and shallow bowl dent on top near the back right side. Body shop estimates about $450 to get the hood cleaned up. This is an OEM Ford hood.

The driver even commented that he doesn't understand why the people who pack the hoods for shipment don't do a better job. He documented the damage on the receipt and I've sent the information to the shipper.

The problems and hassles just seem to never end with this thing. My wife has told me I should cut my losses and get rid of it. But of course if I do that now it would be a huge financial loss. So I'll soldier on. But this will most definitely be the last time I do an automotive project of this nature.

Saving money is one thing, but there's a point where the frustration isn't worth it. I'm at that point.

 

[9zero1790]

You know, I was excited to start this project because I could visualize the outcome. But the longer it goes the more I wish I would have just stuck with the Frontier. Yes, the Frontier has been a bit of a hassle fixing up as well, but not remotely as frustrating as the Ranger.

The last two big pieces for the Ranger were the fender and hood. Fender is on its way. Hood arrived Friday. While the driver was pulling the box from the trailer he said, "You'll want to make sure you inspect it because a lot of these hoods show up damaged." Great.

Sure enough, both sides of the hood from about the mid-point forward are bent under slightly where the hood banged against the edge of the box. It's made a crease where they've folded against the edge of the support underneath. There's also a ding on the left side and shallow bowl dent on top near the back right side. Body shop estimates about $450 to get the hood cleaned up. This is an OEM Ford hood.

The driver even commented that he doesn't understand why the people who pack the hoods for shipment don't do a better job. He documented the damage on the receipt and I've sent the information to the shipper.

The problems and hassles just seem to never end with this thing. My wife has told me I should cut my losses and get rid of it. But of course if I do that now it would be a huge financial loss. So I'll soldier on. But this will most definitely be the last time I do an automotive project of this nature.

Saving money is one thing, but there's a point where the frustration isn't worth it. I'm at that point.

ouchies...
its tough to get big panels to show up without damage unless the packing is outstanding. vendors dont wanna pay for the packing. when i was a kid one of my jobs was repairing "new" parts when they came in.

 

[XionUAV]

A little good news, finally. The Ranger is at the body shop, and the fender showed up today. Amazingly it doesn't appear damaged even though it was in a stupid-big box with no packing inside. It was wrapped in some cute little cardboard clothes held together with string, like the flap on a manila envelope. Otherwise it was free to bounce around inside the giant box. Even the delivery driver thought it was odd to use such a huge box. Guess that's why the shipping was overly pricey at $200.

But hey, it's aluminum, mount is attached at the front and it appears to be damage free. At this point I'll take it.

 

[XionUAV]

On the rack. Took the hood and upper bumper cover down today. Originally the plan was to have the fender, hood and upper bumper cover painted and I'd install them. But to get the radiator support and other pieces aligned correctly, they need to hang the fenders and install the hood. Since the fenders are glued to the body at the door sill, it makes more sense for the shop to just install them. They also said it's easier to paint the parts on the vehicle.

Originally I was thinking of painting the pocket flares white to match the body color but now I'm thinking of going with the metallic charcoal grey like the original accent color.

 

[Synfulz]

A little good news, finally. The Ranger is at the body shop, and the fender showed up today. Amazingly it doesn't appear damaged even though it was in a stupid-big box with no packing inside. It was wrapped in some cute little cardboard clothes held together with string, like the flap on a manila envelope. Otherwise it was free to bounce around inside the giant box. Even the delivery driver thought it was odd to use such a huge box. Guess that's why the shipping was overly pricey at $200.

But hey, it's aluminum, mount is attached at the front and it appears to be damage free. At this point I'll take it.

I ordered a new front bumper cover for my 2003 Nissan Xterra. It came in a box like that, the cover was so small in the box. Lazy packaging.

 

[MountainGoat]

Now I'm wondering if I get hit in a fender and insurance/whatever replaces it, will I get downgraded to a steel fender? And have one steel and one aluminum? Another reason to get pissed off at Ford.

 

[XionUAV]

Now I'm wondering if I get hit in a fender and insurance/whatever replaces it, will I get downgraded to a steel fender? And have one steel and one aluminum? Another reason to get pissed off at Ford.

You should be able to specify what you want at a repair shop, provided the insurance company doesn't give you too much grief. But yeah, Ford OEM doesn't supply an aluminum replacement fender.

I was actually surprised the hood was aluminum when it arrived. When I questioned the dealer it was purchased from what the description said about the material, he said it didn't specify. Just read "hood panel."

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