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Senior Master Grease Monkey
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Article Contributor
Ford Technician
TRS 20th Anniversary
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
- Messages
- 34,623
- Reaction score
- 3,640
- Location
- Dillsburg PA
- Vehicle Year
- 1987
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Type
- 4.0 V6
- Engine Size
- 4.0
- Transmission
- Manual
- 2WD / 4WD
- 4WD
- Tire Size
- 31X10.50X15
Alright, next build.
This is the wife's new-to-us 05 Explorer. She will replace the 2010 Escape, not that we want to get rid of the Escape, but we want to get rid of the car payment, we need something bigger, and the price was right.
A little hail damage on the passenger side, no big deal. It will need a new hood though.
Here is where hail pushed the lift gate UP, that's been fixed already.
Anyway, mod #1, the most important, and usually one of the first five things I do to any new car...
Seats:
I hate leather seats. Hate them.
So worn leather out, much better condition cloth in.
Turns out 02 Explorer seats are not plug and play in an 05. Had to do some.... surgery, yeah, we'll go with "surgery"
I had to swap the seat back, lower cushion, and covers from the 02 seat onto the 05 bottom frame because all the plugs, for the air bag stuff, and the seat motors, were different. I wasn't able to save the power lumbar adjust because the way the adjusters attach to the frame is different. So it's manual now.
For anyone who has ever wondered, this is what an Explorer looks like with no seats.
Took the opportunity to clean her up real good
The hail that dinged up the right side of the body also took out the right rear window, and sent glass everywhere. Taking the seats out was the only way to get all of it.
This is my fish tank
Just see who is paying attention.
And here is the dimly light end result, got it all in just as we were loosing the light.
The front passenger seat was much easier to convert than the driver's seat. It's all manual, so i just had to swap the seat belt buckle/pretensioner to get the right plugs.
Next on the list will be a new radio. She went for two days without her USB and aux radio inputs before coming home and telling me she needed a new radio.
Already had this picked out:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_158WXGT90B/Sony-WX-GT90BT.html?tp=5684
It ought to do a fairly good job of replacing the Sync system in the Escape. Can't remember the last time we actually used it to make a phone call anyway.
Then the rear end needs rebuilt. It whines at 60+. It will be getting a Trac-Loc carrier installed when I rebuild it. My truck will be donating it's LSD unit to the Explorer, more on that in that build thread though.
Then just the cosmetics to fix, ding and dent stuff, needs a hood, the wiper cowl is destroyed.
This should be a fun little project. It's at least making her understand my obsession with building my cars and making them what I want them to be. She was all over craigslist the other night looking for parts we need for this thing, getting all excited when she found something.
This is the wife's new-to-us 05 Explorer. She will replace the 2010 Escape, not that we want to get rid of the Escape, but we want to get rid of the car payment, we need something bigger, and the price was right.
A little hail damage on the passenger side, no big deal. It will need a new hood though.
Here is where hail pushed the lift gate UP, that's been fixed already.
Anyway, mod #1, the most important, and usually one of the first five things I do to any new car...
Seats:
I hate leather seats. Hate them.
So worn leather out, much better condition cloth in.
Turns out 02 Explorer seats are not plug and play in an 05. Had to do some.... surgery, yeah, we'll go with "surgery"
I had to swap the seat back, lower cushion, and covers from the 02 seat onto the 05 bottom frame because all the plugs, for the air bag stuff, and the seat motors, were different. I wasn't able to save the power lumbar adjust because the way the adjusters attach to the frame is different. So it's manual now.
For anyone who has ever wondered, this is what an Explorer looks like with no seats.
Took the opportunity to clean her up real good
The hail that dinged up the right side of the body also took out the right rear window, and sent glass everywhere. Taking the seats out was the only way to get all of it.
This is my fish tank
Just see who is paying attention.
And here is the dimly light end result, got it all in just as we were loosing the light.
The front passenger seat was much easier to convert than the driver's seat. It's all manual, so i just had to swap the seat belt buckle/pretensioner to get the right plugs.
Next on the list will be a new radio. She went for two days without her USB and aux radio inputs before coming home and telling me she needed a new radio.
Already had this picked out:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_158WXGT90B/Sony-WX-GT90BT.html?tp=5684
It ought to do a fairly good job of replacing the Sync system in the Escape. Can't remember the last time we actually used it to make a phone call anyway.
Then the rear end needs rebuilt. It whines at 60+. It will be getting a Trac-Loc carrier installed when I rebuild it. My truck will be donating it's LSD unit to the Explorer, more on that in that build thread though.
Then just the cosmetics to fix, ding and dent stuff, needs a hood, the wiper cowl is destroyed.
This should be a fun little project. It's at least making her understand my obsession with building my cars and making them what I want them to be. She was all over craigslist the other night looking for parts we need for this thing, getting all excited when she found something.
