Body Work & Detailing

Hey guys, I have an '04 Explorer and the rear lift gate panel cracked right next to the Ford emblem. I took it to the dealer ship and they said it was not covered under the warranty the I have. I have the bumper to bumper warranty but it was going to cost me about 2K to get it fixed because it was not covered in the warranty. Has anyone had this problem too?

Had a few spare hours today so I decided to start cleaning up my Explorer that I just bought last Thursday. I got pretty far. I got most of the swirls out, roughly 80-90%, cleaned under the wheel wells and removed the water spots off the glass. Next day off I'll be re-vamping the plastics and shining the wheels. Pics of progress today: emblems first: After wash and clay bar it's ready for buffing+polish: Hit up the water spots as well: Results from today: Hopefully I'll have better lighting for pics when it's 100% complete.

here's the story: sometime late june, im out hanging with a mate and a couple ladies. im out on the front lawn doing a whole lot of nothing. i take a look at my dad's truck and realize the bumpers pretty out of alignment and theres cracks in the fibreglass. i run upstairs. "what the ####! did someone hit the truck?!" "oh. i backed into a concrete post today, it was about 3ft tall. didnt see it." (embarassing pause :o) haha. oh well. so my dad left the truck at home one day and i dived into it with a fibreglass repair kit. seeing as i'd never done it before, it turned out pretty damn good! before: in the process: i unfourtunately dont have an after pic at the moment. its been a long time and its still sitting in black primer. it...

Hello All! This is my first post on the forum. We love our '02 XLS but have one irritant that we can't seem to fix. Back about a year ago, we got the panel immediately below the rear window whacked by the ladder hanging on the side of a service truck (They left without contacting us :mad: :mad: ) I'm not sure that even matters, though. We've taken it to a local body shop THREE times now to have it reglued!!! Has any one else had a problem with this panel or having it reglued? Any help/advice would be much appreciated...thanks in advance! :)

This might be a stupid question, but has anybody tried to put a bumper from a 2002 Explorer on a 2nd gen? After looking at many pics of them, I think it could bolt right up. Any thoughts?

I've got an '02 Eddie Bauer that's developed a serious problem with the upper glass portion of the lift gate. This is the one that now has a recall due to hinge failure. Mine has gotten harder to latch recently and even opened itself a couple of times before we were made aware of the hinge issue. The local dealership is handling that issue next week. But that's not the really irritating problem that I'm having. About one month ago, I notice a small horizontal crack near the top center of the lower painted section of the upper glass liftgate. This at first surprised me as I thought this panel was metal and discovered that it's plastic. This crack rapidly worsened in a matter of days and then developed into a complete vertical...

let me know if you know... http://columbus.craigslist.org/pts/720986033.html

Well, I guess it's that much because I went and got an estimate from the best body shop in Richmond, VA. Crappy thing is....they won't even paint it a different color....I wanna go from the factory goldish brown to a gun-metal grey. Oh well....I guess I'll start saving my money after I finish my engine work :)

My Explorer, pictured below, has a very destinctive wave decal on it. I'm going to have the car painted and would like to replace the decals. Does anyone know where I could find similar ones? Thanks.

Well the time has come. I'm sick off seeing all the rust bubbles on my truck. The previous owners noticed rust coming in through the door wells and on the doglegs. So instead of fixing it properly they put this 'rock-guard' stuff on it and trapped all the rust inside. So I'm gonna do a 'custom' job to the truck and cut the lower half of the truck off and see what I feel like when I fab it back togeether. Has anyone done this before? Are there any lines or wires inside that I might not want to cut through?

Fixing my rusty rocker panels is my first body work project. The only online places I could find replacement 2-door rocker panels was Raybuck & LMC, both are $40, but LMC's shipping is cheaper by about $2. I called a local place and they said they don't have anything. So I just received my LMC "rocker panel" [which by the way is made by CHL Auto Parts (LMC won't tell you who manufactures their stuff on the phone)]. Anyway, I now notice the sticker on it includes the words "slip on". There's not a ton about this online. Are there really 2 different types of panels? Are Slip-On panels really meant to be put OVER the rusted rocker panels or is this just a poor choice of terminology like "slip-on exhausts" for motorcycles...

saw an ex with the word "EXPLORER" within the pinstriping. It was at the rear justin front of the tail light anyone know where to get this....thanks

I'm having a big problem with the fake chrome (on the plastic portion that runs around the grill) wrinkling up and looking bad, at least in my opinion. I was wondering what's the best way to fix this? Do E.B. editions have an actual chrome/metal parts there instead of the (it appears to be) plastic that my 98 XLT has? Even if it's not chromed I'm sure I could find a place that'd do it... But I'd really rather not have another plastic part on the X :P It has enough already... -Mook

Well, today it started, i am repainting/undercoating the rear end on the explorer for carlisile. I will be doing the frame till were it meets the rear passenger door on both sides then i will be undercoating the under side were the spare tire is held. This i hope will take me a few days but we will see. The gas tank skide plate and sway bars will be painted wheelhorse red.... :rolleyes: ...gotta love that color. I will update the thread every few days and tell u guyz how its going. If u got any questions comments or recomendations id be glade to read them. Also, while i was taking stuff off the x today, i was wonder what this is...Me and the dad gessed was a fume canister for the gas tank...anyone know for sure??? Picture of...