SNJ's Rig (full build progress thread)

[RaveDigger]

Hey SNJ, I was thinking of doing a camo paint scheme on my 2nd gen Exploder and I came across this thread and you've done EXACTLY what I was planning on. I read the entire thread and you've done awesome work with your truck.

I'm just curious about the paint, did you bother priming before you put down the OD? Also, how has the paint stood up? I'm in MA and we get lots of snow and road salt, so I'm worried that mine will end up peeling off, so I'm wondering about the durability.

Any tips you can provide as far as the entire process goes would be hugely appreciated. Keep up the good work, I enjoyed reading your thread last night until about 1am!

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

i didnt prime... my advice to you... PRIME THE DAMN THING!

actually if i had to do it again i thik id roll the base coat and then spray the brown and black

it holds up ok. not great. it chips i touch it up, no biggie

it looks great from like 5 feet away. you get close and you can see all the re sprayed spots, the runs, etc

always glad to know that someone enjoys reading this 20 something pages of special i call a thread.

while im here, sliders are now black.
parking breaks are atleast temporarily gone, they dont reach anymore

and SOMEBODY... anming no names... ME... needs to be a little more on top of hub play... im about the 1K mile mark since shes alive again, and i had a bit in both sides.... tightened em up, so the front ends happy again

 

[RaveDigger]

Thanks for the info, I guess I'll take the extra time and lay down some primer!

Keep up the good work!

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

I am a very happy man right now

i run 35s... theyre big... they rub... like alot... well not any more...

springs settled in a bit so now the rub has just gotten anoying

i still had the set of shackles and the f150 spacers lying around so i thew em in tonight, the 2 inch difference really made more then i expected on the clearance, i can now turn lock to lock when local driving on not catch anything.

I did a rough guestimation of an alignment, well really more like 10 rough guestimations, but i seem to have it reasonably corect as well, atleast corect enough it didnt try to kill me on the way home. ill have enough within the 3 degree bushings to actually get it to where it should be, so im stoked

ANNNDDD... yes theres more..

i can still get it through the garage door. i dont know how, but it fit
well actually let me clarify that, it fit through the one garage door. i recently found out that the garage to the rights door opens 80 inches... the one to the left only opens 76 inches due tho the way the doors are designed... im not sure if its gonna sneak into that one.

not sure if you can see the diff, but heres the current stance.

its currently siting about 10" over the stock 94 from ground to a common point. so if if figure the diff from the ~29" tires on the 94 to the 35s thats 3 inches of height, witch means im sitin on almost 7" of suspension lift right now

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

spent the early afternoon straigtenting up the back room to give me some room to put more stuff

i then put a few hours into riping the interior out of the 94 LTD today

and just for the record i still hate tho T50s that hold the front seatbelts in

 

[RaveDigger]

I actually broke two T50 bits trying to remove the seatbelt bolts. I got the drivers side out just fine, but the passenger side I had to give up on. Whoever owned the truck before me somehow managed to get all of the seatbelts twisted. I untwisted all except the front passenger.

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

went through atleast 3 or 4 of them swapping the seats from the white 94 to the 91

 

[RaveDigger]

It's payback for living in the northeast...

 

[Spas]

I really think someone at Ford torqued those sumb!tches down with a 1" rachet and a 5 foot piece of pipe. I think I've broken at least 4. The Snap-on guy even sold me one that was extra beefy since he was getting tired of replacing the bits... broke that one too

 

[BobWiersema]

I really think someone at Ford torqued those sumb!tches down with a 1" rachet and a 5 foot piece of pipe. I think I've broken at least 4. The Snap-on guy even sold me one that was extra beefy since he was getting tired of replacing the bits... broke that one too

I have a t50 I twisted like a pretzel changing breaks on my brothers Escalade. I found a impact set at a local parts place/shop that did the trick. I think it was a Snap-on or Mack set. Cost a good buck, but the rule is, if I need tools to fix your truck, you buy them and I keep them.

By the way, SuRrEaLNJ I need puddle light lenses for my 98. Does your donor have any?

Bob

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

By the way, SuRrEaLNJ I need puddle light lenses for my 98. Does your donor have any?

Bob

neither spare set of mirrors i have has them, sorry

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

anybody remember back in 07, on like page 6 i was *****in about having no radio?

and then i got it to work beacue i missed a plug, and then life was good... except for the fact that ive been dragging a jbl amp and sub that were dead weight around until tonight.

now keep in mind i let this slide for a long time out of sheer laziness, but tonight was a night for electrical work, so it became priority again... low and behold one frickin splice later i have a fully working sub and amp now... yea, i failed to realize all i was misin was hot and ground to the amp for the sub...

i had the black one hooked up but not the silver one,

shows how much my understanding of all things electric has changed

i also swaped out the front speakers with the ones from the limited as they never were quite the same after the incident at lake christy

while i was at the door panels i threw on the limited's as mine were all kinds of falling apart, with oversized washers keepin the crews from pulin through, and the pass actually split along the window switch

i ripped the seats out, and also pulled the center console. when i put munk together i had omitted the duct for the head vent for the back seat and regretted it ever since in the winter so now thats back

i then added a new power distribution box. right now its just for the seats, but itll give me some flexibility to work with from here on out

]

and then lastly i started wiring up the new seats. i got the power for both sides routed, but i was geting tired and i failed to bring home ring terminals big enough to ground to the seat bolts, so i called it a night.

im omiting all memory functions and theoretically just running it as a normal power seat, if my interpretation of the system is right that is.

the power for the passenger's is gonna be spliced from the driver's feed and routed under the console. figured itd keep things cleaner that way

 

[Spas]

Now that you have a leather interior, you do realize that I'm going drag you back to Lake Christy just on principle, right?

Seriously, it makes me happy that I'm not the only one loony enough to swap leather seats into my four wheeler

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

to be honest i wish they werent leather

this truck originally came with a bench front, i then swaped in a set of high back buckets from a 94 xlt.

they were better, but the drivers cushion is a little tired and to be honest either im short or the seat is to low. i sat higher in the 05, and i have my focus's seat height cranked all the way up. im taking em primarily for the adjustability of the driver's position and because well theyre way more comfier

they will be under a seat cover as soon as i get them both in. actually im kindof disapointed that the cheap ass "type s" camo covers i had dont come in a low back version

the pasenger seat is in, and it works. the drivers seat is waiting on a trim repair to dry over night. the trim peice was broken and its easier to fix with the seat out of the truck, so i let it dry. my good old standby of hot melt failed already so i tried a ****load of silicone adhesive.

i swaped climate controll heads as mine dosnt want to lite up anymore, and ifound out why everyone uses the recirc door to tap into for the heatercore bypas valve. i forgot that was the only vacumme circuit in the system

and i had one of those youve got to be kidding me moments tonight. the 94's dome light is like way brighter then mine was, so i poped the cover on mine and found a 194 bulb in there. what the hell was i thinking on that one i wonder

and no more lake chiysty, i totaled this thing once. id like to get more then 3k miles out of it in this incarnation thank you :

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

seat swap is done. both of em work, power to all functions including the doofy inflatable lumbar thing

no memory, even though the switch is in the drivers door panel i swapped over. an inop switch is better then a hole. i didn't care for memory so it wasn't worth the time

and yes, i covered em with my old seat covers :

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

was gonna stal the 94's heater core shutoof, but it was all brittle, so i got a new one today. hopefully thisll help keep cabin temps down this summer a bit

wow, thats a really crappy pic... only one i took and im not goin downstairs to take another... your stuck

EDIT: almost forgot to add, found out you cant overflow my tank, it comes back out... guess somebody dropped the ball in reusing that rusty old fuel pump retaining ring...

 

[parli22]

Thank god carisle came around otherwise nothing would have got your lazy ass moving on that truck

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

hay i was thinking of you when my god damned rear hatch wouldnt open today :

honestly carlisle caused me to set a date, but a re prioritizing (yet again i know) of what I want in MY life was the real motivation to get me workin on my rig again. speaking of guess who actually went wheeling today

pics stolen from Bstarz65

and um my shift motor is somewhere in the back of the truck. i pushed the button and nothing... not even a relay click. ripped the motor off and manually engaged/disengaged it all day

left the breather for the front to long i guess, wraped it around the front driveshaft somehow.

got a new noise up front, sounds like the tensioner pulley is gonna need replacin soon

i cant say i asked all that much of her with strenuous tecknical wheeling, but i can say that for her first trip out since the redoo im verry happy. i cruised down the trunpike at 65-70... took anything i threw at her on the trails like a champ, i then cruised back up the parkway at 65-75. its just this side of a 2 hour trip to get down there. and to top it off on the way home i got 15.94 mpg calculated. and i know my spedo/odo is dead on the money because ive been using ridgefield parks speed traps to check my calibration

got some stuff to deal with but bring on rausch creek!!!

 

[corkey]

hmm after looking at your fender flares in that one pic , i gotta get out the sawzall, and make room, i need a 12.5 inch tire and some of them flares now,

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

4x4 shift module question

I lost 4 wheel drive yestarday, tonight i opened upp the shift motor, wich is kinda beat but im not 100% sure its my problem.

i pushed that little self diagnostic on the module and got the steady red light, wich in my reading means that the module is done. flashing would be normal and no light would be a power or ground issue, corect.

i then went and swaped a nother module i had, still no 4 wheel drive, push the white button and low and behold steady light. wich would then mean i have 2 bad modules, in adition to a shift motor that looks prettu haggared on the inside.

all thats enough to make me sit back and scratch my head and look for a little bit of guidance as to if i should focus on the module or the motor first