Snowball 94 Limited

Hey I'm a long time reader and Just bought my first X Wednesday I love it.

She's a 1994 Limited.Named her Snowball (Sry If someone already had this name) I paid $1500 for her. She got a new Thermostat 2hrs after I bought her cause it locked up on me and over heated in the middle of the road. Her primary duty is going to be as a daily driver/Photography vehicle. I am an avid amateur photographer.

The day after I got her I took her out on her first photo Journey.
Here's some pics.

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She is replacing the 1989 Ranger my parents let me drive till I found my own and just like the Ranger I couldn't keep her on the pavement for long.

I also found a mound of gravel and flexed the suspension a bit.

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Her primary purpose will be to get me to college and back and do a little off-roading. She does have some problem but what 16yr old vehicle doesn't. I will eventually get some kind of lift but first is New/Used tires and a MAF.

Leave your opinions did I make a good purchase? What Kind of lift should I get it need to be cheap cause most of my money will be going to School.​

 

[willindsay]

Well the bumper is almost ready to be installed I got the holes cut for the tow hooks and it's been painted and cleared. The holes aren't the best looking but they get the job done. I'm gonna get some of that door edge guard stuff and see if it'll help to make a more finished look.

I might just end up getting a normal chrome bumper and painting it cause I'm not sure how long the paint is gonna hold up but time will tell. For now it's good enough for a 10foot paint job.

Now the pics.

The pics make it look much better than it is in real life.

 

[CDW6212R]

Try the spray paint made for touch ups, NAPA etc carry most colors, in or or two sizes of spray cans. It's much better paint than typical store paint.

 

[willindsay]

Try the spray paint made for touch ups, NAPA etc carry most colors, in or or two sizes of spray cans. It's much better paint than typical store paint.

I'm using the Duplicolor Oxford White paint from Autozone. It's better than typical paint but it doesn't seem to stick well on plastic, which is most of the front bumper. I've put about 4 coats of clear on everything now and it's gonna sit till Saturday, my next day off, most likely so it should be cured solidly. Most of the problem I think is this heat we've been having, I've been trying to do most of the painting in the morning or after the sun sets so it's not as hot.

 

[mr cribb]

Will,

Here's my findings from car-part.com: http://car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

 

[Joe Dirt]

Bad link...

 

[mr cribb]

Well crap I tried the link again.... Like Joe said bad link, either way on car-part the prices range from $15-$85 for limited fog lights, this is each then shipping so, I guess choose wisely? LOL

I know I wouldn't pay a hefty price for factory fogs that are close to 20 years old.

I found a beautiful pair outside of Nashville back in Feb, but the people behind the counter were @$$holes, so I decided against on giving them my hard earned money.

I chose the limited selection on car-part all of USA, to get my price range.

 

[willindsay]

Well crap I tried the link again.... Like Joe said bad link, either way on car-part the prices range from $15-$85 for limited fog lights, this is each then shipping so, I guess choose wisely? LOL

I know I wouldn't pay a hefty price for factory fogs that are close to 20 years old.

I found a beautiful pair outside of Nashville back in Feb, but the people behind the counter were @$$holes, so I decided against on giving them my hard earned money.

I chose the limited selection on car-part all of USA, to get my price range.

Ya I'm not lookin to pay more than 35$ for a pair of factory fog's. I'm just gonna keep my eye out for a pair at the junk yard.

I walked right past a set a couple months back and I'm still kickin myself for not gettin them cause every time since every Limited has been missin them.

 

[willindsay]

Bumper is finally back on. It's gonna require some tweaking down the road to get it perfect but it's good enough for now cause it's almost 100degrees outside right now.

Here's some pics.

The gap on each side of the bumper is what I don't like but it shouldn't be that hard to fix.

I also got a box of black magic and rain-x stuff today for free. It's mostly wheel and tire cleaner and a bunch of air filters but it's free so I'll put the stuff to use. There was also a bottle of Rain-x wax in there so in about a week I'll put a coat of wax on both the front and rear bumpers.

As of now I plan on getting my A/C fixed sometime this week long as it can be done for less than 400$. this heat is killer so now seems like a good time to fix it.

 

[mr cribb]

As of now I plan on getting my A/C fixed sometime this week long as it can be done for less than 400$. this heat is killer so now seems like a good time to fix it.

You should be able to. If I'm not mistaken you should already have R134a refrigerant in your system.

All car manufacturer's switched over to the more "Eco-friendly" R134a a/c refrigerant during the 93-94 model year. Some still used old R-12 until the last minute, but for the most part most everyone changed over.

If you're unsure look for a label, either on the radiator support or the blower motor cover near the firewall.

If you have the newer stuff, fixing shouldn't be hard at all. If you have to convert from the old stuff, every last drop of the old HAS to be evacuated from it.... if the 2 oils mix it causes a/c black death resulting in entire system replacement

 

[willindsay]

Mine is R134a from the factory. I already have a new drier and orifice tube so I don't have to pay for those the only problem is the Evaporator Core. The orifice tube broke off in the evap core last time I had it worked on and that's where I quit last summer as I had no extra money to get it fixed.

If I remember correctly it was about 140$ in labor to remove the core and try and get the suck portion out; if it didn't come out it be around 100$ for a new core plus the cost to refill it which I think is about 70$.

So adding all that up I come out with $310 which leaves 90$ for anything unexpected. So I see no problem in getting it fixed for 400$ just have to drop it off and let them work on it.


Had a bad storm pass through when I was gettin ready to call the shop so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to give them a call and get some quotes.


I did do some work on the explorer today I cleaned the interior and the front windows. I also treated the windshield and rear window with some rain-x and I'm surprised at the difference it makes in how the water slides right off.

 

[CDW6212R]

If you can go to Knoxville, try Vol Radiator, my choice for AC work. That may not help for a big job like you apparently need now, because the wait time is more and the distance makes it a bigger deal to get in and out predictably. For normal work driving 45 miles wouldn't be bad if you can save money and know how long you would be there.

 

[mr cribb]

Sweet I think I will be on a look out in the junkyards for an entire 134a system, just for spits n giggles.

Mine is the old r12 and it blows hot air, but if I can get my hands on some factory 134a stuff, it'd be a step in the right direction.

It was supposed to cost me $200ish to convert mine, assuming there were no problems.




*post #1100*

 

[willindsay]

Well no work has happened on the explorer lately. I did drop it off at the repair shop last Wed but they said they were a mechanic down and couldn't look at it. They didn't bother to call me and let me know that so I wasn't too happy. He said he should have time to work on it this Wed so I'm gonna call them tomorrow morn and double check and drop it off so I can hopefully get it fixed.

Since it was a nice day last Wed I did have a chance to work on my GF car and clean her TB and check the plugs. Plus I found the coil on her car was sparkin to ground causing an occasional miss. So I showed her how to replace that and then we had to change one of her headlight bulbs.

Today I managed to have some time to work on Snowball I installed the door edge guard around the tow hook holes and it looks much better. I also rewired the front underglow light back up.

 

[willindsay]

Well the Explorer spent the last 2 days in the shop. They were able to fix the evaporator core and save me from having to buy a new one. After that was fixed they closed up the system and vacuumed it then recharged it.

Some time between their recharge and me picking it up the low pressure side of the double hose blew out right at the crimp next to the alternator. So I'm into the A/C system another 250$ and still have no cold air.

I have to look at my pay check and see if I have enough to dump another 90$ for a recharge and around 100$ more for the double hose assembly. They said I could pick up the hose at a junkyard for cheap but I'm not sure I want to replace a 20yr old part with another 20yr old one.

Ugh this truck really knows how to push my buttons sometimes.

 

[willindsay]

Well I found the hose I need on Ebay last night for 60$ I can live with that price. I think I'm gonna install it myself cause it's only one bolt and 2 garter spring things (I think that's the right name??) So it will be easy. After that it's another 90$ for a recharge.

If it don't work then I am done till next summer as that'll be the end of my 400$ budget.

 

[FIND]

Good luck with it. Those hoses aren't bad to install. By the way, backing up a bit, your bumper looks great!

 

[willindsay]

Good luck with it. Those hoses aren't bad to install. By the way, backing up a bit, your bumper looks great!

Thanks. I just finished the final touches on the bumper a couple days ago. I trimmed the tow hook holes with some door edge trim.

The hose should be easy to replace. I took some pics of the work that was done on the A/C system and the hole the blew in the hose.

New drier and pressure switch.

Evap Core repair. Not a great pic but this is pretty much buried in the engine bay.

And here's the hole that blew in the low side hose.

And also I took some pics of where the double hose connects at.

back of the compressor. One bolt holds it on to the compressor.

And here's where the high side connects to the accumulator in front of the grill.

The last connection is shown in the first A/C pic and it's on the drier.

I ordered the hose a couple hrs ago so hopefully it'll be here first of the week.

 

[willindsay]

I forgot to mention that I had some spare time today so I pulled a couple of the plugs and they look good to me.

I only pulled the front 2 on the driver side cause I didn't want to go through the hassle of pullin the old plugs old to put back the old plug. I just wanted to see what condition they were in.

Here's a pic of the very front one on the driver side.

 

[mr cribb]

I found a white 94 Limited at the local yard this afternoon, front bumper was gone rear was there and in VG condition.

It had tan w/ purple striping on the seats, the leather was okay at best.

I wasn't sure if you were after any extra parts or not, thought I'd let you know.

 

[willindsay]

Well today is my day off so I figured I do some work on the explorer.

The first project I worked on was figuring out how to mount the police spot light with what I had on hand. I'm fairly positive that I am going to mount it on the door up near the part where the mirror mounts. I got the mount installed today but my drill died when I went to drill the hole for the light arm to go through.

Since I had the panel off already I figured I I'd take dust seal off as it had fallen to pieced from me workin on diff things on the door. I decided to go all Joe dirt on it and clean it it up real good to since I was gonna install some sound deadening on it.

Now I did a lot of research last night on what was the best bang for your buck sound deadening material. My findings revealed that all the stuff marketed for actual automotive use was too expensive for what it did. What seemed to be the most popular stuff was... Peal and Seal roof patch material. The only negative things I read about it was that some people occasional had a bad smell from it and that it would fall off if not applied when it was warm. The smell I wasn't worried about cause most of the time you'd only find people complaining about it on audio forums. The concensious about making it stay put was to thoroughly clean the panel and then to heat the material with a heat gun before applying.

Here's what I picked up from Lowe's for just over 20$.

The Peal and Seal is found in the roofing section and the roller can be found with the wall paper.

I went from this.

to this.

I'm gonna do a write up on it in the Audio section. When I'm done I'll add the ling to this post.

Write up http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3009197#post3009197