Build up of the Orangploder

Here's a quick show of how my ride has grown up. I'll keep posting updates to this thread as the life of my explorer rides on.
Mine when I first got it



Then came the two-tone



New tail lights and headlight covers




Dual Exhaust after two-tone



33's, TT, Shackles, 4dr leaf pack, Custom built roof rack w/ lights, custom reese hitch




33's added 3" BL



Now 35's


My brother is 6', and he's next to our stock '99 Suburban

There's the whole walk-through of what mine transformed from! More pics to come later.

nice

yeah man that looks good! i'm likin the two tone! it's always nice to see a muddy a$$ truck!

Looks like you may have a small front end camber problem, but a sexy truck either way.

Looks like fun! The two-tone came out nice.

Thanks... I'm actually going to possibly buy another Ex today... Its a 98 4dr. EB. V8, Blue over tan, frontend wreck, $800... so yea.. but a friend will be buying it off of me when it's fixed...

Painting Steps:

Within the first hour we were at my cousins shop in IN. we had the fenderflares off, along with rockers.



Driverside rear part of the rocker/front of the wheelwell had some bad rust. We ended up replacing the rockers and the corner.



And the rust on the rockers.



Small rust spot on front passenger side. My younger brother Dylan working on the back with the D-A with a foam pad. We used rust converter and preventer.



Back frenderflare removed.



Removed front grille to be painted.



Taillights removed.



Rear gate emblem removed along with treat/converting the rust on the gate.


Hard to see this thing w/o hitch and dual exhaust.

Next was to lay out the tape to find where we wanted the two-tone.



We thought the mustang scoup would look sweet, but I favor the cowl hood better.



And we got any good pictures of it being painted... but we used the D-A on the rusty spots and the rest we just red scotch bright padded it.

Here's the one day old paint. It's alittle dull now.. it needs a good buffing.



Here's some of our current projects.


Mine's the Red 84 Gt, My brothers' is the 90 LX, both are hatchbacks

I don't really have much other pics... I took some during the BL, and all the swapping of tires, and some of the exhaust... I still have to post them.

NEW WHOLE STAGE TO ADD... the 302 swap...

here's pics of the motor and all that stuff from the donor....



I plan on using the 4.0 a/c stuff so i don't have to pull it off the firewall

We pulled off the huge bumper... which again didn't get updated pics of yet, along with the cowl hood.

(left) friend Tyler, we call him little Tyler b/c we both are Tyler, but he's younger (right) Younger brother Dylan
Then took the hood off... getting ready to drain radiator

Radiator out, Intake off,

Water in the lower intake,

What we left with after 2 hrs of work tonight...

Here's the V8 started tearing it down.


Trans. taken off.

V8 sitting waiting to be freshened up..


Started on getting it ready for the rebuild


Couldn't quite get the motor out with the chain hoist, the oil pan wouldn't clear the core support or fenders. And this was with the tires off and the spindles on the car lift.



So the tractor came to the rescue... still barely making it out ...


The V6 sitting on the floor, dang it's larger than what I thought it would be.

The engine compartment is so HuGe with nothing in it. So I painted the firewall, and put the V8 brain in.



We also started painting some components...




I based the intake off of what Proformz has done.


But I'm painting the block different.

Here's some better pics. of the intake.





Here's the trans. and t-case together and painted.

Pistons pulled.. changed to new chromoly rigs and new bearings.. (not in pic)


Here's the best stuff you'll find to clean up cast aluminum... my brother got it from his work, they use it on the dump trailers though... you can find it sometimes at truck stops.
It's from California Customs.

Just look how well it did on the intake manifold


Here's the block painted before going in, my brother broke the timing cover, so he's got to get another one. The accessory brackets are black, timing cover will be silver.

First to start off with the goods...
I got a intake spacer...
And the electric fan... The only bad is that when I went to test fit it after the motor was in it wouldn't clear the waterpump, idler, and hermonic balance... so it's going to lose some extra pounds and get skiny to fit in there.


I had to pickup some new plugs... so I went standard/platinum...


Here's some teaser pics... some final assembly before install



Ohh.. don't mind the finger... my younger brother didn't know until I showed him the photo... So I HAD to post it... hahahah


So here's the idea we came up with to be able to get the motor back in, drop the front end down even lower with the spindles just resting on deck lumber... it worked though.


The motor had to be lifted to as far as the hoist would allow to clear the fenders....






Then we had to ever so slowly let it down...


With the accessorie brackets on we had about an inch front and back to work with.


Then we ran into a problem... we had left the factory V6 mounts on the frame... b/c I thought it would bolt right up, well it didn't... The passenger side bolted right up... the driver's side did not... So since to be able to pull those brackets off we would've had to drop the front axle.. we did the next best thing... we took the V6 motor mount and traced the hole pattern to the V8 mount... Drilled it out.. and it dropped right on.

Without the intake the motor is SO far down there... plus the fact I have a BL... it made it much easier to get to all the exhaust manifold bolts... and the engine mount bolts.


Here's the BEST part... the finally resting place with the intake on...







Sorry about the blurry pictures.... it was 11:30 by time I locked up the barn and the Blackberry takes good pics... but sometimes they come out pretty blurry.

Here's a couple better engine shots:

Here's a couple good pics...

I have a good friend with a sticker/sign shop and he made me a couple forum stickers....4
There is a explorerforum.com on the back window

i love this truck. you'll go far in your schooling as well.