edman1000
Active Member
- Joined
- June 18, 2011
- Messages
- 61
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Eden, Ny
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '97 Sport
Well, Apparently I’ve caught something because I can’t stop buying Explorer’s now… Just picked up an ’03 Sport Trac with only 63K on it. Silver (did I mention I hate silver vehicles….) It’s very clean (not as clean as my green ’97) but clean for a northern vehicle. Apparently it’s from southern Jersey. It does however have a salvage title which doesn’t bother me. It got crinkled right below the passenger side rear door. New door and rocker chunk (common theme in my life) and it looks fine. I checked over the repair and he did a decent job. The rest of the body looks good too. Only minor surface rust underneath around the holes. I’ll touch up anything bad an oil the piss outta it and it’ll be fine for the next ten years! Any way, you guys don’t want to hear my life’s story so here ya go…
As you can see from the pictures, she’s a virgin…
Future plans: I don’t do any serious expeditions or anything but I live in farm country and do get into the slop from time to time so essentially it’ll be a mall crawler/DD.
- Body lift for now til I get the budget for something else. (any experiences with BL’s is welcomed. Who makes the best one?)
- I got a set of warrior shackles off a parts truck I bought (cant just leave them lay there!) those along with the coil overs I did in my sport gave me 3”. Will need to level out the front to match and although I heard they ride like crap, may do torsion keys for the time being. So this and the body lift will give me at least 5”
- Eventually will do an Over the axle in the back but would like to figure out the front first. Don’t want any more then 5 or 6” total (so may have to take the BL back out at this point but I doubt that happen and I’ll end up with 8-9” total…smh). Have been contemplating a solid axle swap or a superlift coil conversion??….
- Rims - I got a set of 15x8 aluminums left off my ranger that I’ll throw some 33’s on for now. Would like to get a set of bigger dia (17 or 18) and run a lower profile off road tire on it but I need to do more home work as to what looks stupid. Any pointers on rim size would be helpful… not going to Rock crawl or anything so not having a big sidewall is fine.
- Plastics – These are faded an look like crap. The plastic used in ’03 sucks. I’m definetly gonna paint or rhino line them. Was thinking matte black or dark gray… any thoughts? What would go good with the silver ?(did I mention I hate silver vehicles….) I seen a silver Escape the other day with the trim painted Gloss black an almost puked so now I’m worried about black although Matte would look better than gloss.
- Front end – Although it is growing on me as of recently, I hate the front ends on these (an the ’01-03 sports.. sorry if I offend anyone) was thinking of doing something like an ’03 ranger fx4 grille an bumper… thoughts? I’ll probably just leave it alone though…. Well maybe a Pre-runner bumper or such…?
Thanks guys!
As you can see from the pictures, she’s a virgin…
Future plans: I don’t do any serious expeditions or anything but I live in farm country and do get into the slop from time to time so essentially it’ll be a mall crawler/DD.
- Body lift for now til I get the budget for something else. (any experiences with BL’s is welcomed. Who makes the best one?)
- I got a set of warrior shackles off a parts truck I bought (cant just leave them lay there!) those along with the coil overs I did in my sport gave me 3”. Will need to level out the front to match and although I heard they ride like crap, may do torsion keys for the time being. So this and the body lift will give me at least 5”
- Eventually will do an Over the axle in the back but would like to figure out the front first. Don’t want any more then 5 or 6” total (so may have to take the BL back out at this point but I doubt that happen and I’ll end up with 8-9” total…smh). Have been contemplating a solid axle swap or a superlift coil conversion??….
- Rims - I got a set of 15x8 aluminums left off my ranger that I’ll throw some 33’s on for now. Would like to get a set of bigger dia (17 or 18) and run a lower profile off road tire on it but I need to do more home work as to what looks stupid. Any pointers on rim size would be helpful… not going to Rock crawl or anything so not having a big sidewall is fine.
- Plastics – These are faded an look like crap. The plastic used in ’03 sucks. I’m definetly gonna paint or rhino line them. Was thinking matte black or dark gray… any thoughts? What would go good with the silver ?(did I mention I hate silver vehicles….) I seen a silver Escape the other day with the trim painted Gloss black an almost puked so now I’m worried about black although Matte would look better than gloss.
- Front end – Although it is growing on me as of recently, I hate the front ends on these (an the ’01-03 sports.. sorry if I offend anyone) was thinking of doing something like an ’03 ranger fx4 grille an bumper… thoughts? I’ll probably just leave it alone though…. Well maybe a Pre-runner bumper or such…?
Thanks guys!