What did you do to your 5th Gen?

[Grok]

How hard was it to clay bar? Mines all black and I'm really nervous to do it and ruin the paint. Any tips?

Hit Youtube brother. Thinking should be the opposite -- if I don't clay my paint, I could ruin it. Dirt and other contaminants on the paint can get pushed around while you're washing and polishing, causing small scratches. The clay bar lifts those off, at no risk to your 2017 paint. Rotate the clay often to keep any contaminants off the surface that's on the paint. Spray often to keep it lubed.

 

[Darkiron90]

View attachment 85534 View attachment 85535 So she got her first hand wash today...dam she's a lot bigger than the 2nd Gen ...put 2 coats of wax on the rims and exhaust tips...is it me or do these brakes put out a lot of brake dust?...I feel I am cleaning them after every trip...also what are you guys using to shine up the black moldings on the bottom? I put a little tire shine on a rag and hit all the trim I like the wet look a lot better...overall 812 miles in and loving this explorer!!!

I've been using chemical guys VPN. Stuff is amazing. It's not greasy and it dries to the touch. Leaves that dark shiny look but dried to a hard shell that repels dirt.

 

[Darkiron90]

Installed a powered sub woofer Kenwood KSC SW11, I placed it under the middle seat of the 2nd row seat, it fits just enough, I was able route a 10 gauge wire on the grommet being used for the rear windshield washer line behind the glove box, it's a pain to get to but no drilling needed. before that I also replaced the 4 speakers front and rear with JBLs 6x9 (3way) and 5.25 (2 way). It now sounds a real premium sounds.

View attachment 91594

View attachment 91595

Where did you put your sub? How hard was it to run all the wiring to the stereo? Or did you use the speaker for audio.

 

[peterk9]

How hard was it to clay bar? Mines all black and I'm really nervous to do it and ruin the paint. Any tips?

Welcome to the Forum.
Thank you also for supporting the site through your Elite Explorer membership.

Peter

 

[Darkiron90]

Hit Youtube brother. Thinking should be the opposite -- if I don't clay my paint, I could ruin it. Dirt and other contaminants on the paint can get pushed around while you're washing and polishing, causing small scratches. The clay bar lifts those off, at no risk to your 2017 paint. Rotate the clay often to keep any contaminants off the surface that's on the paint. Spray often to keep it lubed.

Got it, I didn't think of it that way....I'm new to owning a car this new and this nice. I want to keep it that way.

 

[Grok]

Got it, I didn't think of it that way....I'm new to owning a car this new and this nice. I want to keep it that way.

Meguiar's and possibly other companies have entire video series on car care. They're worth your time. Sure they discuss in terms of their own products, but the knowledge gained is the same.

 

[peterk9]

I'm not sure if this product is available in the U.S. but it is getting quite a bit of exposure here. Accueil - Silverwax

Peter

 

[Darkiron90]

Meguiar's and possibly other companies have entire video series on car care. They're worth your time. Sure they discuss in terms of their own products, but the knowledge gained is the same.

I appreciate that. Ive watched a bunch of the chemical guys how to videos. I'll have to watch some of the meguiars and compare.

 

[Darkiron90]

I'm not sure if this product is available in the U.S. but it is getting quite a bit of exposure here. Accueil - Silverwax

Peter

I might have to try that stuff. I've been using chemical guys black car kit. Their black light (I believe it's a polish) says it fills in minor scratches and I have to say it seems to work pretty well. I use that with their jet seal and than the butter wax product and it makes the black look like you can fall into it. But again I haven't tried much other than mothers on an old beat up Camry and it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

 

[Darkiron90]

Stopped by performance unlimited today in ringwood IL. Talked to the owner Denny. I've been running into a bit of an issue finding a good exhaust set up and sound for the xlt non turbo. I love the sound of the borla s type but they do not make it for non turbo and as I was told very kindly by customer service rep "no what your goals are cannot be accomplished. Literally in those words.

So I called the shop and explained to denny my idea of getting the set up for the turbo cat back system from borla and modifying it to work for my car. At the same time achieving my goal of getting close to the same sound. (There are plenty of non turbo 3.7 mustang's that sound good with the set up so I figured it was possible.)

Going to buy the kit and have Denny fab it in a few weeks and I'll try to post videos and pics. If anyone sees a red flag in my idea please please point it out.

 

[bvend]

I can tell ya'll one thing you shouldn't do: straight piping. and the droning increased.... substantially. I've now put in a Magnapack but at cruising speed the droning is still too much. Not sure yet what I am going to do about it, because other than the droning it sounds fantastic and it even crackles on downshifts

What mufflers did you remove?

 

[fjc2]

Installed a JLT oil catch can today. We'll see if it catches anything!

 

[jhu8]

I might have to try that stuff. I've been using chemical guys black car kit. Their black light (I believe it's a polish) says it fills in minor scratches and I have to say it seems to work pretty well. I use that with their jet seal and than the butter wax product and it makes the black look like you can fall into it. But again I haven't tried much other than mothers on an old beat up Camry and it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

Thinking about doing this for my black explorer. I bought it used and when light hits it right, you can see all the micro scratches. Wondering if these black polish/wax items would help fill those in.

 

[Darkiron90]

Thinking about doing this for my black explorer. I bought it used and when light hits it right, you can see all the micro scratches. Wondering if these black polish/wax items would help fill those in.

So far I've done a full detail by hand twice this year with their products. Once in spring and one just now.

My method was kinda how they say on the website videos.

Rinse car, wash car with 2 bucket method and micro fiber hand mit, dry with microfiber large towel, from there I pull the car in the garage and use my air tool to blow out water from cracks and such, I work my way from top to bottom with their black light glaze ( mind you this is a glaze not a wax or sealer. And you really should do a clay bar before this step), my wheels are dark gray so I do those too, let sit 15 min or 20 if its cooler out ( make sure it is a thin layer of glaze), wipe off with clean micro fiber, throw that towel to the side, than I do their jet seal sealer, very easy to use. Just make sure you don't wash it or drive in the rain for about 12 hours, next a layer of their butter wax. It really makes the black look like you can dip your hand in it. Always do sealer first than the wax because the sealer lasts longer than the wax and will somewhat bring out the haze in the sunlight until you wax. I'm no pro what so ever and I just started doing the clay bar it was really easy.

 

[Grok]

Received tune files from @Livernois and installed. Had some fun.

 

[Livernois]

Thank you for the support. I'm glad you are enjoying the tune. It truly is amazing how fast these explorer's become after a tune.

 

[Awinee]

What mufflers did you remove?

I removed all mufflers initially, then I added a magnapack (the round ones) to the middle, and now replaced that with a 24" magnaflow. No mufflers in the rear at all. With this setup there's not a lot of droning, but the sound has turned a little too tame for my liking (no more proper crackles, I'll post a video later). I purchased the Borla ProXS Mufflers 40364 which is smaller and likely will improve the sound but am waiting to get my tune from @Livernois before I make any further changes as their tune should improve the sound somewhat too.

Stopped by performance unlimited today in ringwood IL. Talked to the owner Denny. I've been running into a bit of an issue finding a good exhaust set up and sound for the xlt non turbo. I love the sound of the borla s type but they do not make it for non turbo and as I was told very kindly by customer service rep "no what your goals are cannot be accomplished. Literally in those words.

So I called the shop and explained to denny my idea of getting the set up for the turbo cat back system from borla and modifying it to work for my car. At the same time achieving my goal of getting close to the same sound. (There are plenty of non turbo 3.7 mustang's that sound good with the set up so I figured it was possible.)

Going to buy the kit and have Denny fab it in a few weeks and I'll try to post videos and pics. If anyone sees a red flag in my idea please please point it out.

I ran into the same problem. Borla said they could build it for me, but would need my car for ~4 weeks in order to do so. I went to a local muffler shop instead, who built me a custom exhaust for half the price of the Borla cat back. The sound is fantastic.

What mufflers did you remove?

I removed all mufflers initially, then I added a magnapack (the round ones) to the middle, and now replaced that with a 24" magnaflow. No mufflers in the rear at all. With this setup there's not a lot of droning, but the sound has turned a little too tame for my liking (no more proper crackles). I purchased the Borla ProXS Mufflers 40364 which is smaller and likely will improve the sound but am waiting to get my tunes set up before I make any more changes since the tune should (theoretically) make it sound a little better.']Link here for sound + pics of the setup. I will admit, I did end up buying 3 different mufflers afterwards to get to the correct sound (so I can start my own muffler shop now).

 

[Darkiron90]

I removed all mufflers initially, then I added a magnapack (the round ones) to the middle, and now replaced that with a 24" magnaflow. No mufflers in the rear at all. With this setup there's not a lot of droning, but the sound has turned a little too tame for my liking (no more proper crackles, I'll post a video later). I purchased the Borla ProXS Mufflers 40364 which is smaller and likely will improve the sound but am waiting to get my tune from @Livernois before I make any further changes as their tune should improve the sound somewhat too.



I ran into the same problem. Borla said they could build it for me, but would need my car for ~4 weeks in order to do so. I went to a local muffler shop instead, who built me a custom exhaust for half the price of the Borla cat back. The sound is fantastic.

What mufflers did you remove?

I removed all mufflers initially, then I added a magnapack (the round ones) to the middle, and now replaced that with a 24" magnaflow. No mufflers in the rear at all. With this setup there's not a lot of droning, but the sound has turned a little too tame for my liking (no more proper crackles). I purchased the Borla ProXS Mufflers 40364 which is smaller and likely will improve the sound but am waiting to get my tunes set up before I make any more changes since the tune should (theoretically) make it sound a little better.']Link here for sound + pics of the setup.

That makes me even more excited.now Haha. Do you have a non turbo? I figure it will sound pretty close to a.mustang with a 3.7 and the s type cat back.

 

[Awinee]

That makes me even more excited.now Haha. Do you have a non turbo? I figure it will sound pretty close to a.mustang with a 3.7 and the s type cat back.

Yessir! Naturally Aspirated XLT here.

Also, Today we installed some custom made wheel hubs and a tow hitch (by @tyger_auto) on the #DDoS mobile. Very happy with the outcome of the wheel hubs, it makes the vehicle look a lot more aggressive.

 

[Darkiron90]

Yessir! Naturally Aspirated XLT here.

Also, Today we installed some custom made wheel hubs and a tow hitch (by @tyger_auto) on the #DDoS mobile. Very happy with the outcome of the wheel hubs, it makes the vehicle look a lot more aggressive.

Finally someone giving love to NA!!!! 2 inch seems like a ton. I wonder if that effects anything in the geometry that adds to much stress to the suspension? I bet it looks really good tho. You should take a further back picture so we can see the full aggressiveness.