Matt's Dropped 95Explorer

Hey guys I've been tooling around on this website for a while now and have learned alot from everybody's posts and how-to's. I figured it was time to see what yall think. It's not crazy but for my daily driver, I like it.

Under the hood:
- Short ram intake
- Helix throttle body spacer
- Flowmaster dual-chamber
- Red top Optima
- replaced the 95amp alternator with a 130amp
- Throttle cable "update" (thanks to EF) made a big difference. Thank you!!!

Body:
- Removed pinstriping
- Removed plastic trim on doors
- Repainted bumper plastic and grille inset black
- Repainted the faded black trim on the doors and the back
- 9000K HIDs
- Hyperwhite reverse lights
- LED license plate lights

Suspension:
- 2" blocks rear
- 2" torsion twist up front (thanks to EF)
- Removed front bump stops (still need to do rear)

Interior:
- Micro suede headliner and door panels (testing how it looks and holds up before I spring for the "real" stuff)
- LED dome lights, map lights and courtesy lights
- White face gauges
- Sony Xplod head unit (not my first choice but had to get something cheap since the Ex has been broken into 5, yes 5! times in the last year and a half)
- Pioneer 3-ways in the doors
- Kenwood 800 watt mono amp
- 2 Memphis 15" subs in a ported box
- 35% tint on front doors, 5% on rear doors and rear hatch, 2.5% on the rear quarter windows
- LED window switches, rear wiper control and defrost, and A/C control panel (thanks again EF)
- Autopage 2-way remote start and alarm (love this thing, has not been broken into again yet, knock on wood)

I think that's all of it but i might have missed something. I have a lot of future plans too but I am always open for suggestions and advice and am constantly looking for inspiration.

You guys are doing a great service to Explorer owners everywhere keep 'em coming.

Let me know what you think, I enjoy getting feedback of any kind.

 

[Nato X]

hey man, love the subtle stuff on the interior. Where did you find the blue door and panel lighting? Or does it just look blue in the pics? Wouldnt mind doing that to mine. The green is kinda lackluster and dated. The headliner turned out good too.

 

[Green95Explorer]

Thanks man, any and all feedback is appreciated. I switched the green LEDs in the switches with some blue ones. hee's a link to where I saw it:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241185

I did mine a little different but its the same results. Makes a big difference, but they're bright as hell. Took a few hours to do all of them.

good luck, man

 

[NYMount21]

yea man looks good. just gotta save up for some nice wheels and u'll b good to go!

 

[Carguy3J]

Looks good, but I would suggest raising the front back up just a little bit. Maybe it's just the angle of the pics, but it definitely looks like it's "nose down". If that's the case, it's a problem. Yeah, I know it looks cool, but it compromises handling.

What happens, is that under any kind of deceleration, an excessive amount of weight transfer to the front wheels, leaving the rear very light. This reduces traction at the rear, and leads to the truck being "loose" or tail-happy. Add in bumps, wet,snowy, or icy ground, in any combination, and it can get very unpredictable. It needs to be level front to back, and even from side-to-side,

Since you've already dropped the rear 2", I wouldn't go more on that, just level out the front. Also, make sure you have properly shortened your sway bar end links, to account for the reduced ride height. Not modifying the sway bar links will result in premature wear of the bushings, and unwanted suspension pre-load (which also affects handling). The proper end link length is the one which allows the sway bar to sit parallel with the lower control arm, when the vehicle is on even ground, and at ride height. A rough guide would be that your end link sleeves/bolts to be shorter then stock by approx the same amount you lowered the front end. I would suggest upgrading the bushings to Energy Suspension poly-urethanes while you're at it. (end link and the bar-to-frame bushings as well.

Don't bother wasting your money on "rims". The stock ones look good, especially with the lowered stance. The money would be far better spent on an SCT XCal3, w/ custom tuning, from James at Henson Performance. I would also look into an underdrive crank/overdrive alternator pulley set, cat-back exhaust, and an electric fan. (The Taurus 3.8L and Lincoln Mark VIII 4.6L fans seem to be popular choices.)

My vote would also be to remove those giant "subs". They must be heavy, and weight slows you down, hurts handling, and uses more gas. I appreciate good sound/music as much as anybody, but don't you think thats a little overkill? I mean, you could never use their full capacity without causing permanent hearing damage, and/or damage to the vehicle interior (vibrations will loosen interior screws/clips/etc. and lead to squeaks and rattles) Not to mention the sound distortion. Besides one less thing to tempt the thieves. ....and think of all the cargo capacity you'd get back.

On your "intake", you might want to build some sort of heat shield/barrier to seal off the filter from the engine compartment air, that way it will tend to pull in more cold air form outside. It wouldn't be that hard. You're most of the way there. Take a look at a K&N FIPK, around the filter area, and you'll see what I mean about a shield. Being that it's chrome, your intake tube might reject radiant heat a bit better then, say, black plastic, but I would still suggest wrapping it, to maintain colder air intake temps. I used a self-adhesive foam/foil-backed air duct insulation from Home Depot, to wrap the entire intake tube. ( http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 )

I like the blue lighting. I'd like to do it to mine at some point, but only if I could get EVERYTHING blue. I would hate to still have a green radio display, and/or dash lighting. I have a perfectly fine factory am/fm/cd head unit, and I see no need to replace it just to get blue lights, so is it reasonably easy to also change the radio display to the blue led?

 

[1AJeremyD]

Nice looking Truck!