1998 Explorer XLT | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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1998 Explorer XLT

Hey guys, I already made a build thread but I dont feel like keeping it up seeing as how nobody commented on it and I haven't posted on it in several months.

Anyways, I've decide I'm going to make another one starting from we're I'm at right now and post what I do and what not.

The truck is a 1998 Ford Explorer XLT with the 5.0, 4 door, leather seats, 2wd

What ive done so far:
Grill and header
Wheel caps
Tt and auto zone shackles
New fog lights
Back up lights
2 new tear drop wheels
New tires (wheels and tires haven't been mounted yet)
Painted the grey plastic black
Cb with whips on my taillights
Painted radio bezel silver
Painted cup holder silver with black inserts
One 10" sub underneath the back seat
A cheap aftermarket deck
Re-upholstered the center console
Fixed my exhaust leak
New battery terminals
Steering wheel cover
Front seat covers
Going to get some camo material and redo my headliner and center console and then have my mom make me a back seat cover using the camo that's left

Anyway that's what I've done from the time I got her to today! I will post pics when I get my new battery for my laptop (won't stay charged for 5 minutes) hopefully ill get that tonight! It says its out for delivery :) let me know what you think and if you have any questions as to how I did something just ask me! Comments are always appreciated!

Battery got here earlier than i thought
Time for pics!
Overall pic
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Shackles
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Where i put my cb, new deck and the bezel
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Cup holder painted
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Steering wheel cover, seat covers and center consol cover
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Arrow antenna, dont laugh at my Jack-In-The-Box thing haha
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Showing where i painted the trim black, stickers, and whips
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Yeah. Dude its bad lol. Most of the passenger carpet including under the seats is black. The rear cargo area isn't too bad but still needs a good cleaning, its still got glass imbedded in it from my ex roommate busting out the rear glass, and there's black stuff of the drivers side cargo area from the rear side glass leaking like a siv. the rest of the interior isn't bad if you don't mind small scuffs on the paneling from tools etc and the stitching on the front seats popping. Lol. What do you expect from a work truck? Then again there's still an imprint under the tint on the passenger rear door window from the original window sticker, I'm guessing they didn't thoroughly clean the glass before laying the tint down lmao

Dang dude. $10 in quarters at a car wash with vaccumes will probably take care of that. And I had the same thing with my window, but the backs have been retinted to 5% and my fronts to 30%. The guy that tinted them for me said that's what it probably was, them not cleaning it good enough before putting new tint on. I think this is the 3rd time my windows have been tinted since factory :dunno:
 



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Ok so it's been while since I've posted but I'm starting something big. I'm doing a front and rear end overhaul :)

Front end: New T-Bars, sway bar endlinks and bushings, rotors and pads, new shocks, delete of bumpstops, new tbar key bolts

Rear end: Helper springs/AAL/possible f150 leafs, Monroe sensa trac Coilovers, rotors and pads, change the diff fluid, bleed the brakes, new E-Brake

Currently I have none of this stuff, i will slowly be stock pilling this and hopefully in the next month will have everything and can just take a weekend to put it all together. I NEEDED more lift out of the rear end and some more support for towing, so the helper springs will help and I'm thinking about doing the F150 leafs, that's a lot of work though. Brakes have been needing attention for awhile now and an Ebrake? Forget about it, it would hold about 5lbs. As for the front end I want no more sqweaking and more lift/stronger front end all around

Ill post pics/updates as I get this stuff but as I said it won't be all at once, because income is painfully low and Im using all I get on insurance and gas, so at the absolute latest this will be finished by the time summer gets here, I hope quicker

Oh and just a sneak peak at what I ordered today ! So excited!
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It will be holding a voltmeter and a oil temp, possible a steering column holder for a tranny temp
 






Went and had some fun today


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All those were took when I was stuck. It wasn't going anywhere so we had to pull it out with the diesel :( had to do the drive of shame back home

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The damage, mud was flying everywhere. Hopefully next weekend I can get somebody to film it and y'all can see how bad 2wd drive sucks in the mud haha

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This side was the only side with mud on it, my driver side tire is bald. Time to mount my new tires!
 












I think I have an obsession...

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My friend brought me home today, whose never seen my Explorer and he told me to see how much smoke I could make...it was alot. The patches are dark black. Ryans happy :)
 






Got a new toy!
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It's a Kicker 12inch SoloBaric, soon to be powered by a 1200watt 4 channel Sony Xplod amp with a Pioneer deck...I'm gonna have my dream system! After that I'm gonna install my A-Pillar pod, possible helper springs and longer torsion bolts and then in done for awhile, other than regular maintenance I never imagined that I would have all the things that I wanted to do to my truck actually complete!

The main thing I'm saving up for is insurance and gas, gonna be sweet when I get this bad boy legal! At roughly $80 a day it won't be hard to save up quick because when I buy the last 5 things then I have nothing else to spend money on...nothing. I'm so happy it's finally done!

Oh and I did alittle hauling for my neighbor, just a few fence panels on a 16ft flatbed, she pulled like a dream!
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Annnnd I might need some new tires soon...I had a few friends over and i wanted to show off
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Got bored last night so I took off my running board things and my shopping cart bumpers
What do you guys think?
I think soon I'm gonna go to a junk yard and get the 5.0 symbol from a mustang and get Explorer emblems from a new Explorer so I can swap about the emblems on the back
 

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looks good man! I am definitely jealous of the 5.0! :thumbsup:
 






looks good man! I am definitely jealous of the 5.0! :thumbsup:


Thanks man! Its definatly to have that much power on such a light truck!
 






Havent done much of anything lately except for replace my battery terminnals, yet again. Did go to the local farm and ranch store and get some fence panels for our new round pen!
ATTACH]
 






Well haven't done anything to Dora since my last post. Somebody thought it would be funny to cut my drivers side tire right after I got my ATs mounted so I've been driving my dads truck while I save up for new mud tires. Annnnd that's pretty much it. I really want an actual truck so I maybe saying goodbye to y'all In a few weeks depending on how good Dora acts
 






Well little update for anybody that cares. Keeping the Explorer. Recently tagged and insured it for another year. Yay! Got my new tires mounted, just went ahead and bout what i had on there (Goodyear Wrangler Radials) and the rear driver side started clicking when i was going down the road, thought it was something inside the axle, took my tire off and lo and behold i had a cracked rotor. Gota replacement and its going on today. Going to go get a full tank of gas afterwards and go mudding down at the lake :) Just got a new computer (laptop took a crap on me) so hopefully ill be able to post more often. Future mods i want to do once i make sure the back end clicking is gone :paint. Same color, just to get the scratches out and make it look like new again. Mickey Thompson classic wheels and i reallllly want more lift but well see. New radio/door speakers. Lovin the 5.0, stomped a GT Mustang the other night from a 60 roll to 110. Well i guess thats my update, see yall later
 






Rotor took longer than i though, was the original from factory. Glad its gone
Nothing new except that, sway bar endlinks and bushings are ordered and should be here sometime next week
 






Rotor took longer than i though, was the original from factory. Glad its gone
Nothing new except that, sway bar endlinks and bushings are ordered and should be here sometime next week then one of these days I'm going to go get that bumper from Turdle's junk pile

Fixed yur post. :thumbsup:
 






Fixed yur post. :thumbsup:

One of these days ill make the trip up there and get it...one of theses days. Which reminds me, you feel like making me a prerunner style bumper?
 






One of these days ill make the trip up there and get it...one of theses days. Which reminds me, you feel like making me a prerunner style bumper?

If you are referring to the bumper on my truck, I did not make it.

RLC welding made the parts, I had them welded by a local guy.
 






If you are referring to the bumper on my truck, I did not make it.

RLC welding made the parts, I had them welded by a local guy.

I just want somebody to make me a good tube bumper. Like two tubes going from the frame to the bottom of the grill, and the a tube going along the bottom of the grill with a mesh piece to cover up the gap between the two.
How much did RLC charge for your bumper?
 






OK well after looking at some videos today reading up about it I finally decided to pull the trigger on straight pipes. For now its just gonna be taking the muffler off, keeping the cats on until I figure out if it causes any problems with back pressure or lose of power, keeping the muffler just in case I don't like how load it is. Should be going on tomorrow after school, so I'll post a video as soon as I get it on
 






So i decided the straight pipes were just to loud for my liking, couldnt even hear the damn radio at idle. So i got a Flowmaster 40 series put on and its perfect now. I also got an add a leaf installed so now it has a slight rake to it. I got my new subs, deck and amp put it. Its two kicker comp10s powered by a 900watt pioneer amp and my radio is one of those new "cheap" radios from walmart. Just did all the rotors, pads and repacked the front bearings and got my new sway bar bushings and endlinks yesterday got to wait for it to quit raining before i get those on. Little by little im making my Explorer badass
 



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