Lifted Sport Tracs Picture Thread!

[Trackerforsport]

My trac and my uncles yota yesterday

 

[theluke19]

Damnit Luke, you're gonna make me work a crap ton of hours to save up for a trip to Colorado before the year is up...

Hahaha, in the words of the late and great Rod Roddy- come on down!! It's ALWAYS a good time out there in the mountains!

You won't be disappointed. Colorado is just that good. Just the drive to get here will totally suck.

Luke, did you get any real wheeling in this weekend? The lower part of Twin Cone is easy (2wd easy) but then it climbs pretty good. My lack-of-locker hung me up a couple times but a slight backup and another try got me through. No action shots.

ya, we enjoyed Bard Creek Road, and Geneva Creek - didn't go all the way to the top on either. Bard Creek, we camped about 3/4 the way up, to make sure we had a spot. Geneva Creek, we actually went as far as we could, before reaching a 3 foot snowbank that didn't have any tracks through it..

Was a good time- wasn't looking to do anything too serious, being a solo vehicle- and also I left my lug wrench at home.. hahah.. Didn't want to screw up too bad.

 

[obie]

Daytime, just washed, capless, pre body lift:

I finally got the Daystar poly body mount bushing kit in, so the Trac goes under the knife tomorrow for the body lift install. So glad I'm not gonna be doing this in my crappy uneven gravel driveway. It's also going to finally get the alignment it needed a thousand miles ago. So far though, there hasn't been any uneven tire wear. I'm also still waiting for my replacement wheel lock key to come in, probably not gonna see it for another two weeks. Half tempted to pay the $30 in overnight shipping just so I can get these wheels and tires rebalanced. I'm starting to worry that driving it on the interstate while it's shaking is going to wear my rack out real quick, as well as ball joints and tie rod ends. All the suspension will soon be replaced with heavy duty Moog parts, so I'm really more worried about the rack.

I did find one place where the frame has more than super minor surface rust. The number 5 crossmember has some "leaf" type rust damage, so the body shop will clean all that up and put some POR15 paint over it.

Post office man also dropped off the Daystar spring and shackle bushing kit, so if the weather permits I'll be installing those this weekend. Looking forward to a firmer rear end.

Unfortunately, while washing it today I discovered a leak from my sunroof. Doesn't leak when it rains, but it leaks when the water rinse pours over it. I'm guessing clogged tube, so once I get all the suspension and tire stuff worked out, I'll start pulling the headliner to fix it. About the only actual problem with the truck that needs attention.

 

[interscope8]

Haven't been active in awhile. Picked up a 2nd job to get some of my schooling at Purdue paid for before the summer is over. Between that and helping my parents move into their new house I've been really busy!

Oh ya, and a giant piece of roofing fell off a trailer on a highway the other day and hit me...

The guy kept driving, it hit me and my stepdad who was behind me. Took out my side mirror, scratched up my cladding (finished repainting the front bumper 2 days prior), and really damaged my bumper and back fender. Insurance is covering all of it, and even paying for a new headlight housing haha. The body shop is getting a brand new front bumper and is going to fix my fender for me.

In other news my subwoofer box for 3 12's is almost done. My grandpa and I were working on it because he's got every tool I'd need and an awesome carpenter, and he cut one of his fingers, so progress there has stalled too. Yes he's fine. Just pissed he has to use his other hand to open beers now lol. I'll get pics of that soon

 

[OffTrac]

Is there a way I could get that damaged front bumper cover from you? I want to start on a steel bumper but not ready to cut on my good one without a final design. Figured it couldn't hurt to ask...

 

[interscope8]

Is there a way I could get that damaged front bumper cover from you? I want to start on a steel bumper but not ready to cut on my good one without a final design. Figured it couldn't hurt to ask...

email me.

its my username at gmail

 

[OffTrac]

email me.

its my username at gmail

Done. Thanks.

 

[LONO100]

Damn, someone hit my Subaru in a parking lot and bailed out before I got there. I'm super pissed, I can only imagine how heated I would be if my st got crumpled.

 

[The Breeze]

So its been slow going but I am finally done with my on-board air system. I basically got everything for about $50, including compressor, fittings, tank and such.
I put everything in the passenger rear panel between the bedside and panel, and made it accessible from the truck bed.
Here is the compressor inside the bedside near the taillight. I had a large tank to deal with so I put the compressor as far back as I could. I used a ViAir 275 compressor which will fill my tires from 25 to 35psi on one 10 minute go. I wish I would have gotten a continuous duty compressor but I didnt. Something that might change when I get fed up enough. Mine can only run for 10 minutes and then must cool off for 30.

Next went the tank which I secured with two U-bolts that I bent made from all threaded rod and I cut aluminum for support on the bed side.. It was a bugger to get up in there but I did it. I got a pressure switch/relay from ViAir. Kicks off at 120 and on at 90.

Next is the access panel. Its not the prettiest hole but its covered by a plate. The air connection is right inside.

With the plate and switch.

When I got that all done there were leaks upon leaks, since I used pipe dope instead of Teflon tape (huge mistake). So once I got all those Tefloned I realized that the heat of the compressor has nowhere to go. I thought about running some air ducts to channel air but I wont always be moving when I am running this thing. So I had an old computer lying around and stole the fan. For those who dont know, computers all run off of 12v. There is a converter inside of the computer to switch from 110. Also on a side note these can be used to power car amps which power speakers and subs, which makes up my theater system in my room
Here is the fan, which I wired to come on when the switch is on.

Installed

Thats pretty much it. Wiring was super simple since the pressure witch had all the wires labeled what goes where. Took me about 3 full days of working on it, spread out between a couple weeks. Next is a rack the sits on my bed cover and has 2 toolboxes on either side of it. Basically a roof rack the exact size of my bed cover. I pick up the metal tomorrow. Will post pics.

 

[01STrunner]

Well after 30 min of work and 30 min of driving around I can put up pictures as promised! It's pretty awesome riding around and you can see so much. I'll get some better pictures later in the day in the sunlight.

Here's 2 doors:

And here's all 4:

I ended up taking all 4 off so I could actually see in my blind spot since there are no mirrors. It was pretty easy, the hardest part was disconnecting the 2 harnesses in the passenger footwell. Thanks Luke for posting the link to that writeup on the other thread. It made it really easy to take them off. And for anyone interested, here's the link: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161020&highlight=remove+doors

 

[MidnightRebel07]

I like it with all four off but would worry about the structural integrity of it now without a cage, especially with the bodylift. Definetly looks badass though.

 

[The Breeze]

Looks good without the doors I think it would look sick with a set of tube doors or 3/4 doors.

 

[obie]

Body lift installed!

I had it done by the same guys doing the restoration on my 98 Ex. Cannot say enough about how awesome they are. Thanks Crown Point Auto Repair & Restoration! Special thanks to Todd, who did all the work.

I haven't put the gap guards on yet, and they're gonna finish the grille guard brackets next week, then I can mount the new Hella 500 fog lights I got, and I still gotta get an antenna for the CB. Other than that, the truck is ready to roll for SMORR, whether we have it in October or whenever.

When I start a registry for this, I'll be sure to include pictures of how they trimmed the cladding and wheel liners, but it's very professional and I have zero rub on the street, except for extremely minor sway bar at full lock.

Oh, and they also fabricated a new 5th crossmember for me since the one spot of rust on that truck just *had* to compromise structural integrity. Very well made though. Should outlast me.

Next up: Hitch, Hidden winch, Auburn locker for the rear and Rhino Liner on the wheel arches! Anyone by chance know if the factory ST hitch is easy to flip for a 3" body lift without cutting and welding? Otherwise, I'm looking at the Curt 13407 that has seperate brackets from the main tube that should be pretty easy to fab up different ones for.

 

[OffTrac]

Looks great. I would like to see how they did the trimming. I have the Curt hitch but haven't raised it yet. Should be easy enough though.

 

[01STrunner]

Obie, the Trac looks good man!

 

[Trackerforsport]

Well after 30 min of work and 30 min of driving around I can put up pictures as promised! It's pretty awesome riding around and you can see so much. I'll get some better pictures later in the day in the sunlight.

Here's 2 doors:

And here's all 4:

I ended up taking all 4 off so I could actually see in my blind spot since there are no mirrors. It was pretty easy, the hardest part was disconnecting the 2 harnesses in the passenger footwell. Thanks Luke for posting the link to that writeup on the other thread. It made it really easy to take them off. And for anyone interested, here's the link: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161020&highlight=remove+doors

That looks sweet runner I was thinking of what it would look like without doors...I wish they sold a set of quick disconnect doors

 

[obie]

Runner, have you considered rigging up some fabric half doors for it? It looks great without the doors, but I can see you getting sick of being covered in mud and dirt after some trails

 

[01STrunner]

My end goal is to have fab some simple tube doors, similar to Rick and a few other guys with Ex's have done. Right now I don't think it would be the best idea to use the truck on the trail as is without the extra support of the doors across the openings. I would probably wheel it with the front doors removed. I hadn't though of getting some fabric to cover the bottom half and keep dirt and rocks from flying in. I might just have to do that sometime, thanks for the idea.

 

[theluke19]

There's some good pictures showing up here! 01ST - you should do a writeup, man - that looks AMAZING! Did you follow the writeup that's for the regular explorer to do this?


Obie- Feels like a new truck, doesn't it? I loved the feeling when i first drove mine around after the BL

Breeze, I may have to copy something along those lines. Clean install, and that' a good space saver, for sure.

 

[obie]

That it does, especially with the new poly body mount bushings. Those are so nice, they even smooth out the torsion twist quite a bit. I sit higher in this now than I do in my 4x4 F150, and it's taller too. It's 2/3rds of a full size now

Tube door with mud guards should probably be just fine. Even with the kind of stuff Rick does with his doors off, I haven't heard any problems resulting from it. Though there could be something buried in a thread somewhere I haven't seen.

Once you get the doors done, your next step should be getting the whole thing repainted with Line X or something But keep the teal, it looks nice.