Jen's 03 Sport | Page 14 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Jen's 03 Sport

Hello all...

To celebrate the final payment of my beast, I thought I should finally make a registry for it, with pictures and all!!!

When I was in college, I really wanted a 2door SUV that was relatively new and looked cool as well... Obviously that led me to the Explorer, as Jeeps are cool and all, but not all that practical as my daily driver. Sooo, the search was on! I wanted a black one, the newest year I could get for the Sport, with the fewest miles, with leather and a sunroof! :D

Eventually my searches pulled up my exact specs, but in South Dakota. I lived in Iowa at the time, so no big deal. I bothered the people at the dealership with my excessive questions to make sure it was worth the drive there to look at it. And luckily, it was! Mom and I drove out to look at it, and I ended up buying it. My first (nice) purchased car. It had 16,x.. on the clock, was a certified pre-owned from some old man so it was pretty nice, other than that saggy rear end.

First thing I did was swap out the stereo, and figured out how to wire it to the factory sub thanks to the forum! Then, add a leafs were next. I had the next several years mapped out for it when the tires would wear out and I was outta college and could finally have some money!!! I took off the step bars and added a Yakima rack and drove it like that until I moved to CO. That's when the magic started to happen, ;).

I knew I wanted to lift it from the day I bought it. When I started my big kid job out here in CO, I was able to buy new wheels, tires, shackles, and body lift to get it started! Thanks to the awesome boys from this forum (hokie, nssj2, sparkyXplorer) they got it on for me. I was of no use as I had just had shoulder surgery, but they made sure to get my on the right track :thumbsup:

Awesome! Now I'm good to go. Cranked up the torsion bars a lil, time to hit the trails!!! Got my feet wet in Ouray with the group. And by feet wet, I mean I almost peed myself on Black Bear pass, haha

Since then, I've upgraded my exhaust to 2.5 pipes from the cats back, Flowmaster 50 muffler (kinda quiet :rolleyes:) and a MAC intake. Changed out the plugs and wires at the same time, put on Motorcraft plugs and JBA cables...I also added a Yakima load warrior basket that is pretty quick to take off that holds my snowboard racks and my spare.

Mods to come ---- upgrading gears to 4.56, adding an Aussie locker (or something of that sort depending on my $$), removed gray plastic body panels to paint black, thus discovering rust on my doors GRRRRRR, need rock sliders, skid plates, and on and on.
 

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Thanks for the info and ideas all.

Gman, my 2003 has multi leaf pack and added on a leaf a long time ago...it was barely a year old when I bought it and was already sagging bad with 17k on it! I can't imagine just having the mono leaf back there! I'll check out that link tomorrow, thanks for the help.

2timing, I'll check them out too... Would be easy to go local they could dial it in for me in person then.

Grnmachine you are right, it was his post I was reading and got me thinking about those. Sounds like you found an affordable solution too.

On another note this came to my door today :D already cleaned it up and got some primer on it. Maybe I'll have time to throw it on this weekend.
 

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You have it primed and all you gave us was a picture of a cardboard box???!!! :)

Lol u tease Jenn

HAHA i know right? that was a tease to just post the cardboard box :D
It's been rainy/snowy up here basically whenever I have free time to work on it so I can't get it finished! I'm getting antsy to get all the new toys on! Also sitting in my garage is the RLC rear bumper/swingout setup that came last week! It's gonna look awesome when I eventually get it done. Stay tuned!
 






Pardon my junky garage... Swapping between winter and summer stuff makes a mess! Here the toys await some paint... I only managed to prime and paint the inside part of the skid plate thanks to the cold wet weather :mad:
 

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Man can't wait to see the bumper
 












Luke you don't live that far away from Jen, go help her put the new truck parts on. She can check out the front bumper on your ST while you're there.
 






Luke you don't live that far away from Jen, go help her put the new truck parts on. She can check out the front bumper on your ST while you're there.

I have some help from a buddy for this task already, but anytime anyone is up here in the area give me a shout would love to meet some more explorer friends :thumbsup:

fingers crossed, it won't be nasty weather this weekend and can get this knocked out!
 












That is a pile o parts, They will help a lot in the long run.

What colors are you painting them?

What is the square basket thingy with round holes?
 












Turdle, that's a Jerry Can holder on the swing out tire carrier.

Jen, you have quite a few members pretty close to you in that area.
 






I finally got a chance to work on the bumper... have been helping a friend pack and move lately so no time to myself! I didn't get to paint it yet since it's been raining all the time, however the inside part is primed and painted, you will just have to take my word for it ;)

I didn't have time to get the spare carrier mounted yesterday, it started raining and it isn't immediately apparent to me how the tapered bearings go into the hinge/spindle part, so I'll have to take a look at that when I have more time. Until then a few pics!
I'm happy with how it turned out. I had to notch the crossmember so the mounting holes that correspond to the body lift could be used, the receiver part was in the way of the crossmember. I imagine that non bodylifted explorers wouldn't have this problem with this particular bumper... just about 5 minutes or so with the angle grinder was all it took. Also had to heat up one of the tabs with a propane torch and beat it back into place, it got bent in shipping. Only took a few minutes also.
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I like that Jenn she's ready for business
 






I like that Jenn she's ready for business

Thanks! It's going to be so nice to have the rear cargo space back.. going to have to get a substantial drop ball hitch dealy, bumper is so much higher than the previous set up, the pics don't really do it justice.
 






YeAh I can see that, already had to get a drop hitch for mine
 






YeAh I can see that, already had to get a drop hitch for mine

The one I threw on was just to make sure I had cut enough off the crossmember for it to fit... I had to flip the springs on my utility trailer to SOA to get enough lift to match it before... now I better throw some 33s on the trailer so it'll ride level when I use it :smoke: I'll probably get one of the adjustable level ones.
 



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Haha I had to do that too, and was thinking need bigger trailer tires , can't see the trailer unless I zig zag down the road
 






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