PIU coming along!

[Detfruit]

Hey everyone, thanks to this forum I've gotten a metric load of work done on my PIU.

I made a quick decision one day back in late july to sell my boring jeep Cherokee and scooped up a patrol car. I bought it at auction w/97k miles and about 4k idle for a few thousand less than what I sold my mid 2000's jeep for. Luckily through careful reading of the repair histories I found this one, with a water pump change at 84k. Apart from a ton of small dings which made me learn PDR (which I'm still pretty bad at) Its in awesome shape and absolutely rips

So far, I've got the Metra dash in with a sweet headunit, and the floor console. I printed a holder to cover the shift hole. installed a trailer hitch, took off the push bar, some other random equipment left over, and this Annoying brace that was bolted where the floor console ends, and under the rear of the bench seats.... Which caused me to take out all the seats and deep clean everything, revealing tons of fast food leftovers, sticker badges, and detective cards. I also found a buck rubber shell under the spare! I've also bought an OBD scanner and have started looking at forscan, not going to start digging into it until I learn more though.
-Wrap is done! Will post pictures soon.
-Falkens are on! 245/60/18
-dashcam is in and hardwired. Use spare fuse #36 for ACC power

Things I have on the docket for now that I will update as I go;
-Inverter. My junkyard floor console came with a 110v plug, so I'm obligated to power that sucker. It's in the mail!
-Roof Rack. I'm going to weld one up since I dont like how short them Yakima's are. Going to use 1" square tubing, bend it for nice curved corners, and expanded steel for the floor. and bar stock. Maybe a plexi windscreen if I feel like it


As I continue I will update and post pictures and try to answer any questions! A massive thanks to Peterk9 and BrettS., as well as the entirety of this forum, active or otherwise, for this wealth of knowledge to make my patrol car not so patrol-y. I do like the shade of blue though.

 

[BrettS.]

Here are a few things I did to make it not look like a cop car. Remove front pushbar brackets. Add roof rails (huge difference). Aftermarket rims. Add pinstripe. Add hood stripe. Tint front windows and windshield. Swap interceptor for Explorer front and rear emblems. Add black Ford decals over emblems. New mirror covers to replace the damaged ones. I also swapped out the interior from a 14 XLT. I am thinking about lowering it and new tires next year.

 

[Only1Badboy]

Here are a few things I did to make it not look like a cop car. Remove front pushbar brackets. Add roof rails (huge difference). Aftermarket rims. Add pinstripe. Add hood stripe. Tint front windows and windshield. Swap interceptor for Explorer front and rear emblems. Add black Ford decals over emblems. New mirror covers to replace the damaged ones. I also swapped out the interior from a 14 XLT. I am thinking about lowering it and new tires next year.

PERFECT looking I have a question since you said you swapped out the interior with a 14 xlt. WHAT did you need to get the covers and the 2nd row seats to bolt right in?

 

[BrettS.]

You will need the 2nd row seats, carpet, outer mounting brackets, and inner mounting brackets. You remove the current brackets and install new brackets to allow the seats to flip. Carpet is needed to cover the gaps since the brackets are different.

For the 3rd row you will need the 3rd row seats, rear carpet, small spare tire, spare tire cover, rear trim piece, the long skinny removeable piece on the rear trim piece, two little small trim pieces on each side where the seat mounts, and seat belts. The seats flip into the spare tire well so the small spare tire and trim is needed for the seats to clear.

Don't forget all the bolts. Im not sure what you mean by covers.

 

[Only1Badboy]

Thanks BrettS. That was the issue is those inner and outer brackets for the second row. I can't seem to find those on the ford diagram site. For the covers I mean the plastic pieces under the seconds row? I think the cover some bolts. Maybe I'm thinking of a differentviewer year

 

[BrettS.]

Thanks BrettS. That was the issue is those inner and outer brackets for the second row. I can't seem to find those on the ford diagram site. For the covers I mean the plastic pieces under the seconds row? I think the cover some bolts. Maybe I'm thinking of a differentviewer year

Inner and outer bracket. Also I think this is the cover you are referring to. I am not sure if I pulled that when I stripped the 14, 15, or 17. I pulled parts from several Explorers in the junk yard.

 

[Only1Badboy]

Inner and outer bracket. Also I think this is the cover you are referring to. I am not sure if I pulled that when I stripped the 14, 15, or 17. I pulled parts from several Explorers in the junk yard.

Awesome! Those are exactly what I am looking for ugh lol

 

[Only1Badboy]

Awesome! Those are exactly what I am looking for ugh lol

The yards aren't letting us pull our own parts up here so its making it impossible.

 

[Only1Badboy]

Inner and outer bracket. Also I think this is the cover you are referring to. I am not sure if I pulled that when I stripped the 14, 15, or 17. I pulled parts from several Explorers in the junk yard.

Also do you recall having issues with the 3rd row catch latch bolts? The rear ones? My holes seem to not be threaded hahaha

 

[BrettS.]

I don't remember off-hand. But then again I used an air ratchet to r&r the old and new brackets so I probably just zipped them in. I remember the rear seat belts in the D pillar were not threaded but the air ratchet and bolt threaded in tight. I didn't even bother using my tap and die set but I suppose you could if installing by hand.

Also my junkyard (the only one in town with 5th generation Explorers; had 3, 1 base XLT, 1 wrecked PIU, 1 Limited, out of 10+ I called) would not let me walk the lot either. After about the 5th time of making purchases I started asking to go look at them, take pictures, go back and get missing bolts they didn't give me, look at wiring, etc. They eased up and let me just go back there on my own and I started pulling parts. LOL. It was helpful to look at it to visualize where everything went. There are many differences between PIU and Civilian. The only other interior parts I also grabbed were the inside A pillars to get ones without holes. I tried to pry off the outside A pillars but they crack so I bought new ones. The junkyard offered me the headliner for couple hundred but by then I already cut and mounted new interior lights so I didn't bother. The roof bars are easy and direct swap. I also explained this was for a police car and asked the junkyard to pull every bracket and bolt for every car part because I needed them. I thought about grabbing the rear air but didn't bother. Sorry kids in back seat. The front air cools fine but it would have been nice to add. I just didn't want the added work because I originally was going to flip the car. But GF ended up liking it so we kept it. The XLT had a factory hitch but it was too rusty so I bought a used one on CL.

 

[Detfruit]

UPDATE: Here is the wrap job! Done entirely by myself, the wrap itself took just a touch under 2 weeks. Roof rack is en route, measurements are set I just need to fab a square pipe bender, and fix my welder..

 

[BrettS.]

Looks fantastic! Great job! Was it hard? Did you have trouble with curves or the bumpers? Did you remove headlights, taillights, etc? I am thinking about doing a wrap myself.

 

[Only1Badboy]

UPDATE: Here is the wrap job! Done entirely by myself, the wrap itself took just a touch under 2 weeks. Roof rack is en route, measurements are set I just need to fab a square pipe bender, and fix my welder..

Beautiful what was the material cost?

 

[DHG2496]

I was also curious about cost, but more importantly how much wrap you needed to do all that.

 

[Detfruit]

Alright! Here's my writeup on the wrap.

Cost, I ended up spending 880$. That's 55' of Avery Satin Dark Basalt, 10' Avery Satin Black, 10' Avery Gloss Black for an overall 75' material. I have probably 6' left of the Dark Basalt, and lots of scrap pieces. Compared to all my other options, this was by far the cheapest. I'd do it again over painting.

I had to re-do the drivers side rear door because it started raining right as I was finishing it up the top of the door panel, and I had to re-do the rear quarter panel on the gas tank side twice, once because my knifeless tape job I did was not good enough for me, and twice because my sister dinged the panel with her door and tore the vinyl. Luckily that panel was small and easy. Everything else was done in one go. I haven't wrapped the inside of the doors, yet. I tried to remove plastic trim as much as possible, the lower door trims, the trim around the wheel wells, the weather strip on the bottom of the windows, I removed the door handles so I could properly trim it and use a heat gun to lay into the pocket behind the door handles. Be careful, you can pop the latch assembly out of place, and it requires you to remove the interior door trim and pull it out from the inside of the door to reassemble it.. huge PITA and I did it twice.

Hardest parts... the bumpers, they required about 8' each and I had to order more to make it. The hatch and the roof were also a challenge.

-The front bumper, I removed the grill and headlights and then mounted the bumper back on, but left out the two screws that connect the bumper to the front quarter panels so I could pop the panel out slightly to tuck the ends. Not having the grill in the way made folding down the vinyl into the recessed portion of the bumper easier.
-The rear bumper was very similar, I took out the screws that held it to the wheel well out, so I could tuck it easier on the ends. I did not remove the taillights, instead I cut with excess and tucked it using a credit card. Nerve-wracking.
-The rear hatch, seemed very straightforward at first but had alot of sharp angles that turned into stress points, causing wrinkles everywhere. I removed all the badges and the plastic trim that holds the license plate lights. I started at the center of the license plate area and worked out dividing the speace in quadrants.
-The roof.. I spent most of the day prepping the surface and the rest putting it down, working it out in quadrants like I did the hatch. Super stressful as I only had one shot at it. I removed the antenna by dropping the headliner a bit, disconnecting the two plugs that feed to the antenna, and unscrewing the 10mm bolt that held it clamped. You can also get to it by popping out the rear ceiling LED, but you need to drop the headliner to disconnect anyway. I used the heat gun alot to be able to tuck it along the raised parts of the roof. I tucked into the top of the windshield using two credit cards. One to spread the weather seal slightly and the other beside it to tuck, working from the center out.
-Something I didn't need to do that would without a doubt be difficult for you. Because of the way was the car was previously painted, you can see I divided the space between the rear quarter panels and the upper parts of the sides of the roof. If you look at my previous pictures of the car you can see where I used knifeless tape to trace the edge of where the motor pool painted the quarter panels blue. I had to do it twice, once for the first line, and again when I went to lay down the satin black. If you end up doing this yourself and you want it to be one color, you will need to do the rear quarter panels and the satin black parts of the roof in one long piece per side, or divide the space with a seam that wouldnt look too good if it's all one color. You'll likely end up with a good amount of extra, unusable material that is just a bit too small for the other panels.

Prepping, other than those pieces that car was pretty straightforward to wrap. I spent more time prepping the surface than actually laying down the vinyl.
-I cleaned the surface and the surrounding surfaces with dish soap and then a damp rag, blew it off with a compressor to make absolutely sure all water was gone from any crevices, let it dry for a bit just to be sure. Any moisture on the panel or more importantly in the cracks where you will be tucking will result in it peeling back and not sticking. You'll have to re-do the panel.
-Wiped with 70% Isopropyl and a microfiber, usually I did it several times ending with a wipe using cheap paper towels to make sure no strands from the towel were left behind.
-Spray with RapidTac, wipe with paper towel. This solution added adhesion, honestly I'm not sure if it was necessary but it sure didn't hurt to use it.

Quotes. When I started shopping around trying to figure out if I should paint/wrap I got several quotes from people in my area.
-Painting the car, I got quoted 4800 from a professional shop, and 3000 from some guy who has his own "paint booth" (garage). That includes stripping the paint, covering any dents, paint and clear coat. I also got a quote from line-x for 3200 to cover the car in bed liner
-I got quoted 3500 from several places to have the car wrapped by a professional. This did not include wrapping the inside of the doors, painted interior panels, or the roof.

I did this in my driveway and it took me probably 11 12ish hour days to complete the car. Even though I was super careful and went slowly, there's still some errors, but you'll never get it entirely perfect. Some ridges on the roof are starting to bubble up after a couple weeks, likely I can heat those up with a heat gun and poke them with a pin to settle them. The inside corners of the recessed part of the rear bumper are bubbling too, this happens when you try to pull over a corner instead of using your squeegee to push over the corner, without tension. Others are areas where I trimmed too close to the panel and you can barely see the blue when you look into the crack. On several panels there is one spot where a tiny piece of dirt got under the vinyl, and you can see it if your standing next to the car. That's what I get for not doing it in an enclosed space. Seriously the people who do this professionally must be doing this in a paint booth because I was so meticulous. Still, I'm satisfied with it and any random person would not notice these things unless I pointed them out.

Once my car is back from getting the recalls taken care of this morning I might try to take some closer pictures of the wrap if you all want some. They've given me a 2020 Explorer courtesy vehicle for the day, and it kinda sucks to be honest like c'mon why make the shifter a dial.

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