Captain Morgan, '95 D44 Sas | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Captain Morgan, '95 D44 Sas

“Captain Morgan”
1995 Explorer Sport


Engine:
4.0 OHV

Transmission:
M5oD manual transmission

Cooling:
Summit Racing aluminum 2.5” radiator, driver drop outlet
Summit Racing aluminum power steering cooler
Summit Racing flex hose & 90* elbow

Drivetrain:
Manual 1354 Borg Warner
Steel Tube front driveshaft
Extended, reinforced rear driveshaft

Front Axle:
‘84 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Widetrac Dana 44 low pinion
OX locker & Cover
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
All Spicer U-joints, bearings & races
Kevlar braided stainless 32” long brakelines
Stock Waggy shafts (until I break one!)
Warn manual locking hubs

Rear Axle:
Explorer 8.8 31 spline
Dutchman hardened shafts, 6x5.5 pattern, screw-in studs
Aussie Locker
5.13 Yukon Ring & Pinion
Currie 6x5.5 rotors
All Ford bearings & races
Trailmaster 2” tapered rear lift blocks
Superlift spring-over perches
RuffStuff 1/4" steel 8.8 metal cover

Suspension:
Explorer ProComp MX6 nitro front shocks
Regular Monroe stock height (go figure!) rear shocks
JC Whitney stock Waggy 7 leaf front packs
Rear leaf packs out of XLT v8 w/ tow package

Tires:
35x13.5r16 Mickey Baja Claws
37x12.5r15 Goodyear Wrangler Mtr's Couldn't flex. Gone
36x12.5r15 Super Swamper TSL Bias Ply Best for mud! Gone
315x70r17 Mickey Baja MTZ radials Original setup. Gone


Rims:
16x8 Black painted aluminum triangle holes
15x10 Black round-holed aluminum something or anothers Gone
17x10 Black steel Rock Crawler round holes Gone


Body Mods:
Originally Willow Green
Premium Sport flares
Maaco semi-gloss dark Charcoal paint. black vinyl racing stripes
Black herculiner on lower doors and rock sliders
Shaved 4" from each side of bumper for tire clearance
Removed roof rack and rails

Body Armor:
DraperBuilt rock sliders
Steel rear bumper w/ swing out carrier, from sn0border88's late Emily Rose (Had to remove tire carrier section in 2011,
the swing rod bent and the trailer bearings built into the bumper seized)

Sound System:
Pioneer DEH-X7800BHS head unit
4 6x8 Kenwood 3 way 220w speakers
Pair Kenwood 1" front door tweets w/ bass blockers (installed in panels by rearview mirror control)
Pair Pioneer 1" rear tweets w/ bass blockers (installed above flip out ashtrays)
10” Kicker VR Comp dual voice coil
Kenwood 729S Amplifier
Cobra 19 CB in center console, w/ external speaker (removed 2019, no one uses CB's for wheeling anymore)

Lights:
2 Hella 500's on front bumper
Dual driving fogs. White fog/blue smurf lights
Anamorphic Equalizer :p
LED strips around inside of rear hatch glass w/ dedicated rear switch
Billet Automotive custom RGB LED switch panel
Sylvania amber blue 3157 turn bulbs
Euro Diamond headlights & corners
OPT7 LED headlight bulb upgrade
Black Altezza tail lights w/ LED brake & reverse bulbs, amber blue turn signals

Miscellaneous modifications:
Doofy looking Skull knob for T-case shifter (thanks Rook :rolleyes: )
Fire Extinguisher & LED Maglite hard mounted to D-Pillars
Sport Trac rear power outlet installed in right rear panel behind rear seats
02-05 Explorer IRS breather tube neck for front axle breather tube
Shaved 8.8 Center pin
Shaved inside fin off of Dana 44 housing to clear OX shift fork
Royal Purple full synthetic Mercon III trans fluid
Interior light kill switch (95's interior lights do not turn off via dimmer)
Boxed & reinforced trans cross member to pass over front driveshaft
Custom front sway bar
2wd explorer radio bezel
‘95 F350 Front shock towers
Removed stock air filter fender duct
1.5" Steel front driverside leaf block (to make him sit level again)
Leather power seats and rear bench seat from Blackjack
2019: Installed Blackjack's passenger door & Skunk's driver door in tribute. He is now FrankenMorgan.




Started out looking like this:
DSCN0017 (Small).JPG


Did a little bit of this:
DSCN1181_Small_.JPG


And a little bit of that:
DSCN1217_Small_.JPG


To get this:
DSCN1220_Small_.JPG

DSCN1285_Small_.JPG


Had some fun breaking him in:
DSC_0105_Small_.JPG

IMG_0098_Small_.JPG


And then realized a little too late that I have a serious center of gravity issue:
DSCN1644_Small_.JPG


But clean it all up and throw some paint on and things will look a lot better :)
0603071601_Small_.jpg

DSCN2188_Small_.JPG


...And then when your nice matte finish dark charcoal grey paint fades to powdered donut finish,
(Yes that's me, posing with my truck)
Lin_Morgan1.JPG


......have your truck painted again!
rattler.jpg


And put stripes on it, for Pete's sake ;)

Morgan_stripes_front_Small_1.jpg

blood of my enemy.jpg

mates.jpg


Over a decade later and still kicking despite everything we've been through:
pap19 mud.jpg

pap 19.jpg






Full write up can be found here: How to waste a ton of $$. Much thanks to Rookie, Wolf, Micah, 95Exploderboy and IZwack for the design/build, and Skunk for the inspiration ;)


EDIT: Morgan wouldn't be the beast that he is today were it not for the two horribly abused first gens who came before him and taught me what it means to have a wheelable Explorer (lots of patience, time and money!). Here's to Shelby and Tank :chug: May they rest in pieces wherever they are!
 
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Hey, cool pics... :p:
 






Har har har, it's 2:10 am and I've had more than a little Captain of the liquid variety so bite me :D

Thanks for deleting the messed up first attempt at a thread :)
 






Looks to me like Morgan could use some racing stripes!! But wait, you're trying to make him slower, huh? Guess that's out of the question.
 






Looks to me like Morgan could use some racing stripes!! But wait, you're trying to make him slower, huh? Guess that's out of the question.

Not at all! I just can't decide if I want black or silver... otherwise he'd have his stripe-age already ;) I just don't want people thinking that I'm ripping off Skunky if I do light colored stripes :eek:
 






But stripes would make him like 1000 miles per hour faster...haha.
 






what about sidways racing stripes?
 






I think it needs airbags...on the outside to protect the truck from the driver...:p:
 


















freakin sweet truck
I love it
 






cool truck.
what front springs are you using?
and lets see a pic of the aluminum radiator-
 












I think you want this for your build thread: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156488

Sure was a good time....

Haha, WOOPS. I did mention that I was tired and tipsy when I created this thread, didn't I? :D Thanks Jake.

Lefy: Damn dude, long time no see! Where have you been hiding yourself?

Slammer, Those are just JC Whitney stock Wagoneer springs. They're soft, but since they're new they don't arch quite as negatively as the 20 year old ones I had on there previously. Except for a small leak caused by overheating the aluminum (had to weld on brackets to hold it in place and it's super difficult to weld aluminum), the aluminum radiator has been priceless so far. Even after hard wheeling on a hot day the temperature gauge never reaches half way, and after 6,000 miles the coolant is still florescent green despite the fact that the radiator itself is considerably shorter than factory :) Jake and Rook had the great idea to use a first gen fan shroud, and Wolf took care of the fab work involved to get it to sit in there properly.

DSCN1261_Small_.JPG

This is what the second gen shroud looks like over it
DSCN1243_Small_.JPG
 
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Nice rig Spas, hope to see it at Moab next year:D
 






Nice rig Spas, hope to see it at Moab next year:D
[hijack]
Funny, Spas mentioned that at the M&G tonight.

I'm actually considering it too -- given school/work cooperates. Google maps says its a 30 hr drive!
 






To follow IZ's comment, I am strongly considering it too. I will have the F250 and a trailer, so lets GO!
 






Very cool truck! You did a lot of good work:salute:
 






Thanks CG :)

I thought I had a line on a beater diesel at work but apparently the guy wants to keep it now. Oh well. If I can get Morgan back into safely driveable shape (and there's no reason I shouldn't be able to) and get a new engine in him, I'd really like to try driving him out for next year's Moab. Jake, IZ, I say we make a trip out of it! You guys won't regret it, trust me :D
 



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if you guys want to throw some money together I have a good friend with a semi and a flatbed. I bet we can get 3/4 rigs on it.
 






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