So, I did it..... today I locked in my target, I pulled the trigger, I bit the bullet.... I did it. I BOUGHT AN EXPLORER!!!
Before I tell you much about it, I want to express some of the deciding factors of how I came up with the concluding factors of what I my eyes were set on.
#1 - Price: As little as possible while gaining as many features as I was desiring.
#2 - Running: If it doesn't run, how do you know if it has a good transmission, hubs, electrical system, etc.
#3 - Unmolested: As many "projects" as I've seen and had to deal with, an unmolested ANYTHING is much better than one someone has Fu@&ed with.
#4 - V8: Gotta have a V8... period.
#5 - Good Seats and dash: Although I may re-cover the seats or do some other modifications to the interior, I'd like to have these parts in good shape.
#6 - Clear Title: Oh..... I need to talk about this in the next post.
#7 - Not Wrecked: Nothing would suck worse than spending hours removing body panels down to the frame, only to find that the vehicle had been wrecked and now the frame is bent..... or worse.
#8 - Rust-free: Ok, this is a tie with
#7 .
#9 - Non-4x4/AWD: It's a classic truck I'm building, not a rock crawler, it won't be on the road when it's icy. Enough research on the forums and Craigslist posts of people looking for transfer cases and having front-end issues (plus the helpful advice I've received) have steered me clear on this choice.
#1 0 - Color: Remember, red is a bad omen in my house. Gotta keep the wife happy. That was one of the ONLY things my wife requested..... add that to factor
#1 .
THIS IS WHAT I FOUND:
It is a 1996 Explorer XLT 5.0 V8 2WD with a quarter million miles and still runs and drives, not wrecked (minus a few dings and dents from Wal-Mart shopping carts). It has a clear title, it's NOT RED,
and only cost $650! Ok, it's astray from what I originally wanted in a 98-01, but for this price, the condition and other things I am looking for, it was the best choice.
The interior isn't the cleanest, but the engine compartment is not detailed out. All of that dust will help pinpoint any trouble/leaking areas and I will have much less parts to replace in the front-end. The overall cost will be less and once I sell off the body panels and haul the other steel to the scrapyard, I believe I can achieve my goal of it
paying for itself with it's own profit!
I called the guy up (ad listed on Craigslist) and he originally wanted $900 but had been for sale since August 27th. He was a very talkative man. He actually tried to NOT sell me the Explorer twice, which was probably the reason why it was for sale so long. That and the miles anyway. He kept telling me about all the problems it had; windshield has a crack, rear door handle doesn't work, dings and dents here-and-there, headliner, and it being dirty. So, I had to explain what I was planning on doing with it for him to understand that each of those "problems" were NOT problems for me, I could care less that these things kept it from being a show truck. I just need the bones.
I do plan on rebuilding the 302, maybe a mild cam, and a few other performance items, just nothing too wild. Same with the trans. Miles do not matter to me, I plan on replacing all the brakes, bushings, hoses, belts, mounts and more.
I told him to go ahead and take it off Craigslist and consider it sold. Done..... NEXT!
Another little find I ran into today was this car dolly trailer. Got it down from $300 to $275, not a big savings, but anything was amazing as it was listed as "$300 FIRM". I will be using this to go pick up the Explorer on Friday. Although the Explorer runs and drives, I'm not looking forward to driving 2 hours at 70+ mph in the Explorer..... YET.
