1992 2-door quirks

[Joshdude]

I have a 92 2-door XL, and there are some little curiosities about it that I'm wondering if anyone has seen elsewhere. Maybe I'm not familiar enough with the trim lines and such, but some of these things just confuse me:
-My truck has body color c-pillars. This is something I have not seen on a single other gen 1 explorer, and believe me I've seen a few. All the other ones I've seen have black c-pilars, but mine are metallic brown like the rest of my car.
-My grille is the silver kind, not the black kind on all the other 2-doors I've seen.
-I have manual windows and door locks but automatic transmission.
-I only have 2-wheel drive
-There is no plastic cladding around the bottom sill of my truck, or any kind of running board-type portrusion

As far as I know, black grille, black c-pillars, manual trans., 4-wheel drive, and plastic cladding were all on the Sport model, but I don't know much about the XL (if I had to guess, I'd say that all the things my truck has were all that was available for the XL). Is it just that I'm driving a trim line that is relatively rare? If so, has anyone else owned or seen a truck similar to mine?

 

[Spdrcer34]

You are describing a typical XL model......strip down models. Do you have Rear Defrost, and Rear Wiper?

My 92 is an XL, that started off with: Manual Trans, Manual Windows/Locks/Mirrors, Manual Bucket Seats, Standard Non-Lighted Visors, no rear wiper/defrost, no 'Tupperware' cladding on the bottom. Std. Chrome Grille. But the rear hatch, inbetween the rear side windows, and the REAR window is infact BLACK.

It's about a 50/50 shot with the 1st gen XL, to see them body color painted, yet they will still have the black (ALWAYS BLACK) bars to trim out the top and bottom of said windows....but the XL's are pretty rare. And I have only seen one other XL Sport. They are pretty rare. I have also seen a Eddie Bauer Sport once...I thought I was imagining things, but I guess in 1991 it was available.

As for your Grille, these plastic grills are CHEAP, THIN plastic, and the original one broke, and it's WAY easier to find the 4door chrome grille than the Sport Black Grille. I have NEVER seen a sport with anything other than a Black grille (from the factory).

I saw a SUPER stripped down XL in the yard one time....Exactly like mine, except it had a 60/40 bench...it looked TOTALLY out of place in an X!

Ryan

ps...btw, I grew up in Long Beach, I went to Hudson Elementary, my sister went to Stevens Jr High...then we moved up here. Sometimes I miss it...other times I don't!...I miss San Diego WAY more...I wish I could afford to live down there!

 

[Rhett]

-My truck has body color c-pillars. This is something I have not seen on a single other gen 1 explorer, and believe me I've seen a few. All the other ones I've seen have black c-pilars, but mine are metallic brown like the rest of my car.
-

Regarding the c-pillars. On an XL, they will be painted the same as the body.

For some reason XLT, Sports, (not sure about 93-94 Limiteds) all have the black c-pillars. You're probably better off with the body color c-pillars, because the black ones tend to fade and chip every 5 years or so. Last year I repainted mine flat black. I should probably clear coat them but I have not. The sun kills that black paint.

 

[Joshdude]

Yeah I saw another XL (4-door) the other day and it had body color c-pillars too. And I've also noticed that the black c-pillars get kind of jacked up after a while, so I'm thankful for mine. I just don't understand why they would make the base model better than the upgrade in that respect. Anyhow, mine does have rear defrost and wiper.

 

[charles88tc]

The sun does kill the black paint but if you take some good cleaning wax to it a couple times a season, you can keep em in good shape. I use meguiars (sp?) cleaner wax.

 

[lars1367]

The sun does kill the black paint but if you take some good cleaning wax to it a couple times a season, you can keep em in good shape. I use meguiars (sp?) cleaner wax.

I just did mine with Mother's California yesterday. The truck was faded when I bought it (thought it was dark blue), a couple of coats of this stuff and it turns out that I have a BLACK '92 Sport. Well, learn sumthin new every day.

Use the Mother's it's great...McGuires works well too.

 

[briwayjones]

You don't have a Sport but have a Two-door XL model. There were rare but they were made. So it will have the body colored c-pillars and the chrome grill like all XLs.