1998 Ford Explorer XLT: Dora!

Hey guys! Been surfin around here for a few weeks and figured i aught do my registry! Anyways, here it is!

My name is Ryan, im 15 and a half, love golfing, working on, my Explorer, and doing anything that involves hauling trailers lol

1998 Ford Explorer XLT 4 door 2wd with the 5.0 V8. Her name is Dora

I got her from my neighbor, used to be his daily driver then he got a 04 Explorer and divorced and the wife got the new one and he got a car. He lent it to a lady at his work and she beat it to hell. She was a meth head so im kinda scared if i get pulled over but one night we were at a neighbor party thing and i asked him what he was gonna do with it. He said it was for sale and that if i wanted it i could be basically his assistant at his house, be his ***** haha. But we started working on the Ex about 2 weeks before summer started and got it cleaned, oil change, etc. During the summer i worked for him on the weekends and took it home everynight and kept it all week. But now that summer is drawing to a close hes working on getting the title in my name. Heres what all ive done to it! Not a whole lot of pics (seriously. I barely took ANY, but i will be taking more as i do more stuff).

So far all ive done to it was crank the Torsion bars about an 1 1/2", get new tires for it, havent mounted them yet, got seat covers, Realtree steering wheel cover, took off the plastic on the bottom front bumper and took the non working fog lights off, wired it up to haul a trailer with lights and put a new ball hitch on, got wheel caps for it, completly new front end from the radiator to the grill, bug guard (not mounted yet), and new tail lights. Now for the pics!

When i first got her

After i got the wheel caps and new front end

Before i crank the torsion bars, havent had time to do an after picture

5.0 son

Before a storm, i dont know why i took

What all still needs to be done:
Get the Warrior shackles ordered and installed
Mount the tires
New bumper, old one is bent terribly
Fog lights to mount in the bumper
Maybe a bull bar?
New alloy wheel, so i can put the spare back under the truck
New paint job, Blue and silver
Maybe Euro headlights and tail lights?

 

[RyansX]

As of right now the front and rear bumper are off. Working on getting that damn front fog light off and cleaning the chrome with a wire brush, same on the rear bumper. And the back to check the damage where it got hit, painting the ball black with a couple coats of clear, and to rewire my trailer light plug in and remount it. Ive also found that Liquid Wrench works great for cleaning chrome! Ill get some pics in the morning of what all ive done, im also getting a silver radio bezel from 05ST (Thanks man!) cant wait to get that in! Just got a new camera so there WILL be more pics to come!

 

[Joe Dirt]

Just some advice- being that your rear bumper looks to have been tweaked, I would be careful about pulling much of anything with a bumper ball. There isn't much of anything that holds that bumper from tilting up and down... If you're doing much hauling which it sounds like you are, I'd probably save up for a frame-mounted Draw-Tite or one of the like units, even if you replace your bumper...

 

[RyansX]

Just some advice- being that your rear bumper looks to have been tweaked, I would be careful about pulling much of anything with a bumper ball. There isn't much of anything that holds that bumper from tilting up and down... If you're doing much hauling which it sounds like you are, I'd probably save up for a frame-mounted Draw-Tite or one of the like units, even if you replace your bumper...

I was planning on doing that, just dont have the money now. And its only a 16' foot utility trailer

 

[rickybobby]

16' is a massive trailer for an explorer. It took a ton of mods to get mine to be able to pull one. I use a custom bumper instead of a draw-tite type hitch, but i trust my welds and my dad's engineering skills (he was a mechanical engineer for most of my childhood and designed industrial ovens for companies such as keebler). I had to add extra load capacity via air shocks. The brakes need upgraded (hawk rotors and hawk ceramic pads all the way around will be fine). For something of that size you HAVE to have trailer brakes. Also make sure that you have an external trans cooler, and even if you already do adding a larger one will be helpful

 

[traveler]

Good looking Explorer, sounds like you got a good deal, and a nice neighbor. I see what you wanted that wheel for now!

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice x

 

[RyansX]

16' is a massive trailer for an explorer. It took a ton of mods to get mine to be able to pull one. I use a custom bumper instead of a draw-tite type hitch, but i trust my welds and my dad's engineering skills (he was a mechanical engineer for most of my childhood and designed industrial ovens for companies such as keebler). I had to add extra load capacity via air shocks. The brakes need upgraded (hawk rotors and hawk ceramic pads all the way around will be fine). For something of that size you HAVE to have trailer brakes. Also make sure that you have an external trans cooler, and even if you already do adding a larger one will be helpful

My trailer doesent have trailer brakes on it...And i will hardly ever be pulling it but when i do itll only have a mower on it.

 

[RyansX]

Got the rear bumper off and snapped a few pics!

Body damage with the tailgate closed

Body damage with the tailgate opened

The bent bumper bracket

Tailgate open, no bumper

Inside of the bumper bent

Outside of the bumper bent

Inside of the bumper bent

My painted ball V.S. the chrome one. What do yall think looks better?

 

[Joe Dirt]

Chrome, as there is no other black on the back of the truck aside from the window handle... The chrome looks better against the bumper.

Or, get one of these:

 

[RyansX]

Took out my rear seats and cleaned the back cargo area!

The back before it was cleaned

All the crap that was in the back

Back seats taken out

All clean! Well, almost

Flexer shot with the TT, taking everything out of the back made it sit level!