1999 Explorer Sport.

[Mike65]

Today I finished welding the patches & ground down the welds. Put a lite coat of filler over the seams & shot the repaired area with primer.

When I removed the wheel opening molding I found a little rust spot on the quarter panel wheel lip that I cut out & welded in a patch.

 

[Mike65]

Painted the l/s rocker panel & l/s lower quarter panel & the spot I repaired over the l/s rear wheel. Now all that is left is to install the moldings & the l/s step.

 

[Varsity]

Nice job Mike, looks very well done and professional! I plan on tackling this next summer/fall and will probably reference this. Maybe throw in a few questions too Rockers seem pretty straight forward but the "dogleg" looks like it'll be interesting. Awesome job again!

 

[Mike65]

Thanks for the kind words, but the work I did was far from professional, I was not to concerned with perfection seeing as most of it will be covered by the rocker moldings. The hardest part of this was fabbing a piece to repair the lower part of the dogleg right above the rocker, & the lower section of the l/s rear quarter panel just in front of the l/s rear tire. If you have any questions on this feel free to PM me & I will try to help you any way I can.
Mike.

 

[Mike65]

Today after work I installed the l/s rear wheel opening & rocker panel moldings & the l/s step. I also replaced the l/s outside door handle.

 

[Mike65]

Today I replaced the cruise control switches. The on/off button was starting to crack.

 

[Mike65]

I purchased a cab visor for the Sport.

 

[Mike65]

Today (on my birthday) I did a trans service & replaced the torque converter solenoid on the Sport. Unhooking the drive shaft at the front differential makes it possible with the SOHC engine with one of the cat conv's under the trans pan.

 

[Mike65]

Just an update if any one is reading this, after replacing the TCC solenoid I road tested the truck & all seemed fine. My wife has driven the truck for 3 days to & from work & we took it out today after work & it still seems to working fine. (fingers crossed)

 

[Mike65]

I got my wife a grille guard for Christmas for her 99 Sport & it was 50° today so we installed it.

 

[Varsity]

That grill guard looks awesome. Doesn't look to bulbous or bulky like some. Neat!

 

[Mike65]

That grill guard looks awesome. Doesn't look to bulbous or bulky like some. Neat!

Thanks, we like it. The grille guard is made by Hunter & we bought it from truck gear direct. Here is a pic with my 2000 Ranger.

 

[Mike65]

Well today the temp was in the low 50's so I decided to replace the 99 Sport's rear shocks to cure the rear end sag. I bought them a few weeks ago but because it was getting colder I had not replaced them. It took me a couple hours laying on my back in the driveway, but I got them done. Drivers side was a pita with what looks like the evap canister & bracket are in the way making the l/s very difficult to reach the top bolts. I installed the Monroe 58617 load assist & now the rear is not sitting low any more.

 

[Mike65]

Since I installed the Monroe load assist rear shocks to fix the rear end sag the front was a little low so I cranked the torsion bars one turn on either side & it brought the f/e up level to the rear.

 

[slaughterrt]

Nice work Mike. As a fellow New Jersey resident (not by choice and not for much longer), it's nice to see someone take their time and do repairs the right way. Too many corners are cut in today's day and age. Your repairs look exceptional and your body work rivals the pros. Keep up the good work.

 

[Mike65]

Nice work Mike. As a fellow New Jersey resident (not by choice and not for much longer), it's nice to see someone take their time and do repairs the right way. Too many corners are cut in today's day and age. Your repairs look exceptional and your body work rivals the pros. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the kind words Rob. The work I did on the rocker panels is good enough since most of it is covered up by the rocker moldings, but at least the rot holes are gone & it is solid metal again.

 

[Sitcoms]

Im amazed at how far this truck has come Mike. I can only hope and wish Mine will look like that someday, as long as I keep it!
Soon (Hopefully) Mine will be close to yours in at least one aspect - still trying to find mounting brackets for my brush guard! The guard and my lights have been sitting in my basement since October!

Keep up the good work Mike.

 

[Mike65]

Last weekend & this weekend I replaced the l/s & r/s upper control arms, lower ball joints, & front shocks. I also replaced the stock UCA bolts with adjustable caster/camber bolts. Now to get the alignment done.

 

[Mike65]

Today I replaced the badly rusted out metal charcoal canister bracket with a plastic one I got from a pick-n-pull JY. One bolt came out, the second bolt came out using vise grips, & the third bolt had to be cut off with a cut off wheel. I also replaced the vapor canister vent valve that is on the charcoal canister since it was badly rusted & I was removing it any way while swapping the charcoal canisters over to the new bracket.
Here is a pic of the old rusted away metal bracket,

Here is a pic of the replacement plastic bracket,

Here is a pic of the replacement plastic bracket installed,

The only difference I saw between the metal bracket in the 99 & the plastic one in the 2000, is that on the 99 it bolts from the bottom into clips on a flange on the body, & on the 2000 it bolts from above down through a flange on the body into the metal clips on the plastic bracket. The plastic bracket retainer bolt holes lined up exactly with the holes that were there on the body of the 99. When I removed the plastic bracket from the 2000, I used a hole saw & drilled holes in the floor of the Explorer in the JY to make removal of the bracket easier since they bolt from the top.

 

[Mike65]

Last weekend I replaced the rusted out rear leaf spring shackles with ones I have had in the garage for a while, Warrior 153. The warrior shackles raised the rear of the Sport up about 1". The whole job took me a couple hours from start to finish.
Old badly rusted factory shackles, pass side on the left & the drivers side on the right.

New Warrior 153 shackles installed.

Ride height with old shackles.

Ride height with new shackles.