2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

[willzilla]

Excellent, that is great work. How is your steering wheel, is it something you might want to replace some day? I'm not close yet to getting my 99 running again, but I plan to reinstall the old two spoke wheel. I had swapped a very nice four spoke wheel in thinking it would be better to steer with one hand but I do just as well with the two spoke wheel. I won't need the two spoke wheel when I get the truck going again.

I would like to find a couple of spare clock springs from 98-01 Explorers(with the two spoke wheel). Have you yet explored your local area for good salvage yards?

I actually don't mind the steering wheel that much.. still feels pretty decent, and it's not falling apart so I'm like... mehh whatever about it, haha. I do have new buttons for cruise control (again) that I will swap to replace the crushed ones soon.

I got some work done on getting the carpet in. Kind of a PITA without the original carpet to template from so it's pushing it, seeing where it doesn't fit, cut, push, cut, push, cut... hope for the best, haha. Got around front seats to front foot wells mostly fit up pretty nicely. Got the front seat cables up through the carpet. Will do the seat bolt holes opened up, etc, once I get the back fit and trimmed some more and also make room for the belts and center console. Not perfect by any means but should end up good enough for old car, haha.

I also ordered up a fairly inexpensive double din stereo for it from Crutchfield (like $250ish) to replace the old hardly working Walmart radio that was in there, plus began work on the radio bezel... cut out some PVC plastic to glue over the old Sat radio piece that sticks out the top that had some sat radio interface unit socketed into it and will have a phone magnet mount time thing mounted there and also installed one of those nice recessed double usb charger port sockets into the cig lighter port. For the bottom cubby and dual gauge spot that had the AF and boost gauges I put a nice gauge hole plastic cover piece that snaps into place to fill an empty gauge hole and will drill the center out and install a USB extension plug that will run from the back of the new radio and mount in that spot, and will order a replacement AEM AF gauge for the left hole so I can still monitor the AF and hook to the SCT v3 if I ever can get car retuned

And the color match is pretty close, not 100%, but, solid.. and the rear is still dirty and needs cleaned up (ran out of upholstery carpet cleaner foam):

 

[CDW6212R]

Very good, it's a nice looking rug.

To clean a rug, remove it and on a very sunny warm day, hose it down and use Purple Power. Fully soaked, a good cleaner, scrub it well with a decent stiff brush, then rinse it well. It's easy on a driveway with a water hose etc. To dry it, lay it over a large bush in full sunlight, upside down for a short while, not long, under an hour, then flip it over. Face up in the sun it should dry fully in 2-3 hours.

I have cleaned countless floor mats that way, and about five whole car rugs. I used to detail cars, I learned the best methods back then.

 

[willzilla]

Very good, it's a nice looking rug.

To clean a rug, remove it and on a very sunny warm day, hose it down and use Purple Power. Fully soaked, a good cleaner, scrub it well with a decent stiff brush, then rinse it well. It's easy on a driveway with a water hose etc. To dry it, lay it over a large bush in full sunlight, upside down for a short while, not long, under an hour, then flip it over. Face up in the sun it should dry fully in 2-3 hours.

I have cleaned countless floor mats that way, and about five whole car rugs. I used to detail cars, I learned the best methods back then.

Yeah, I prob will do that for the rug/mat thing that lays down in the trunk area.. For the cargo compartment carpet I have an extraction machine that works awesome for carpet/seats/etc that I used for the seats that made them look 1000x better. I spray down some upholstery cleaner foam, let it soak a bit, then scrub for a few min, then use extractor to pull all the funk back out of the material. Saw it in a Chris Fix video lol

 

[CDW6212R]

Yeah, me too, I have a small rug cleaner I have only used once. That should work great for most clean ups in a vehicle.

 

[willzilla]

Added some pvc plastic and filled the old sat radio controller slot and then added like a faceplate over it. Added a phone magnet mount (not pictured) to it so can snap a phone to it for hands free whatever, lol. Also added a dual USB plug into the cig lighter port Got in new radio today as well, haven't had a chance to install it yet or test fit.

 

[CDW6212R]

Very nice. I need to put you in charge of some interior refinishing items for me.

 

[willzilla]

Very nice. I need to put you in charge of some interior refinishing items for me.

Haha, man.. I don't know how people do this full time tbh lolll. Kind of a PITA haha.

Worked some more on the car today a little... Had to work late yesterday and most of today so only got a few hours but was able to mount up the new touch screen double din radio and also mounted the apple carplay/android auto usb extension piece in one of the old gauge pod holes. Also mounted up backup camera and ran wires into the passenger compartment from the rear hatch license plate area (total pain in the ass, lol).

 

[CDW6212R]

That looks very good.

I will have the stock Pioneer radio in mine, I decided I don't need more features for this truck. I would like to change the changer input to be able to use a USB flash drive etc, which can hold 256GB or more. But I'm ages away to get there, some day I hope.

 

[willzilla]

That looks very good.

I will have the stock Pioneer radio in mine, I decided I don't need more features for this truck. I would like to change the changer input to be able to use a USB flash drive etc, which can hold 256GB or more. But I'm ages away to get there, some day I hope.

Yeah, I wasn't planning on anything but the car had a SUPER OLD Walmart touch screen radio with like 100 x 100 pixels and it hardly worked and wasn't playing any radio stations or anything and it was already trimmed for a double din so just went with another double din and did a little more tweaking to get it to fit lol.

 

[CDW6212R]

I hope you really like it, it's fun to play with radios and features. I was going to do the DD for my 99 and to get a back up camera, but I'm retiring soon so that will just be a spare SUV.

I've installed a single DIN 7" DVD into my 91 Lincoln, just the deck install. That's the one I want to have a nice stereo and the backup camera, navigation etc. I have the pieces for that, I just didn't get past the deck install. Lincolns have tons of wires running from the deck to amp and speakers, so it's not compatible with anything. So I'll have to run all new wires and RCA cables, etc, that'll be the hard part. I have a great amp to use(PA350), but it has heat fins on top, and I need it mounted under the parcel shelf where the OEM one is. That means making a shelf/tray to mount the amp with space above it for cooling. It works in my head, I just have to put the pieces together.

 

[willzilla]

Ok.. Mostly finished up the backup camera install. Need another RCA female/male extension to get it all the way to where the radio should be but other than that everything is wired up. A real PITA going from a SUV hatch compared to something like a car bumper, lol.

Ending up going with one of those frames that mounts behind the license plate. No where really to run the wire into the car so I notched the license plate bulb housing (sealed with some silicone after I passed the wire through):

I then snaked the wires through the hatch and then down into the headliner and sent the RCA and rear sense line up to the radio and the DC +/- to the backup light bulb pigtail. Kind of ugly, haha, but will add wire loom or whatever to clean it up some. Not sure how there really is any other way to run these? Haha.

 

[CDW6212R]

I'm not sure how else you could get the wires from the hatch to the inside. I've swapped hatch harnesses one time,and there are a couple of different hole sizes in different models, the black bundle mounted in the hatch jamb.

But the wires to go from inside to the tail lights, that can go through the area where the spare is, the factory wiring is already in that pocket going to the tail lights. I wouldn't ever use those blue cutting connectors, especially for important circuits, and outside too. Those should be carefully soldered, gently remove some insulation, and solder the new wire to the old, and then seal it with tape or RTV.

 

[willzilla]

I'm not sure how else you could get the wires from the hatch to the inside. I've swapped hatch harnesses one time,and there are a couple of different hole sizes in different models, the black bundle mounted in the hatch jamb.

But the wires to go from inside to the tail lights, that can go through the area where the spare is, the factory wiring is already in that pocket going to the tail lights. I wouldn't ever use those blue cutting connectors, especially for important circuits, and outside too. Those should be carefully soldered, gently remove some insulation, and solder the new wire to the old, and then seal it with tape or RTV.

Yeah, I could run it a few other ways maybe, but I figured this way semi decent and I didn't want to notch into the weather strip as I'm sure those prob aren't around anymore to replace and didn't want potential leak spot so just ran it over the piece at the bottom (will color the wires black I think to blend in better lol). I guess I'll see, haha.

 

[CDW6212R]

Go into the jack pocket and find the wires up in there, they go through a large round grommet near the tail lights. That's where you should have run the wires.

That rear hatch seal is super precious, they have been obsolete for over 10years. I've been looking, I found one way back then from an out of business dealer stock. The hatch glass seal has been obsolete for much longer than that, I'd bet the last time to find those was around 2005.

 

[willzilla]

Go into the jack pocket and find the wires up in there, they go through a large round grommet near the tail lights. That's where you should have run the wires.

That rear hatch seal is super precious, they have been obsolete for over 10years. I've been looking, I found one way back then from an out of business dealer stock. The hatch glass seal has been obsolete for much longer than that, I'd bet the last time to find those was around 2005.

Ok, nice, I will take a look!

 

[CDW6212R]

I should have thought of a picture before. This is my 99 in the left quarter panel area. The grommet you want is there just behind the jack, you can run wires through that.

 

[willzilla]

Ahh, ok, nice! I will have to look into that

 

[willzilla]

Ok, a little progress... I added some flex loom type cover on the tip wire bundle coming from the hatch into the headliner area, and also re-did the wires at the bottom and ran them through the tire jack area into behind the tail light which worked great, thank you! Much cleaner.

 

[CDW6212R]

Very good, the little things take time just like a repair.

 

[willzilla]

Very good, the little things take time just like a repair.

Do you happen to have a photo of where the driver and passenger seat belt connects to the floor by the doors? Like.. is there some cover over the bolt or something? I can't remember, haha.