95' Explorer Eddie Bauer 4x4

Hey! What's up...fantastic. So just decided to become a Elite member! And if I'm an elite member, may aswell post in the Elite Registry!

Let's cut to the chase, back in November of last year I picked up my first car, which is a 95 Explorer!

Being 16 this is a huge step!! We picked it up for $700, we talked the guy down from $1500, with the only real issue being the brakes, they were basically shot, but we got it home and put new pads and bled the system the same day!

Please let me know what you think!
I will be posting more on this thread, I also have a list of "things to do" for it, which I will be posting soon aswell

 

[GingeRed11]

Before I sleep, wanted to post one more thing.

I'm always looking for stuff to do to my explorer. I've been reading other members registries and I got the idea to paint the grille.

So, I did exactly that!
Hopefully the photos successfully uploaded!
In my opinion I love way more than the old faded gray mine was..

 

[GingeRed11]

Update (Jan-9-2017)
Welp, I didn't mention this before but I had some off road light that were coming my way as a Christmas gift. Anyway, them came in on Saturday and I got them on today!
They're Rough Country Cree 2 inch square LED Lights chrome series. Enough chit chat, let's see some pictures!

They came pre-wired, all I had to do was hook'em up to the battery and mount'em which was quite nice for having no experience in wiring..

First things first, I wired the switch through the firewall, that was easy with this grommet at the drivers side under the dash.

After that I threaded it toward the battery area and attached the relay to a bolt that was already in the engine.

After I hooked the negative and the positive to the battery

Now before you say anything about this, this battery wiring isn't permanent, it will be fixed. Anyway back to it, I threading the light cables to the designated location on the front

Now this isn't clear but this is the view from under the headlight flap under the hood, it's messy with all the wires
I ended up mounting them on the bumper so I drilled the holes and bolted them on

As you can see, they are quite bright, and I like it

welp, my first time doing anything like this, so please let me know what you think, I'm frequently online!

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

Welcome to the forum. Ahh, your first rig. You got, from what I read, a great deal on that Eddie Bauer. What you did to the grill was excellent! That really paid off for the looks for only your time and a can of paint. I can tell you the passenger side front seat looks like it has never been sat on, good on ya!
You will find this forum very useful as we all have and if you are mechanically inclined as it appears you may be, this will be a great first SUV. Just remember it is 21 years of age so be genital with her and do regular maintenance and it should last you a long while. Good luck with all your future projects and kindly keep the forum updated to all your mods.
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

Welcome to the forum. Ahh, your first rig. You got, from what I read, a great deal on that Eddie Bauer. What you did to the grill was excellent! That really paid off for the looks for only your time and a can of paint. I can tell you the passenger side front seat looks like it has never been sat on, good on ya!
You will find this forum very useful as we all have and if you are mechanically inclined as it appears you may be, this will be a great first SUV. Just remember it is 21 years of age so be genital with her and do regular maintenance and it should last you a long while. Good luck with all your future projects and kindly keep the forum updated to all your mods.
Loquetus

Thanks Loquetus!
im planning on keeping this forum going until my explorer leaves me all or I leave it, which will not be happening anytime soon.. but I have had in mind later on when I have the money to sell this one and get a 96 or 97 limited w/ the 5.0 v8 or do you recon I should get a 98-01 limited v8?

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

I am always attracted to the second generation explorer and I am partial to the 98. Your body on your Eddie looks like it was well cared for, minimal rust? I would just keep your rig and drop a V8 in, unless you can find one that is equally as nice as yours. You can pick up engines, transmissions and transfer cases for relatively cheap for those year of rigs. That particular V8 swap has been done before on this site and you can read up on a parts list. I believe your rig has the 4.0 OHV which is a hearty engine. If you trust the motor there are things you can do to make it a stock V8 equal. A M90 Eaton blower, electric fan, headers, better exhaust system, custom tune, (if you go the blower route), plugs, wires, coil pack, intake? The projects are endless on these rigs. Do you plan to do light trails? Light meaning no damage type of trail. Communication? I have a ham radio for mine and a CB but have not installed them yet. The CB will have a simple trail antenna which is a stub type antenna, like you see on police rigs, because it would be used for short range trail use, then the longer ones for the all band ham. Aftermarket stereo? the fun is endless and expensive. Good luck and keep the mod update pic's coming so we can watch you and your rig grow. Thanks.
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

I am always attracted to the second generation explorer and I am partial to the 98. Your body on your Eddie looks like it was well cared for, minimal rust? I would just keep your rig and drop a V8 in, unless you can find one that is equally as nice as yours. You can pick up engines, transmissions and transfer cases for relatively cheap for those year of rigs. That particular V8 swap has been done before on this site and you can read up on a parts list. I believe your rig has the 4.0 OHV which is a hearty engine. If you trust the motor there are things you can do to make it a stock V8 equal. A M90 Eaton blower, electric fan, headers, better exhaust system, custom tune, (if you go the blower route), plugs, wires, coil pack, intake? The projects are endless on these rigs. Do you plan to do light trails? Light meaning no damage type of trail. Communication? I have a ham radio for mine and a CB but have not installed them yet. The CB will have a simple trail antenna which is a stub type antenna, like you see on police rigs, because it would be used for short range trail use, then the longer ones for the all band ham. Aftermarket stereo? the fun is endless and expensive. Good luck and keep the mod update pic's coming so we can watch you and your rig grow. Thanks.
Loquetus

Yeah, I haven't seen Any rust at all on this thing, see I was aiming for the limited edition for the looks and the features. I looked a bit and all of them I find are either not taken care of or high mileage +200,000. Mines only got 154,x.. Just turned over a few days ago. Anyway mine was owned by old people Which means obviously a nice driving style, I don't think they did any fixing themselves, I think they only took it to the dealer or a shop, when we got it, it had tons of receipts. The Tranny was Overhauled at 60k miles
Anyway if I had enough space here at my house ( and money ) I would have 2 explorers, its always nice to keep your first car.

Anyway again, some of that stuff you mentioned I would do to my explorer, and I would probably do light trails when I do trial around.

Isaac

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

Wow, loaded with recites too and all the work done by certified mechanics. What you have there is the equivalent of a "barn Find". If you are interested in a new blower, they are expensive, unless you buy used. I believe that the some ford Thunderbird's,(not all), have the blower for the 4.0 OHV, not sure of the years though, lets hope some else chimes in here for the years you need. You can pick up the older Thunderbird for relatively cheep also, but check to see if the blower is good or not. I am going to put a body lift on mine of about a inch and a half, then give it a TT,(Torsion Twist), and lastly a 4 door leaf pack for the rear, it should then have an aggressive looking stance that is not so tall as throw U joints every 6 months and the center of gravity. The total lift will be between 2 and 3 inches. On the first nice day of spring I will post some pictures of my rig on the registry also. Like 96Green said in your other post, Have a plan as to what you want. That just makes sense and once the plan is done simply make another. You will also find that modifying or even fixing something will most likely lead to fixing something else, as all can attest to here in this group. Good luck!
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

I'd probably lift mine 1-2 inches in the suspension, and I'm sorry I ain't the smartest but what is the blower? I know your not talking about the climate blower motor.

Isaac

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

The Blower will Look like this:

and the finished product like this:

you will get a lot better performance and most likely better fuel economy as well. Just remember that when you ram that much air down it's throat, it will need to escape equally as fast, so new exhaust will be in order. You may be able to find one on craigslist if you are patient and maybe even get them down in price. Have fun!
Loquetus

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

The above picture of the "Finished Product" is a picture from the under the hood of a ranger. They make the same blower with the throttle body on the passenger side as well, so that you can use the same space for your air filter.
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

Hey, so yesterday I went to pick n pull and picked up a few things but most important picked up this

all I knew to take was the head unit and some wiring
This is all I took

I cut the wires to the connectors. Was that stupid? But yea, I want to do the EATC Conversion. Is there any simple way of just getting it to work first and worrying about the automatic stuff later?

Also picked a pair of mud flaps off a sport

 

[GingeRed11]

Hey, so yesterday I went to pick n pull and picked up a few things but most important picked up thisView attachment 95017
all I knew to take was the head unit and some wiring
This is all I tookView attachment 95018I cut the wires to the connectors. Was that stupid? But yea, I want to do the EATC Conversion. Is there any simple way of just getting it to work first and worrying about the automatic stuff later?
View attachment 95021
Also picked a pair of mud flaps off a sport

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

HAhahahahahahahahaha! My friend you just opened a can of heating/cooling head unit whoop-ass on yourself. Yes that mod has been done by a lot of people in this forum including myself. There is a lot more then meets the eye on that mod. There is a couple of members here that have wired in that unit with a stock wiring for the manual controls and was successful. Myself, I went and bought a 98 explorer limited and took the wiring harness out and put it in my 2 door sport. If you want to read up on both ways just type in EATC swap or manual to EATC swap and have fun. Or if you like I can tell you what I did to obtain the convenience of that system.
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

HAhahahahahahahahaha! My friend you just opened a can of heating/cooling head unit whoop-ass on yourself. Yes that mod has been done by a lot of people in this forum including myself. There is a lot more then meets the eye on that mod. There is a couple of members here that have wired in that unit with a stock wiring for the manual controls and was successful. Myself, I went and bought a 98 explorer limited and took the wiring harness out and put it in my 2 door sport. If you want to read up on both ways just type in EATC swap or manual to EATC swap and have fun. Or if you like I can tell you what I did to obtain the convenience of that system.
Loquetus

Do you know the easiest way, like you said somebody used stock wiring. I was looking the wiring yesterday and they shared the same color wires some. How much wiring do I need if I were to do it?

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

Yes, you can hook it to stock wiring but you will only have off, med and high. It won't work for the blend door actuator, which kind of defeats the purpose of having that control head. Yes, the control head looks way cool but more importantly you want it to be functional. There is a link here on this forum, I have read it but don't know exactly were it is at, that he did the wiring on his ranger, which was almost identical to the explorer of that year he was using. It is a long read but good if you have the time. I found it easier for me to just change the wiring harness out as I had the blend door problem in my rig, which is common in these rigs, and just decided then to do it all. I took the steering column out then the dash so I could replace my heater plenum with on from a limited along with a new doorman blend door so that the blend door problem would not happen again in my life with this rig. At that time I put the new under dash wire harness in so that everything would work and fit great. I was wrong. I needed to change out the engine bay harness as well. The under dash wiring harness on the limited and the under dash wiring harness for the sport or the XLT were identical for everything like lights, window wipers, horn, overhead compass and temperature read out, windows, locks, seats, interior lights, rap module, gem module most everything with the exception with the heating and cooling, and some of the steering wheel controls. Now you asked for the easiest way would be to find that write-up and use it put this EATC in, but the fastest way would be to get a wiring harness, both under dash and engine bay harness, and by engine bay I mean just the one that runs along the sides and front of your rig with the fuse boxes and nothing on the engine, and swap them out. That takes about 3 hours total for the engine bay part of the project. Plus you will need the blower control module on the blower box under the hood. Then to take the dash out and remove and replace the wiring harness will be about 8-10 hours taking your time. You can go faster and have it all done in 8 hours with help. It will take at least 8-10 hours to splice, solider and heat shrink your connections working in a limited space. Just make a plan as to what you want in your rig as was the suggestion of 96green and go from there. You may decide to put the air ride system in from a limited along with other goodies from the limited that the Bauer does not have. This is the point at which now would be the time to decide those options that you want and go from there. Donor rigs are most the time cheap at least in this part of the country. Remember once you have the plan for your rig all decision after that are easy.... Well mostly easy.
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

So it's time consuming? I don't mind going a couple days without climate. So if I wire it to the stock wiring will thbe LCD work and stuff?
Also I love all th features of th limited I may just buy one when I get the money. The longer I wait the more miles those explorers are getting. Anyway do you think its worth it?
And what blend door problem?

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

I really can't answer that for you as to whether it's worth it or not. What I can answer for you is that Eddie looks very well maintained and rust free and you paid next to nothing for it. Without looking at a NADA book for the price that rig is worth, I would say that rig by looks alone is worth 1500-2500 dollars, I could be wrong. But to play it safe lets say it is worth 2 grand, so minus the 700 you put into the price, not including license and title transfer, you still have 13 hundred to play with. Can you live with the 1300 to make that first rig your dream first car or ? I was born and raised in Washington state and I had forgotten how there is very little rust as compared to Illinois, where I am at now. So if you want a limited look for one and trade across or up what ever the year is that you find for sale. I do know you will not lose any money on the rig you bought if you trade up or across, unless you go to a dealer. The limited has more options then yours but you can make that rig a Limited with a little effort. There are 95-97 explorer Limited over here for 450.00 some with V8's but I live in the rust belt, so the outside of the rig is usually toast but the insides are great, up in Oregon it may be a different story. Go look on craigs list and the paper and see if you can find a 95 limited. If the price for said limited is equal to or less then the 13 hundred you have to play with, then go for it. If said rig is cheaper because it is not running, then try to buy it as a donor to your rig at good price and take all the things you want off of it and put them on yours and make yourself a 95 Eddie Bauer Limited. It depends on what it is you want. I hope that helped.
Loquetus

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

Also if you decide to buy a donor and do it yourself, you will appreciate it more, know how the systems work and what it takes to fix them. That is knowledge that you can use, take with you where ever you go. You are a rare gem son as so many kids your age do not want to do anything for themselves and that speaks volumes about your parents. Learning all these things at you age will make most all things auto in your life come easy. No matter what you decide to do on your rig, fix up or get the limited you will have fun because your attitude is great and your willing to put in the time and effort. I think there are some members up your way, try to get together and have fun helping one another.
Loquetus

 

[GingeRed11]

Also if you decide to buy a donor and do it yourself, you will appreciate it more, know how the systems work and what it takes to fix them. That is knowledge that you can use, take with you where ever you go. You are a rare gem son as so many kids your age do not want to do anything for themselves and that speaks volumes about your parents. Learning all these things at you age will make most all things auto in your life come easy. No matter what you decide to do on your rig, fix up or get the limited you will have fun because your attitude is great and your willing to put in the time and effort. I think there are some members up your way, try to get together and have fun helping one another.
Loquetus

I really love the idea of an Eddie Bauer limited. And I love the idea of a donor vehicle. I don't know what my dad would say though lol. Fun fact my explorer was purchased and homed in Olympia, Washington most of its life. I really love the idea of an Eddie Bauer limited!!