99 Eddie Bauer - Almost Cash for Clunkered!

[NoiseComplaint]

Hey all, I'm a new member here, from Southampton, MA, live part time in West Granby, CT. I'd been in the market for a 4x4 as I drive a Mustang, and the prospect of driving that in a New England winter was less than ideal. I was discussing this with my father over lunch a few months ago and he mentioned that he was going to try to get in on the Clunker program with our 99 Eddie Bauer they owned from new, as it now had 135k miles on it, I about had a heart attack on the spot as the car had been meticulously maintained from the moment it was driven off the lot years ago, if my mother heard a noise coming from anywhere in the car, it was instantly serviced at the dealer, the truck is just about as flawless as a 10 year old vehicle can be. After much convincing, and a few beers, I convinced them to sell me the Explorer for a thousand bucks, and got them into a new Mariner. Great deal for me

As my buddies mostly own trucks, they've got me hooked on light wheeling on the many trails we have here in western MA, so I'm thrilled to have a truck that I can tag along with, especially since I just repaired a Jeep XJ for my girlfriend. I can't have her outdoing me, can I?

I ordered the WAR 153 shackles, add a leafs, and I'll do the torsion twist sometime this week, along with new tires. I'm torn on if I want to do the body lift or not, as MA has pretty strict laws about lifting vehicles and I don't want it to be a pain in the ass to inspect this truck, it's already a pain in the ass to get the Mustang inspected.

Without further ado, here's pictures as it sits, bone stock. I apologize for the crappy iPhone quality images.

And my baby, 94 Mustang GT, Tremec TKO tranny, 3.73's, tons of boltons, full Mac exhaust from headers back, Eibach pro-kit/KYB's. Ripping into the motor this winter thanks to the Explorer

Edit for updates:

As of 10/5/09:

4.0 SOHC
4.10 gears
31x10.5 Green Diamond Icelander M/T tires
Cragar Soft 8's
Add-a-leaf
Sanderson Shackles
Torsion Twist

 

[slaughterrt]

Welcome to the forums and that's a heck of a deal on that eddie bauer. Looks to be in prestine condition and for a grand, you can't beat that. Especially with everything serviced at a dealer. It would have been a terrible shame for that to get clunkered. But yeah, nice explorer and very nice mustang as well.

 

[Kriegen]

great deal you got there

 

[Joe Dirt]

Thank you for saving a great vehicle. Love your Stang, but what's the story on the SVO?!?

 

[celly]

I'm biased. The '99 EB was a fine year indeed. Thanks for saving one. The '99 model year took a beating in the Cash for Wankers program.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Thank you for saving a great vehicle. Love your Stang, but what's the story on the SVO?!?

The SVO is my best buddy's car, he's a fellow Mustang/Ford fanatic (I think he's up to 20 Fords owned in the last 10 years. 6 or so Mustangs, 4 Rangers, couple SHO's, etc.), he rescued it from someone's backyard out in Eastern MA, found the listing on Craigslist. He drove it back to his house, and has restored it. Had to put new floors in, new, rebuilt 2.3, cleaned the hell out of it, new rugs, etc. It has 70k original miles on it and it's running strong at ~17psi on a Turbocoupe turbo. It's taken a lot of effort to get to that point, from where it was. He's had a lot of help from the local Ford community, which is amazing, and why I am thrilled to have the Explorer.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice x and stang u got there

 

[ExploreTHEWorld]

Do the lift get it registered where some family lives. Thats what I'm doing with mine. Pensylvania dosen't give a damn what you do!!

 

[Joe Dirt]

The SVO is my best buddy's car, he's a fellow Mustang/Ford fanatic (I think he's up to 20 Fords owned in the last 10 years. 6 or so Mustangs, 4 Rangers, couple SHO's, etc.), he rescued it from someone's backyard out in Eastern MA, found the listing on Craigslist. He drove it back to his house, and has restored it. Had to put new floors in, new, rebuilt 2.3, cleaned the hell out of it, new rugs, etc. It has 70k original miles on it and it's running strong at ~17psi on a Turbocoupe turbo. It's taken a lot of effort to get to that point, from where it was. He's had a lot of help from the local Ford community, which is amazing, and why I am thrilled to have the Explorer.

Very cool- and perfect upgrade on the TC Turbo. Sadly, he must now be out of money- if he's owned a couple of SHO's... I've owned 9 of them, and I just moved out of the box I was previously living in because of it.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Very cool- and perfect upgrade on the TC Turbo. Sadly, he must now be out of money- if he's owned a couple of SHO's... I've owned 9 of them, and I just moved out of the box I was previously living in because of it.

Haha, I've owned one as well, a few years back, 92 Silver Frost with black leather. I loved that car. I spend less money maintaining two vehicles now than I did maintaining the SHO, sadly. I can't imagine owning 9.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Waiting on the shackles, Add-a-leafs, and got ahold of some brand new Cragar Soft 8's with 31 inch Green Diamond Icelander rubber.

 

[specialized7]

make sure to get pictures up

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Went wheeling for the first time last night, stock. I'm really impressed with the truck, with a lot of patience and picking the right lines, it went right up some pretty hairy stuff. The sidesteps took a bit of a beating, but that was expected. They're coming off before I manage to break them. I'll post some pictures when I do the add-a-leafs after work tonight.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Still waiting on actually doing the work until we can get my buddy's Ranger out of his garage. Hopefully this weekend. In the meantime, I found a WAAG brushguard in the scrap pile, and recieved my Soft 8's with the Icelander M/T's.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Crappy cell phone picture of after I did the Add-a-leafs, Shackles, torsion crank, and threw on the wheels and tires.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Hey- those look pretty darn good!

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Finally, some real pictures. Sadly, it was getting dark outside so I couldn't snap many while we were out. The truck is so much more capable lifted, with the rear sway bar discoed.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

More pictures today, and a video. Been getting a lot of use out of the truck

And the video of the pond crossing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnK8mubK9-Q

 

[Mud4Life]

Nice explorer... Have you extended your breather lines? I'm not 100% certain but I am pretty sure you're going to have water in both your diffs, as well as your tranny and transfer case with water crossings like that.

It doesn't take much to cut the breather lines and clamp on a longer piece of hosing. I'll be doing that some-time in the next 2 weeks before a run I'm going on.

 

[NoiseComplaint]

Nice explorer... Have you extended your breather lines? I'm not 100% certain but I am pretty sure you're going to have water in both your diffs, as well as your tranny and transfer case with water crossings like that.

It doesn't take much to cut the breather lines and clamp on a longer piece of hosing. I'll be doing that some-time in the next 2 weeks before a run I'm going on.

Diff lines are extended as per information I got from here. Seems to be fine, after the fact. I'm going to be flushing the fluid in a few weeks so I guess we'll see.