Accepting my inner gearhead?

[firebee]

So here's my somewhat weird tale...

When I was a kid, my folks went shopping for a new car. For some bizarre reason, they decided to bring me along, and my dad taught me that I could tell whether a car was four-wheel-drive or not by looking underneath it for the transfer case (I suppose one might read the window sticker...) I was fascinated by this whole process, and looked under a lot of cars, and inexplicably became attached to one particular Explorer. Enough so that the clear discrepancy between my two-dollar-per-week allowance and the price of said vehicle caused me some consternation.

I am still attached to that one particular Explorer. My parents bought it, and we went on all manner of road trips in it. When I got my license, I learned to drive in it, and in my sophomore year of college, my parents gave it to me. I nearly sold it two or three times; I bought a Focus because my first job had a long commute, and it seemed extravagant to have a seldom-used secondary vehicle. Then I moved to an apartment with limited parking, and the temptation loomed again; it was basically only laziness that kept me from selling it to a temporarily-carless coworker.

Then my mom called me to tell me about this awesome federal program where I could get a lot of money for the Explorer, and if I traded in the Focus also I could probably get a nice new station wagon or similar.

Let us say... the result was just a teeny bit undignified. Let us also say that the program-we-shall-not-name had a rather paradoxical effect in my case, because when the proposed alternative is razor blades, suddenly odd blizzards, helping-friends-move-bodies tasks, and acting as the subject of irrational emotional attachments starts to look like a quite fitting use for the elderly beast.

Combine this with the fact that my core driving skills are centered around trucks (up until the purchase of the Focus, I had barely laid hands on anything without Ranger guts), and I think it's safe to say that I'll be this Explorer's last owner. Creeping up on 240,000 miles with essentially unmarred reliability makes me think that we're going to be stuck with one another for quite some time. And reading these forums makes me think that there's scope for entertainment in that time that I've barely even touched.

The only problem is, I'm a graduate student, and am currently lamenting the clear discrepancy between my two-dollar-per-week allowance and the potential cost of parts involved in getting my rear doors to open again. But one can't have everything, I guess...

 

[chezoom]

welcome. interesting story. dont sell her

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I agree that you should not sell it. Post a few pictures when you get a chance.

 

[firebee]

Selling him isn't really in the cards. There certainly are other people who have the proper respect for their trucks as a general rule, but by definition there is nobody who carries the history like I do.

One of these days I'm going to do a proper photo session, but here's something I have on hand:

The tire is off due to an Internet argument. I think the rocker panel issue is how I found this forum in the first place, awhile back. The front panels have newer paint than the back ones due to an incident involving ice and a garbage truck, which I for once had nothing to do with.

I've got a laundry list of minor annoyances that I'm planning to attack on my own -- the power windows are questionable, opening the rear doors requires chicken sacrifice, the rear wiper kinda semi sorta doesn't work, a few other things. At the moment, I'm trying to get to the headlight assemblies in order to polish the lenses and repair the gasket on the left one which has fallen apart. Come spring, I figure I'll get the air conditioner fixed -- I had it converted when the compressor failed, but there's a leak in there somewhere and it's entirely empty now. And the sound system has gotten... special.

The engine is still running really good. I have some valve noise from a lifter that somehow got damaged when a mechanic was working on the intake manifold, but I'm given to understand that this is essentially benign, and if I recall correctly there's an oil leak somewhere (but not enough to bother me particularly). I'd like to get to the point where if/when the engine comes to require a rebuild, that I could potentially do it myself with someone knowledgable to teach me; I don't know that the same aspirations are reasonable with respect to the transmission, but it's a thought. However, right now I have no automotive tools, no space to work, and no money -- so for the next year my plan is to drive really conservatively.

Similarly, I'm idly pondering what I should do to clean up and protect the rocker panels (or, the hole where rocker panels used to be) to minimize damage until I have the money or time and skill to do a proper repair. They're frankly rusted on the other side too; I had a body shop "fix" it some years back, but they just painted it with rust inhibitor and the rust came back from the inside out; I think they thought I was looking for something that would last just long enough to sell.