Alex's 1999 Explorer XLT

I bought my Explorer sometime around the end of January 2012. It's a 1999 XLT 4x4 with the 4.0 SOHC and as of right now around 95k miles.

The first thing I did was the fog light mod and shortly after that I did the throttle cable mod. Then converted the fogs to HID which didn't go so well, but I'm planning on fixing it in a few weeks.

Here she is sitting on the lot:

And another picture of the stock truck:

I ordered an LED panel for the overhead console off a guy from the Ranger forums and after I installed it I caught an LED bug. I ended up making LED panels for both puddle lights and the cargo dome light and buying some wedge base bulbs for the 2nd row dome and license plate lights. All these pictures are taken with no flash and it was completely dark outside. All the light is from the dome lights.

And here's a comparison shot of the puddle lights, LED vs stock

Next was some Rigid Industry Dually's, which are absolutely amazing lights. From left to right... running lights, low beams, high beams, high beams + fogs + dually's. They are just as bright as the 35w HIDs I had on my Ranger and they only draw around 1-1.5 amps.

Daytime shot

Tomorrow I should get some coax in the mail to hook up my antenna so there should be a functioning cb installed by tomorrow night. But that's it for now.

 

[section525]

Lookin good, Alex! What's after the CB?

 

[Dawgpack]

Hmmm probably gonna fab up a light bar for the front so I can move the Duallys up and add some HID converted hellas or something. I saw an ex with tinted tails today and I liked the look so maybe I'll do that too.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice x

 

[fordfrystak]

Wow its really cool to see someone do the 4 fog lights on the front. I want to do the same on my 99 XLT but would like to use the fogs off of a '96 XLT. They are rectangular and should fit just fine in that opening on the bumper. @DAWGPACK, im still not sure how to go about doing the wiring for them. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of just joining them up to the existing fogs so that way all 4 come on when i push the foglight button on the dash. How did you wire yours? If you have any pictures from how you did the wiring that would be very helpful
Awesome Job btw on you Explorer

 

[Dawgpack]

Wow its really cool to see someone do the 4 fog lights on the front. I want to do the same on my 99 XLT but would like to use the fogs off of a '96 XLT. They are rectangular and should fit just fine in that opening on the bumper. @DAWGPACK, im still not sure how to go about doing the wiring for them. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of just joining them up to the existing fogs so that way all 4 come on when i push the foglight button on the dash. How did you wire yours? If you have any pictures from how you did the wiring that would be very helpful
Awesome Job btw on you Explorer

I just ran the dually's and fogs through a relay that is activated with the stock fog light switch. So basically cut the wires going to one of the stock fogs and use the positive wire as pin 86 and the negative wire as pin 85 on the relay (that will turn the relay on when you push the fog light switch). From there its just like any other relay setup; pin 30 goes to a 12v source and pin 87 goes out to the positive wires of all the lights.

 

[BigJoe1094]

Very clean lookin ex can you give me some more info on that LED puddle light conversion?

 

[Dawgpack]

There's a good write up for them on here. Click me!

You have to solder all the negative poles and positive poles together and then just connect them to the wires powering the old lights. Here's what the back of one of mine looked like before the hot glue to insulate it.

 

[fordfrystak]

That looks intense at first glance But once you to stop to think about it, its not that bad. Did you have to buy that bread board separate?

 

[Dawgpack]

Ya, its actually super simple. When I did the dome lights I even hot glued a few extra wires to the board and then soldered the negative LED leads to those wires which made it cleaner. I bought the bread board at Radioshack. I think it was about $3.50 for it which was more than enough to do both puddle lights and the cargo bay light inside.

 

[BigJoe1094]

Thanks dude I might do this soon

 

[Dawgpack]

Ok, some stuff has happened. I got my cb in. It's nothing exciting but at least it's there.

Tinted the tails. I didn't go too dark. I don't have any pictures of them that aren't in direct sunlight, but it looks pretty good.

That all happened a while ago but a few days ago I got the modding bug and decided to order some shackles. Tellico4x4 got them to me in 2 days. I was super impressed. So I washed, clay barred, and waxed the whole thing then cranked the torsion bars up and installed the shackles.

Before. so clean

After just the tt

And after the Warrior 153 shackles:

Yay stock tires!

So that's it. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's a start

 

[Dawgpack]

Few updates...

painted the diff cover green, running board delete, 31x10.5r15 duratracs

no more running boards

seeing the UPS driver outside is the most exciting thing in the world!

comparison shot

 

[Dawgpack]

Haven't updated this in a while. I got a Tork Lift Central Class III hitch from a junkyard for $6, Curt front hitch, added an add-a-leaf, Rancho RS5000s, and made a light bar that fits in the front hitch.

Big day... replacing all the shocks and putting in the aal

And I haven't taken many pictures since then. But thats the new light bar and roof basket.

I'm also starting to gather parts for a m5od swap. If anyone has parts for it to sell me let me know.

 

[Jstcruz]

Lookin good man! I like the tires and overall look you achieved!