It's About Time!!!
...For me to step up to the plate and join!
This site and its' members have been invaluable to me when it comes to figuring out 'Wha-a-a-at The ****?!' and making some improvements to the EX-P!
Special thanks to Turdle and Rick Mars who've both went the extra mile and scratched their heads with me to solve those 'mystery' issues in the past.
Now I can post some photos of my 'Arctic Explorer' and insights of my own as well.
Purchased (stole) my '97 AWD LTD 5.0L from a Portland OR dealer w/33k on it in 2000 for $14,500 !!!! I had a close friend who offered me "any car his lot for ACV + $500" then left me in the hands of a new guy for the night (Sunday 9PM, Thanksgiving weekend, pouring rain) I was looking for a Taurus for mom, when this lease return caught my eye! ("Oooppps;" said he the next day!).
Except for some minor scratches on the backrest of the passenger-side seat (small pooch?) it was IMMACULATE! The scratches are still there of course! Along with a few of my own now...
Probably the best 'deal' of my life considering what she's been through and how well she served the family in the years since.
Just a few miles short of 160k right now. She still looks new under the hood and chassis and runs that way too (when she's not throwing me a CEL fit!) Looks great outside and inside too for all the miles.
No road salt in OR/WA but; plenty in BC, YT and AK! I ALWAYS wash the undercarriage at the car wash when its been through that crap! In-fact: I've seen folks scratch their head while on the 'road' when I pull into a coin wash with a nice thick film of CaCl on the truck and spend all my $$ blowin' down the belly, fender wells and inside the bumpers, then drive away with a 'dirty' car! (You don't think I'd touch that CC finish with THAT nasty soft-scrub brush did you!).
Up until three years ago I always took her into the local dealer, Diehl Ford, Bellingham, WA for service, never EVER pinching a penny on maintenance...
Those were better days and I didn't have time to mess with wrenching on it. Of course my favorite service manager (bless his heart) retired about that time too. He went FAR above and beyond the call to keep that air-ride suspension working way past it's expiration date!!! I refused to rip it out. I actually like it when it (seldom...) works!
In the past couple of years I've trailered two rigs from WA/OR up the Alcan to Anchorage with her: A 2000 Nissan Pathfinder and my daughter's '99 Explorer LTD AWD 5.0L; another 'first owner' purchase with 55k IMMACULATE miles.
Both trailers weighed 7500# plus and with the exception of what turned out to be a bad plug wire in the heart of the Yukon (Bran-spanking-new Auto Zone's US made brand - phttttt!), the truck never flinched. NAPA Beldens on there now and they are the BEST wire I've ever seen for the $$. They're on my daughter's rig too now...I insisted! She averaged 10-11 mpg with that load! On the way back, 18! I'm steady, but heavy, footed too!
Did develop the now-infamous tick-tick-tick of the pass-side exhaust manifold on that first trip that became a full-fledged set of open cracks by the time I returned to OR. I posted a link to the photos of that repair a while back. I see the drivers-side is next... (TM headers?)...
Hope to have some photos up soon as well as a few EXPLORE-ation stories of my own. I've been reading a few of yours and ya-know; we all just might happen to own one of the best damn rigs FORD ever designed for Sport-U-Vee-ing!!!
I already knew FORD built the Best Damn trucks ever! (Why do you think I bought this rig?!)
As for me: Mostly a contractor/developer for many years (did I mention FORD trucks?) Then sold (Sales/F&I/Sales Mgr.) FORD/L-M cars/trucks in Seaside OR for a couple of years in late '80's-early 90's. Man! I sold a lot of trucks!
Returned to home-building in '91 (with my then new F-250 4x4!). Decided to get 'smarts' after a back injury in '94 and earned a BS in Chemical Eng at OSU, Corvallis (GO BEAVES!!!)... Worked in pulp and paper (process engineering) for a few before returning to property development and losing my shorts!
Next???? Who knows!
Looking forward to meeting all of you!
Rick
