AWD explorer as hot rod chassis...

[CDW6212R]

Yes I do see, the stock height I believe had the control arms slanted just barely down towards the tire, finding someone here with no height change may be hard. Good luck,

 

[FourbyFour]

I agree with CDW6212R. I had a look at mine (stock height 97) today and they slant just slightly downward towards the wheels (probably no more than 2 - 3degrees.) I didn't have a tape measure so I wasn't able to measure the shock length.

 

[scruff]

Thanks fourbyfour I appreciate you looking. If you do happen to find a tape measure, hook me up, I'd appreciate the information.

I have new pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.

 

[CDW6212R]

For an accurate measurement check the height from the ground up to the lower control arm bolts at the front of each arm. With the tire height/diameter, that defines the suspension on all 95-01 Explorer chassis'.

BTW thanks Paul for the mirror, it did come today.

 

[FourbyFour]

For the shock length.... would you prefer mount to mount or the length of the shock body?

BTW...fantastic project. Keep it coming.

 

[UKExploder]

13th of Oct. 2007 ------ do you have anymore pix yet??.... dying to see progress......

 

[scruff]

fourbyfour, mount to mount would be awesome.

Since so many thing in mine are changed, this is the one reliable thing I can still measure easily.

I do have some more pictures, but they're just of the truck in my garage rather than out at the roof chop guys yard.
I did however do the drop by backing out the adjuster bolts, it now sits really now.

All the other progress is less obvious, I now have a TIG welder so I can do my own welding, and I've bought a 49 car dash to replace the ugly truck dash. It needs to narrowed about 6 inches total but will look cool, the speaker grille hole will serve as a good access for...

...An under dash 90 degree brake pedal setup from Kugel Komponents - obviously being auto I'll just have a one pedal version.

I've also really roughly mounted the Ex steering column so I can steer it, the location is pretty easy, and I will finalize it once the TM headers arrive next week.

Also, since I've decided to do a channel, there will be some serious dismantling going on very shortly. I've started wire brushing and cleaning up all the spot welds I'll need drill out to raise the floor.

Things have been tight financially but that fog is lifting now so I hope to have a lot more to show soon.

 

[scruff]

Nothing much new to report, busily buying boring stuff like Argon bottles and regs for my welder. Oh and a very nice set of Tirque Monsters.
My sheet metal expert buddy is just back from Australia so the channel work will start very soon.
I will be laying the chassis on it's bump stops this weekend to measure some stuff.

As it's shown here it's in my garage and all I've done to thge chassis is wound the adjuster bolts all the way out, keeping just enough tension to stop the bars slapping. I think it looks really good, and the roof chop is and awesome height.
You can see the Explorer 'lectric seat sitting there in one shot, its top bar is about 4 inches under the bottom of the rear window when it's levelled.

It's shown without the running boards because roof chop guy left them unpainted outside in the rain, and they now need media blasting. All the fenders and eventually the cab will be done anyway so no real harm done.

 

[Xan]

Looking good, but whats with the pink? : haha

 

[CDW6212R]

Highlighter paint, it works I guess.

 

[scruff]

The guy that did the roof chop just had it sitting around, it's like a highlift primer, and like CDW said, it's brightly colored to show up high/low spots.
It'll be gone soon enough.

Sadly I had another set back today, both my dailey driver cars got broken into and they got into my garage with the door clicker.
Luckily all they got away with was my GPS from one car, and not a single tool or the TM headers was missing VERY lucky.

 

[CDW6212R]

Wow, very lucky. Take care,

 

[Rick]

Looking good

 

[chriswells78]

Wow, very lucky. They probably didn't know how valuable the TM headers actually are.

 

[scruff]

Lets hope they don't know what allthat is worth, otherwise I bet they'd be back.
Actually I think I disturbed them in the middle of it when I went down to go to work this morning, one of the neighbours (sadly an alcoholic, not th emost reliable but well meaning) said he saw two guys legging it down the street right at that time.

Thanks for the compliments on the truck, I am choking on other crap at the moment and I can't catch a break for long enough to make any serious progress.

 

[iceman7329]

Whats up man? Remeber the guy that bought your hood and bumper? Thats me! Check out the pics of what the explorer looks like now man. Im really intrested in this project too.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199359

 

[scruff]

Hey iceman, I am glad that worke dout for you, I was happy to see someone get the stuff that was enthusiastic about getting it.

Things are going well with the truck, I've made some slow but good progress, pics soon.

If you ever want some help messing with your Ex, let me know, I love working on this stuff.

Paul

 

[iceman7329]

Thanks again Paul. And if you ever need any help or have any questions Im a dealer tech so just let me know.

 

[scruff]

So this last couple of weeks all that has gone wrong is that both my dailey drivers were broken into, and then my car was actually stolen, and recovered, then discovered to have been run without oil and blown up. My work also screwed me out of a position I was promised and I had to have surgery on my leg to remove ascrew.
Thats the BAD news .

Good news is I finally got to work on the hotrod !
I managed to remove the torsion bars completely for now, and disconnected the spring perches from the axle so I could dump the chassis on it's bump stops all round.





I know it looks kind of droopy_in_the_pants like this, it's mostly because the bed is a bit lop sided and is sitting about 1/2 in ch lower than it should. Mounted correctly the back of the front fenders and the front of the back fenders (!) both end up about 3 1/2 inches off the ground. I am going to cut the bump stops to see what more I can get out of the front (probably with the shocks removed) so I know the max drop.
I previously stated I was going to do a 3 inch channel, which was pretty much bang on for a guestimate, but I am also getting away from this train of thought. It's a lot of extra work and 3 inch from the ground dropped is pretty damn low. I think instead I will raise the bed sides but keep the rear fenders where they are, this will give back some useable bed space and make it better visually.
I am going for a regular ride height of 7 1/2 inches which gives about 4 to 5 inches of travel, which I think is fine for a hot rod.

The pictures also don't show it to full effect because the running boards are off, they really bring it down visually.
While it's down like this I am also going to pull off the front sheet metal and measure the front inner fender for the cuts so they will fit around the front suspension.
After that the whole front clip comes off for bead blasting or acid dipping and I can put the TM headers on.

I did have some very good luck, I scored an almost brand new bed for a current shape F150 FOR FREE ! My work pulled it off one of the trucks after it got rear ended, it's got a very small dent in the back and the tailgate but thats IT. If it wasn't one of the bosses trucks it never would have been changed.
Why is this important ? Well, the bed floor in it is perfect, it's a 8 x 5 bed and has had a bed liner since new - so I am drilling the spotwelds out and plan on using the bed floor and structure in the F1s bed. I originally wanted the fancy wooden bed you see in these, but since I actually want to carry stuff it seemed silly to spend that much for it to get all messed up.
Handy thing is the 5 foot wide bed is exactly 48 between the wheel arches, the same width as the bed box on the F1 ~!
So if anyone needs some bed sides for an F150 I have some, be great for the street scraper crowd who just cut their floors out anyway.

I also have a theory on how I might be able to get a working front Air Ride suspension into this thing as a bolt on. Which would be cool for me since I want to make as much as possible on this thing interchangeable with stock stuff, but also because a lot of people out there would love to drop theirs.
As soon as I take some more measurements I'll post something more about it.

 

[CDW6212R]

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble with the other cars. It's good that you have had something to keep you busy. Keep at it, a little at a time.