"Blue Bandit" (1992 Eddie Bauer)

[NICE59FORDF100]

Well I got home yesterday, and all was well. Blue had new coils, ball joints, inner and outer tie rods, a new steering box, new sway bar links, and new steering pressure hoses. Today, Kris will finish hooking up the power steering box, swap out to a second gen master cylinder, and swap out the axle to disc brakes. Still waiting on the rag joint to come in the mail

Some finished photos (Even though Kris only took 8 lol)

 

[IAmTodd]

Looks good. Mine will be getting the same lot of new parts in a few weeks. Send Kris up my way!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Kris does amazing work for sure. What's sad though is soon this will all be taken back out again by me to A) attack Blue with a wire wheel, and B) perform the ranger brake upgrade to the front. The more and more i stare at all that rust, the more and more i want to take vacation time and disassemble everything from the a-pillar forward and correct...

 

[IAmTodd]

I think I'm pulling everything to clean up and paint as well. I'm angry I didn't learn about the brake upgrade until after I replaced the front calipers. Some day I suppose.

Keep up the good work!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Yea, this ranger brake upgrade looks like a real winner. You couple that with rear disc brakes, second Gen master cylinder, and wire in a second gen abs setup, you will have the same braking power of a second Gen

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Uh oh...Look what i found on German Ebay....

Just a hint of how it looks installed...

Stay Tuned

 

[sport97]

Oh yes! I hope there is international shipping. That thing is cool! Pick up some of the euro spec lights too, they look sweet.

 

[MrQ]

Wow that looks good Russell. Hope you get it, it would look really good on blue...

...would kinda distract from the rust. :

 

[reapereviltwin]

Looking good Russell!!!!!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

For those who are asking, I am in the midst of fixing the dead link pics above. Ive gotten some of them fixed, and i am working very hard to get the rest, sp please be patient

 

[Bruces expo]

Being Patient ! haha Can't Wait !

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

The Official Blue Bandit Frame-Off Restoration Begins Now!

Well the time has come for the action I have been planning for years now...a complete restoration from the frame up of the vehicle. Over the years, the body has fell into disrepair (see rust) and my electrical add-ons have gotten too messy for my liking, and with the sunroof install a couple years ago, water damage to the interior. Plus with the transmission pump going out last year (not because of the 5R swap, but purely mechanical) that was the last nail in the coffin of Blue Bandit. But, that doesn't mean he's going to scrap. It means i can finally build him the way he needs to be built and (gasp) get the truck painted after all these years. So here are the changes that I am making during the restoration:

Exterior:
Repair fiberglass Explorer Express airdam
TurboCoupe hood scoops grafted into the hood
roof rack delete.
99-01 style running boards/fender flairs with built in exterior lamps
93-94 style limited side trim (except it will say Blue Bandit)
2nd gen wiper cowl (but with first gen clip)
Navajo rear bumper w/ mountaineer reflectors and factory reverse sensors
monochromatic Sonic Blue paint
some sort of different wheels, 17's, painted a gunmetal grey color

Interior:
Lincoln LS front seats (heated and cooled function)
99-01 limited rear seats (with Town Car L heated function)
two tone Navajo Brown (93-94)/Mocha Tan interior color scheme
custom leather with "Blue Bandit" insignia on seats
new carpet, headliner, sunroof shade
thunderbird digital gauge cluster

Performance:
5.0 with new heads, goal 350HP (no body or suspension lift)
Rebuild 4R70W
OBD-2 conversion
Factory 99-01 rear air ride suspension

Safety:
Side impact air bags
1997 Thunderbird sourced traction control
93-97 front ranger TTB brake upgrade
95-01 master cylinder
upgraded rear brakes from 06+ crown vic (vented)
actual 4 wheel ABS (4 independent brakes lines, tied into traction control)

I'm sure there is more, i just can't think of it at this moment. So on with the carniage!

We pulled Blue into the garage, which will be his home for the next 12+ months. And then started first disassembly. Ever since the first wreck with the Rodeo, I've never been happy with how I repaired the front clip using aftermarket body parts. so off they came...

Next the windshield came out...

And then the real hard part (for me anyway)...starting to cut off the original fender shotguns and start tearing out the engine bay...

I also picked up some new wire wheels and tested them out on the rusty frame that is in need of serious attention...

And that's where I am at now. Granted, we have several Bandit Customs jobs going right now, but I am trying to fit Blue in when I can. But you will see in the last pic of the driver side, i drilled out all the spot welds holding the shotgun support in place and wire wheeled all the rust off and that will allow me to reweld on a 'new-to-Blue' factory Ford front clip from another first gen. Something that is true and straight and will fit just like it should. And so join me, subscribe, and see where there is light at the end of this long tunnel...

 

[Bruces expo]

Nice to see some action ! Keep up the great work !

 

[Benjam]

So how do you plan on wiring up the lincoln seats for the heated/cooled functionality? What type of switch? I've had the idea of using the EATC from an ls with the heat/cool switches built in. But you still have to wire it up. Plan on using the OBD2 wiring?

If you don't want to share your ideas I completely get it!

Subscribing anyway, I love to see features from other vehicles make it into older models. Especially when they look factory, which you do a very nice job of.

Benjam

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

So how do you plan on wiring up the lincoln seats for the heated/cooled functionality? What type of switch? I've had the idea of using the EATC from an ls with the heat/cool switches built in. But you still have to wire it up. Plan on using the OBD2 wiring?

If you don't want to share your ideas I completely get it!

Subscribing anyway, I love to see features from other vehicles make it into older models. Especially when they look factory, which you do a very nice job of.

Benjam

Excellent question! first off, you are right, the Lincoln LS seats are controlled via a switch in the EATC faceplate. the switch sends a signal over the MS-CAN bus network to the driver seat module that then commands the associated funtion to activate. the climate controlled seats are actually comprised of 4 items:

1) switch
2) module
3) thermal element
4) fan

The way this swap will work is the fact the thermal elements do not care what module is controlling them. So instead of trying to use the LS EATC faceplate, i am swapping out the LS module for that of a navigator climate control module. It controls the thermal elements the exact same way, uses the same wiring, but the switches have a direct circuit to the module instead of using the MS-CAN bus network. That's how I plan on making the ls seats work. As far as the memory module, same thing - it uses the MS-CAN bus netowrk. SO i am replacing it with a driver seat module from a 2002 town car for the same reasons - it will work with the explorer memory switch and power buttons, with the added benefit of the power recline (feature available on lincoln ls and lincon town car seats) feature being part of the memory setup. On explorers with memory seats, power recline was not an option, so now i will had the added benefit of power memory recline. I plan on doing this for the passenger seat as well. Thanks for the question!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Some progress has been made, but of course we do have other projects going and customer vehicles as well. So here are pictures, everyone loves pictures!

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Also hard to believe this build thread is over 10 years old now lol

 

[MrQ]

W00t progress! Seems like Blue will finally stop being a pile of rust and turn into something that won't be on the Texas condemned vehicle list. ;-)

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

As always, it's great to hear Dan's encouraging words

 

[97xlt4.0]

Beacon of positivity isn't he? ;-). Gotta say I am envious, I hope I can do to my x half the plans you have for Blue!