Blue's 91 XLT

Hello, this is my new to me 91 xlt. i just got it from a friend who has had it for years and just got a new truck, he needed space in his driveway and i needed a vehicle and it was one of the two vehicles i was thinking about getting, (an explorer or a blazer were on the top of my wish list) and so i bought it for 300$. Of course, with any 22 year old vehicle you buy for 300$, it has lots of little problems, but i still love it anyway.
Almost ran into his new truck trying to turn around in his tiny driveway on the way out after i bought it hehe.

Future plans includetrying to restore it as much as possible, this wont be hard inside, as the interior is almost mint aside from a small tear in the drivers seat leather, but i have to fix the rear shocks eventually, fix the tail lights, and some cosmetic stuff like minor rust and the dissapearing clear coat.
I plan to get larger tires, probably 31's. New or different leafs in back, maybe an f150 leaf pack, and manual hubs for the 4wd, along with some custom cosmetic upgrades like running boards and maybe a brush guard.

This will be a long project for me as money is and will be pretty tight for quite a while. and at first my priority is just getting it to respectable shape mechanically.

that is how it sits right now, i hope to improve it as much as i can, it has about 156k miles right now, my goal is to go to at least 350k.

any changes i make i will post on this thread as well

enjoy. thanks!


EDIT: The image site i originally used to host my earlier pics decided to delete all my photos because they started requiring a paid account to host on their site. My normal computer with all the pics on it currently does not have a charger that will work, so once i get a new charger i will repost all of the missing pictures if i can. you can see the basic progression though, just missing some of the pics on the first 2 pages. all the cool stuff is on the 2nd and 3rd pages anyways, but i'll repost the pics as soon as i can. thanks!

 

[Blue91Ex]

Update on the truck, mostly just winter prep. repaired the bed cap which decided it wanted to become a tumble weed last spring, put that on, got some good used tires for winter. (not the right size but close enough) and got a bit more paint taken care of. still need to oil the underside and install a reciever hitch before winter, as well as sort out a couple electrical problems.

and a couple pics from this summer because who doesnt like pictures.

(ranger is gone yay..)

 

[Blue91Ex]

Truck bumper got some adjustments recently. still debating whether i should make a registry for it but i wouldnt know where to put it and explorerforum may not even be the right site for it..
anyways metal fab is metal fab whether its on a 1/4 ton or a 3/4 ton so here ya go.

The temporary:

Starting the brush guard:

Test fitting with the 3/16" side plates (cut out with grinder) and after rewelding a couple weak seams from the original construction:

Some trim to fill the gap under the fender and trim as well as around the side plates to make the brush guard stronger and beefier looking:

Some "final" product picrtures, still needs a set of headlight guards but those will wait.

There was a lot more work put into rebuilding this than might be obvious, i fixes the weak welds, finished the areas i didnt finish when i built the bumper before, built the guard, and used silicone caulking to seal up all the seams, pits, and gaps on the back side, to prevent rust. Then even used a couple thjin coats of body filler to smooth out the surfaces of the metal, which was originally very well used metal work benches, and had lots of surface imperfection, as well as some areas that i got a bit aggressive with the grinder originally, then i scraped off the truck bed liner from before and repainted everything.
The headlight guards will bolt on and wrap around the front of the headlights and connect to the rearmost parts of the bumper to help stiffen and strenthen it, even with its overall "thin" material.
I think it came out really good, let me know what you guys think!

 

[HSlough]

That's kind of funny what you did with your cup holders. Mine came with the newer one you have now, but it was green like my interior, and I used bed liner to make it black and stand out. But recently I took it out and found a 1st gen explorer with this cup holder, but it was gray so I bedlinered it too, I like it because the cups are now side to side, and it has two useful cubbies.

It slides right into the space the old one goes into, without modification. Our consoles already have the screw holes too:

I have that one in my 93 and if you have to break hard cups will fall right out. At least anything bigger than a small McDonald's cup