Feature Truck 10-19-04 Sk1er17's 98 Sport | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Feature Truck 10-19-04 Sk1er17's 98 Sport

Jeez ive been on this site forever and decided to do a little exploring tonight in the "un clicked" parts- I never knew there was actually an Elite Explorer Registry... so I figured Id put in my thread for those of you who dont know me.

Im 20 years old (well will be on March 29, 2004; close enough). Currently an auto technician at STS in central NJ. Also a full time Mechanical Engineering student at Rutgers University. Graduate in 2006!

This explorer was my first car. By the time i had my car for about a year, i had done all the "cosmetic" stuff to it basically because in small steps its cheap and easy.
No need to add a long list of items to this thread- you can see pretty much everything in the picture:
12637matt3a.jpg


Next I started feeling ambitious. My truck really needed to start fullfilling the name "truck". So I installed 4 door leaf springs, WAR153 Shackles and did a Torsion Twist up front. It was alright, but not quite enough..
12637newpic.jpg


You could tell it was lifted while comparing it to other explorers, but it "felt" like a stock explorer while i was driving it. And being by then I had discovered some new places to offroad, my thirst for a 4x4 monster convinced me to take the plunge. My initial plan was to sell it, and buy a Sport Trac. I actually had a buyer for $10K but i backed out and realized with what i owed on it, id be paying off a stock sport track for 5 more years.. So instead I went into a little debt and bought a 2" body lift, 32" tires, (my girl got me the rims for xmas :D ).

I did the body lift by myself! Took 27 straight hours (some of you might remember seeing a thread in the middle of the night when i needed help) But either way it got done, I got my tires, did a few minor mods and whalaaaa:
12637003.jpg


Ive been tweaking it ever since!
12637coolshot.jpg

EDIT************************************************
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
Well, i blew that list of "mods away".. just look!... And Arnie- I think i am now Un-Surpassed! :D
12637DSNEW.jpg

12637DSNEW2.jpg

12637DSNEWSIDE.jpg

12637DSNEWREAR.jpg


Those would be Perry's Fiberglass Fenders. 33x12.50x15 Xterrains.
Eventually im going to get the fenders painted to match and have the whole truck sprayed to get rid of a lot of my scratches... but not anytime soon due to $$$
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Done Editing!

Now for a few of my own touches:

My Bracket to mod the brush guard to fit my BL:
12637bracket.jpg


Havent made a skid plate YET. So i installed this steel to protect my tranny cooloer lines:
12637snow_007.jpg



Theres PLENTY of off-road shots in my photo album. Not to mention some GREAT ones of me stuck as hell!
like....
12637stuck_pose2.jpg

SO CHECK IT OUT!! :bounce: :bounce:

And finally; Some mods that arent as obvious from the pictures:

- Flowmaster 50 Series w/2.5" pipe bent back
- Upgraded to Bosh +2 and Jacobs wires
- K&N filter and Cut out the front of my Air Box
- i have 4.10 gear stock .. na na na na na :p
- Throttle Cable $0.05 mod
- Extended all breather lines for water protection
- working on gettin an APTEN chip.. had one but went back cause my EEC needs to be flashed.

BTW: my goal is to OUT- WHEEL LIZARD... someday..... a very very long time from now.... but someday :burnout:

Update: 2 Recent pics from April 04.
12637MattPullJay.jpg



Can't forgets some interiors:
Anyone lookin for some waterproof/ sweet seat covers.. look no further! X-Bound seat covers. $20 each from wal-mart or $55 after shipping online. No reason to spend $300 for fancy ones. My dad thought i had my seats re-done at first! PM me if you have any questions..
12637SeatsA.jpg


And just another shot to show my control panel :smoke:
12637Interior.jpg

Cant forget about the all important OBA:
I have a 2.5 gallon tank and 200H compressor. Fills all 4 33's from 0-35 in roughly 10 minutes.
12637VIAIR_OBA-med.jpg

NEW ADDITION!!!
On Friday, July 30 I hydrolocked my engine for the SECOND TIME!....
So i got ambitious and this is what came out :D
12637Snorkel1-med.jpg

12637Snorkel2-med.jpg

12637Snorkel4-med.jpg

12637Snorkel5-med.jpg

________________________________________________________________

Someone Got 35's....
Let the pictures speak for themselves :D
126371rear.jpg

126371cool.jpg

126371side.jpg

126371front.jpg

To Answer some questions:

1) 35x12.50x15 BFG AT's
2) 15x10 rock crawlers with 3.75" backspacing
3) No Rubbing
4) Will rub if i flex a lot (but only in the rear and that can be taken care of)
5) 4:10's seem to be a good gear for em so far.. no doggin
6) yea, the 33" xterrains are for sale so buy them!
 



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I've always liked Sk1er's X. Nice job for being feature truck! :thumbsup:
 






Nice TRUCK!

Love to see it when people fix up thier trucks but aren't afraid to go wheeling!

So are your diffs open still???
 






Biggest piece of crap Ive seen, I thought it was nice untill I saw it in person. And the owner doesnt make it any better either, j/k :p Congrats Matt.
 






lol thanks tex.

my front diff is open, my rear diff is LS. dont have the $$ for lockers yet- that'll be in the near future though.


wow there's so many awesome trucks on this site- i feel honored to get picked :bounce:
 












Very NICE!! Those 35's look great!!!!
BTW, did you trim the lower corner off your bumper up front to better clear the 35's?? It looks as though you did, but not sure.
p.s.- nice way to cap the snorkel w/ the scoop thingy!!
 












My "main" reason for trimming the bumper was to make it flow better with the fenders. It actually ended like 1.5" past where the fiberglass fender was and thought that looked kinda cheap.

Here, i always say pictures do the talking:
12637Snorkel2-med.jpg

12637ERic1.jpg
 






yea, it looks much better like that!!
 












Oh yeah, I noticed you copied my rims also, not cool Matt hahaha
 












Very Very nice bro .... thanx for all the help .... i think thats awesome by how far you have come :thumbsup:
 












Thank you for supporting us I am in the US ARMY bro :us:
 












Great Job. As you know...your truck is my hero!
 






Nice truck :thumbsup:

And thanks for getting this forum rolling again Jason :thumbsup:
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year or try it out for $5 a month.

Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Congrats man. You got one hell of a truck. Always love checking out what new mods you've done.
 






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