EverVictorious
Member
- Joined
- March 29, 2019
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 1
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 05 Sport Trac XLT 2WD
Hi all! Yes, I'm a Ford newbie. But thanks to a friend of mine who is a total enabler, I ended up with a little (ok, pretty big) Blue Oval project of my own.
We both hang out with the Gambler 500 crowd and do runs with them, as well as a similar crew from Jalopy Journeys. We're not under the category of the $500 extremists, but we do like taking older, beat up cars and playing with them.
Now, here's where my Ford Newbie story gets a bit weird. I used to actually work at a Ford dealership (in sales) for a brief stint 10 years ago. That is where I started to develop my love of the Sport Trac. I suppose this is an off-shoot of my deep and long-term love of the Subaru Brat.
In any case, today my buddy helped out by coming to look at a junkyard '05 Sport Trac XLT 2WD with me. Little was known about it beforehand, other than it existed, it was 2WD, and it had a broken taillight. Thank you, terrible internet postings, for that.
So what did we find? A surprisingly solid start. No death rattle. A bit high on the miles, but smooth operation of the motor and trans. Body mount bushings look good. No cancer anywhere that we can find. Gauge cluster appears fully functional. Ice cold A/C. It looks to be there as an accident total, with a broken taillight and some gouges along the driver's side of the bed. Entirely cosmetic, but probably enough for the insurance company to total it out.
So I floated an offer to the yard, and they took it. Basically half of what one would go for from a private party here.
Once we got it out of the yard, we got to go for a more extensive drive of it and look deeper into it. So far here's what we've found wrong with it (and none of it is really that bad):
1) Center console looks like an angry Yeti had its way with it. I'm gonna need a new one, no doubt.
2) The fold-down compartment cover behind the driver's rear seat has a broken hinge-peg.
3) There is a slight smell of coolant only when sitting at a stop for an extended period of time. There appears to be some dried, rusty water stains on and around the thermostat housing, so this seems to be the likely source.
4) Taillight broken. Duh.
5) Scrapes on the driver's side of the bed.
6) Broken passenger mirror assembly
7) Hood struts won't hold the hood up
8) Brake light never goes off. Brake fluid is dirty, but that doesn't seem like it should cause that (will obviously be flushing the fluid as soon as we get a chance)
9) Left rear tire leaks. Also, three different brands of tires on the truck.
10) Alloy wheels seem to be badly corroded. Possibly why #9 is occurring.
11) The floor mats looked like year old half-unrolled burritos. Fortunately, the all-weather mats from my totaled Subaru fit the Trac perfectly.
12) The radio tunes and plays, but the backlight is almost gone and the clock won't set.
13) Cruise control system will not turn on at all
I'll have a tail light and mirror assembly on order by the end of the night. Hood struts may end up in that same order, then we'll go from there.
Any suggestions of easy/cool feature upgrades that can be added or adapted? This is a pretty base 2WD XLT. My friend is looking to change out his D4 for a D2 axle on his '02 Sport, and if he does that I'm going to upgrade my open 46 for his D4.
In the mean time, enjoy a picture of my Trac in front and his Sport in the background.
We both hang out with the Gambler 500 crowd and do runs with them, as well as a similar crew from Jalopy Journeys. We're not under the category of the $500 extremists, but we do like taking older, beat up cars and playing with them.
Now, here's where my Ford Newbie story gets a bit weird. I used to actually work at a Ford dealership (in sales) for a brief stint 10 years ago. That is where I started to develop my love of the Sport Trac. I suppose this is an off-shoot of my deep and long-term love of the Subaru Brat.
In any case, today my buddy helped out by coming to look at a junkyard '05 Sport Trac XLT 2WD with me. Little was known about it beforehand, other than it existed, it was 2WD, and it had a broken taillight. Thank you, terrible internet postings, for that.
So what did we find? A surprisingly solid start. No death rattle. A bit high on the miles, but smooth operation of the motor and trans. Body mount bushings look good. No cancer anywhere that we can find. Gauge cluster appears fully functional. Ice cold A/C. It looks to be there as an accident total, with a broken taillight and some gouges along the driver's side of the bed. Entirely cosmetic, but probably enough for the insurance company to total it out.
So I floated an offer to the yard, and they took it. Basically half of what one would go for from a private party here.
Once we got it out of the yard, we got to go for a more extensive drive of it and look deeper into it. So far here's what we've found wrong with it (and none of it is really that bad):
1) Center console looks like an angry Yeti had its way with it. I'm gonna need a new one, no doubt.
2) The fold-down compartment cover behind the driver's rear seat has a broken hinge-peg.
3) There is a slight smell of coolant only when sitting at a stop for an extended period of time. There appears to be some dried, rusty water stains on and around the thermostat housing, so this seems to be the likely source.
4) Taillight broken. Duh.
5) Scrapes on the driver's side of the bed.
6) Broken passenger mirror assembly
7) Hood struts won't hold the hood up
8) Brake light never goes off. Brake fluid is dirty, but that doesn't seem like it should cause that (will obviously be flushing the fluid as soon as we get a chance)
9) Left rear tire leaks. Also, three different brands of tires on the truck.
10) Alloy wheels seem to be badly corroded. Possibly why #9 is occurring.
11) The floor mats looked like year old half-unrolled burritos. Fortunately, the all-weather mats from my totaled Subaru fit the Trac perfectly.
12) The radio tunes and plays, but the backlight is almost gone and the clock won't set.
13) Cruise control system will not turn on at all
I'll have a tail light and mirror assembly on order by the end of the night. Hood struts may end up in that same order, then we'll go from there.
Any suggestions of easy/cool feature upgrades that can be added or adapted? This is a pretty base 2WD XLT. My friend is looking to change out his D4 for a D2 axle on his '02 Sport, and if he does that I'm going to upgrade my open 46 for his D4.
In the mean time, enjoy a picture of my Trac in front and his Sport in the background.
