Ah...the story of Indigo Bandit is a magical and wonderful tale of...of..uh...boredom really. See, up to this point, (july 2010) I already owned 3 Explorers, Blue, Shade, and Conner (Conner was a short lived 97 XLT 2WD I bought off of my buddy's sister, then sold to my neighbor) So you may be asking yourself where Indy came into play? Well, simple enough answer...I have always wanted a V8 explorer. So One day I was surfing local craiglist ads for explorers, like I always do every day, and saw this 97 XLT V8 AWD for sale...for a 1000 dollars. I thought, 'well, whats wrong with it?' What else made me leary is I had seen it on craigslist for about 3 weeks prior as different listings, so he kept reposting it. But, it was in town, about a 5 minute drive from my house, so I called him.
Michael (the previous owner) told me that he had been driving it for about three years (over 264,000 miles on the truck) until the water pump went bad. He took it to his mechanic, and they started to put a new pump in, then stripped one of the water pump bolts inside the timing chain cover. So his shop called him back and said to fix it, they would have to pull the motor, and it would be an additional $1,400.00 to finish the repair work. Michael didn't believe this was worth the job, so he took it back, partially dissasembled. This is where I show up...
I pulled up in Blue, and from first notice, the truck looked in pretty good shape. Body panels were straight, no visable external rust, but the tupperware was a bit fadded and grille needed repainting, but very workable. The engine was missing a fan shroud, a fan, both radiator hoses, and a few bits and peices, but they were in the back of the truck. The new water pump was in place, but no where near installed. Michael even took out his aftermarket head unit and speakers...but did include the stock ones and left the overhead roof mounted DVD player
I looked the truck over good, and offered him 750 bucks. For some reason he took it, SCORE! He even had his AAA membership on the truck, so they hauled it back to my place for me! Talk about room service
So after a few days of admiring my new V8, I figured it was time to get it running. So i simply retapped the stripped out hole, and installed everything back in and voila! In a couple hours, I had a complete running V8 AWD for under a thousand bucks! All I had to buy was an upper radiator hose!
So afterwards, it was christened Indigo Bandit, and my first trip (after getting it insured) was to 7-11 for a much deserved Cherry Dr. Pepper
Since then, Indy has turned in my Daily Driver at the moment, but doesn't mean he will stay that way. Since July, I have driven him to Cincinnati and back, and to the Texas meet and greet in Nov 2010. So far, Indy has been a great little Bandit, and thankfully has not learned any nasty habbits from Blue yet, LOL.
Since getting Indy, I have started the process of 'Bandit-izing' him. I switched out the keyless entry keypad to that of a 98-01, and picked up a wood grain dash cover from a mounty and threw it in:
On my way back from CinCinnati in Oct, 2010, I had to stop at Indy's birthplace in Louisville, Kentucky...Have I really Visted this plant four times now?
And of course, i had to take the 'Gangsta' rolling picture, LOL
And here he is hanging out with the other bandits:
So thats it for now, I do have some future Ideas for Indy I would like to try out, such as a 4406 swap, but using an expedition GEM instead of the explorer Gem, little things like that. Have also thought about making him a Panel Truck, but my welding skills need to improve first
Michael (the previous owner) told me that he had been driving it for about three years (over 264,000 miles on the truck) until the water pump went bad. He took it to his mechanic, and they started to put a new pump in, then stripped one of the water pump bolts inside the timing chain cover. So his shop called him back and said to fix it, they would have to pull the motor, and it would be an additional $1,400.00 to finish the repair work. Michael didn't believe this was worth the job, so he took it back, partially dissasembled. This is where I show up...
I pulled up in Blue, and from first notice, the truck looked in pretty good shape. Body panels were straight, no visable external rust, but the tupperware was a bit fadded and grille needed repainting, but very workable. The engine was missing a fan shroud, a fan, both radiator hoses, and a few bits and peices, but they were in the back of the truck. The new water pump was in place, but no where near installed. Michael even took out his aftermarket head unit and speakers...but did include the stock ones and left the overhead roof mounted DVD player
I looked the truck over good, and offered him 750 bucks. For some reason he took it, SCORE! He even had his AAA membership on the truck, so they hauled it back to my place for me! Talk about room service
So after a few days of admiring my new V8, I figured it was time to get it running. So i simply retapped the stripped out hole, and installed everything back in and voila! In a couple hours, I had a complete running V8 AWD for under a thousand bucks! All I had to buy was an upper radiator hose!
So afterwards, it was christened Indigo Bandit, and my first trip (after getting it insured) was to 7-11 for a much deserved Cherry Dr. Pepper
Since then, Indy has turned in my Daily Driver at the moment, but doesn't mean he will stay that way. Since July, I have driven him to Cincinnati and back, and to the Texas meet and greet in Nov 2010. So far, Indy has been a great little Bandit, and thankfully has not learned any nasty habbits from Blue yet, LOL.
Since getting Indy, I have started the process of 'Bandit-izing' him. I switched out the keyless entry keypad to that of a 98-01, and picked up a wood grain dash cover from a mounty and threw it in:
On my way back from CinCinnati in Oct, 2010, I had to stop at Indy's birthplace in Louisville, Kentucky...Have I really Visted this plant four times now?
And of course, i had to take the 'Gangsta' rolling picture, LOL
And here he is hanging out with the other bandits:
So thats it for now, I do have some future Ideas for Indy I would like to try out, such as a 4406 swap, but using an expedition GEM instead of the explorer Gem, little things like that. Have also thought about making him a Panel Truck, but my welding skills need to improve first
