Josh's 4 door 1st gen explorer crawler (SGT Ex)

[DUDER 1]

Looking good. I always like looking at you Explorer.

 

[DUDER 1]

Looking good sir.

 

[josh40601]

Thanks Gents.

so last night i went out and finally got the reverse lights working as they should. HOLY BAJESUS. I will not have a problem seeing anything when backing up anymore. And I feel sorry for anyone behind me if I put it in reverse. lol

Also, have a lead on a donor truck. Nothing solid yet, but if the dude will wait two weeks for me to pick it up, I'll be one step closer to the truck being finished. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[josh40601]

Been tinkering with this thing a lot over the last few days. the amazon parts I ordered came in. The condenser was a little bent, but it didn't look to effect anything, so its installed. Radiator is in, but still need to add the 3/8 NPT block off plugs from where the factory trans cooler lines went in.

I got my reservoir in and as soon as I put it where I wanted it, I realized the flimsy ass bracket that came with it isn't going to work. I decided to make a cup for the bottom of the reservoir and then mount that to the bracket I build off the inner fender. Here's the cup

Here is the cup on the bottom of the reservoir with the flimsy ass bracket and the start of my mount to the truck

After i built this, I didn't like it, so I threw it away and now I'm back to square 1. I'll figure something else out. Likely use the 18 gauge to wrap around the reservoir and weld a couple nuts and bolt setups similar to how air bump stop cans work.


Most of the time has been messing with this power steering pump swap. I have been troubleshooting on it and think the best solution is to have a custom adapter bracket instead of using the PSC one. I love the design of it, but it is "kicked" too far and will cause interference issues with the early 4.0 bracket I'm using. Take a look at the pics below:

Here is the new pump (I went with a pump for a 2001 Chevy Express 2500 with a 6.0). This is a hydroboost pump with a can on the back very similar to the PSC, only difference is PSC uses an AN fitting on top, this is just a barb style fitting. It also already has the hydroboost line, so I will use that as the hydroboost return and run the factory return line (which will come from the cooler) into the reservoir return line.

Here are the two brackets bolted to the pumps aligned where the holes are the same

If you look closely at the new pump and PSC bracket, the barb is really far to the left. On the old Cardone pump, it doesn't have the reservoir, but the reservoir is much further to the right. This is very important for someone trying to keep the AC compressor.

So i decided to see how the two adapter brackets fit and differ in the accessory mount...

The cardone bracket sits here

The PSC sits here, and as you can see, requires more material to be removed. what you cant really see is the mounting holes for where the pump bolts to this bracket

so you're probably thinking... Why the hell doesn't he just use the old bracket off the cardone pump?? Because that bracket pushes the pump too far from the accessory mount, moving the pump shaft too far from the rest of the accessories for good pulley alignment.

The brackets themselves are different thicknesses. Cardone is 13MM, PSC is 9MM. Also the Cardone is further from the mounting surface of the pump. From the highest surface of the pump to the mounting surface of the bracket is 19MM. So basically I'm losing 10MM (0.40") of pump shaft that the pulley would be riding on, and as Bray and Mike from EF realized, you need to have the pump a little further out than flush with the end of shaft anyway. So that makes the Cardone bracket somewhat useless without the machined "tip" that Cardone added to the end of those pumps.

So I decided to chat with a local machine shop and they are going to make me a bracket out of aluminum that is flat like the PSC, but has the mounting holes in the Cardone orientation. This will make the install wait a couple more weeks, but worth it in the long run.


Also going to grab this on saturday...

 

[BKennedy]

Why not have the new bracket welded to the accessory mount for strength, and in the correct location so you don't lose any shaft length?

 

[josh40601]

Why not have the new bracket welded to the accessory mount for strength, and in the correct location so you don't lose any shaft length?

That's actually a really good idea... just hack up the PSC bracket to fit like i want, then get it welded to it.... Hmm... Good thoughts Brian (or at least I think your name is Brian)

 

[josh40601]

picked these up today as well. covers are a little beat, but frames are in great shape and they are super comfy. Trying to find someone to recover them now.

 

[BKennedy]

Yup, Brian
When I saw the bracket sitting in place on the accessory mount, it just came to me...
Take precise measurements so others can follow your work.

I had a guy who did interiors as a hobby, really great work, but he died.

I was given this number for seat covers by someone at my wife's work. 619-799-8741, Tina. I am planning on someday contacting her to make some custom seat covers for the Explorer. I looked at different seats, but I really like the 7-way adjustable OEM seats.

 

[josh40601]

I did too until my first set of suspension seats. I love them. The ones in the ranger are 2" wider than these, but both are extremely comfortable and great with solid mounted (or poly mounts) body and drivetrain. Drove a jeep 600 miles with them and am sold.

I'll definitely give Tina a call. The good thing with these is the upholster still has a pretty damn good template to go off of.


As for the accessory bracket, after even more looking and planning with my buddy this afternoon, hacking up the PSC is definitely happening. I'll post up results tomorrow evening.

 

[DUDER 1]

Nice build on the ps pump. I need to swap mine also.

 

[josh40601]

Here's the bracket bolted up to the cardone one. The bolt all by itself is the sum *****. The 3rd screw holding the bracket to the pump is under that section of the plate.


So I hacked the bracket up to fit after trying every different position without looking like it does... I could use a sander to smooth everything but it would still be very little material.

So I tried the cardone bracket

If I flip the Howe pulley I picked up today, I can get the exact same spacing the cardone setup had. .87" which aligns the belt perfectly.


While I wanted to make the PSC adapter work, the old bracket and the backwards pulley will have to work. How to get the pulley off? I dunno. Gear puller I guess.

 

[DUDER 1]

Nice

 

[josh40601]

got the red truck home. man it has an awesome cage setup, but for the wrong part of the sport.

too bad I won't be using any of the front or back.


also got the power steering pump back in, cooling system back in, and built a much better bracket to hold the reservoir

I'll post pics of the reservoir mounted tonight. Going to pick up the power steering hoses to hopefully get this thing running and driving by Friday. My brother is coming into town so I'll be playing tour guide again for the 5th time this year... He's going to LA saturday though so the plan is to start cutting the red one up while he is gone... Anyone wanna come lend a hand?

 

[josh40601]

Got Ex's cabin stripped out and ready for transplanting...

Also found out some bad-ish news playing with my new-to-me doors...

A and B (and the upper part of C actually) pillars are ****ed. I knew the tops of all 3 would be, but the lower parts was somewhat unexpected. The B won't be too bad, and I'll just beat the sliver of C back good enough, but the A pillar is going to really bring the suck trying to get around the dash and firewall and all that ****. I hope I can round up some one who has pulled the dash out of these trucks for a cage and kept the AC. The good news is the red body has perfect pillars, so just means more body scabbing.

I began cutting through the red body Saturday too, so I thought I would take some closer pics of the cage work before I make it look all boogery and **** in my raisin.

My neighbors have all been super cool about my junky looking driveway. It won't stay this way forever, but it has been looking ghetto for a few months now. 7 weeks until Truckhaven... gotta get my ass in gear.

 

[josh40601]

Was able to get the steering, cooling, and transmission lines pretty much wrapped up. All I have is to install the pressure line from the HB to the pump, it is at Industrial Rubber Supply/Hosetech being made, and will be ready for pickup tomorrow after work.

I ended up drilling and re-tapping the insert on the reservoir to fit a regular 1/4 NPT fitting, because the HB uses a 3/8ish barb fitting for the return. I put a 1/4 NPT to 3/8 barb and ran a new line for that side. For the resi to pump line, I went with 5/8 fuel line because that is all that Oreilly had. 1/2 was too small for the pump. I'll see if IRS has 5/* line suitable for power steering before filling the system.

Everything else is done and put back together

I used 3/8 transmission line for the lines to the cooler, and some simple clamps to keep everything out of the way. Sorry for the camo pick, the expanded metal makes it difficult to see.

Then it was time to strip it the rest of the way...

I used a utility knife to cut out the rest of the windshield and the truck immediately started looking better. All the electronics are still there, they are just laying along the floor pan. The body is actually ripped apart in multiple places from all the years of working. Something to take a look at in the future.
I took everything but the dash to see where the new cage would line up with the factory dash. I think it will be ok, we'll see later. The damage now that i look back at it is really bad. There is no possible way I was getting a real windshield back in this thing.

Also was able to cut the donor up. I was able to cut everything but a small little piece that held us up the first time we tried to move it. I don't want the newer style rear tail lights, so I cut it off there.

Next up was cut the roof off...

This was actually hard for me, as once this happened, there was no going back. I've had such a great time in this truck, it means a lot to me for the 6ish years I've owned it, so it was a little tough to hack it up.

As you can see in the pic, its still pretty tall. So i pulled the tires off.

I was able to gather up 5 friends/family to help get things done, so getting it as low as possible was a huge help. I kept the passenger door on so I have something to go off of when aligning the body. I did take measurements of everything, but the visual of having the door aligning will be a huge help for me.


and here is how I ended my day

I pulled the driver fender so i could do the A pillar. The cage is sitting on blocks which is why it is all tweaked looking. I still need to bring over the seat base, then I can begin cleaning up all the cuts, and start the fitting part. I'll likely leave the body loose until the cage work is done, but I will trim the pillars all to fit. Will be Z cutting the sheet metal, just like the guys who shorten beds and frames. Even with the crook-ed sitting roof, it already is looking better.

tomorrow I plan to get the last bit of the floor out, then begin cleaning everything up to get it much closer.

 

[josh40601]

seat frame is out of the red body and sat in place. I just cut the 2" tube sections off the frame, and will replace that with new tubing. Likely will just pick up 6-8 feet of 2", 8 feet of 1 3/4, and another 8 feet of 1 1/2" to finish out everything and sleeve the joints.

threw the seat in for test fit

When first looking at it, it looks really fawking low. So i plopped my fat ass in there, and it was a great line of sight. Probably very similar to the stock seats, even though it looks very low. Will likely run some type of slider so the wifey can easily drive too.

Also got the new high pressure line for the pump. Of course it is too long, but I think it will still work.

Tomorrow I'm removing all the cross tubes in the cargo area I don't want, then will start fitting the sheet metal.

 

[DUDER 1]

Looks good if I lived closer I would come over and give you a hand.

 

[josh40601]

Thanks man, I appreciate that. I try to work on this thing a little bit every single day so that the mountain of work is steadily declining. I'm not looking forward to the spot weld cutting though. That is going to suck. and it is one of the things coming up quickly.

 

[josh40601]

I know I haven't posted any updates, but there really hasn't been much post worthy updates, just lots of cussing and cutting and fitting, and cutting, and wrestling, and cussing, you get the idea.

Made some good headway over the last two days though, so thought I'd finally post some updates on here.

I spent the last two weeks slowly cutting more and more out of each body to get them to align. When I pulled the B Pillar from the red truck, I took the rocker with it so i could get my measurements and try to find a spot that was the same on each side. So then I hacked the crushed B pillar out.

and i figured the best way to pull in the A pillar would be to make opposing "L" shapes from each body, then weld them together that way. Again, I know the truck won't be perfect, but a windshield and working doors and windows are the goal here.

Then I chopped off the rocker from the B Pillar, and trimmed the passenger side C and D pillars to get the body to fit more. As you can see, I was using whatever scrap pieces of wood I had to help

Then I had a couple buddies help me get the roof in the "almost there" position, and went to work with ratchet straps and prybars to get the last little bit. I ended up chopping too much out of the driver side A pillar, so I'll have to patch that little spot.

Then I tacked in the A pillar and for the first time since sitting the new roof on, the passenger door closed.

and last night I got the passenger side A pillar lined up and welded in. The door aligns pretty damn good

Its been so long since I have seen how a door/roof on these trucks should align, that this is close enough for me, as long as the other three fit this good. The windshield opening is the same gap on each side, I just hope it is the right distance, or close enough for a windshield installer to get one in.

The goal this weekend is to hang the doors, and get the rest of the body tacked in. Next friday I plan to take it to Jordan for him to tie the cage work in.

 

[josh40601]

also got rid of this.

another wheeler is planning on using the front half of the frame and cage to build a long travel IFS truck. Good to see something that a lot of people would have trashed is now being re-purposed by 2 different people using 2 different sections, for 2 different iterations of the sport.