just sharing

[Duranged84]

For those who haven't followed my posts, my daily is an 03 Mounty which has been through a few changes with options added not originally offered etc, in the process of converting to 4wd using factory parts. My trans went out a while back and I found a deal on a v8 mountaineer so I sold the engine out of mine. Which, I then lost the deal on the v8. So fast forward a couple months, I got a good deal on an explorer that was t-boned bad, but still drove good. 133k miles. Excellent drive train, front to back. Got motor and trans swapped and been waiting for more time to swap all the 4wd parts ( previous owner removed everything but the awd transfer case.)

Fast forward to 2 days ago, an explorer I drive by every few days had been damaged. I still have enough good parts on my parts truck to fix it about 90% (driver door suffered some damage but not real bad and my parts one is trashed. Anyway, I stopped to see if insurance was going to fix it or if they had planned to do it theirself. Well it turned out, the company of the truck that hit it paid it off and a little more so were just waiting on the title to get back from paying it off and were just going to junk it.... :O

Its got 145k miles on it, with a 6 week old Ford dealer replacement transmission. Xlt, 3rd row, rear hvac, 4x4. I asked them if they'd consider selling it instead of junking it, I ended up bending the fender a little to clear the tire and drove it home for $200. No I didn't forget a 0. And they were sure that's all they wanted. Just wanted to say this is a good example of karma. I try to help people as much as I can with good deals on parts and labor and automotive advice, sometimes free repairs or parts. Not trying to blow my own horn, but I really believe this is a result of trying to be the way I am to people. It does come back around.

Hopefully later today I can have everything changed out and post pics. I did rip the fender the rest of the way off and had it up to 60 so far.

Just a reminder to those who try to help people out and aren't just in it for a buck anywhere they can, keep doing what you do and hold your heads high knowing you make a difference. It'll pay you back when you least expect it.

 

[Duranged84]

Got some pics on photobucket. After resetting 3 account passwords to get back into it lol.


How I found it.

Home

Fender off

More to come----

 

[Number4]

I don't know what phone you use, I have an iPhone, but this app may be available on droid as well.

Crop-Size Image tool.

I use it only for resizing pictures. Here is a partial picture from the App Store, opened in the App, then saved, reopened in App and resized.
Load>resize>save. This adds a picture, it does not save over.

Keep the largest setting to no more than 600.

 

[lincolnshibuya]

Got some pics on photobucket. After resetting 3 account passwords to get back into it lol.


How I found it.

Home

Fender off

More to come----

Sorry they're huge, will have to resize them from the laptop later when I add more. The mobile app kinda sucks.

yep, there are fender benders that are such a steal. I'm kind of busy with this one currently.

 

[morbid81]

shes a little beat up over all clean truck with a little love you'll have her looking like new in no time

 

[Duranged84]

Phones an LG G3, Samsung Note 2 convert here. I promise I'll hop on the laptop later and
resize, but here's this afternoons progress.

New matching door will come later and swapping my other good set of bigger tires tomorrow.

Edit-- Resized all the pics, can a mod edit the post that was quoted with the original large pics? not a big deal to me, but I know some people browse on their phone and dont like to scroll sideways 5 times lol.

 

[Duranged84]

Lincolnshiboya, Taurus looks like fun, Keep us updated on the progress, I'd like to see more pics along the way. Maybe I should really think about autobody.... I've put several back together for personal or friends but never really thought about switching from Mechanic to Auto body tech... hmmmm....


Thought I would list what all I ended up changing for anyone interested.

Header panel, Driver headlight, fender(obviously), Grille(my spare looked better-- Original grille wasnt broken), passenger signal housing(again my spare looked better) and rear main section of fender liner. I also reused the xlt fender trim(some scuffs but not horrible) I just robbed the clips from the xls fender trim and it popped right back on.

Amazingly, I had no issues with the front bumper other than one of the lower support bolts broke when I went to remove it(broke on parts truck too so I dont think it was due to the damage). The fender ripped above the bumper mount so I was able to unbolt the piece of fender from the bumper cover and bolt it back up without issue.

The Mirror I was able to turn back to its correct position and pop it back down and it locked into place, and still works. It did crack the glass, but my parts truck (xls) doesnt have the puddle lamp so I will run it until I buy a set of heated/lighted mirrors like my Merc has. Or until I buy a new matching door.

Drove it some tonight and adjusted the headlights, and did end up throwing the xls wheels on it(better, bigger tires) and it drives great. Only thing I noticed was possibly sway bar links (have new ones on parts truck) and maybe a slight diff whine, and possibly a U-joint, which my spare driveshaft has good u joints.

Now to quit neglecting the Mercury and get those wheel bearings and a arms changed out.....

 

[morbid81]

she looks good brother effort was well worth it

 

[JoshMcMadMac]

Good for you! It is worth about twice what you paid for it as scrap. You know the transmission is the weak link and you have the covered, so with a little work it will probably be a solid driver for another 100k miles. Congratulations.

 

[lincolnshibuya]

that looks awesome considering that there's no frame damage and at that price! you got lucky on the matching fenders too.

I was surprised that those fiberglass header panels are very expensive at my local yard ($60), pulled out one yesterday (with same color) unfortunately I have to wait for a red hood and fender to completely finish the job (the ones on the yard are gone).

One of the best things having a car/truck that's very common.. parts aplenty..

 

[Duranged84]

Thanks guys. I drove it a lot today and am very happy with it. The fender is more Gray but it doesn't look bad at all. For having all the parts from my parts truck for the Mountaineer, I really lucked out. Parts truck ended up helping out more than it was intended too lol. I'm going to pull a bunch more off the parts truck before I junk it. Wish I had a place to stash it and just hold onto it.

 

[Number4]

Thanks guys. I drove it a lot today and am very happy with it. The fender is more Gray but it doesn't look bad at all. For having all the parts from my parts truck for the Mountaineer, I really lucked out. Parts truck ended up helping out more than it was intended too lol. I'm going to pull a bunch more off the parts truck before I junk it. Wish I had a place to stash it and just hold onto it.

Might consider pulling all the parts you can use or sell, then scrap the carcas to get it out of sight.

Don't forget to pull all the wiring to recycle it separately.

 

[Duranged84]

Ya, I've pulled a ton of stuff to stash so far and plan to pull more. I've already pulled half or more of the wiring for my 4x4 swap on the mountaineer, and to fix the front lighting on the New explorer. Plus I maintain another explorer and have used several parts on it. I don't scrap much wiring as I'm an electronics junkie so I have boxes and boxes of wiring, cables, connectors,etc. My parts explorer has, to me, been just as good of deal as my New explorer. I have right at $2000 in the 3 and have sold about $300 worth off my parts truck with a few more parts sales pending before I scrap it. I'm thinking I should recover 75% of what I gave for my parts truck, and the other engine from the mountaineer (including install for a friend) brought $800. That was after driving it for 10 months with a purchase price of $1000. So with everything said and done I should actually be out around $500 and have 2 pretty nice trucks. Now if I was to put a price on my labor on the other hand.... Lol. Its a labor of love I guess. Pretty happy with how they are coming together though. The Merc is bout where I want it except a lift, wheels and a sub/amp. The parts truck had a nice aftermarket radio and newer tires, so the explorer got a few goodies on top of getting repaired. I figure they'll keep me happy for a few months before I feel the need to modify or change something around on one or both lol. Once the bug bites, the journey never stops.