"Little Blue" my new 92 explorer sport DD

here is the story of "little blue so far: I was reading a bII/dakota buildup thread by a user on TRS and he had mentioned he kinda wanted to sell his explorer sport he picked up not to recently so I started to kinda want it. I already had a eddie bauer 4 door I picked up in hopes of fixing it and DD'in it so I really start to wrench on my truck without having to worry about not having wheels in case something went wrong/took to long. I also had to do something with the eddie. I decided to part out the eddie to make my money back on it and scrap it. after a few PM's were sent, we agreed that id come look at................in Battle Ground WA. Battle Ground is maybe 20 minutes from Portland Oregon and I live about a half hour north of Seattle in Everett. its only 4.5 hours away, but I have never driven that far in any vehicle I own, nor have I trusted any of them to drive that far/long. I got a ride down, stayed in Vancouver overnight Thursday and I went to check it out yesterday. while I was looking it over, I accidentally locked the keys in it! and it was running! we tried and tried to get in it and finally said to hell with that and to call a lockout service. they said that they were an hour out and it was pouring down rain. UGGH we were both getting mad, but then he remembered what happened to the spare key and we opened it up and took it for a test drive. everything went well and I bought it. I also got another set of doors with the purchase to fix the dented passenger door. I drove it home on $20 worth of premium and never took it out of 4th gear. 3.27 gears suck for performance, but rule for economy! never could dream of doing that in my pickup.

specs:
really clean interior for its age
power windows/locks
4.0L (obv.)
mazda m50d trans
push button t-case ()
mile marker manual hubs
new rad arm bushings
3.27 geared D35/8.8
typical ford clear coat peel on hood

a few next to my truck now known as "big blue"

dents :thumbdwnI put the navajo tails on it at a wal mart about half way home, one of the og's was broken):

plans include:
switch to woodgrain dash & ash tray (in honor so to speak of my old bII rip)
freeze plug fix & hurst shifter upgrade as the bushings are worn in the trans
put the DD wheels from my truck on it & put the 31"s back on my truck
swap out the passenger door & give it a paintjob
a ranger grille I got from the prev. owners dad will be modded and put on
paint match the grille & light trim to the body when I paint it
debadge, remove flares and add a sunk in tag box in the hatch
sand and polish all the lights & lenses
put the jbl premium sound speakers from the eddie in it & add a sub
4 door ex springs front & rear with duff ploy bushings
add new shocks, do the brakes, flush the coolant, ect.
maybe add a manual shift 1354

let me know what you think guys

 

[fordxranger]

I finally cleared out all the unneeded and horribly done wiring for the lights and cb. I also replaced both battery terminals with a set of boss audio terminals and bought a "poor man's odyssey", a sears die hard platinum battery.

I also swapped out the original grille for a ranger grille, added a single drink cup holder, and put on the woodgrain dash bezel and ash tray from my ranger.

This thing desperately needs the hurst shifter kit put in it, it takes forever to find first gear and it feels like i'm driving a semi truck shifting gears. the worn bushings and me being a portly fellow prompted me to trade in the dual drink holder out for the single. I bet i'll fall more in love with the 4.0L than I already am with a lot firmer shifts.

 

[fordxranger]

yesterday I finally addressed the sway bar problem and put the poly bushings I ordered for my ranger onto the sway bar setup I pulled from the eddie bauer 4 door i'm parting. I haven't been on the freeway to see if it still "shimmys" at higher speeds yet. while I was under there I decided to throw on the navajo bumper I got not to long ago as well. the og bumper was tweaked and the paint was flaking so since I am no longer keeping the navajo front end for the pickup I figured why not use the bumper. I still have to trim the plastic piece that goes in between the bumper/under the grille area and put the plate on the bumper.

drilling out the old bushings on the end links was a pain in the ass. you can see all the rubber chunks on the tailgate if you look closely.

finished product.

look ma no bumper!

still gotta clean everything up, I might remove the lower valance and possibly the fender flares after I put the tires from off my truck on this. half of the time I think it looks "too street truck" for a 4x4 and the other half I think it looks fine. we'll see soon, up next is the brakes and a 3 vehicle wheel swapping.

 

[fordxranger]

Did a few upgrades recently I thought i'd post about it. I picked up a set of IAS shocks from a TRS user and finally put on the wheels and tires I had on my truck. I installed a set of these shocks on my buick regal a few years ago and I don't remember them being as big of a pain in the ass as these were to install. I like the ride for what I paid for them, if I would have bought these new I would have been disappointed. they soak up bumps a lot better than the old shocks did but they didn't help it corner much its still a bit spongy there. maybe ill be happier when I put on the 4 door leaves in the rear with some duff polys in the future.

hopefully soon people will buy some more of my parts and I can afford to get the hurst kit, or at least get some new bushings for the shifter.

P.S.: I need a set of centercaps for these wheels, if anyone has these send me a pm.

 

[fordxranger]

FINALLY.....

I finally scrounged up some extra dough and got this kit. the old stuff was pretty torn up. right after I pulled it out and away it just imploded and shat everything into a few pieces. I eyeballed the shifter length and I added that spacer that comes with the kit to have it sit right. it took longer to trim the boot for a good fit with the factory ring than it did to install the mechanism itself. the only gripe I have is that it does transfer a lot of noise into the cab, I can hear the tranny gears whine in every gear a lot louder than it did before. I have read about it from almost everyone who put one of these in and I thought that they were being too sensitive about noise but I was wrong. I also have on the way a set of center caps for the wheels, I have to cut the holes for the hubs in two of them though. I also came up with this idea for a set of shackles:

i'll probably make them 1" to 2" longer than stock to give it a little lift. I also plan on throwing a set of 4 door rear leaves with duff polys in the rear and the 3.73 geared rear end and front pumpkin from my parts explorer. it looks more mad max than it does explorer now:

 

[fordxranger]

not much to add, been saving a big chunk of money to go back to school and to get my SAS started on my pickup when I go back so mods to the sport have been fairly cheap and easy.

Got a few cans of duplicolor trim paint and painted a bunch of stuff:

the OHC was grey and the overhead light was tan so I painted them black to match and add some contrast.

Picked up some 96 mountaineer mirrors and some vent visors off ebay ($30) for the rainy days. before I put them on I painted the black parts on the doors and the rear hatch cause they faded pretty badly as you can see.

added some memphis m class 5x7s front and rear, they sound EXCELLENT.

I also painted the speaker grilles black, I got all 4 nut covers for the rims, mounted the front license plate back on the bumper, and I had to replace the windshield cause it leaked rainwater through the headliner and started to crack. I'm prepping the spare passenger door I got with the truck to replace the one that's on it so I didn't touch the trim up on the passenger side yet. i'm getting double what I expected on my tax return so up next is ford coil spacers, 4 door leaf springs and making some homemade shackles, duff poly's for the 4 door springs, a new pioneer deck, add a memphis 10" subwoofer and amp, some clear headlights and corners off ebay, and maybe a riddler diff cover.

(p.s. the old deck is for sale cheap, send me a PM)

 

[fordxranger]

Got some new stuff, so ill update this again. I bought a pioneer premier DEH510UB, which is now being discontinued by pioneer cause they're dropping the premier line. It got dual USB inputs, an AUX input, front, rear and sub high power pre-outs, remote and OEL display. its too bad these aren't being continued on, cause its a really nice and buildable deck. I also finally got an explorer limited grille that wasn't damaged in the local pull-a-part, I also got the driver corner trim piece cause mine is broken, the blue lens and the wiring from the OHC it had(mostly broken). I also got some factory ford f150 coil spacers off a TRS user, and I bought a piece of 2"x2" box steel to put in as a support for the shackles i'm making.

I put on the replacement door and found the hinges to be worn out, fender to be out of alignment and bent a little. I think the core support and inner structure are more damaged than I had originally thought when I bought it. does anyone know if a place like LMC sells replacement inner fender structures? I know they have new core supports so that isn't a problem but id need the passenger side structure at least if I were to replace the bent pieces.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

looks good and keep up good work

 

[ben2go]

Updates?

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

Agreed

 

[92muddyXJ]

I really like that older style sport, the fact that it's a 5 speed makes it that much better.

 

[Sbyrne97]

i want some more pictures of this nice old ford...loving the wood grain dash hahah.