expo5.0
Elite Explorer
- Joined
- October 18, 2001
- Messages
- 7,196
- Reaction score
- 5
- City, State
- Red Wing, MN
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1996 xlt
its DONE
here's what i did and how it went down-
First off i've been making claims and plan for how to make my 1996 xlt THE best 2nd or 3rd gen. explorer. Obviously i knew i'd have to do something crazy at almost every corner or facet of the vehicle. I also knew the grille and headlights was one of the most visually important parts of the vehicle so i started to try to brainstorm a way to make a statement there. I also desperately wanted to run HID headlamps but didn't think they'd be worth it with the stock lenses.
I thought of tons of things including some crazy ranger swaps as well as trying to use headlights from a chevy.
anyways, i came to the conclusion that the later model mountaineer stuff would be the best and went in search of it. I soon learned that fordpartsnetwork wanted about 1,100 for all the parts i needed not even including the HHID kit.
i searched and searched the net and looked at used parts and finally i found a place that quoted me 290 for the two headlights, the two corners, and the header panel (i picked up a grille used for 50 from bbx since i was goiong to be painting it eventually anyways) i ordered from them... and to my dismay when the parts came they were explorer parts. turns out they had just assumed they wre the same as the mountaineer parts for the 2001 like they are for the 2nd generation. But luckily when i had placed the order the guy had taken down the order properly so it did say mountaineer. When i called and explained the situation the woman said they must have shipped the wrong product and offered to send me the right stuff immediately provided i return the stuff they did ship me upon receiving. She didn't mention the $350 in price difference between the explorer and mountaineer parts and either did i. Needless to say i got very, very lucky on that one.
So i started the conversion last night and worked for about 4 hours then maybe three more hours today. There were a ton of little modifications to make to parts and removing the stock header panel was a real pain (i ended up using the bfh approach and just tearing the fiberglass then using the grinder to grind down the nubs)
Its still all off colored and looks sort of funny on the truck, but that matches my "work in progress" bumper anyways. I won't be painting it until spring so i had better get used to it. YOu'll just have to picture it painted lapis blue up front and white in the back with some flames in between. All the clearances worked out right though, and i'm extremely happy with the result sylistically.
i'll be getting the HID's in the mail next week and i'll take some pics of that conversion as well for sure. For now i just have silverstars.
I will post pictures as soon as possible- i can't find my camera and i'm afraid i've left it at hooters.
here's what i did and how it went down-
First off i've been making claims and plan for how to make my 1996 xlt THE best 2nd or 3rd gen. explorer. Obviously i knew i'd have to do something crazy at almost every corner or facet of the vehicle. I also knew the grille and headlights was one of the most visually important parts of the vehicle so i started to try to brainstorm a way to make a statement there. I also desperately wanted to run HID headlamps but didn't think they'd be worth it with the stock lenses.
I thought of tons of things including some crazy ranger swaps as well as trying to use headlights from a chevy.
anyways, i came to the conclusion that the later model mountaineer stuff would be the best and went in search of it. I soon learned that fordpartsnetwork wanted about 1,100 for all the parts i needed not even including the HHID kit.
i searched and searched the net and looked at used parts and finally i found a place that quoted me 290 for the two headlights, the two corners, and the header panel (i picked up a grille used for 50 from bbx since i was goiong to be painting it eventually anyways) i ordered from them... and to my dismay when the parts came they were explorer parts. turns out they had just assumed they wre the same as the mountaineer parts for the 2001 like they are for the 2nd generation. But luckily when i had placed the order the guy had taken down the order properly so it did say mountaineer. When i called and explained the situation the woman said they must have shipped the wrong product and offered to send me the right stuff immediately provided i return the stuff they did ship me upon receiving. She didn't mention the $350 in price difference between the explorer and mountaineer parts and either did i. Needless to say i got very, very lucky on that one.
So i started the conversion last night and worked for about 4 hours then maybe three more hours today. There were a ton of little modifications to make to parts and removing the stock header panel was a real pain (i ended up using the bfh approach and just tearing the fiberglass then using the grinder to grind down the nubs)
Its still all off colored and looks sort of funny on the truck, but that matches my "work in progress" bumper anyways. I won't be painting it until spring so i had better get used to it. YOu'll just have to picture it painted lapis blue up front and white in the back with some flames in between. All the clearances worked out right though, and i'm extremely happy with the result sylistically.
i'll be getting the HID's in the mail next week and i'll take some pics of that conversion as well for sure. For now i just have silverstars.
I will post pictures as soon as possible- i can't find my camera and i'm afraid i've left it at hooters.