my 96 needs help

[Limited96]

hey.. i am the proud owner of my new baby.. a 96 limited... 4x4, the works... but anyway..

the kid that had it before me riced this ***** out... i mean, it has HUGE racing stripes going over it, he drilled into the ceiling to put in neons everywhere... and the interior is painted black in some places *(where it was orriginally tan)*...

now.. anyone priced a paintjob on their x? a full switch.. i wanna make it a nice platinum, right now its black... ill post pics as soon as i can get them. i need to know how much MORE im pumping into this car to make it a quality ride.. i got it for about 5 grand.. so thats REALLY nice.. but it just needs LOTS of work... oh and how hard would it be to swap the tan interior for a grey one? with the same leather, etc...

oh yeah.. it has a BRAND NEW engine, and transmission.. probably 1000 miles on that engine, and nothing on the transmission yet... cuz i pick it up tomarrow.

 

[410Fortune]

Hmmm...sounds like you are willing to dump a bunch of money into it.

I would look at spending at least $4000 to have the paint color switched completely, menaing door jambs, under hood, hatch, and I;m not talking about just "up to the trim" I mean a full color change. Probably more like $7500-10,000 to have it done right (no MAACO).

Swapping out the interior is not too hard, but it is a lot of work and finding a donor is the hardest part. They will also charge you an arm and a leg for the entire interior from a wrecked limited donor. I have spent well over $1500 re-doing the interior in my BII with parts from various donor's and this is pulling everything myself at junk yards, and it;s still not done (carpet is still brown! yuk, thats next)

Sonds like you got a really good deal on a 96 Limited, You might thnk about just un-doing what the previous owner ruined and call it good. Changing the color is a hard task, expensive to have done right, and the value of the truck usually goes down. But if you are like me you dont care about that and you just want what you want, no questions...........of course I dont ever plan to sell my truck....

 

[Limited96]

yeah... i really dont mind putting the money into it.. i really want a show quality ride.. and i want it platinum.. which is a very tasteful color... but that tan leather is a bit too much.. i dont know.. i dont want to get discouraged cuz i got it for SUCH a good deal.. i could get a basic re-surfacing paint job for about a grand.. fixing the exterior and keeping it black.. but i just.. i dont know.. when you do something.. do that **** right!... thats how i feel... anyway.. any other suggestions? would it be cheaper to buy the carpet and the roof liner and just custom paint the rest.. and re-leather the seats?

 

[410Fortune]

Nope. Just the leather for the seats will run you $1500 minimum.

If you are gonna do it there is only one right way.
Find a donor with the interior you want and but the whole thing. Just swapping over the dash can get expensive and take many hours.


Strip out the entire interior of your truck, all the glass and trim, so you basically have wires hanging out everywhere and a dash, then mask off the dash. Remove all the lights, bumpers, grill, hood and hatch, wipers, everything. then mask off the engine bay (hope you dont plan on getting the engine bay (firewall) platinum without yanking the engine, and then paint it the color you want. Put it all back together and when you get to the interior install the donor grey.

Thats how a show ride is built. I cant afford to do that mostly because of the truck down time involved, so I do mine 1 piece at a time, and I only changed the shade of blue. I sprayed the door jambs myself, and under the hatch and hood are still the "Old" blue, hardly noticable...

Painting the interior trim from tan to grey is possible, however thats what I origianlly did. My BII was Eddie Bauer brown inside. I installed some power leather buckets from a 97 EB that are mocha in color. So I began painting, dash pad, made custom door panels, I even tried cutting down the 4 door leather rear seat and bolting that in. All the painted trim would peel or get scratched off, and it was like 5 shades of Mocha. Looked alright but not "show" quality by any means.

Then one day at the junk yard I found a 90 Eddie Bauer BII with the same Mocha colored interior. 89-90 BII's had a different interior then my 88, much nicer. This thing looked like it sat inthe garage for 10 years, not a spot on the headliner or back seat. So for $400 my friends and I yanked the entire interior. I didnt get the carpet, dash, or the seat belts. But we got everything else. I then swapped it all into my BII, it was quite the job! the 90 interior was totally diffferent, even the headliner didnt want to fit, so I had to make it. Best move I ever made. So now the only thing that is still painted is the dashpad and steering column trim, and I'm on my 4th dashpad. You know how hard it is to find a 88 Dash pad thats not cracked or sun burnt? The interior color now matched the Mocha seats perfectly, I still have to paint the underside of my dash and install a new mocha carpet kit, but then she's done. I also have little stuff like the Explorer double visors with lighted mirrors from a 98, a custom covered center console, all stuff you pick up over a 6 year period of scouring junk yards......

Future plans include chopping the top off, building a intergrated roll cage, and removing the back seat completely......

Anything can be done, hell you can put a Cobra Mustang dash in your Explorer if you want (it looks cool!) but it requires a ton of custom fabrication and most of the guys who do that sort of stuff start by taking the truck all the way down to the bare body and frame, then rebuilding it completely one piece at a time. I drive mine to work everyday so I cant do that (yet)

 

[Limited96]

i totally understand everything your saying.. i know i've got alot of work ahead of me.. and it kinda excites me... i mean.. when im done i'll have exactly what i "want" out of the vehicle.. im now concidering.. however.. the replacement of the old black paint on the exterior... just fixing up the exterior with a new black.. re glossed and shined out.. probably 1 to 2 grand and worth every cent.. because for the same reason as you this has to be my daily driver... the interior sounds like FUN.. im more than willing to invest the time into getting the pieces from a junk yard.. heck i might even know a few that would let me go to town on the old truck for 500 bucks or so...

its just exciting.. the whole idea of a new car.. so you understand my project and why i really want to do the "best" with what i have... i mean, i could bolt on rims, drop kit or whatever.. and put in a system, neons, and tint... but EVERYONE does that.. and i could be much happier with a car that REALLY stands out.. enough for me to be proud of what i have on a showman level, not on a head turning level.. etc.. i just want to wow people..

oh yeah. and about switching the console.. i have that computer in the center... the one with the fuel mileage and such.. will i be able to find a grey interior with that? i hope so...


thanks for the encouragement...

everyone could do the same old thing.. i want step above all that.

 

[410Fortune]

as long as its a 95-98 Limited it should have all the same stuff.


Here's my BII. Inheited it from my older brother 6 years ago. It barely ran. I didnt want a truck.
Obviously I fell in love with it right away. She's going to the grave with me or at least to my kids.

She's totally custom, and I built her with one goal in mind, make the best damn BII anybody has ever seen.
The BII is the underdog of all Ford trucks, it;s pretty funny to see it absolutley spank Jeeps and Toyota's.
Not to mention beating all the ricers from stop light to stop light.

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