Noob to the forum

[Bswerl]

Firstly I must say this is the most technical friendly forum EVER. I’ve got a 97 explorer xlt v6, anyway, it’s starting to fall apart! Today I slipped under it and noticed the front diff is leaking oil, one of the sway bar ends was broken in half, and there is a decent size hole in my cat. Plus I crashed into a steel mail box last year and dented the hell out of my fender, so I'll be working on that this week. I Fixed the sway bar today, but I figured it was time to find a forum, apparently this is the one.

Any of you guys know how to take the fender off a 97 xlt, I'm looking to remove the passenger side. Where are the bolts located and how does the trim and ground effects come off? I did a search but wasn't able to find a similar year TIA

Anyway you’ve got a great forum, here is a pic of my explorer and the beater.

Explorer clean

Explorer still clean

Beater

Beater with nawz

Beater with speedster cover

I do custom metal polishing if anyone is looking.. here is some of the custom polishing on the beater cobra

 

[section525]

Welcome to the forum!

Your Cobra is ugly as hell.

































You should sell it to me.

 

[Bswerl]

Welcome to the forum!

Your Cobra is ugly as hell.


You should sell it to me.

Haha, thanks. It's time to stop tinkering with that POS and get the exploder running mint again. I've been letting it slide for way too long. I need to get the front passenger side fender off, I just made that edit to my original post, so if anyone knows how post it up. I need to know where the bolts are, how to remove the trim and ground effects, I'll be fixing that dented fender as soon as I can figure out how to get it off, here is a pic of the damage though.

 

[dtl 2k2 sport]

geeze, sharp polish!! Like it!, what's that go for? just courious? And i'm sure others would like to know, for the basic x?!!!

 

[Bswerl]

geeze, sharp polish!! Like it!, what's that go for? just courious? And i'm sure others would like to know, for the basic x?!!!

For something like that supercharger, I'd charge $400. That little cover over the air filter, $60.. the throttle body and plenum $180..

I get tons of random parts in, I did this 98 cobra setup about 3 months ago, this was a $1500 job

I did this gas tank on a lifted chevy show truck, that set the guy back $700

Did this fuel rail off some 9 second DSM, $80

Misc parts from some custom bike, well not misc one is a rotor the other is for the belt drive $80 each

This is an intake manifold from an audi s4 $200

Hope that gives you an idea but if you want more info about the polishing my homepage is mirrorfinished.com FYI I'm not in it for the money, I'm a college student so this is what I do for a little extra cash on the side.. I have ZERO problems explaining how to do it yourself, although having a polishing shop with all the best tools really helps get the higher quality, most of the parts I get in are about 5% finished, most people don't realize what a retarded process it is.

I don't know this sites vendor policy so excuse me if I cross the line.


Also I managed to get the fender off the exploder tonight, I couldn't wait until morning, lol. So I guess i'll be hammering metal all day trying to get her looking stock, be nice to keep the bondo to a min.

 

[Bswerl]

Got the fender off, this is what I did today.

Anyway last night I got really sick of looking at it, so I pulled it off.

I left the paint on the bumper so I could get a better idea as to the shape of the metal, its hard to tell what's going on with bare metal.

Here it is after about 30 min worth of shaping and grinding.

Another pic from another angle

I couldn't control some of the high spots with just the hammer, so I had to heat up some areas to bang them back down, I've been working on it for about 2 hours so far.

I sanded and cleaned the metal, then put a coat of bondo on there, then left for class around 1.

Got back from class then sanded it a little more, and here is what it currently looks like with 2 coats of primer.

I'm going to wet sand this in a couple of hours, then get a some base coat on there. I picked up the black from ford, so I'll get 4-5 coats of that on tonight, wet sand it in the morning, clear it out, wet sand, then polish it up.. I'll post pics of that tomorrow..

Figured I'd share

 

[TheFox88]

Nice cobra. It looks like you do some excelent polishing. Nice to be able to do your own bodyt work too. Welcome to the forum, this is a great site for us X owners.

 

[BeauJ]

That Cobra is beautiful. If I need some polishing, I'll give you a PM.

 

[cincy4point0]

Welcome to the site, and man thats a sharp Cobra! We need to setup a testdrive.

 

[Xplorer12686]

really nice cobra, just looks sick. ever take it to the track yet? and congrats on being able to repair a fender like that, probably save yourself some money so u can mod those cars

 

[Bswerl]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. I'm throwing clear over the bumper today, wet sanding tonight, maybe get a quick round of polishing and wax late, be nice to not have a beat in fender, lol.

The cobra has been to the track, stock it pulled a 12.89 @ 112... Now it pulls about the same times but in the low 120's off the nitrous and low 130's on it, the slammed suspension and big wheels just don't help those 60's, lol. I guess if I put some slicks and skinnys on it, and the rear end held together it would be a mid to high 10 second car, but it wouldn't pass tech running those time, it's more just a fun cruise/show car.

 

[93FoRdExPlOrEr]

welcome, nice cars