Surprise! I'm BAAAAACK!!!

[X6StringerX]

As some of you know, I've made a couple of threads about trying to repurchase my old green '98 5.0 AWD (See signature "My Explorer - Before, During, and After" for pics). I first tried to buy it back from the guy to which I sold it, but he couldn't stay out of jail long enough or make up his mind whether or not he wanted to sell it. I ended up buying a Mustang GT after getting totally fed up with him. Fastforward a couple of months and he started nagging me to trade the Mustang to him for the Explorer and cash. Of course, I said yes, but he couldn't come up with the cash. I ended up selling the Mustang a few weeks later and, in turn, I started bugging him to just sell the Explorer back to me. He said it was no longer for sale. I stumbled upon a great deal on a heavily modded '02 Focus, so I pounced on it. The very next day, his girlfriend stopped by and asked if I still wanted to buy it. Well, of course I wanted to, but I had just bought the Focus the day before and didn't have enough cash left. Once again, it slipped through my fingers. He ended up selling it to another guy shortly after. A couple of weeks go by and the new owner stops by my house wanting to know if I'd like to buy it. His reason for selling was that he didn't realize how bad the gas mileage was going to be. I told him to give me a few weeks to get rid of the car and I'd be all over it. The 15th of this month rolled around and I sold the car. On the very same day, I called him up and told him that I wanted to buy it and had the cash in hand. He said the check engine light had recently came on, so I had him meet me at an Autozone so we could pull the code. It was a P0455... probably the gas cap. I took it for a test drive and everything checked out fine. It still had the same problems it had when I had it... power windows and wipers only worked intermittently, etc. Everything that was wrong with it, other than the CEL, were all things I had planned on fixing anyway. I agreed to buy it, but he had a catch. He couldn't sell it to me until Wednesday because it was his only vehicle at the time. I played the waiting game only to find that he still hadn't purchased a replacement vehicle. I called for the next few days without getting any answers and no callbacks. Yet again, I gave up on purchasing it. In fact, I gave up on getting another Explorer completely. With winter fastly approaching, the prices of 4x4s/AWDs in the area were skyrocketing. I decided the best thing to do was to buy a winter beater and use the rest of my money to pay off my fiance's '05 Focus. If any of you frequent the "Other Makes and Models" section of the forum, you've probably already seen that I found the perfect winter beater in the form of a '93 Festiva with 132k. I purchased it on Thursday for $750. Saturday rolls around and before I sent in the check to pay off the '05 Focus, I decided to give AutoTrader on last look. What's this?! A 2001 5.0 AWD Explorer? 127k? Black with gray leather? Clean CarFax? $2,477?!?!?!

SOLD to me!

I'll update with pics tomorrow. This thing was right outside of Cleveland, OH and I'm located in central WV, so I drove quite a bit today. I just pulled in the driveway about 20 minutes ago and I left around noon on Saturday. Stay tuned!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome back! That's quite a story. The moral of the story is to never sell your Explorer.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Wild and yes I remember your story. The saga finally ended in you getting another Ex. Nice. I am not sure I would have even wanted your original Ex after all that if I were you. My guess is the 2 owners after you could not have treated the vehicle well anyway. Lookin forward to pics!

 

[X6StringerX]

Before you guys post the "this thread is worthless without pics" smiley, I'll have you know that by the time I finished tinkering yesterday, it was dark, lol. I also plan to become elite sometime soon, so I'll make a registry.

So far, I've shaved the badges and the side moldings as well as stripped the old wax and claybarred it. It was a little on the cold side, so I didn't do any polishing or waxing. I think it's supposed to rain today and tomorrow, so it looks like I'll probably be washing it again Wednesday to prep it for wax. Anyway, that stuff is insignificant, but I wanted to share. I also picked up some Krylon Fusion to take care of the gray trim just as I did on my last one. I didn't get any before pics and the ad has already been removed from AutoTrader, so I'll snap a few before the real progress continues. As of right now, it only needs a few minor repairs. The passenger fog light lense is broken, so I need to buy a new housing. The air bag light is on with a code 41, which is supposedly an open circuit on the RH radiator sensor. The windshield is also cracked. (Anyone have recommendations for replacement glass brands?)

I finally got ahold of the guy with my old Explorer last night (admittingly, my reason for calling was go gloat, haha, but he did request last week that I give him a call if I buy something else) and he said he'd love to swap the AR Bajas and 31x10.50 Kumho ATs that I put on the green one for my stock wheels and 235s. I'm all for that, but I'm not counting on it happening. I haven't had the best of luck with the guy, lol. I guess we'll see in a few days.