The Twisted Sister Build Thread

Well here is my registry. a little bit about me. i am 23 years old. i am currently an in the accelerated nursing program and work full time.

My overall goal for my truck is to make it into a very capable, fun, family offroad truck. I want to be able to go through ANYTHING i point it at, but i also want to be able to run it down the highway at 80mph.

i have a take home car, so gas mileage is not a big deal right now.

i got my truck back in high school a 2000 mounty v8 AWD with 88,000 miles for $3,500. its come a long way since them. and will go a lot farther.
currently on 6-19-2015 sitting at 174k miles


COMPLETED PROJECTS
Warrior Shackles with AAL, TT Twist.
Trimmed bottom of front bumper
Bedlined bottom of truck
Removal of side steps
Replaced upper ball joints
Mag light mounted to a-pillar
Rancho rs5000 up front.
Monroe sensa trac load adjusters in the back
Removed roof rack
Replaced wheel hubs in the front (need to do again this summer)
Blacked out tail lights
Gas tank skid plate
Fixed drivers window that didnt go up or down
Kenda Klevar 32x12.5x15 tires (plus spare)
homemade rear tire carrier
LED 24" light bar behind grille
Clearance lights
Smoked headlights
CB radio/ CB antenna
Camo seat covers
Fixed broken cruise control buttons
Red LED map light/ 2nd row (need to do cargo area)
Custom orange mesh grille
Bed linered hood
Relocated license plate to bumper
Hi-Lift jack mounted on the hood
New Radiator/ hoses

TO DO LIST!
Tube bumper
Winch plate/ winch
35" or 37" tires on 15x10 rims
manual transfer case conversion
SAS Dana 44/ Ford 9"
Rock sliders
Homeade snorkel
Tube Doors
remove carpet and bedliner cargo area
Auxiliary reverse lights
Fender Flares

This is my list. its long BUT i have plenty of time of ahead of me to do all this. below i will post pics of the completed projects

2000 Mountaineer Build Thread. <--- old non-elite thread which has all the links for future projects.

 

[dersch6221992]

link to my rear tire carrier i made
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3215732#post3215732

 

[dersch6221992]

Progress time!

Okay people stand by... i have 10 days off in 2 weeks. and well lets just say i went on a much needed shopping spree for my truck... lots of things i have been meaning to replace and wanted to add for the last two years but never had the time or money. so here goes my shopping list!
1. hi lift jack/ hi lift jack hood mount (stand by for write up and pics)
2. new cb radio, cabls, springs, and mount for my already 4' firestik
3. new cruise control buttons for my broken ones
4. 24" led light bar for behind my grille
5. 200 ft of red/ black 12 gauage wire
6. new sylvania silverstar headlights, tail lights, reverse lights, and turn signals (mine are all out)
7. 5 5 pin relays with harness
8. wheel spacers
9. new 3" stubby antenna (mines bent to **** from car washes)
10. some new decals (going with an orange theme this time)
11. vht night shade to tint headlights/ corner lights
12. 100 5mm red pre wired leds (dome lights, puddle lights)
13. clerance lights smoked LED
14. new mesh for my grille to repaint it and re do the ****ty mesh job i did the first time
15. new camo seats
16. led side emitting lights to make my license plate not illegal.

things to do besides those
oil change
redo the bedliner and fix the rust
add snorkle
black out lug nut cover
paint rear tire carrier/ look at welds
move license plate to the bumper/ add leds

 

[dersch6221992]

Progress with pics

so this week i finally got some to get some stuff done. im goin to post up some pics and a little bit of write up... let me know what you think!

this is what i came home to lol

 

[dersch6221992]

Fixed the Grille, Added 24" LED lightbar, tinted headlights

So the first thing i did was fix my grille. the last time i did it i did a ****ty job. this time i went through sanded it all down and nice and smooth. after i did that bedlinered it. i also redid the mesh piece in the middle and painted it bright orange. personally i love how it turned out.

behind the grille i attached a 24" LED light bar. let me tell you that thing is BRIGHT!
i wired the LED bar into the parking lights on a relay. and there a switch in the overhead console to turn it on or off independently
(apparently i didnt take any pictures of this... oh well. i will talk about how its hooked up in a later post)

i also used VHT nightshade to tint the headlights and corners. in hind sight... i would have probably not gone as dark but thats okay. i also had to redo the headlights since i didnt do a good job the first time.

 

[dersch6221992]

Bedliner, Cruise Control, Cab Lights, Wheel Spacers

Next thing i did was rebedliner the truck. i re did the wheel wells, lower half, hood, and lug nut covers. i used the gallon cans this time instead of using just the spray cans. it looks about 1000 times better than the cans. also a gallon can does so much more than you think it would. i didnt even use a half of can to do everything.

My cruise control buttons were broken. so i went ahead and replaced those. followed a very very helpful thread i found on here. i just bought used ones off ebay. as you can see both buttons were snapped off.
on a side note make sure you plug back in the airbag when your done!!! i forgot and my light flashed forever
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=229245

next i installed the cab lights. i will say this was a PITA i honestly would not have done this if i known. but overall it turned out very good. i went overboard and put silicon around them just to make sure that it wont leak. they are tied into the parking lights so they come on with them... but also have them independently on a switch.

i added my 1.25" wheel spacers... overall eh you can tell but you cant tell also. honestly i really just wanted to get 15x10 rims and some 33's but that will come after the superlift... for now i like them.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

[dersch6221992]

Switches, LED dome light, CB radio, led license plate, new seat covers

so for the switches i added 4 lighted red switches to the overhead console and ran all the wires behind the molding to hide them.

i used the 5mm LED prewired lights off of EBAY and did the dome light conversion.

my dad gave me his pilot points so i went ahead under his order but a pretty nice CB definitely nicer than i would have if it was free.

i finally now added a license plate light to the back of the rear tire carrier so i am legal again! used a 30cm side strip LED strip wired into the trailer harness. worked out really good actually.

finally added some nice fitted camo seat covers... the others were falling apart

 

[dersch6221992]

final day time and night time pics

LED Light bar, cab lights, head lights, parking lights

cab lights, and parking lights only

front light out put with everything on sitting in drivers seat (note i have this aimed WAY down more than i would normally if for only offroad use but i will be using it on the road)

Day time pic

 

[dersch6221992]

Moderator please change the title to Dersch's 2000 Mounty aka "Sparky"
THANK YOU!

 

[dersch6221992]

For later! http://www.truckcustomizers.com/products/pacer-flexy-fender-flares.html

i also need to do the write up on the hood mount

 

[dersch6221992]

just realized its been over a year since ive updated this! not much has changed at all on the truck... gave my 32's back to my dad and went to stock tires. i am starting on my SAS soon axles should eb bought in the next 2 or 3 weeks (like to the Thread is in my signature check it out)

and this weekend i replaced the radiator, upper/ lower hoses. wasnt too bad got it all done in about 3 hours. not going to lie those clips were a pain in the butt!!!! i really couldnt explain to someone if i had to how i got those in and out lol. and i ran into an issue that the transmission cooler lines did not fit the new radiator so i had to remove the old connnectors and put in the new radiator. nothing else planned for truck right now.... come August i will be doing the BW4406 swap though in preperation for the SAS this spring! and hopefully have the axles in the next few weeks to get the to the shop to be built and then i can sand and paint them....

not sure what color theme to go with? im thinking Black and Lime Green.