To Paint or Not to Paint, That is the question!!

[AlaskanJack]

I've spent the day out under the front of my Ex and was wiping down the super runner steering for the Superlift and found a mess of performance stickers under the filth. I wiped down most of the lift stuff and found several more tiny stickers: Edelbrock, Performance cams, SK racing, Real Gear Racing etc.

I had been toying with the thought of repainting the lift parts including coils. What do you think?

I've seen several lift kits painted RFR22's red Skyjacker lift comes to mind. I know that Superlift used to make their lift parts yellow. I have a red strip in my molding so I was leaning towards that, but then my rear drums are painted blue along with my rear diff cover and wire looms in engine are blue. Then again I do have the coiled hoses exposed for my extended axle breathers and they are yellow.

I will try to take a pic later and post it. But let me know what color would look best. It will get painted I have decided just what color.

 

[X-1]

I am partial to red , what color shock boots ya got? I would go with the color that represents the lift you have, if I had gone with superlift, I would have had yellow boots instead of red, I wouldn't keep the blue unless you had a duff lift, just my opinion, I also haven't painted much, too much to me looks tacky, just highlight some of it. Then semi gloss black the rest, it will look clean that way

 

[AlaskanJack]

What's this no one has any opinions! I find that very hard to believe!!!!


Well here are some shots of the underside of my truck.

Cant link em so here's the link

Alaska Explorers

 

[AlaskanJack]

Ok well here is a pic the rest are linked to my MSN group Alaskan Explorers.

X-1, I've got Skyjacker shocks all around so my boots are red. I am leaning that way. But yellow sounds interesting. I'd have to see one with yellow lift parts first. I've seen red, blue, black and silver.

 

[X-1]

I suck at moving pics around, but I have good front pic in the before and after forum titled X-1 gets new suspension, it will show you what I did.

 

[Rx4phun]

I say paint it. I think red yellow and or black would be good. Just make sure you really clean the hell out of it first and remove rust where necessary so your paint job lasts. GO for it
Gary

 

[AlaskanJack]

Originally posted by X-1
I suck at moving pics around, but I have good front pic in the before and after forum titled X-1 gets new suspension, it will show you what I did.

See that looks nice, maybe I should start slowly by painting my coils. But my bushings on my radius arms, super runner steering and my axle breathers are yellow. Maybe I should change my shock boots to yellow. How would that look on skyjacker shocks? Nasty huh!

Well I want it to match and look good so maybe I should think about switching my bushings to red.

What do you think about those performance stickers on the swaybar and super runner steering. I'm considering replacing them with some new ones. Maybe a superlift sticker on the steering. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. I did hoqwever just get a steering stabilizer from Skyjacker brand new in box off Ebay for like 23.00. So I'm wondering if its even useable on mine with the super runner steering.

 

[AlaskanJack]

Oh I was going to add this pic. Its dirty but its just plain. Yours is clean and colorful.

 

[Byrd91]

Do you have D44 outers? Your rotors and spindles look different from mine for some reason, or maybe I'm just not remembering correctly?

 

[X-1]

It would be difficult to fit the steering staybalizer in there, if you saw where mine was mounted, it would have to pass over your idler arm, you could fab a longer mount, drop it lower, and attach from front of drag link, it will be tough, the drag link just isn't long enough, or mount it to the inside behind the idler arm? I went thru that on a mazda, it took a while to figure where to mount , when I had the three inch coils they were superlift, scratched and painted partial black, I bought them used, and painted red, cheap walmart red works good, I already had the day stars installed, that's where the red bushings came from. As far as decals, it's up to you, I am conservative on that issue, the only ones I have are a white skyjacker, and white serious explorations on my rear hatch, and flexplorers decals on the side windows, also daystar warning in between the visors inside, hey theres nothing wrong with flaunting what you got.

 

[X-1]

Originally posted by AlaskanJack
Oh I was going to add this pic. Its dirty but its just plain. Yours is clean and colorful.

Actually you wouldn't beleive how dirty mine was when I bought it, tons of gravel dust in the panels, had to take the entire truck apart a little at a time, and clean it, it took a whole day of shampooing carpets to get that old musty smell out, it's clean now, but it is also my turn to dirty it up, heh,heh

 

[AlaskanJack]

Originally posted by Byrd91
Do you have D44 outers? Your rotors and spindles look different from mine for some reason, or maybe I'm just not remembering correctly?

Not as far as I know. All the parts I ordered for the repairs recently were for a D35. That included a used steering knuckle, new rotor, bearings races, outer tie rod and ball joints.

But I've never seen the D44 TTB stuff.



X-1 I guess its my turn to clean and then dirty. Too bad I was looking closely at the fenders and found a light outline on front and rear where some large warn type fender flares were mounted. Man I wish they were still on it. I have been looking for a good used set to save me some money.

 

[Rhett]

I like black suspension parts. But that's just me. If you want it to stand out then by all means red would be good.

 

[X-1]

That is a bummer, I too want the flares, Hank found a killer deal on e-bay for a set, just gotta keep checking there.

 

[Joey P]

You can never really go wrong with black, but if your looking for some color I would do Yellow all the way. It sticks out, but still looks good.

 

[AlaskanJack]

Well I found a guy on ebay that sells a universal fender flare. Costs like 120 per set front and 120 for the rears.

He said they can be easily modified to fit a 2dr Sport. I'm going to correspond with him some more to get more details and see if we may not be able to get another source for these on this site. Maybe work on an initial group purchase or something.

Too early to tell just yet I need to converse with him some more. His company makes these out of fiberglass and are meant for use on cars, but he was certain these would work on the Explorer.

Oh does anyone have any pics or know someone that has painted lift parts yellow?

 

[92flippin369]

it's going to get dirty anyways so... paint it glossy black. I'm just going to leave it what ever color it is when it comes.

 

[Blaine122300]

I'd say red, but all my stuff came red. I'm glad to see your explorer is working well for you. I like your new rotors. Very sweet.

Also looks like your sway bar would hit your steering link if you got off camber a little. Maybe you should get the skyjacker extended sway arms, or maybe some jeep quick disco's and raise that sway bar up some. Get rid of that cheapo drop braket too. Just my $0.02 worth though.

Later,

Andy

 

[AlaskanJack]

Originally posted by Blaine122300
I'd say red, but all my stuff came red. I'm glad to see your explorer is working well for you. I like your new rotors. Very sweet.

Also looks like your sway bar would hit your steering link if you got off camber a little. Maybe you should get the skyjacker extended sway arms, or maybe some jeep quick disco's and raise that sway bar up some. Get rid of that cheapo drop braket too. Just my $0.02 worth though.

Later,

Andy

Yep actually my steering has been wearing on the sway bar link. There is a nice groove wore in it. I also noticed that the steering has been rubbing on the axle drop bracket.

So which drop bracket are you suggesting replacing? The one on the swaybar or the axle?

I like red also for the suspension.

 

[XplorerKid]

what bout somthing like that ??

i think that would look good with the coils painted red also


PEACE