What did you do this weekend? Participation required | Page 12 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

What did you do this weekend? Participation required

I got tired of waiting for a nice day and decided to address the leaking front shocks.
While I was taking things apart I checked the brakes and the ABS sensors.
Rust made things a challenge as the bolts had rusted to new random sizes.
Resurfaced the rotors and cleaned up the pads, put shocks on and I ended up with a much better ride and the truck doesn't try to change lanes on bumpy roads.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Finished pulling off all my break pads and rotors off (2005 Sport Trac) for replacement. First time I've had a vehicle with all the wheels off and up on blocks.

Found both front splash guards in bad shape. All that holds them on are three 8mm bolts on each. On the right side the first bolt head is all eaten away, and the remaining two no longer fit the 8m wrench or anything else I've tried. Right now they are soaking in PB Blaster. I hate rusted bolts.
 






Got bored and painted my rear Ford emblem. I know it's not the best looking job, but I"m OK with it lol.

20160404_092212.jpg
 






theluke19 how did you paint it ? Does it come apart from the back ?
 






For the most part, I just followed along with the instructions @ https://www.fordf150.net/howto/customemblems.php

To get the rear emblem out, I used a hair dryer, and a flathead screwdriver.. in retrospect I would have used a hair dryer, and something that wouldn't scratch my tailgate (like a popsicle stick maybe?). Didn't scratch it terribly with the screwdriver, just something I'd do different.

The reason the paint job looks so iffy is because I was not patient- and when doing anything regarding paint, patience is key. When I heated up the emblem to pull off the original clear gel coating, the blue part didn't come with it too well. Instructions indicated to either scrape it off or use acetone (neither of which worked- scraping scratched the chrome behind it, and acetone did nothing). So if you pull off gel coating, and there's blue on it still - I'd just paint over it.

Also, when wiping the chapstick off of the 'FORD' letters, I don't think I let the paint dry enough, so I think thats where some of the issues with the paintjob came from too.
 






Restored headlamps to crystal clear.
 






Began testing electrolysis on a brake caliper mounting bracket.

So far the rust has come off the bracket quite well. What I thought were bumps of rust in the casting are now visible as numbers on the bracket.

Waiting for warmer temps this coming week so the garage door can be left open to dissipate any fumes.
 






Began testing electrolysis on a brake caliper mounting bracket.

So far the rust has come off the bracket quite well. What I thought were bumps of rust in the casting are now visible as numbers on the bracket.

Waiting for warmer temps this coming week so the garage door can be left open to dissipate any fumes.

Have you ever used Evaporust? Works great, no noxious fumes, no rubber gloves necessary, liquid is reusable if saved and is biodegradable. Just throw whatever rusty part(s) you have in it and wait 8-24 hours and the parts come out looking like new.
 






Koda2000 no gloves needed with the electrolysis, your hands will get a little dirty touching the part when it comes out of the solution. The fumes consist of hydrogen gas. Haven't had any issues yet, but after installing a propane ceiling heater in the garage this winter I wanted to err on the side of caution.

The solution is harmless (unless you've got something like stainless in the solution), and can be dumped on the lawn. I read that lawns love it for the iron content.

That said I have heard good things about Evaporust.

P.S. What i am hoping to is paint the caliper parts with caliper paint after all the cleaning.
 






I worked on my truck finishing the bushing till 3:30 Sunday morning, I am so glad I am done. The truck drives like a dream the shocks are all replace from weeks ago. Time for a break till I get excited about doing something else on my truck! RAOTFLMBO!
 






Spent most of the weekend clearing up the back yard at the new house. Had a huge bonfire to get rid of all the leaves and dead tree branches I cut down (it's still going) . After that, I finally got around to yanking off that heat shield rattling around on my cat.
 






Last Saturday my wife drove the '01 ST since our daughter had her car while I replaced the brakes on our daughter's car. When I finished the brakes, I went to move the ST so I could go for a test drive, but the truck wouldn't start. No problems before that, but my wife said the battery light had been on that morning. Eventually decided the original alternator was not working after 15 years and 166,000 miles. Had it tested & it was putting out 4 volts. Just finished replacing it & new one is working fine. Also replaced the serpentine belt & sprayed MAF cleaner on the MAF and intake butterfly.

I've really been blessed in that most of the breakdowns & failures our vehicles have had over the years have happened in our driveway - and there haven't been as many as one would expect given the age of the cars and trucks we've driven. Last week my daughter's boyfriend backed her '02 Sable (not the car I replaced the brakes on) out of their drive & the right ball joint completely broke and the axle pulled out of the trans - again, at the end of the drive and not a little earlier when he was driving around with my 14 month old granddaughter. That car's getting scrapped as it was totaled 2 1/2 yrs ago, but still drove just fine and we got more from the insurance co. than we paid for it. Being driven by 18-19 yr olds hasn't improved its condition.
 






I was just going to sit around and relax this weekend. The mailman knocked on the door and had some packages for me. I made two orders from rock.auto earlier this week. One was a replacement bug shield for the truck and another is a windshield washer pump. Well, it came in Saturday. I replaced the bug shiel and the washer water pump. It is great that I can do things for a change, I might be a lot slower than I use to be, but, Git-her-Done!
 






Well I removed the front caliper from my electrolysis bath, and it look pretty good. Even the inside area that houses the piston is shiny and clean.

Could not find any Rustoleum caliper paint locally so I am ordering it.
 






Did some cleaning

Cleaned her, waxed her, and shined her up. And repainted both bumper as they were beat when I got her. Also paintd the rims since they got pretty beat up floating around the garage for a year.
 

Attachments

  • GEDC0012.jpg
    GEDC0012.jpg
    84.3 KB · Views: 173
  • GEDC0022.jpg
    GEDC0022.jpg
    62.3 KB · Views: 174
  • GEDC0016.jpg
    GEDC0016.jpg
    64.2 KB · Views: 187
  • GEDC0006.jpg
    GEDC0006.jpg
    54.9 KB · Views: 175






Looks good all "murdered out". I wish mine was some other color than silver.
 






Looks good all "murdered out". I wish mine was some other color than silver.


I love the way it looks. Just need to tint the front windows. I may get the blacked out headlights and corner light, but I'm not sure yet.
 






Well trying to finish one of the last project I had going on before I had my heart attach almost 2 years ago. I am building a Dorm Room Refrigerator cabinet. I am almost done. Right now my refrigerator is on the floor and I am about done reaching to the floor for a bottle of water. LOLOL. here are some pictures, I should be done with it by Friday. I need to sand and seal then polyurthane it, then DONE!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0851.jpg
    IMG_0851.jpg
    71.5 KB · Views: 160
  • IMG_0852.jpg
    IMG_0852.jpg
    76.1 KB · Views: 159
  • IMG_0854.jpg
    IMG_0854.jpg
    61.5 KB · Views: 167
  • IMG_0853.jpg
    IMG_0853.jpg
    73.1 KB · Views: 159
  • IMG_0855.jpg
    IMG_0855.jpg
    94.3 KB · Views: 168






Hey, new to te forums, picked up a black ext beige int jen1 st a few weeks ago. I just installed loaded moog upper & lower ca's, inner & outer tierods, camber bolts, slotted stoptech rotors, akebono pads & bilstien shocks on the driver side. Oof.. That took longer than expected... im gonna take a nap then get to the pass side.

oWfuHMvnigpfYhJS7


Also picked up some new shoes
y6LtZ298q1s6vaiK6
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Replaced the cruise control switch on the master cyclinder.
 






Back
Top