Hey everyone. As most of you know I have an 01 GTP that I can't drive due to engine failure as a result of a shop here. I ended up purchasing a 98 ford explorer today to get back and forth to work /groceries etc ... until my car is fixed. The explorer has a 4.0 V6 with a 5spd.. Its got brand new tires,new ball joints,new brakes, new u-joints, brand new air conditioning unit ,newer clutch,new trailer hitch and a couple other things I'm probably forgetting... I picked it up for 1,500 out the door. Its got a lot of miles but mostly highway and it still has very good get up and go.. I'll post pictures up as soon as my camera is charged up.

An Exploder with a five speed? Awesome. I've driven plenty of Rangers with the 4.0L and five speed, the Exploder must be a hoot.

Wait for Mark to chime in, he's familiar with these Fords.

' date='Nov 15 2011, 05:37 PM' post='61914']...Wait for Mark to chime in, he's familiar with these Fords.

but not familiar with manuals.

Its a fun little SUV to drive around. I've got some minor stuff to tackle , like the driver seat is messed up like someone had a massive gangster lean going on... It leans back a little much for my liking but it can be fixed easily.. I'm going to redo the stereo in it as some one had no clue what they did when they installed it.. Again no major issue but I do hit the face plate when I shift into third... Last little thing is the drivers door won't unlock properly if it gets locked.. Gotta sit there and mess with it but it will eventually unlock.....

Basically, the fun of picking up a +10 year old used vehicle.

I know the Furd's shifter's are huge, maybe there's a shorter shifter/short throw shift kit out there for these? Kinda a shot in the dark.

As for the seat, I'd just say F'it, and find one from the boneyard.

...like the driver seat is messed up like someone had a massive gangster lean going on... It leans back a little much for my liking but it can be fixed easily...

i had that problem in mine. turn out that we some how cracked the frame near the adjustment so the angle never held.

looks good (except for the tail lights)

>Altezzas

seems to be the consensus.... I'm not a fan of them by any means but they were on the explorer when I got it. Next time I'm at the junk yard I'm going to find a stock set and sell these on ebay.

Not bad for a winter beater, and manuals always make cars more fun. I'd just tint those tails...

seems to be the consensus.... I'm not a fan of them by any means but they were on the explorer when I got it. Next time I'm at the junk yard I'm going to find a stock set and sell these on ebay.

Yeah, definitely will be much better than what's on there

Well its obviously been quite a while since I updated this... Truck is running strong.. Since I've owned it I hadn't done too much beside routine maintenance and having the intake gaskets etc replaced. Today I washed it and cleaned the inside out really well. I've been noticing my rims looking poorer and poorer due to age and peeling and since completely redoing the rims is out of the question.... I used my black rim paint and gave them a nice paint job so let me know what you think.

btw I learned a cool trick from a friend of mine.... my head lights were starting to haze etc.... Instead of spending 10 bucks on a restore kit I was told to use tooth paste and some elbow grease... Sure enough after buying a 99 cent tube of whitening tooth paste with the gritty stuff in it and combining some meguiars plastx that I already had, and some microfiber clothes it worked the same if not better than a headlight restore kit. I finished the headlights off with a nice coat of wax and they look pretty good.

The Exploder looks good. I like the wheels like that.

' timestamp='1321407453' post='61914']

An Exploder with a five speed? Awesome. I've driven plenty of Rangers with the 4.0L and five speed, the Exploder must be a hoot.

Wait for Mark to chime in, he's familiar with these Fords.

Well, I'm a little late on this... haha

but not familiar with manuals.

This is true.

If you don't want to catch the modding bug, DO NOT visit dezertrangers.com it may have rangers in the name but, it's full of Ford brains that can tell you pretty much anything about your truck if you ask. A lot of great guys on there too.

Looks good though, I'd still swap out the tails.

I went out to the local yard today in search of tail lights and since I didn't see any that weren't scratched up or broken, I came home with this instead.... A lund bug/stone deflector for 5 bucks..

THose things are great lol. My ex has an explorer and as soon as she took it off every bug in New England hit her windshield

The only thing I hate about those Exploders is their tendency to have the suspension, steering and body mount squeak and crack like a mofo.