Found a unicorn

[SnC RangeR]

how is this combo not rare? if you find one in south eastern nc please let me know!

 

[YungICY]

I bought almost same exact expo about a year ago. Same everything except mine is green and I don't have a sweet center console. I paid $150 for mine and it's been my daily driver since I got it with only a few hundred bucks worth of repairs/maintenance.

Also, just a heads up on the 31s, I put some 31 mudders on mine and I had to take a hack saw and mini sledge to the fenders and they still rub on full lock. I would look into a minimum of a 2" front lift before putting bigger tires on it.

Sent from my LGMS345 using Tapatalk

 

[Slammin Sam]

I've seen a 1st gen XLT explore in the u-pull-it with an unusual combo in that it had an automatic trans like majority of explorers but a factory 1354m t-case I would say more m5od/1354m explorer combos were produced then the a4ld/1354m explorers.

Also judging by the pic, looks like it had an upscale interior too with those seats & leather wrap steering wheel.

Not sure where that pick & pull is, but I'd love to find a decent set of those lumbar buckets for my 89 B2 so I could dump the miserable 60/40 bench.

 

[AllanD]

Out of curiosity, how many 4 door, 5 speed, 4wd, Manual transfer case Explorers have you seen for sale in say the last year? I'm gonna guess less than 100 maybe closer to 40. I'm just curious

Two or three, and easily twice that many 2dr sports and Navajo's.

Meanwhile What I've been searching for and finally found, and is sitting in my driveway as I type this, is a reasonably priced, not rusted 1996-97 5.0 Explorer!

I bought it yesterday for $500, runs and drives but there is something deeply wrong in the brakes...

What I suspect is some asshole opened one or more bleeder screws when retracting calipers to install brake pads... and didn't get the air out...

I literally have until may to get it sorted out, and then I'll set to work figuring out what needs to be done to convert it to a manual trans, but I won't take any action
so long as the 4R70W that's in it now continues to work, I cordially despise automatics, but I can tolerate them when and for as long as they work...

 

[Shran]

Shortly after I posted this I actually found another one, virtually identical but in that light blue metallic color. I should have bought it but it also had a bad clutch and some other issues that made me feel like it wasn't worth the $500 they were asking. Haven't seen any others for sale lately, 91-94's are rapidly disappearing here.

In other news I have decided that this will more or less be my "expedition" rig, going to build some bumpers, skid plates and other stuff for it. Very mild wheeler/camping/hunting rig. I swapped wheels and tires with my '88 Ranger and picked up a roof rack for it.

Built a couple replacement pieces that the rack sits on to bring it down within 1" or so of the roof so it doesn't look so stupid. I hate roof racks that are way above the roof.

 

[Shran]

Figured I can't own anything without doing a bunch of stuff to it, I am going on a back country trip later this year and need some armor/recovery points. Here is step one, front bumper. I built a receiver mount winch cradle that slides into here, that way I can use the winch on my other pickup or my car trailer if needed. Not quite done with it yet, still have to weld on some stuff and paint it but it's getting close.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

That is a nice looking bumper, did you make it?

Going around the black hills or somewhere else?

 

[Shran]

Thanks, yeah I built it... just a piece of 6" channel that I cut up and bent plus diamond plate to fill in the top. It is in paint mode right now, should have it on the truck later this week.

Myself and a couple friends are meeting at 4 Corners in September and are going to run the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route. Mostly very mild wheeling, scenic stuff and light rock crawling but the Explorer is low enough that I think better skid plates and armor are absolutely necessary. And I am the only one showing up in a $800 vehicle so I need every advantage I can get.

 

[Shran]

May want to just make this a build thread, why not at this point.

Some things I have done lately:

Removed the seats and carpet, and pressure washed the carpet at the carwash. It looks so much better, and more importantly, smells a lot better. Had some serious stank in it.

Also did an add-a-leaf in the rear, built a skid plate for the middle of the truck (basically from the trans crossmember back to right in front of the front spring hangers.) I will be building at least one more skid plate and rock sliders but first some rust repair! The dog legs were awful, rocker panels aren't great, but this truck is otherwise in excellent condition as far as rust goes so it's worth fixing and the whole thing will get painted after my CO trip.

Pics:

Driver's side is about 90% done, then on to the passenger side, rock sliders, front skid plate, some wiring work, and a few other items.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Looks good!

 

[Shran]

Since May when I last posted, my little Explorer has gained about 5000 miles and has taken me through a lot of WY, NE, CO, and NM. I ran the Colorado BDR which starts at Four Corners and ends in Baggs, WY. 700ish miles of dirt, rocks, mountain passes, snow, etc. It was a great time, the whole trip went off without a hitch except a blown tire on the drive from SD to NM, which ended in a stop at Discount Tire in Farmington for a new set of 30x9.50x15 BFG KO2's.

I also did the following upgrades before: additional lights, rock sliders, R134a AC system swap from my 2 door, front skid plate, new bigger radiator, HD fan clutch, water pump, thermostat, steering linkage, front springs, and a few other maintenance items. I am just totally pleased with how this rig works. Plan is to finish up a few other projects and then repaint it - I'm otherwise just leaving it as is, it's too much fun how it is now to change it.

 

[Shran]

As it turns out, air jacks are incredibly handy for washing all the mud and crap out from under your rig! It took me 4 hours washing at home and 2 trips to the car wash after the CO BDR trip to get it cleaned up and I am still finding mud chunks. I hate mud.

 

[Shran]

And, speaking of unicorns, I bought this little gem for $300 a couple days ago. It also has a manual trans and t-case and a lot of cool options including a factory Ford CD player. Unfortunately it needs a LOT of love but the body is in better shape than my blue one so it'll get fixed and probably sold.

 

[91stranger]

I like how mad people got about calling things "unicorn". I get it but if someone likes something that is hard to find then that is their unicorn. I know I'd prefer blue, white, or silver vehicles and if I'm eyeing a certain vehicle then I would rather try to find that vehicle in the color I want. I'm not too picky about colors but I absolutely hate the maroon color on vehicles. I do like my amazon green ranger. It's nice and bright in the sun and almost black looking in the dark.

 

[Shran]

I like how mad people got about calling things "unicorn". I get it but if someone likes something that is hard to find then that is their unicorn. I know I'd prefer blue, white, or silver vehicles and if I'm eyeing a certain vehicle then I would rather try to find that vehicle in the color I want. I'm not too picky about colors but I absolutely hate the maroon color on vehicles. I do like my amazon green ranger. It's nice and bright in the sun and almost black looking in the dark.

It may not be actually "rare" but it's absolutely uncommon. I have been through every junkyard in a 100 mile radius of my town looking for parts for the white one and you know how many I found with blue interior?

TWO.

Out of probably 75 or so that I found.

I found two others with a manual trans/t-case, one of those was a 4 door with crank windows and ZERO power options. Kind of a neat truck. That is the only one like it I've ever seen.

By far the most common are tan, forest green, bright red and dark metallic red in that order.

Most junkyards aren't even keeping gen 1 Explorers anymore, they go straight to the crusher. Can't blame them. These trucks just have not aged well.