- Joined
- Jan 9, 2010
- Messages
- 54
- Points
- 3,101
- City
- Everson, WA
- Vehicle Year
- 1991, 1992
- Transmission
- Automatic
First off, let me say, I'm sorry that I don't have pics. I finally got my gf's camera and took tons of pics today, only to realize that I didn't get the cord, too. However, I'll sum up days 1-3 of owning and working on the truck, and get some pics up tomorrow night.
Day 1 (March 2, 2010)
On day 1, i picked up the Explorer. It was parked under a tree and covered in moss and pine needles. Plus, the front wheels and tires had been stolen! It wasn't pretty, but the body was straight and the owners had the paperwork for the transmission being rebuilt only a couple months ago. Over $1500 spent on it! However, the headgaskets were "bad" as I was told. I didn't know how bad, but I'd find out a little later.
I brought up the spare off my '92 Explorer, as well as one of its other wheels and we swapped tires around so that the best tires were on the back. With that done, we loaded it onto a car dolly and took at back to my place. To my surprise, after swapping batteries, the '91 fired up. It ran like crap, but it fired up. I put air in the tires and drove a couple blocks to the gas station. No big issues, so I drove a few more miles to my old high school. In the process, a radiator hose slipped off and the truck overheated. Not a good sign, but fortunately, I caught my old shop teacher right before she left and I refilled the radiator with a hose at the school. My roommate was with me and I tell him to see how much bubbling he sees from the radiator fill hole when I start the motor. I started up the truck only to see a wall of water fly from the truck.
We limped the truck back home where I checked the oil. Sure enough, it was a light caramel color. I guess the previous owners weren't lying when they said the headgaskets were bad! It was later in the day and I didn't want to do much, so I replaced little things like windshield wipers, door lock pulls, and I put another wheel from the '92 on.
Day 2 (March 3, 2010)
Day 2 wasn't very productive. I was extremely busy that day, so all I did was give it a quick bath to get the moss and scum off of it. I was surprised to find near perfect paint. With the straight body, this truck was looking good from the outside. The interior, however, is a different story. It's moldy, things are broken, and it smells like someone was smoking a lot of pot in the back seats.
I also found out the cause of it's poor engine performance. Besides having blown headgaskets, 2 of the spark plug wires came unplugged.
Day 3 (March 4, 2010)
Today was a good day. I took out all the seats in both Explorers. The '92 has clean leather seats, so my mission was to put them in the '91. I quickly learned that Ford changed the seat rail design from '91 to '92 (the '91 rails have BRONCO 2 stamped into the sides, or at least mine did). So I had to do a rail swap. If you're just swapping the rails, I CANNOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS. You won't be able to install the seat belts EXACTLY the way that ford designed them. They still function the same, but they do not work the original way intended.
Continuing on, though, I swapped the seats so now I have blue carpet and plastics with grey leather seats. It's really not a bad combo. I also installed a glove box to replace the broken one. The new glove box is also grey, and that looks VERY goofy, but I'll replace it again sometime later. When I went to install the '92's old chrome exhaust tip on the '91, I quickly found out how bad the exhaust system is rusted. It's completely rusted through behind the mufflers, and the over-the-axle part of the pipe is mangled. As I recall, however, the '92 doesn't have anything after the mufflers, and it sounds stock still, so i'm not too concerned.
Plans for the near future:
clean the seatbelts/steering wheel
Finish swapping tires/wheels (one is stuck to the '92, making it rather difficult)
Swap t-case shift motors
Cut out bad section of exhaust piping
PICS COMING SOON!
Day 1 (March 2, 2010)
On day 1, i picked up the Explorer. It was parked under a tree and covered in moss and pine needles. Plus, the front wheels and tires had been stolen! It wasn't pretty, but the body was straight and the owners had the paperwork for the transmission being rebuilt only a couple months ago. Over $1500 spent on it! However, the headgaskets were "bad" as I was told. I didn't know how bad, but I'd find out a little later.
I brought up the spare off my '92 Explorer, as well as one of its other wheels and we swapped tires around so that the best tires were on the back. With that done, we loaded it onto a car dolly and took at back to my place. To my surprise, after swapping batteries, the '91 fired up. It ran like crap, but it fired up. I put air in the tires and drove a couple blocks to the gas station. No big issues, so I drove a few more miles to my old high school. In the process, a radiator hose slipped off and the truck overheated. Not a good sign, but fortunately, I caught my old shop teacher right before she left and I refilled the radiator with a hose at the school. My roommate was with me and I tell him to see how much bubbling he sees from the radiator fill hole when I start the motor. I started up the truck only to see a wall of water fly from the truck.
We limped the truck back home where I checked the oil. Sure enough, it was a light caramel color. I guess the previous owners weren't lying when they said the headgaskets were bad! It was later in the day and I didn't want to do much, so I replaced little things like windshield wipers, door lock pulls, and I put another wheel from the '92 on.
Day 2 (March 3, 2010)
Day 2 wasn't very productive. I was extremely busy that day, so all I did was give it a quick bath to get the moss and scum off of it. I was surprised to find near perfect paint. With the straight body, this truck was looking good from the outside. The interior, however, is a different story. It's moldy, things are broken, and it smells like someone was smoking a lot of pot in the back seats.
I also found out the cause of it's poor engine performance. Besides having blown headgaskets, 2 of the spark plug wires came unplugged.
Day 3 (March 4, 2010)
Today was a good day. I took out all the seats in both Explorers. The '92 has clean leather seats, so my mission was to put them in the '91. I quickly learned that Ford changed the seat rail design from '91 to '92 (the '91 rails have BRONCO 2 stamped into the sides, or at least mine did). So I had to do a rail swap. If you're just swapping the rails, I CANNOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS. You won't be able to install the seat belts EXACTLY the way that ford designed them. They still function the same, but they do not work the original way intended.
Continuing on, though, I swapped the seats so now I have blue carpet and plastics with grey leather seats. It's really not a bad combo. I also installed a glove box to replace the broken one. The new glove box is also grey, and that looks VERY goofy, but I'll replace it again sometime later. When I went to install the '92's old chrome exhaust tip on the '91, I quickly found out how bad the exhaust system is rusted. It's completely rusted through behind the mufflers, and the over-the-axle part of the pipe is mangled. As I recall, however, the '92 doesn't have anything after the mufflers, and it sounds stock still, so i'm not too concerned.
Plans for the near future:
clean the seatbelts/steering wheel
Finish swapping tires/wheels (one is stuck to the '92, making it rather difficult)
Swap t-case shift motors
Cut out bad section of exhaust piping
PICS COMING SOON!
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