Not sure if this should be in 'Under Constuction'or 'Metamorphosis'

[flamingx]

this is my '97 2wd Explorer when I bought it Summer of '07

2 months and a few mods later it looked this

and that's how it rolled until Fall of '09 when I pulled it off the road to undertake some Old Skool mods heavily inspired by the great Rod builders that styles have seem to have been forgotten in the past few years to give way to this new fad of 'over the counter mods' that simply bolt on.
So I now pay homage to the greats (George Barris, Ed Roth, Bill Hynes etc.) by taking some modern metal and giving it some retro Custom flare.

And since pics are louder that words I'll shut up now and give some pics of my progress.

 

[nb11]

Explorer panel truck. KEWL!

 

[ZMan]

wow that is sweet

 

[disciplerocks]

I woulda went for a sliding side door off a minivan, but to each his own. Looks good.

 

[flamingx]

Just got one side of the roof rack shaved and got rid of that FUGLY roof seam while I was at it.

 

[flamingx]

I've always hated the way it looks when guys just build a box where the OEM tails mount and leave the notch in the hatch whenever doing tail mods on SUVs. So it took some engineering and a whole lot of racking my brain but I figured out that if I move the latch to the bottom, I can weld the taillight fllers to the hatch and french in my LEDs that way.

Then shaved the ugly right off it as well.

 

[forzda]

Looking good, slow a steady , do it once . it is going to look smart when it is completed

 

[ZMan]

Do you plan on putting a roll pan on it? You can get a nice one from Grant or Cando that comes with all the pieces you need to have a nice smooth rollpan. Work looks good so far.

 

[escort_gts]

Damn that's kool. Don't see to many doing this anymore especially on an Explorer.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

 

[flamingx]

Do you plan on putting a roll pan on it? You can get a nice one from Grant or Cando that comes with all the pieces you need to have a nice smooth rollpan. Work looks good so far.

No, I'll be taking 2 Explorer rear bumpers, cutting and welding them back together in a way to get rid of the plastic bumper pad then tucking and smoothing simular to what I did to the front. Being that it is a passenger vehicle it is illegal to put a rollpan on it unless it has the same or more rearend collision protection than OEM.

Not to mention, the whole reason behind this build is to show this new generation of aftermarket bolt-on modders how it was done before everybody and their brother started selling pre-made mods.

 

[forzda]

I must compliment you on you roof welds ,it is a lot of work to avoid warping the panels , it appears once everything is ground down there will be very little bondo needed

 

[Gary101386]

very very nice!

 

[ZMan]

No, I'll be taking 2 Explorer rear bumpers, cutting and welding them back together in a way to get rid of the plastic bumper pad then tucking and smoothing simular to what I did to the front. Being that it is a passenger vehicle it is illegal to put a rollpan on it unless it has the same or more rearend collision protection than OEM.

Not to mention, the whole reason behind this build is to show this new generation of aftermarket bolt-on modders how it was done before everybody and their brother started selling pre-made mods.

Thatll look cool. Cant say anyones ever bothered me or anyone i know about rollpans though. I paint for a living, and i must say, what comes on some (not all) new cars in the way of "bumpers" is no better than a steel rollpan.

 

[Heavyfire14]

very very interesting. keep up the great work!

 

[flamingx]

Cant say anyones ever bothered me or anyone i know about rollpans though.

The cops around here have been cracking down on Hot Rods. A friend of mine got charged with haveing a roll pan on his '86 Ranger, but got off by showing the judge an option list from that year that proved a rear bumper was optional, I dont have that luxery.

Besides rollpans are perfectly legal on a truck 'cause they have a box protecting the passengers from a rearend hit, SUVs (and cars) dont, so a rear bumper is the law unless the rollpan is fitted over a DOT approved re-bar.