My girlfriends 1992 explorer project build log kinda thing

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

This Valentines day I bought my girlfriend a POS 92 explorer. Picked it up for $100, its a 2 door sport, 4.0l engine, 5 speed transmission, runs great, cold ac, ummm window motors need the stupid plastic bushings replaced which is extremely common on older fords. The previous owner said it would shake or vibrate in certain gears so he couldnt drive it anymore which is the reason for the $100 price tag. I drove it and it didnt feel like a transmission problem but more like a U-joint or something... so I got it home and sure enough $12 later and its good to go.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

It needs paint and a little body work. Nothing too major. The headliner is torn up too. For now shes driving around a 95 civic, 5 speed but it has no options (no ac, no power windows, or power steering... all that good stuff) so in a way its a kind of step up being that this has stuff like cruise control lol

heres some pics of when I bought it:

some pics of the headliner:

Click to read more...

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

I guess this is where things get a little interesting. We wanted this to be a fun build that we could work on together and have some fun while doing so.... and nothing says fun like a pink zebra headliner right? lmao

We worked awhile and got the interior stripped enough to get the headliner out. This pic is before we started gluing the fabric to the old fiberboard or whatever it is. I sanded all the foam and glue off with a DA sander.

After it dried we threw it up to see what it was going to look like.

here is some of the gutting process, the girlfriend was doing all the picture taking so they are all of me... and one of my boxers hanging out. sorry, Im not one to walk around like that the belt wasnt tight enough I guess.

My neice was trying to help too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

Someone previously had a system in here but cut the power wires and rca's in half.

Went to the junk yard and picked up all of the lenses that were missing. To the right is the civic.

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

In the middle of taking all the trim and stuff off my girlfriend asked if there was a way that you could take the emblem off the grill and paint it pink? I kind of chuckled and said that you could probably have someone airbrush it or something but she was convinced that you could take it apart and somehow you could paint it... sure enough we pried the emblem apart and found a way. First she sanded all the old paint off the emblem. lol one more thing I guess shes wearing some of my old car working on clothes...

This is about half sanded. The chrome was hard to get out but a small pick worked well to get into the crevices.

Then I painted the indentation black and the flat portion of the emblem pink (all on the backside of the emblem so what you actually see is through the clear portion of it) the original emblem had some cracks in it so this one was more for practice than anything else. its nowhere near perfect but definitely not bad. you can still see a few small pieces of the chrome that we didnt get out. We didnt really care because this was more of a test than anytihng.

 

[sixfootman2005 10+ year member]

Looks pretty good. Nice to see a gf get involved. Mine just now has decided to help me and likes it lol. Might have to buy her a project car.

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

As far as the audio portion of the build goes were not really sure where we want to go with it. its definitely not going to be anything crazy. The civic has a 12" cvr and some cheaper kicker components in the front powered by the headunit. Sounds decent but she wants a little more. I have been picking up some stuff on ebay and on here for about a week. Havent made our mind up on the subs yet, definitely 12"s, and around 600 watts rms to both. The front doors have some 5 1/4" infinity speakers, and the rears are the matching infinity 6x9's. For all 4 speakers shipped I payed $60. For the amps were going with kickers ZX line, the subs will be powered by a Zx550.2 and the fronts will probably be a zx200. like I said nothing crazy.

As for the exterior, it will be a semi gloss black. I started with the body work a week or so ago but its been too cold or rainy on my days off to really get anything done. I got some of the jambs and stuff done but thats it. All of the interior panels were dyed black as well to match the outside.

The old wheels had to go. My brother just got back from Germany and donated some rims that he acquired. He says they came off some kind of mercedes. They are 17" so we picked up some cheap tires to go with em. I had no idea what size tire to go with so I put an old 17" tire that came off my dads dodge ram to see what would fit. It was a little big so I went with a little bit lower profile. The wheels will be painted black as well. She liked Rob and Bigs Tahoe so were kind of going for something like that.

Heres the old 14" rims.... the previous owner took the stock 15" wheels and put them on his ranger and put the rangers 14"s on this.

and this is the new 17" wheel with the old tire. The calipers will be painted pink as well as the original orang-ish color stripe on the rubber/plastic body moulding.... we think... a few things havent been decided.

Sorry about some of the pictures quality all of the pics were taken with a camera phone and photobucket made them smaller.

 

[gotparts90 10+ year member]

nice beater car, cool that she is getting involved that will help her take better care of it.

 

[blkmrideon22s 10+ year member]

nice i have a 1991 explorer 4door

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

That thing is in good shape. One of my associates at work has a 92 exploder, but 4 door limited and it is a rust bucket! She paid 800 smacks for it too, lol!

Nice find and build up thus far.

 

[farmerehsan 10+ year member]

why not the civic?

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

why not the civic?

The civic needs some work too but because its her DD its hard for us to really work on it. After the explorer is done we will fix it up and sell it. it needs more than the explorer as far as paint and bodywork goes, and in florida not having a/c sucks. and its not that it doesnt work, the car doesnt have any a/c components as well as power steering components and stuff like that. I guess in a way im helping myself out. She wont be coming over all nasty and sweaty because its 95* outside and she has to manhandle the steering wheel. lol

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

not a huge update but we finished the door panels. No fiberglass pods or anything cool here. just pink zebra pink and l.e.d.'s. I painted a little more of it but not enough for an update. I Think if the weather is nice we may paint the rest monday.

the edges turned out 1000 times better then what I expected. I was able to tuck in the little overhang and make it look good. When I started I thought I was just going to hope that I could cut the fabric straight.

running the wires for the pink l.e.d.s

crappy pic testing the l.e.d.s

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

im liking it.

used to own a 94 sport //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[91Chevy 10+ year member]

Man, my girlfriend would be stoked on life if I got her some of that pink zebra print. Where did you get it!? Looks good btw.

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

I think you may have more in just the door panel and headliner than you paid for the entire SUV, lol!

Looks killer, although not something I would do..........even for my wife. And if I did, I would never ride around with her! I take off her steering wheel cover, which is Amy Brown fairies, when I have to use her ride for whatever. Usually it is taking it to my dads shop to fix something else!

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

Man, my girlfriend would be stoked on life if I got her some of that pink zebra print. Where did you get it!? Looks good btw.

joannes fabrics, shit was expensive I think I spent close to $50 for the headliner and door panels. I figured if I dropped $1,000 on the whole truck with audio and everything it would be a good deal.