Anybody here customize an older Ford Explorer?

hittman

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jan 16, 2008
Messages
26,744
City & State/Province
Illinois
If so .... share some pics if you can and let me know what you've done to your ride. I'm talking about the mid-90's to mid-00's body style.

I may take on a project in the near future and am just looking for ideas and to see what others may have done.
 
Well don't put any money into a 2002 Explorer. Mine has had 5 transmission repairs, all the wheel hubs replaced, and coil springs replaced. This is with 150,000 miles and no towing, no heavy or off road usage. This is my wife's vehicle and purchased new. This is the only vehicle that I purchased an extended warranty and glad I did. The last repair, after warranty ran out, was for $4500. I replaced transmission with a Jasper transmission. Jasper has 3 year warranty. Getting a new vehicle in two years. No more Fords, I had trans problems in the last Three Fords.
 
Not much aftermarket stuff available for the Explorer.... if you're looking to build a halfway serious (or REALLY serious) off-roader, an old Bronco is a better bet.
 
I would love have one of those older broncos. The ones who I look like a Jeep. Then I see the current prices. Wow! They aren't cheap, fixed up or not. I agree about not putting any money into an Explorer.
 
A bit of advice...

Don't customize it like I did to my 2002 Explorer back in January 2009:


At least the Ruger license plate was salvageable and is on the front of my '06 Explorer

However, the decal couldn't be salvaged:


I put a grille/brush guard on a '92 Explorer we had (and my dad still has). We never put one on the '02 (sadly, might have saved some of that damage) or on the '06. We just do the bug-guards...

Aqualung
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change.
I'm not looking for anything radical in looks or performance-wise to do hard core off-roading. Just thinking maybe about sprucing it up some in looks.

The deal is, I've inhereted from an elderly aunt a 99 Explorer XLT. She bought it new, always garaged it, and put a whopping 50,000 miles on it since 1999. I know, it's still only a $2,000 vehicle. As much as I don't NEED another vehicle, I may throw a little money at it and make it a weekend buzz-around-town ride.
 
hittman said:
I'm not looking for anything radical in looks or performance-wise to do hard core off-roading. Just thinking maybe about sprucing it up some in looks.

The deal is, I've inhereted from an elderly aunt a 99 Explorer XLT. She bought it new, always garaged it, and put a whopping 50,000 miles on it since 1999. I know, it's still only a $2,000 vehicle. As much as I don't NEED another vehicle, I may throw a little money at it and make it a weekend buzz-around-town ride.

I've seen some pretty nice grille/brush guards that spruce up the Explorers. I always liked their look.

If you're tall, don't put on a "ball cap" visor...my dad's '95 has one and it blocks my sight through the windshield.

Aqualung
 
Aside from all the ridiculous "this is junk, that's junk" comments about various things, I will attempt to actually answer the question.

The ONE thing that does the most for any vehicle is the right wheel tire combo. A nice 20" wheel with the right tire, gives the illusion the vehicle is lowered, whether it is or not. Fill the wheelwell with tire and it looks better. The right grille, bumper, paint treatment etc, goes a long way

You didn't say 2 or 4 wheel drive, so that will make a difference on the look.............or not. Just depends on what you want

People look ridiculous, when they throw out silly blanket statements like "Dodge trannys are junk, Explorers are junk" or "use it for a deer blind". Any given vehicle can be the best one your ever had or the worst one you ever had, but a lot of it has to do with the operator. You have 5 trans put in a vehicle, it's a solid bet that either the guy fixing them doesn't know what he is doing, or YOU are doing something to smoke them. Have to use a little common sense. Every, insert what you are hating on here, on the road is NOT junk, or there wouldn't be lots of them on the road

We see daily threads of guys having problems, sometimes multiple times, with our beloved Rugers. Do we cast the "they are junk" blanket statement there
 
This one is 4WD, 4.0L, leather interior, power everything; and everything still works. The Aunt had me get a back-up camera installed for her a couple of years ago too. I'd thought about bigger tires and maybe a more agggressive tread just for a beefy look. This one is a (yuck) ... light brown color so might see about a stripe kit of some sort. Also thought maybe vent visors, bug shield, and/or a SMALL bull bar could distract from what I think is a bad color.

My son had an 05 Explorer that was a GREAT vehicle in every way and had about a gazillion miles when he finally traded it for a Super Crew F150. So far our family has had great success with Explorers.

Thanks to all for your help ...... keep those ideas coming! And ... PICS if you have 'em!
 
I usually have a nice car for the wife and a truck or older car for myself. One thing I look for in an older car is a manual transmission. I don't like replacing automatics. My current #2 vehicle is an '06 Jeep Liberty that replaced my TJ. The Liberty is a nice little rig, six speed manual and a 3.7L V6 makes for a peppy ride.
 
I had a '97 that sounds like yours except it had a nice metallic forest green paint. I liked the leather seats and the 4 liter ran well and could pull my small boat with ease. The only customization other than repairs were running boards. They were nice for the ladies to get in and out and for tying stuff to the roof rack. Traded it for a 4Runner when the engine needed a major repair.
 
Wish I had taken pictures of the one my wife customized. I looked long and hard for a manual transmission with a fresh clutch. She did one heck of a number on it hitting a 3 foot deep ditch at about 40mph and continued on hitting a culvert (in a driveway crossing the ditch) square onto the front differential (shattering it) before taking out a mailbox and coming to rest is the brush. She asked if she should go ahead and put it in 4 wheel drive to get out of the brush, so she could drive it on home. :cry:
 
AJGUNNER said:
She asked if she should go ahead and put it in 4 wheel drive to get out of the brush, so she could drive it on home. :cry:

Gotta love a gal looking to solve her own problems! :lol:
 
My wife has a 2004 model with the 4.0 liter. IIRC she got it around 2007. It has about 135,000 or so on it now (I would have to go look to know for sure). She is a stay at home, home school Mom so it gets used to transport 3-5 kids to wherever they need to go. The only thing I have had to do to it other than regular maintenance was replace the rear wheel bearings. It has been okay. Oh-I do think it is common for the fiberglass panel under the back glass to crack. The one on my wifes has & since it happened to hers I began noticing a lot of them around with similar cracks.
 
Picked up the new-to-me Explorer today. Actually better looking than I remembered. Color is kind of a light gold. I had remembered it as light brown or tan. If we get a day again with sunshine I'll try to snap a pic or two.

Original window sticker was with it. These things were $33,015.00 in 1999! This one clocks 56,600 one owner miles. Seems like everything on it works.
 
Still no sunshine in my part of Illinois today. Hope poor pics are better than none.





Now that I've driven it a little and looked it over a bit ..... doubt there's any changes I'll make. Appears to be a good, solid low mileage original.
 
I always liked the keypad on the door. No lock outs and I could stash my wallet and keys inside if I wanted.
Also the last of my cars to have a cassette player. I have a lot of cassettes of that we're never updated to cds. The display on the radio crapped out and was fixed once, but apparently a design flaw and it went out again. No such thing as digital inputs back then.
A weathertech mat in the back and floor helped to keep the mud and dirt contained.
Nice looking vehicle especially given the age and mileage.
 
Yeah, think I'll have to call the local Ford dealer with the VIN about the key pad. Only thing missing is the card containing the key pad code. Hoping Ford can provide it's number or a master code; some way to learn it or reset it.
 
I seem to recall there is a way to reset it, but don't remember how. No doubt a dealer would know.
Found this online.
Computer Module location
1995 thru 2001 is located in the jack storage compartment in the rear of your Explorer. First remove the panel to the jack storage compartment. Towards the front of this area you should see a metal box this is your auto-lock module(way up front next to your rear left passenger seat). On the back side of this is your 5 digit code factory preset code. It is hard to get to. To see it you will have to loosen, pull, use a flashlight or a mirror but it can be done.
 
Back
Top