Thanks! Normally I'm not a 'selfie' person, but after that fight and a half I had to celebrate. Believe it or not, I only needed one blade to get through that. Was fairly slow going, but it kept making chips the whole time. Cutting oil certainly helped.

 

Console looks great! I love the way they look.

 

Thanks! I love the look, too. Very solid and the cubbie space is a lot better too. Not a big fan of the coin slot though.

 

Well, my bank two 02 sensor is lazy and my alternator is going out slowly (not enough to turn on the battery light, but it struggles to put out 13 volts at idle). I'm going to have to start pinching pennies.

 

Did you get a new Dayco belt or did you just put some belt dressing on the old belt?

As far as my thoughts on covering your console lid, I would cover it or have it covered in some confederate flag material. I seen a 2001 Explorer Sport console lid covered in that material at Pull-A-Part and it looked pretty cool. That's just my 2 cents.

 

For two bucks I decided to try the belt dressing. So far it's working. I needed to buy brakeclean anyway at the same place. Eventually I'll get the belt, but so far that's been pushed back quite a bit since I have parts to replace. Everything breaks at once....

Also, my new plugs and wires came in today. Put the wires on, but I need to get some plug antisieze before I install the new plugs. For less than 2 bucks a packet it's worth it in my book.

 

Finally got Photobucket to work. Here are the pictures of what I have done so far. Nothing near to what you are doing.

Still have to do the painting, not allowed to do much right, as I am healing from neck surgery. Next, will be change the third stop light and adding tailgate lights. Then I will attempt to change the dash lights to LED. Really like the look. The only thing that is not LED is the headlamps (per your recommendation).

 

Very nice! I love LEDs. They're easier on the electrical system, vibration/shock resistant, and run cooler too. Not to mention they just look so awesome.

The dash lights are a simple swap. Little time consuming to get to the cluster and pull it out, but it's nothing too horrifiying. Tip on the leds for the dash. Make sure your LEDs toss light all the way around the bulb, otherwise known as 'viewing angle'. the closer to 360 degrees the better it will look.

I'd also recommend populating all three chambers in the third brake light. Looks better that way. Or, you could swap to the cargo lens.

 

My third brake did not have cargo lights, so just getting solid red LED lights, looks better and matches the rest of the truck lights. Clear lens, no smoke and black reflector. Trying to break up some the silver and chrome. Finally got my map light to work from the dimmer switch. Sprayed it with electrical cleaner, need to spray it more thought, as the switch does not go into the indent. Will work that when I do the console. I really like your blue courtesy lights, will have to think about that one though.

 

For the contacts, do yourself a favor and find some small (like terribly small) needle files of some kind. Those with a spritz of contact cleaner work well. Instead of just dissolving it, you're exposing new metal. If you cant' find them though, a pick set from harbor freight would be fine. Might take a bit longer, though to scratch off the corrosion.

My new courtesy lights were very simple to do. You need a grounding wire (or just flat out ground it to the dash, whichever you prefer) and a wire from the door circuit. It's usually black with a blue tracer. A test light or multimeter can confirm this easily.

on the passenger side of my '99, there was a metal plate with a relay attached to it just beneath the glove box. Feeling behind told me there was nothing behind it that I could damage for quite a distance, so after making a center mark I drilled it with a pilot bit, then switched over to a harbor freight Christmas tree bit, who's final diameter was 3/4 inch. Cutting oil helped a bit here. The light was mounted, wires tucked away and bam, passenger side done.

The driver's side was a bit more complicated, as there wasnt' a factory place already there. I ended up making a metal plate from some scrap sheet steel that goes straight back from the under hood latch. The metal plate has two holes in it that allows the hood latch screws to pass through it, effectively making a sandwich.

That's really all that went into it. They're 3/4 grommet lights, and I had bought them from superbrightleds.com a while back, but unfortunately they've stopped carrying these. However, you can find these in multiple colors on ebay and amazon. The only problem you may run into is being forced to buy a pack of 20. Even though the price is very nice for 20 of them, 20 of them is way overkill for what you need. Although I'm sure one could find uses for them. Jumpseat lights, bed lights, etc. Heck, puddle lights even.

 

Throttlebody facelift. Just a ford badge, some epoxy, and a shot of krylon black to make the plastic look new again. The heatgun trick sort of worked, but didn't get it black enough for my taste.

 

How sweet is that console! That looks fantastic sitting in there. If my truck was an auto I'd go find one right now. My jealousy meter just went off the charts.

 

You can either chop it to accomodate the stick, or find a manual transmission console. They're out there. It's definitely worth the hunt. I love mine to pieces.

 

The manual trans version was only offered in 2002, and less than 2% of 2002 Explorers were equipped with a manual transmission. They're out there for sure, but they're incredibly hard to find.

As for chopping it, even if you did that, if you like to utilize the cupholders, then you're out of luck. On the manual version, the cupholders are relocated further back to clear the shifter.

 

Ah, yeah that's right. Would be prime opportunity for custom door cupholders though

 

I just got a sturdy, cheap, idea to mount my switches. A section of strip steel bent to shape. Simple!

 

Yeah that's how I would make a panel for switches. Good call. Just gotta take your time to make it look good

 

The bending will be the hardest part, drilling and cutting things precisely right behind it. My propane torch should help make that stiff steel a little more forgiving. That and a sawzall to cut it to length. It'll be a while before I attempt that, though. I've got other stuff going on.

 

Yeah you gotta take your time with metal. How are you liking the efan?

 

So far I'm really liking it. I haven't overheated in the least and it's proving to be reliable. My AC doesnt' really work all the time, but that's because I still haven't gotten the heavy gauge wire for the high side of the fan that's to turn on with the AC.

This week I'm taking the fan back out, taking pictures and installing some cap nuts as the bolts sticking through could pose a risk of me laying my arm open on one of them. I'm planning on writing a new how-to about it since the old one doesn't have photographs, anymore.

 

That'd be a good idea. A lot of old threads don't have pics anymore

 

Yeah, I noticed that. Kind of a bummer!

 

It really is... Especially in beards old sas threads... So much info and no pics

 

Well, I've never been so close to having my truck burn to the ground. I was checking out how things were holding up under the hood, and I noticed my 30 amp fuse for my efan had melted. Not blown, but melted.

Word to my fellow ranger owners: don't buy fuses on ebay. Buy brand name fuses, like bussman or littlefuse. I won't be using these fuses for anything. I'll just go to autozone and pay 5 bucks for a pack.

 

Dang man that's sketchy. At least nothing shorted out.