Ok, For those that have been around for a couple of years know my story. I had a Kickass 04 Level II ranger with a kickass 5sp and a kickass topper. I really liked this truck but had to sell it when I built a new house in MN. I bought my Dad's old beat up 2000 explorer and have been miserable ever since. I decided in the last couple week that this is a great car. I paid less than 2K invested into it. It looks reasonably good even with the scratches and dings. It now has aluminum wheels and no longer shimmys on the highway thanks to the goodyear delete mod.

Well, I was buying a brand new GMC sierra and decided against it as it was a lot of money and with gas prices it is easier not to complain when you don't have a car payment. When I was in talks on the GMC the fate of the explorere was going to be a full on hunting rig. We were even talking about painting it olive drab, but since it is staying in Daily driver duty it needs to be a little tamer.

So anyway I have decided to try an make this car more enjoyable. I am looking for ideas.

First off the interior is nasty and the center console is busted. I think I am going to buy a full length explorer console and some better seats to remedy this. XLS seats have got to be the worst seats in any ford ever.

Second I have a set of KC daylighter that I had on my 01 ranger. They are like brand new. I am trying to find a place to stick them that looks good. I was thinking since I have a shattered foglight on the curb side I should remove the foglights and enlarge the hole in the plastic bumper and mount the lights there. What do you think? I'd probably have to put a rock guard on them to keep them from meeting a similar fate.



^Here is the front



If you see it in person you only really have to enlarge the hole a few inches. When the foglight is out there is not much structure behind there in the way

Then I am going to buy some new tires in the fall (31 x 10.5 cooper st's)
I just bought new tires that were cheap to get me buy as the goodyears were started to seperate. They will be fine through summer but will not cut it during the hunting season.


Then I want to paint all the plastic including the bumpers black as the grey is starting to fade and looks like poo.

Other than that I am out of ideas? I Am looking for some ideas on turning this into a cool rig shy of a lift kit as I have no desire to go lifted at this time.



Reference pic.

I am really looking forward to your ideas. You guys are pretty creative most of the time.

~HJ

 

I would say get a roof basket and mount some lights on it. Maybe a nice exhaust too.

 

im not a fan of those wheels, i think they make it look really old.

maybe ditch the stepbars.

 

bleh


I like the KC idea, but careful cause they could melt the plastic.

I dont think my ideas are what you want in a vehicle though...

 

You got something against roof baskets lol? I think if you do it right it looks pretty good.

 

no, I think theyre ghey.

youre truck though

 

If there like this they look good:

 

nope, still ghey...

 

I wouldnt mount those KC's that low. If you are planning on hunting, I wouldnt think they would shine like you need them to. I would find a light bar for the front(black), paint the plastic black, and possibly the grille black. That would be a good start...


Edit: Replace the fogs with a new or slightly used set of oem ones just to make it look a little better, plus thats even more light! I have a set of factory 01 edge fogs from my truck that have a few nicks(no pun intended) in them if you are interested.

 

^ The wheels are alot better than these which is what it had only rusty and all dinged up. It is an aluminum cover over a steel wheel. I actually like the wheels. They are an odd ball 15x7 explorer limited wheel. They were only made in 96 and 97 as far as I can tell and they are like new for a bargain price of $100

The step bars are only held on now by two bolts on each side as the were too rusty for me to get out here without proper tools. I left most of my tools in MN until I get a decent garage. When I go to MN next and have access to my airtools they will give up the ghost.

~HJ

 

lol, this is coming from a guy who puts his own picture up for his avatar and has pointy side burns....

 

world of difference. Im cool, roof racks are ghey

 

u know what the ghey horse eats???




































HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

 

haha, funny!

 

Thats a good point but I think they would look kickass down there. I am not a fan of brushguards and I think the lights llok silly just bolted to bumper. Maybe I should put them back in the garage for a rainy day and just get some better foglights that fit in the holes. I have never been a fan of factory round ford foglights. In my ranger they were always full of water and in the explorers my family owned they were always cracked or shattered. The funny thing is it still lights up even though it has been broke for at least 5 years.

~HJ

 

I guess it depends on the light pattern that the KCs are as well...

 

They pretty much just light up straight down the road. Its a very focused beam.

~HJ

 

That's alright, I went to you when I was building my GMC. Just spending over 20K right now just seemed like not as good of an idea after I've had some time to reflect. Especially with the impala in pieces. When I am looking for a pavement pounder you'll be on my list.

~HJ

 

So why not just cut the grille out and build some brackets to mount the kc's flush?

 

Thats an Idea. I might have to switch to the slim style though. I know these wouldn't fit on the ranger in the grill area so I switched to slim Hella's on the 04.

I might buy a junkyard grill and see what it looks like. Hate to cut up mine and then not like it.

~HJ

 

put them on the wiper cowl

 

oh dear even worse!!!

 

What about a lift and some 33x12.50's? Along with a decent cat-back exhaust.

 

No lift for me. I hate body lifts and a Superlift will be more than I paid for the whole truck. Also, I can't stand the way V6's sound piped. I've done it before and I've moved on. The factory exhaust is fine. Thanks for the input though.

~HJ