Margarita’ the explorer

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Well as many of you know I sold the ranger (Gordita) because I wanted something more “do everything” friendly, 4x4, heater, A/C, and more seats. So here she is! 91 two door explorer 4.0/4x4/manual trans/auto Tcase. Bought this thing as kind of a basket case but saw potential. It had 8” coilovers in the front with some nice solo style radius arms 6” beam pivot drop brackets and someone had built an under cab rear shock mount. All the fab work was actually pretty decent and the price was right so figured it would be a fast and easy way to get back in the dirt asap.
The front end camber was all fucked off because of the drop brackets and the thing only had about 1” of droop in the front once I cycled it, took some measurements and seemed like the front hoops were based off a 10” coilovers put some stock beam pivots back on and ordered some 10” coilovers to get this thing looking right, it does not have cut and turned beams so I put in the biggest cam tabs I could find. It still kinda sits like a Baja bug but I will get some c&t beams soon was just trying to make it out for new years! The interior was disgusting so I ripped all the carpet and headliner out made some seat brackets on the factory sliders Mounted the battery cause it was just chilling in the back got some cool parts from Ryan @cookcraft ! New wheels and tires got the new shocks in and cycled, it’s not perfect, I could gain another 1” of up travel if I move the mounts but I will eventually do the cookcraft shock hoops with the c&t beams and she’ll be dialed! Fancy shock shaft guards I had on the ranger too thing is already looking so much better! Still sitting too high in the rear with the original setup that it came with.

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Got to work on the new rear setup! I had already gotten the raptor shocks and g50s prior. This kit is so legit and easy to install very impressed with how little time it took got this thing sitting right got the lights and Spod mounted and wired up!this thing got (2) Lp6’s, (4) S2’s and (8) red rock lights from Baja designs!

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Along with getting all the fluids changed I put a ruffstuff diff cover on also bought Ryan’s billet 3rd brake light

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Had to add some more style points

 

[Giant Geoff]

Very cool! Love what you did.

 

[BFAB]

The evolution of offroad is awesome. We have seen there era where everything had to be extremely overly built, back to simple and fun. Its been great!

Awesome car dude, built just right

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Drove it around town a little and figured she was ready for the dez!loaded up and headed out to jv mid day Wednesday
First impressions of the expo were really good thing parties! It’s super butter over all the small chatter bumps and small to medium sized whoops. I did have to take out my spare because these used G50s have seen better days (I need to get them re arched) besides that things a hoot! Also need to get my 4x4 working consistently so I don’t get stuck again another thing I added to the list was a front diff guard, this thing has like no ground clearance smacked it good once and scared myself but she was all good doing some more 4x4 stuff overall I’m stoked on this thing, can’t wait to keep adding things and most of all more dirt miles!

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Need to figure out a good trunk setup/ storage on this thing, give me some ideas. I’m thinking some sort of shelf but would love to see other people’s setups.

 

[sixdee9er]

Nice ride. There's a lot of Yucaipa boys on this site.

 

[Tree trunk]

I recognize that jeep!
You were hanging with Scott.
There are quite a few Yucaipa boys around here lol We need to make a Yucaipa/cherry valley prelander coalition sticker

Getting the explorer in the toy hauler is rad

 

[UR_Mawm69]

i fucking love this thing!

so rad man!

 

[HarrisConcepts]

Very cool build man! How much travel did you end up getting out of the front with a 10” shock? And what size warrior you have to get it in there?

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Very cool build man! How much travel did you end up getting out of the front with a 10” shock? And what size warrior you have to get it in there?

Honestly I didn’t measure how much travel, if I had to guess it realistically has 13”-16”. And the weekend warrior is a 32’

 

[BobbyHasARustyBronco]

awesome build! did you have an issue with the china tires ? i just got a set cause they were cheap haha.

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

awesome build! did you have an issue with the china tires ? i just got a set cause they were cheap haha.

Honestly I never ran them, they were on 16” wheels and I switched to a 15”

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Haven’t posted in a minute, here’s some updates from where I left off. I really needed to figure out the storage issue after the new years trip here’s what I came up with I wanted the cooler to mount right here that way it’s accessible through the back window.fully bolt in so I can pull it out if I ever need or want to. I was able to drill and tap the tube to hold the structure to keep it sleek. I was able to sneak the traction boards on the side of the tire that was kind of wasted space. For the tire strap I used a retractable one bolted to a tab on the front side for easy removal also added some limit straps to the front

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

After adding all the extra weight I had to get some new leaf springs cause mine were supper sagged out, last minute swap on the trailer before koh and of course I noticed the the u joint on the drive shaft was bad while crawling around got that all swapped and we were ready for koh!had a great time out there, and best of all didn’t have to work on the expo the entire time!I love how simple this thing is and it just works.

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Added some duro bump style rear bumpswent up to the mountains with one of my buddies

 

[LoganB]

They make it so much easier to forget about go fast prerunners. Looking way better than when you got it, can’t wait to see what’s next

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Ok so the marketplace gods were good to me today