Joe Boxer's 1995 Build

Hi everyone, I'm new around here but old with Fords.
I'm an ex Ford journeyman but this is my first Explorer.
Now I remodel residential home exteriors (salesman) so I drive about 35k per year. My goal is to build a comfy daily driver that will last at least two years, be cabable of light trail duty and of course, it has to look good.
My build budget is $3000 and I expect that after two years it will be worth at least $1500.
After a long hard look, I found a 1995 4.0l ohv xlt 4door with 155k for $2100.
It needs: tires, alignment, multi function switch, ck eng light, and a good detailing.
I live near St. Louis, MO and it's cold so I chose not to take any real good before pictures outside.

Lifting it

This is the easiest vehicle I've ever lifted.
$18 and about one hour labor and she's 2" taller.
I chose the Auto Zone shackles. If they fail I'll buy the Warriors but they haven't failed anyone yet and this keeps my budget tight.

I thought I would write a quick how to:

1) Measure it

Center of hub to fender lip:
LF - 19-1/4" RF - 19-3/8"
LR - 18-1/4" RR - 18-1/2"

2) Starting with the rear, jack it up:
Just lift it high enough to get the wheel off the ground.

3) Unbolt the shackles:


4) Bolt in the new shackle
Stick in the top bolt, then muscle up and pull down the spring to line up the lower bolt. It's easy, you can do it one handed.


5) Snug up the bolts

6) Lower the truck


7) Repeat on other side.

8) Torque em down with truck off the jacks.


9) On to the front:


10) Jack it up to unoad the suspension.

11) Turn the adjusting bolt clockwise.
I started with three full turns (540 degrees).


12) Repeat on the other side.

13) Lower the truck and measure it.


14) On mine three turns only lifted it about 5/8" so I turned it three more; remeasured; turned it three more for a total of 9; remeasured then went back to the other side and turned it to total nine turns.

15) Final measurements;
LF - 21-1/8" RF - 21-1/2"
LR - 20-1/4" RR - 20-1/4"

My measurements aren't perfect, I would say 1/8" tolerance.
This was super easy

Tires are next

I spent quite a bit of time researching tires and I decided on the Sumitomo HTR AT
NTB has it for $120/each mounted and balanced plus $140 for a three year alignment minus $40 coupon available online.
The deal includes free rotation, balancing and alignments.
They had to transfer the tires from another store so it will be a couple days before they will be installed.

what size tires are you going with?

I'm going with 31"s for daily use. Living in Missouri the majority or our offroading is either class 1 trails or mud bogs. If I decide to step it up, I'll lift the body and buy a set of 33"s for the occasional extreme trip.
My truck has the 3.73 posi, are the 4.10's short enough for the 33"s?

joeboxer said:

I live near St. Louis, MO and it's cold

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Lol now that's funny. We visit Kansas city and stockton MO every year. It does not even get cold there....ever. Oh and nice truck.

2004superduty said:

Lol now that's funny. We visit Kansas city and stockton MO every year. It does not even get cold there....ever. Oh and nice truck.

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Well it sure does get cold, it just usually dosn't stay cold for too long. When I wrote that, we had single digit temps with 25mph winds. It's much warmer today at 17 with light winds.
Minnesota it's not, but it's still cold.

Tires are on

I had the tires mounted this morning. They look great and ride very well. The noise level is very low. I noticed the size slightly, on the highway my foot was only driving 55, on the old tires, I would drive 60.
The NTB guys did screw up the price a little but we worked it out. The total was $678 for the tires with lifetime balancing and rotation and three years of unlimited free alignments.
The absolute truth is that stock size tires would be the best for highway performance and mudders for the trail, but I think I made a goood compromise with these Sumitiomo's.
Next write up will be replacing the multi function switch (mfs, turn signal) and as soon as the weather allows, I'm going to detail my new toy.
Click on these thumbs for big pictures.

joeboxer said:

I'm going with 31"s for daily use. Living in Missouri the majority or our offroading is either class 1 trails or mud bogs. If I decide to step it up, I'll lift the body and buy a set of 33"s for the occasional extreme trip.
My truck has the 3.73 posi, are the 4.10's short enough for the 33"s?

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I am satisfied with my 4.10s but I've also never gone lower. I've been daily driving with this setup for over a year now with no complaints whatsoever.

Finally had a some good weather so I could get it washed and waxed. It cleaned up really nice, it looks great from 10 feet away, but any closer and you can see the little nicks.

joeboxer said:

Finally had a some good weather so I could get it washed and waxed. It cleaned up really nice, it looks great from 10 feet away, but any closer and you can see the little nicks.

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My '95 looks good from a few feet away after a bath and some Armor all, but they are 14 years old already, and they are gonna get dinged up a bit.

By the way, I started out doing the exact same thing your doing. It never ends with Explorer's, you will think of something to do before you know it! My guess will be more lights, or a body lift, for bigger tires! Once you catch the bug, it is hard to shake it off!

welcoem and nice x as well

joeboxer said:

11) Turn the adjusting bolt clockwise.
I started with three full turns (540 degrees).

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1080*

Great looking rig btw! that's exactly how i started my build! Keep up the good work.

dang... I'm jealous how easy and cheap it is for all you 2gen folk to raise your explorer.

blue88b2 said:

1080*

Great looking rig btw! that's exactly how i started my build! Keep up the good work.

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1080* yeah thats it!

Thanks guys, it does look a million times better but like gman said, it's 14 years old and it keeps reminding me of that.
I still have to do both lower ball joints and they are degrading daily. I haven't even vacuumed the interior yet and I still have to change the mfs and replace a dash light bulb, change all the fluids, replace the egr etc. etc.
All said, I really love it, I don't know why I didn't buy one of these a long time ago.