Following you discussion VBob. I am looking forward to seeing your pictures of this bumper.
2003 Expedition Face Lift Begins
- Thread starter Vancouver Bob
- Start date
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Vancouver Bob
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Picked the bumper up during lunch today. Had a bit of a family crises so it's still wrapped up in the back of the Expedition. Thing ways a ton! Can't wait to get it unwrapped!
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Vancouver Bob
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Vancouver Bob
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Thanks, Andy! Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. As I work thru this I go from... "I hope this doesn't change how she rides, because I love the way she rides" to "What the hell am I doing?" to "What have I started" to "Can't wait to get the bumper on" . The "What have I started" thought comes up frequently because of how much this is all going to end up costing. Bumper, wheels, tires.... and do I now change out gearing? Do I throw a locker in there while I'm having gearing changed to save some cost? And all this for the few days of snow and few more days of playing in the sand?
OK, maybe this is confession time... I got stuck in the sand once... I was in deep ruts and was trying to pull another guy out. Didn't take long before I was high centered. Had too much tension in the strap to unhook it so ended up cutting it. But even then I was still high centered. Some other guy pulled me out. Several others tried getting the one guy out but he was just buried. We ended up just digging him out. All that lead to me wanting higher ground clearance. Hence the lift. Lift with original tires just looks silly, plus better tires equals better traction. But I don't like how the white 2nd gens look with the tires, especially with the rounded front. In comes the bumper. Now with 35" tires I worry about gearing because you need to be able to power thru the deep sand. Could be, though, that with the bigger, wider tires, this isn't as much of an issue. I think I just convinced myself to just take it one step at a time. Just that the first step is a biggie (bumper, wheels, and tires). Then just go from there.
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Vancouver Bob
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Got the bumper home last night. Going to see if I can get the front cut up to make room for the bumper and maybe get the bumper in place. This isn't a bolt on... more of a bolt mounting plates on, then weld the bumper onto the mounting plates. I've contacted the guy I had in mind to do the welding so waiting for him to return my call... his shop is closed today so probably tomorrow. Oh, that's just a primer on there. Once I get it mounted I'll decide on color... black or Arizona beige (trim).
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I was running 275 65R 20 on my 05, they were only 32" diameter tires but I didn't have any trouble getting around in snow with them. With all of that extra weight out front you might want to put on heaver springs to counterbalance the weight. A good spring shop should be able to do the math and make you a set of springs that will ride just like the stock suspension even with the extra weight.
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Vancouver Bob
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That's a great idea! Was hoping to do something similar, finding some heavier duty, off the shelf springs, but couldn't find any so just went with replacing with OEM. Since I just replaced springs and shocks as part of the lift, I'll just wait and see how things go. Thanks for the suggestion, though!!
ExplorerTom
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Add an air compressor to your kit. Air down in the sand (to like 10 psi) and air back up once on pavement.
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Vancouver Bob
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Something I always wondered about... I get the air down part but then once you do, now you need to drive with low air in all tires until you can get to a gas station. Maybe not a big deal since you're not running flat? But with onboard air, like you said, you air back up and you're good to go. May as well get the ARB air locker while I'm at it 
. See, I knew I could justify it somehow.
. See, I knew I could justify it somehow.
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Vancouver Bob
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Family crisis has been taking priority over my project so sorry for the lack of updates. I'm slowly picking away at the front bumper. Pulled the tow "hooks" and unbolted the metal bumper that sits behind the plastic bumper cover. An impact wrench would sure have been handy! Was hoping to pull the metal bumper out but the plastic cover is keeping it in place. I think from here I'm going to sawzall the lower part of the cover off to open things up and free the metal bumper. That will open things up for me to see what I want to remove and what I don't.
