BillAlex
Well-Known Member
Bought my 2005 off show room floor. My wife drove it first ten years until I started hauling some heavy duty stuff with it back and forth to California etc. Started towing a 32 foot cabin cruiser and various Travel Trailers. Last September, I took her over to have the oil changed and noticed we had 215,000 miles on the clock. Told my wife I think it was time to sell her. Silence. I saw a little tear in her eyes and she said basically "over my dead body". We were coming up on our 49th wedding anniversary and I couldn't decide which I would miss more; Her or the Expedition. So I brought home a 2018 for her to test drive and it sat in the drive way the entire week end. Now what? I knew the old one was going to give up the ghost (the expedition, not her). So I had a decision to make.
So I started a frantic search to look far and wide and come up with a low mileage 2005 and rebuild her from the ground up. Found this one at a charity auction and to my surprise, it was an exact duplicate of my wife's car. So I bought it for $2,500. Put a re-man Ford engine using OEM parts only. While it was out, I put in new radiator, new water pump, new power steering unit (includes pump), new OEM compressor and tensioners, New hoses, radiator and heater, new alternator, Power brake reservoir, of course all new OEM plugs plus I installed the coil packs and injectors. Put a new fuel rail in her. Put new brakes on her and calipers and thought what the hell, let's put the hubs with new bearing end. Engine was about $3,200 and I dropped another $2,000 just on additional replacement parts since everything was right there, out of the way and it would never be easier to install. Top of the line high amp battery. Radiator was out with a new one so we installed a new Condenser and compressor as well. All new pressure lines and by the time I finished the entire engine compartment, I had almost as much as the engine alone. If it had a bearing in it, it got replaced. Sort of pissed me off spending $50 for a OEM Ford radiator hose when I could have got one at Autozone for $20 bucks. Here's the deal. I am an old fart and didn't want to worry about a hole in a radiator hose on a trip to the Grand Canyon. I know what is under the hood and after market just didn't ring my bell.
Some wise and very talented (quite possibly moderators) were preaching "never spend more that what you could buy another one for". By this time, I getting real close to knocking on the door of $8,500. I was thinking about dropping a re-man transmission in her but that would put me over ten thousand and certainly over the so called "Kelly Blue Book". Here's the difference. Every time I get into this beast, I know what is under the hood. I know I could start her and drive it from Alaska to cape of South America and not bat an eye. I was getting ready to write a check for $70,000 for a 2018. So what's so bad about spending a little North of Ten grand and saving a marriage. Did anyone ever figure out what it would cost for a Divorce after almost Fifty years? Cheap by any stretch of the imagination. The engine has a 36,000 mile three year warranty, the transmission has a 50,000 five year warranty. Everything under the hood is new and Ford OEM. If it didn't have the blue Ford logo on it, it didn't come out of the box.
In 1969, the year we got married, I bought a Ford Mustang 428 Cobra Jet. Fire Engine red with a white interior. I paid Five grand for the car off the show room floor and it was special order. After a year, the family started coming and I sold it for $2,500. That was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life. There were only about 1,536 of these made and this one was built by a guy named Carol Shelby and he stuck a decal on it that said; GT500. Later of course, the car went up in value to over a hundred grand. That taught me a lot about antique cars. If it was a piece of crap the day it was built, fifty years later it will still be a piece of crap. If the minute you got behind the wheel, you knew you were driving something special, that was the beginning of a classic. I felt the same way when I got behind the wheel of a Expedition. Some cars are worth rebuilding and some cars are throw away. If you get a chance to rebuild your Expy and turn it back into show room condition, don't hesitate. There is no way you can spend what it would cost for a new one and properly done, you will have a new one.
So I started a frantic search to look far and wide and come up with a low mileage 2005 and rebuild her from the ground up. Found this one at a charity auction and to my surprise, it was an exact duplicate of my wife's car. So I bought it for $2,500. Put a re-man Ford engine using OEM parts only. While it was out, I put in new radiator, new water pump, new power steering unit (includes pump), new OEM compressor and tensioners, New hoses, radiator and heater, new alternator, Power brake reservoir, of course all new OEM plugs plus I installed the coil packs and injectors. Put a new fuel rail in her. Put new brakes on her and calipers and thought what the hell, let's put the hubs with new bearing end. Engine was about $3,200 and I dropped another $2,000 just on additional replacement parts since everything was right there, out of the way and it would never be easier to install. Top of the line high amp battery. Radiator was out with a new one so we installed a new Condenser and compressor as well. All new pressure lines and by the time I finished the entire engine compartment, I had almost as much as the engine alone. If it had a bearing in it, it got replaced. Sort of pissed me off spending $50 for a OEM Ford radiator hose when I could have got one at Autozone for $20 bucks. Here's the deal. I am an old fart and didn't want to worry about a hole in a radiator hose on a trip to the Grand Canyon. I know what is under the hood and after market just didn't ring my bell.
Some wise and very talented (quite possibly moderators) were preaching "never spend more that what you could buy another one for". By this time, I getting real close to knocking on the door of $8,500. I was thinking about dropping a re-man transmission in her but that would put me over ten thousand and certainly over the so called "Kelly Blue Book". Here's the difference. Every time I get into this beast, I know what is under the hood. I know I could start her and drive it from Alaska to cape of South America and not bat an eye. I was getting ready to write a check for $70,000 for a 2018. So what's so bad about spending a little North of Ten grand and saving a marriage. Did anyone ever figure out what it would cost for a Divorce after almost Fifty years? Cheap by any stretch of the imagination. The engine has a 36,000 mile three year warranty, the transmission has a 50,000 five year warranty. Everything under the hood is new and Ford OEM. If it didn't have the blue Ford logo on it, it didn't come out of the box.
In 1969, the year we got married, I bought a Ford Mustang 428 Cobra Jet. Fire Engine red with a white interior. I paid Five grand for the car off the show room floor and it was special order. After a year, the family started coming and I sold it for $2,500. That was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life. There were only about 1,536 of these made and this one was built by a guy named Carol Shelby and he stuck a decal on it that said; GT500. Later of course, the car went up in value to over a hundred grand. That taught me a lot about antique cars. If it was a piece of crap the day it was built, fifty years later it will still be a piece of crap. If the minute you got behind the wheel, you knew you were driving something special, that was the beginning of a classic. I felt the same way when I got behind the wheel of a Expedition. Some cars are worth rebuilding and some cars are throw away. If you get a chance to rebuild your Expy and turn it back into show room condition, don't hesitate. There is no way you can spend what it would cost for a new one and properly done, you will have a new one.